PUUUCHA Surprise!

I LITERALLY just found out 10 minutes ago that I am going to Lima and 2 other cities tomorrow night for one week in an AFS workshop for people leaving in February/March! Because I didn't get the email and am lucky I asked about it when I heard from Clemens. And I have to prepare a presentation about Canada and write an essay and yikes! Peeace!

Catch up - Part II. Longest & most confusing freaking thing ever. Oops!

            Just to warn you, this was written over multiple days on microsoft word, so everything is mental. that's all.

Last Tuesday..... Or maybe I’ll start backwards instead because it’s fresher in my mind.

            Monday. Today (or the day I am writing this..) I woke up at 7am and sadly got ready in time to go to colegio before 7:20. Damnit! I really didn’t want to go today. I need a mental health day. Things have been kinda on thin ice lately and I’m just skating around like a confused duck. Then in English class, because I was so thrilled by the lesson, I decided to doodle and counted the days I have been in Peru and the days I have left (which I haven’t done for a looooong time). Here’s a depressing fact. Today was my 83^rd day in Peru. And I have exactly 83 days left for my exchange. I can’t believe how long I’ve been here and that every day now will be part of the countdown. Saddest countdown ever!! No wonder they tell you to go for the year program!! I’m shocked, depressed, and just wanna get the most out of every day I have left as I can. What if i’m not fluent before i leave? Im so confused and conflicted and happy and sad and grateful and six billion other things too. I’ve been sad nearly every day here but I’m going to be more sad to be leaving. More sad?? Sadder? What’s English.

No water again. As of Saturday. This is fun.. haha not. Then after colegio today, thankfully, there was cold water in the house, but only downstairs. So I took a bucket and filled it with cold water to carry up to the shower, where I enjoyed a cold, refreshing, bucket splash bath with the cut off end of a water bottle. Wow, I’ve realized my grammar is getting quite bad sometimes and either I’m too lazy to fix it or I actually can’t remember how to or figure it out. But I use thousands of run on sentences!! Sorry guys. Anyways. That was kinda funny actually. My improvised “shower.” I’m pretty used to cold water showers now but yeah. I was super lucky with my timing though because about 15minutes later the water was cut off completely, downstairs, cold or not! Still hasn’t returned. We can’t wash dishes, which is a big problem. I bought a bottle of water to brush my teeth.

Then around 6:30ish I met up with Mona at Plaza Mayor (i spell it wrong and differently every time. But that’s how it sounds. Mai-or) and we got in and out of three different taxis before finding one that actually went to our Plaza de Armas destination in el centro hahaha. We met up with all the other AFSers and paid a high price of 10 soles to see Harry Potter 7.1 in Spanish. We had hoped it was going to be in English with Spanish subtitles but...nope. Definitely the most confusing thing ever. I was kind of disappointed, but maybe it was from lack of understanding. I was doing pretty good for most of it but then we all got pretty bored with it and Johanna and I even fell asleep for un rato. Apparently in that two minutes I missed a lot of stuff and then afterwards I kinda stopped trying to keep up. Then when Harry’s face was all swollen and beat up looking Emily and I couldn’t stop laughing! Then the other actor said “Que te paso feo?” Hahahaha what happened to you ugly? XD Omg we just started laughing harder and harder and harder and I must have ruined 20min of the movie for other people in the theatre but I couldn’t help it. I even shed a few tears from laughing so hard! That never happens to me! Pretty sure I had a mental breakdown and it was some sort of way of releasing my pent up sadness and frustrations lately, through laughter and tears...because it really wasn’t funny at all. Emily and Mona and them only started laughing because I couldn’t stop! hahhaa. Y despues I just thought that everything was funny. And now I’m just mentally exhausted. Every little thing or thought or cancion just brings tears to my eyes. And I wish I could say why!! So hard not to start dangerous rants on here... I’m really good at those. But i don’t want problems to start or get worse. L

Sunday (today’s yesterday)

            Yesterday was going to be my homework/study/violin and research/start application process for university day. But Nancy asked if I would accompany her to el centro for “un rato. A little bit.” and do my work later. Of course I said yes, to bond, even though I had no idea where we were going or why. Did not know that we were going to Sra Vicky’s house to have lunch and converse for 4.5 hours with her and her family! Then we finally had our requested AFS reunion half an hour later. Day gone, no work accomplished. BUT going to her house was a highlight of my week because it showed me the type of culture and values I love to see here. Their house is missing a floor, some walls and roof, lights, and a proper bathroom. The ground is dirt and there is a blanket for a door out the back. They are very poor but they are sooo rich in love and family and good spirits. They invited us for almuerzo and the time actually flew by talking to her, her husband and their two older daughters and little boy. Sra Vicky is such a beautiful and cheerful person. Here is a family that has so little, and yet she and Nancy were/are organizing a Navidad get-together for all the poor children to give them little toys/balls, chocolatada (hot chocolate) y paneton (kinda like fruit cake/bread that they all go crazy over at xmas time). I really admire her and really didn’t mind brushing off all my work. I also was given a “pepina/o/e?” haha i forget. But it’s a delicious melon/sweet tasting fruit that looks like a yellow, juicy apple/peach but is more like a gigantic grape. It was delicious J

            The only downside to that day was that on Monday, when the father drove us to school, he was a little angry with me. Apparently he went to the house Sunday to take us for lunch at some point but only Jhoselyn and Gabo were there, because Jhosey wanted to sleep again after breakfast instead of come with Nancy and I, and Jhoselyn told him I went to play piano in el centro. He kept telling me that he does not like that (not being there for lunch) and that it’s unacceptable and everyone needs to have lunch together as a family and going on and yeah. It's suuuper important to him... but as if I should be given a talk to or as if it’s my fault that I was with Nancy, my host MOTHER and we didn’t know ahead of time that he was taking us for lunch? I didn’t retaliate or anything but that isn’t fair.

            The AFS Reunion. What happened there?? We finally had our requested reunion, and every one of the AFS volunteers was there. The starting atmosphere felt sooo tense. Like a war battlefront, with neither side wanting to go first or be there or give in, even though nothing had been said yet. Okay. That’s a little exaggeration but. It was cold. Finally, props to Louise, she started in on everything we’ve had questions or concerns about and eventually it got flowing. However, although I think now each side understands the other one a LITTLE better, I don’t think the AFS students felt anything was accomplished or different by the end. We were told that the rules are less strict in other cities because their AFS volunteers don’t have the years and years of experience that ours do. Cool, we get the toughies. We’re still super upset that they aren’t letting Clemens change families, but I think they sort of saw how important it is. Trying not to get hopes up, but you never know. I also found out that I laugh when I’m nervous and dumbfounded and offended at a certain comment by a certain AFS volunteer who was making assumptions and putting words in our mouths. Anyways. I guess it’s better to show my surprise/frustration/anger/tears as laughter, because they thought I was laughing with them. I was just super nervous. But the whole reunion, minus a few moments, was very, very calm and well controlled. I was mostly the quiet, tense observer who was worried something would get heated up too far, but it never did. In that way, mission accomplished and message sent and received peacefully.

            Then, after the group discussion, the volunteers asked to speak with me privately. *eeek!* hahaha but it was good. They just wanted to know what had happened with the family lately and how I was dealing and if I still wanted my own room. I’m thinking it was only because we’d all wanted a reunion and such but anyways, whatever the reason, they were all of a sudden suuuper willing and agreeable with the whole thing. I told them all of my reasons and I was surprised by the looks on their faces and by THEIR surprisement at what I’ve been dealing with. They said I need to speak up more when there’s a problem, and I can’t push it inside me just because I’m scared someone will get angry. So now they’re going to push for my own room and talk with Nancy a second time a little more seriously. Apparently there’s an office room or something I might be able to switch to. They told me that it seems very important that I get my own room, and I’m glad they understand. That also led to talking about eeeeverything and they were super helpful, more so than in the past. Maybe the reunion did accomplish something? But I felt a lot better after. I must laugh when I’m upset, because when I was explaining some things with tears in my eyes, I kept doing my stupid giggle thing. Hahaha anyways after that we pigged out on some sketchy-looking pepperoni pizza and dirty plates and went home :P

Saturday Quinceanos

          On Saturday, after a quick, cold and lucky shower before the water was cut off again, I went to colegio and brought my violin. After our exams (I think they’re every month) at 11am a bunch of us had music class with the prof and a bunch of little kids banging bells and drums and stuff. Oh joy! Hahaha at first it was horrible because we played jingle bells for at least an hour for the xmas concert, but afterwards the wee ones left and I learned my first Peruvian violin tune!!! It was awesome, and it’s called ‘poco a poco’ (possibly the most Peruvian phrase ever). Then some of the slightly older kids and us had a jam and it was soooo freaking cool. It’s super simple but a bit crooked and yeah! There was a kid on one of those box drums, another on guitar, another on a beautiful folky sounding charanga (coolest little guitar/mandolin/ukulele instrument ever. Totally wanna buy one!!) and a girl  using a pan-pipe flute thing that sounds SO AWESOME AND TRADITIONAL AND AWESOME. Yeeeea I used awesome twice. Then a little boy came and sang with us too. The song is so Peruvian, from a wino style or something. Supa cool. I wanna write down arrangements and stuff so that I never forget these songs! We played til around 1:30, and for once in colegio, I was smiling.

            Then at . . . 5? Jhoselyn and I went to our second pro-ish football match in the stadium! Except this time it was TWICE AS PACKED. There was bastaaaaante gente everywhere and it was hectic, because it was Jose Galvez for the second time (home team I’m assuming) and “la U”, or Lima’s best university team. The game had suuuuch a faster pace. The time fleeeew away! Not like watching it on TV, bleh. And this time there was a goal! It obviously had to happen right after I put my camera away, from giving up trying to capture a sweet moment. So close to a peeeerfect shot! And it was in the last 4 minutes of the game, ending 1-0 for Lima.

            Saturday night I went with Francheska, her bff Arlette (Mona’s host sister) and Mona to my first “quinceanos” or “sweet 15^th” I guess you’d call it. It was definitely different! Everybody dresses UP UP UP in shiny silky dresses and high heels and tux. Except for me. I wore one of Fran’s simpler and darker vestidos that I chose so I wouldn’t draw a lot of attention hahaha being gringa is enough man. Too bad I was shoved into the tallest and most damaging high heels I’ve ever worn (not that I’ve worn many.) Definitely suffered, and had to take them off once in awhile for a break. It felt like I had broken all my toes and even when my shoes were off I couldn’t bend them. Holy crap hahaha but it hurt less to dance than to walk! So that’s what we did. It was soooo fun. I felt more relaxed hanging out with Mona and Fran’s 15yr old friends and the two of us just went silly making up super “creative” dance moves like wheels on the bus and brushing our hair and a bunch of stuff. I never dance like that with Jhoselyn or her friends! It was perfect, and we got an equal amount of funny looks as we did friendly laughs that led to others trying out our stupid moves too hahaha. Probably saw how much fun we were having NOT DOING THAT STUPID GRINDING that everyone does here. :P Oh yeah, to describe the quince hahaha. It was in a locale cerca de Plaza M, and was super fancy and formal. I had to giggle at the two painted gold men standing in the door though hehe, which was by formal list and invitation only :O. There were posed professional photos of Wendy, the bday girl, all over, and prof camera men who filmed the dancing and ceremonies and all this crazy stuff! She was part of choreographed dances with paid dancers that everyone watched and there was delicious food and a DJ and lights and holy vacan! There was an equal number of adults and kids and I think if someone had only described it to me before, I would have laughed or made fun of how big n fancy of a deal it is, but after being here in Peru and experiencing it, I realized that it really is an amazing, respectful celebration of the day they consider a girl to be a woman. Kinda cool, but I wouldn’t want it for myself. Too shy. At every 15^th, the girl has a dance with her father and a dance with a charasomething (a guy friend/cousin/whatever) and it’s all filmed and hoooly what a lot of work! We limped home at 4am.

Fridayyyyyyyy

            After actually studying for and writing my colegio exams (there’s a first for everything! ;D) I went to the cathedral in Plaza M at 4 and waited around to find out that the reason I’ve never encountered the music guy is because it starts at 4 THIRTY Peruvian time. Which means 5 or 5:15. And I’ve never waited past 4:45. This time some other kids from the choir showed up but apparently the prof was teaching in the colegio until 6 so I just gave them Nancy’s Nextel number and wrote it on the whiteboard so that he could call me and better communicate when he wants me to come and what days it is and how to contact the two students he wants me to teach and such. He’s the music director in Trujillo, so he’s not always in Chimbote or something. Anyways, I say anyways a lot.

There it is! Thursday

            On Thursday I was invited to el centro to take part in Chimbote’s surprisingly large children’s violin orchestra! I was suuper surprised by the amount of kids and preteens toting around violins. There was even 2 cello players and a group of viola-ists. I was put into the more advanced group but still disappointed with the difficulty of playing. But that was before I found out that although in Book 1, these kids/preteens had mostly only been playing for 6 months-1 year! And they could read music and although only just learning shifting to 3^rd, had beautiful tone, which has always been more important to me than notes and technicality. I also found out that, like Whitehorse, they have no permanent violin teaching residents, and so once a week teachers come 2 hrs from Trujillo every thurs and sat to teach, but it’s really expensive to pay them to come and travel and everything. SO, the woman in charge came up to me after our rehearsal and asked that I come every week to help teach the other children, because they have limited teachers and it’s really expensive and I obviously won’t be challenged in the orchestra. Awesome!! So next week I’m going to bring my violin and I’m so excited to help teach the younger ones because I know EXACTLY what it’s like to be without teachers. (the ones from Trujillo had just returned after many months away in Germany). Aaw this is going to make me feel so good haha i’m so happy. It feels so great to be integrating myself more into the city and volunteering and keeping my music and learning Peruvian tunes and chyea!! And next week the prof is going to lend me a cello to play while I’m there!! I miss my baby so much! Hahaha

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

            Writing backwards and catching up is hard and confusing and takes a lot of memorial effort and I’ve changed voices (1^st person/present/past/wrong day/ whaaaatever) so many times already. I’m sure nothing super interesting happened but I remember helping Tonio & Jhoselyn with their uni project again and buying some of the sweetest, most delicious little hot buns EVER from Plaza Vea. The end.

           

Catch up - Part I (written on wednesday)

          I’m writing this on Wednesday (on microsoft word while there's no webby) because there hasn’t been internet for six days because the father didn’t decide to pay for it. He also didn’t pay for the water for a few days there and well. I was about to go to the pool to shower when water finally arrived! I was lucky that I washed my mountain load of clothes the DAY BEFORE the water was cut off, or I wouldn’t have had clean underwear. Cool. Anyways... now it’s SUPER hard to remember what I did each day. All I remember about Friday is that Jhoselyn, Tonio and I went to an INSANELY PACKED music concert with her mom hahaha. Charanga Habanera... everybody went crazy over them, but it’s half as much about the music as it is about the looks and the bodies and the attitude. But they’re super good performers and know how to entertain. Actually they can sing too. They’re a salsa group from Cuba and they actually do have some good songs, which I discovered I’ve been hearing on the radio 24/7 and didn’t know it. They’re suuuper popular here. But we didn’t know that arriving there at 10pm, we’d be listening to the opening act until 2am. The Almani Exchange members, which were a good group as well, with a strong female vocalist, were hilaaaarious crowd pleasers. I am proud to say I was laughing because of the jokes, and not because I didn’t undersand. J Anyways, finally Charanga took the stage at around 2:30am. They had a super funky introduction for all the band members and stuff and it was soooo loud. The whole night I could feel the bass and drumbeats POUNDING in my ribs and chest. It was awesome. I love that feeling! My ears could’ve used a rest though. I filmed a bunch and took a bunch of so-so photos but the films are impossible to upload to facebook. I even tried purposefully filming short sections but nope. “4 hours and 27min remaining”. Yeah cool. At first I was super surprised that Tonio invited Nancy to come with us, and thought everybody was joking, but nope! It was kinda funny I have to admit. She was super cool about it and made us take a nap after lunch so that we wouldn’t be tired later at the concert! hahaha One good advantage of going with her was that we stayed out until 4:30am haha. The papa wasn’t happy though; even though we were with Nancy. Or maybe that made it worse? He was fine with me but yeah. He’s always happyhappy with me and acts differently around his kids. :S I never know when we have to hide stuff from the dad or not, but it’s getting a bit difficult to keep up. Even Nancy will tell me that some things I can’t tell the dad and ugggh. I can’t stand all this lying in a language I am still learning to move around in! And I never want to say something wrong, or tell a wrong fib. It’s uncomfortable. It’s so much easier to just say it how it is and tell the truth. Anywhoo.

Saturdayum

            I haven’t been writing about any of the family problems or lack of problems on here, but for a long while Jhoselyn and I have been more distant. Kind of in a fight but not? She really doesn’t treat me well, and a whooole bunch of things but anyways, point is, Saturday I spent the long and boring day in the house alone because she went to Casma again with Leo, Helen, Tonio and a bunch of (our) other friends. Without telling me or inviting me. Even though we woke up at the same time and everything... she just ignored me when I was asking her where she was going and yeah. Apparently she told everyone that I was too tired (because Helen and them were wondering why I didn’t go) I didn’t even find out they went to Casma and explored museums and such until Helen was asking me about it on msn later in the night. :S I know she shouldn’t always have to invite me places and take me along all the time but... The way she did it and her reasons why kinda hurt, especially when she told her dad later that it was because “Mia didn’t want to.” Actually, Mia didn’t know. But we hadn’t been talking in awhile, and she had ignored me at Charanga (because she always does when we’re with Tonio) so... I guess she was angry. I still have no idea what I did in the first place, but it went on for a long while there. Anyways... instead I washed my mountain of laundry, played my violin and washed dishes. I enjoy washing dishes and helping out, but it’s kinda weird that I’m the only one who does it. I’ve never seen Fran or Jhosey or Junior do chores... oh well, I don’t mind. I’m doing my part even if they aren’t :P Then the papa arrived around 10pm and took Jhoselyn (just arrived) and I out for chifa (rice, veggies, pollo, stir fry type asian food dealio) for dinner. This was after giving her a big lecture about always being “en la calle” and how the mom gives us too much liberty and time away from the house. He feels very strongly about it, and it doesn’t matter if we have Nancy’s permission or not, he still gets upset about it. :S

Sunday. No water.

            Actually as of Saturday night, but Sunday was the first of 3 days without water. Yay! Greasy. For almuerzo, Nancy, Gabriel, Jhoselyn and I went to the casa of her tio (uncle) Pepe and his family. They’re really friendly people and served us a HUGE meal of “panchamanca”. Which is the native language Quecha and I think ‘pancha’ means earth. You get potatoes (THE BIGGEST I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE), kamote (sweet potato, but wayyyy better), enlarged pea type things (i accidentally ate the whole thing...apparently you're not supposed to eat the shell...which is why i nearly choked...), salad (lettuce and cucumber), chicken, duck, and corn. I’m sure each plate can feed three people happily, which is why we took some home for dinner later.

Then at 3pm I met up with Clemens, Ondine, Louise and Laetitia in el centro for our AFS Rebellion. Things have been going very rough with the AFS Chimbote committee. I don’t think I’ve written about it but there are bastante (many many many; too many) problems and different issues going on here in Chimbote, and we are not getting the help we feel we need. For example, using many rules “of AFS” (that, speaking with other AFS students in Peru, ONLY APPLY in Chimbote) in order to keep things how they want them here. I cannot speak for the other students because I do not want to misrepresent their problems or examples, but things have gotten ridiculous. As well, Clemens needs to change families, is 24, has been living with them for 8 months (is here for another 4 or 5), his family WANTS him to leave and treats him badly, but he has been told that HE’S ONLY ALLOWED TO CHANGE IF THERE IS PHYSICAL OR SEXUAL ASSAULT. That. Is boink. SO anyways. We all decided that we need to have an AFS reunion to talk. Johanna sent a nice but firm email to Jose, everyone and AFS Lima on Saturday requesting a time and place for a reunion the next day. None of the AFS volunteers replied. Sunday comes and we phone him a few times but he ignores our calls and voice message requesting a date to meet. Then we gave up and went home, but Jose and two other AFS volunteers were seen altogether in el centro, and ignored our AFS student that spotted them. Or didn't see them who knows.... Now we’ve just been waiting and sending emails to various personas and AFS organizations in our countries. (except for me. I don’t have big enough problems right now to speak for myself, but I’m sticking up for Clemens and such. As well there’s no interwebbers yet.) People in other cities have heard too. “I hear there’s a little rebellion going on in Chimbote, you a part of that?” I’m scared. But we’re all being very calm about it. We simply want to know why things are happening, or not happening, how they are. Just curious, but polite and firm. Getting fired up would be an immature way to ruin our cause/chances.

Monday

            Definitely don’t remember what happened in colegio on Monday... which is surprising because it was the first day ever that I didn’t pass out asleep during one of or all of my classes. I’m very proud, very proud. Then afterwards I DID MY HOMEWORK (omg) that I didn’t need interwebs for (jeeeez are we dependent on that thing.) and played my violin. For awhile I was really scared I’d lost it, but I’m feeling slightly more optimistic now that if I just keep sawing away at if every day I’ll get it back... I hope. I forget which days they were, but I’ve been bonding lots, which is cool. Teaching Junior English, making bracelets with Fran and Soledad, letting Gabo smash toys all over me, and conversing with the rents lots. Little Gabriel is so freaking cute! He speaks and learns so much more everyday that I’m scared he’ll be more fluent than I am pretty soon! He also lets me carry him when we go places and stuff now, super calm and content. I’m his sister now and not that stranger girl anymore! :P Then I went to el cine and we watched a super awesome movie with the word “peligroso” (danger) in the title. I don’t remember the title but it was the first super good one, and we ate a thousand of these grenadine fruits. They’re super yummy. You crack open the shell like an egg and then scoop out and eat the sweet-fruit-covered little black seeds, which are super sour themselves. Mmm. We often buy them in bags by the kilo. :D

** now it's Saturday, there's internet, and ima try and catch up on writing everything since Tuesday... ayayayayisdasijdasi wish me luck

I thought Tuesday was Thursday. But I think today's Thursday.

     Monday - Jhoselyn and I went to our friend Brian/Kemper's house for his going away party because the next morning he left to move to Argentina for five years!! :( It's weird how close I've become with some people here already. Here, family and friendship is above everything. Definitely something I'm going to miss. We're family. I'm lucky to have Jhoselyn as a host sister too, because most of the other AFS students here don't have as many friends as I do, and are starting to feel lonely, whereas I feel like I have un MONTON de really good people around me. <33 But I do really miss you guys at home. Today in colegio we had to make a video of Christmas (and I did mine of Xmas in Canada/north america) and when I was looking at pictures of snowy white christmas trees and stuff, I had tears in my eyes thinking of Christmas at home and how amazing it is. (I know--waaaay too early to be thinking of it right? But apparently we only have a month of school left or a bit more) I never realized how much I love Christmas. I actually used to think I hated it. Except I always love buying presents for people. It's definitely gonna be different!
      Oh! And the taxi driver on the way home was awesome. I love cabbies. Tonio and Jhoselyn were fighting and running around and wouldn't get in the cab so the cabbie was a good sport and drove the rest of us around laughing and talking about young love and life and such while we waited for them to calm down so we could go home from el centro hahaha kinda funny :P

      Tuesday - Tuesday was Johanna's birthday, and so we all went to her host family's house to celebrate (the AFS volunteers Jose, Zoraida and Audrey tambien). The only one who couldn't make it was Mona. She's 15 and her mom's a little crazy, and her sister never goes out so. :S Nancy, on the otherhand is finally starting to trust me a bit more :) Anyways, I gave Johanna some of the fudge you guys sent me (of which we're devouring way too quickly!) and it was a super good time. Us AFSies are sooo tight. I think going through such a crazy and often hard and frustrating experience like this has automatically brought us closer together. We've all gone through similar and different levels of bizarrity and it's so nice to have people of a slightly more similar culture and mindset to talk with! We're already planning future get-togethers after Peru! I've always been planning on going to Europe to travel, either before University or after or take a year of general studies first and then travel, then go back, who knows. Anyways, Louise really wants me to (and I also suuuuuperly want to) go to her home city Gents, Belguim for one of the most amazing music festivals in the world apparently, in July or August of 2011 or 2012. She's seen Coldplay 3 times, the Killers, a thousand bands- I can't even remember all of them but yeah! That would be SO FREAKING AWESOME!!! And I could stay with her and we'd meet up with Laetitia and Emily and probably Johanna, Clemens and Ondine as well, not to mention the 17 other Belgians in Peru right now with AFS (oooh Europe, they all live so close together!) She also wants to travel to London, and Ondine has invited us all to her cottage in the countryside of France for a couple weeks of backcountry powder skiing/snowboarding one year in Decemberish!! Omg I'm such a dreamer, but it would be soooo awesome!!! I'll have to work for some moouuuulah but dude. Sweet. And I told Ondine and Liam (my friend from New Zealand) that we can totally meet up when they come adventuring to Canada in the next few years or whenever. I'm going to cry when I leave this place and these people . . . Amazing. Louise and I were a bit teary even thinking about it! It feels like we've known eachother for so much longer...

      Miercoles (which, I found out, is when they WANT to say Mierda, haha) - Can't remember much, even though it was yesterday, except that I nearly broke down again in colegio. It's been happening a lot. There'es something about constant buye (noise) and screaming over top of eachother in "conversations and discussions" that I can't handle. I'm not sure why it affects me so much, but I am finding it more and more difficult to be around. Today I had to leave the classroom during one of their screaming, knives-in-your-ears sessions because I was literally about to cry. How stupid is that. My head and ears hurt so bad and it's just toooo much. It's totally unnecessary, and it's totally just part of their culture. Even the teachers do it. They can't have a normal conversation without getting worked up and yelling and interrupting eachother. It's always whoever talks the loudest and fastest. But they all try to talk over everybody at the same time, all the time. Or yell at eachother to get attention. Very impatient. I just feel smothered and can't even think or work or breathe. Super hard to get used to, not sure why it makes me so teary so quickly. :S
      It's also kind of weird but I've been SUPER zoned out for the past two weeks or so. Always totally out of it when I'm in class... "afuera" ... on the moon... up in my head and toootally spaced out. For some reason I find it super hard to focus on the real world and I'm just always thinking or pondering about something, or even just not thinking at all. But I never get bored, which is weird. I can be totally content just left with my head. But it'd be nice if I could learn to "zone in" once in awhile. I don't wanna turn into one of those super spacey weirdos who are annoying because it's hard to get their attention when they're always in lalaland! hahahaaa yeah.

      My Peruvian "prom" is on December 17th. Oh my god hahahah so now I have to find a "pareja" (partner) to go with me. It's a big deal; there's no option of not having a date (I tried that. Kinda avoiding this...). Then there's going to be dance rehearsals 3 times a week for some big fancy dance thing and all this craaaazy stuff. Eeek!! And then we have to have the same colour dress as our partner's outfit or tie or whatever and coordinate stuff and ayaaaaai. This is so weird.

      Also. I'm not sure why, but I still laugh hysterically everytime I see an armed policeman on a mountain bike hahahaha

Post Twoo

     On Sunday we slept in for once (til 10, usually we're not allowed to that long) and then Jhoselyn and I cooked a yummy fried breakfast of sausages and huevos (eggs) and pan and some super rich hot chocolate type drink. And bananas. I've influenced this family to start eating more fruit hehe and they also eat more salad now :D Gotta get my veggies in. And then I spent way too much time on the computer trying to resize photos one by one (I'm going to try that other site later, thanks pop) and then we did chores and cleaned our room and I accidentally broke the blender, so I'm going to buy Nancy a new one. :S Uggh I felt so bad! I put it in the sink to dry and then turned around and CRASH. It fell. My bad. Aahhh!! Then I just wrote in my journal (hoooooly do I write a lot these days) and did a bit of homework, which I really haven't been doing enough of and should probably start doing so. OH and I taught Jhoselyn how to make hemp bracelets.

      Just after 7pm Jhoselyn and I were invited to her ex boyfriend Edsun's house for torta (cake) from his sister's 15th birthday party the night before (we didn't think we'd have permission to go because we'd been out all day). Here the 15th bday of a girl is HUGELY celebrated. It's this great big fancy-dress formal type deal in a different "locale" place with music and dancing and everybody in the world goes to them. I think it's like the celebration of being a woman. Guys only celebrate 18 like that. But yeah, super big things here. People who don't even know the kid are often invited, or friends of friends of friends haha. Apparently it was super awesome and we missed out, but there was 2 cakes' worth of torta left over and so we went over and brought her a present and hungout for a bit with her brother and her super drunk uncle. It was HILARIOUS. Until he came I was kinda bored because Edsun and Jhoselyn were talking about other things and blaa and then down the stairs came his uncle, who is a super funny guy. He really loves art and music and culture and puts a lot of value into the arts. We talked about Picasso, the Group of Seven, Jimi Hendrix, Insomnium ( a metal band haha) and a bunch of stuff. And my paint splattered Jackson Pollock-inspired jeans that I left at home in Canada hahaha. It was fun; I was very very entertained by that man. Also because him and the father and the rest of the adults had been drinking. We put some music on and had a jolly good time, even though I mostly talked to the adults hahah. That always happens, where I end up having hilariously interesting conversations with all the adults of the crowd whenever there are any. Anyways :P Then the uncle got too drunk and kept hitting on me and so we left at around 10pm ( a little too late for a school night in this house. Nancy was fine but I think the father is super angry about it.... :S!!) He never gets mad at me though, only with Jhoselyn or Fran. I think I need to tell him that that isn't fair to his daughters, and right now I am his daughter too and shouldn't be given special treatment.

      Then today Nancy pulled me out of colegio once again and we made our way to el centro, where Jorge was working at the post office! YES!! I hadn't thought it was worth trying again and was ready to just wait for my passport to come one day, but Nancy was determined and so off we went. And today, after a month in Peru, we got my package!!! THANKS FAMILY!!! I LOVE YOU!! AAwww it was so thoughtful, everybody loves their gifts! The shoes fit Jhoselyn like a glove..or a shoe... and she looooves them. Two of the shirts fit Nancy really well, and Junior and Mario (the poppa) also love their shirts and hat. Little Gabo loved his lego car (and boxboard box it came in) and I gave the hand creams to Soledad (their cousin, who also lives with us!) Thank you so much family, we're all going to share the candy and they said many many many MANY thank yous. I am suuuuuper super content. Gracias :) And Talia's little artistic doodles were loved by all :)

      Also, I still am going to find out more about the other post office, so hold up a little bit, but it's apparently better to put only MY FULL NAME on the package, and not Nancy's or anyone else's at all. This way (up until six months) I don't have to pay any money to collect my package. :) nice. Oh and if you ever send more clothes, just write clothes, apparently it's prohibited to put "used" clothes. Didn't catch why exactly. Anywhoo toooodlooo

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Casma y Tortugas !!

     Saturday I failed to rise on time for Colegio (where nothing was done, because it's Saturday, and usually that means we fart around and watch a movie and go eat afterwards and then play volleyball. And next time I'm supposed to bring my violin-- OH and nobody was there on Friday when I went looking for the musical group, so I just meditated) so instead, I went with Jhoselyn and our friend Helen to Casma, which is a cute little towny type place "of eternal sol" about 45minutes away from Chimbote. I thought we were just going to the beach, which is about 20min away, but Casma was just another 20 so we went there and ate a super expensive lunch at some little farmy type thing. It was a super quiet little town and I really liked it. I wish we had more time to explore it but we only got there around 12:30 and yeah. Then we went and explored a super fancy (Peru standards) hotel with a swimming pool (that we weren't allowed to swim in), a guinea pig pen (lunchtime..) and nice courtyard type things. There was bamboo and a bunch of other cool plants growing too.

      Then we saw a sign that said only 3 soles for a ride to Tortugas beach, so we hopped into a crowded hippie van with a bunch of others just in time and off we went. It was suuuper hot. The beach was awesome! I wish we'd stayed longer so I could have gone swimming hehe and we had the whole beach to ourselves other than some creepy old fishermen (maybe I wouldn't have gone swimming anyways...:P) I found a bit of Peruvian beach glass and saw a super awesome Pelican. I dunno why but Pelicans are sooo freaking cool! Not sure why I capitalized Pelicans three times... Hahahahaha but just after we arrived, Andre called Jhoselyn and said he had free tickets for us for the professional soccer match at the stadium in Chimbote! It was 3:30 and the game was going to start at 4pm, so we raaaaan to the road and asked for a car to Chimbote. BUT apparently the only cars went back the OPPOSITE DIRECTION to Casma. So we spent our last 9 soles for a 20min trip back to Casma. I had 10 centimetos left for the 6soles trip to Chimbote, Helen had 2 soles, and Jhoselyn had 5soles. Crap! We definitely hadn't known the food was going to be so expensive. What idiots we were though hahahaha anyways.
       We hopped into another van on our way to Chimbote (thank god you don't have to pay ahead) and were frantically whispering in the back to try and figure out how we were going to pay. We had our 12soles bottle of wine from lunch that we hadn't drank, but didn't think the driver would accept it in a water bottle... so Jhoselyn called Fran on her Nextel and we were going to ask her to bring the rest of our trip fee to Plaza Mejor to pay the cabbie, but while we were talking to her the battery died! So then she borrowed someone else's Nextel battery and called Helen's mom, who graciously brought us the extra 11 or whatever soles needed to pay the poor driver, who hadn't known until we asked him to stop at Plaza Mejor. Hoof! Close call.

        By then it was 4:35 and Jhoselyn and I raaaaced to her house to grab my bank card, raaaaced to the bank to take out money (Andre had to sell the tickets and couldn't leave his seat to give them to us at halftime) and then raaaaaced to the Stadium for the second half of the soccer game between San Martin and Jose Galvez. It was awesome!!! We bought some super cheap Cristal jerseys (the good lookin guys we saw in el centro) and laughed pretty hard because they weren't playing and are apparently the crappiest team of Peru! Hahahaha that's what you get. Anyways. Raced around trying to find the correct entrance but they were all closed! So we ran to the stairs and Jhoselyn sweet talked the guard into letting us up and into the PRIVATE, CLUB MEMBERSHIP, YEAR ROUND PASSES ONLY SUITES!! Awesome. Instead of concrete bleachers we got real seats and the best birds' eye view of the stadium, next to the guys that were filming the game. Man I love how spanish futbol game announcers scream hahaha! It was cool. The stadium is HUUUGE. I think all of Whitehorse could fit inside nice and snug. More. And there were tons of people walking around selling various delicious goodies and hot foods and cold drinks and everything. We sat down about 3 minutes before the start of the second half, still an empate, 0-0. We didn't end up getting to sit with Andre, Fummer, Tonio y Fercho though because they didn't get the awesome seats (which we were supposed to have to pay waaaay more for, but only paid 20 soles, the cheapest price hehe)

       Afterwards they were jealous kept pestering us because they wanted to know how we got such good seats :P It was a super good game, soccer is soo much better live! It ended up 0-0 though and I didn't catch why there wasn't overtime or a shoot out or anything. After the game the reporters rushed onto the field to interview the players, and the security guards shielded the referees as they were walked out, to protect them from angry fans and audience members! Then a creepy old guy who took a picture for us was telling me how beautiful I am and wanted me to take boxing lessons with him and stuff. Yeeaaa no. Getting kinda sick of old people hitting on me. And people in general! Hahaha but the older guys are the worst. Eew. And then another guy outside the stadium wanted a picture with Jhoselyn and I (in our Cristal jerseys) because he thought we were models or representatives of the team or something. Well that's what Jhoselyn thought. I think it's because he thought we were retards for wearing Cristal jerseys! Hahahaha anyways. Awesome :D

OMG IT WORKED!!! Photos of Caral (resized to 25%)