Last week, Marlene, Kyra and I went to our friend Alejandro's house, a Peruvian who lives in a very nice part of the city. His house looked like some of the upper-middle class houses my friends had at Mt. Spokane, and everyone there was super nice. We just chilled, had a BBQ, drank some rum n cokes (what else), and... of course... we ended the night with salsa. A few hours in, I could see the Hispanics getting antsy, hips-a-movin & liquor-a-flowin, so I saw the salsa coming. I personally am not biologically blessed with those rubbery hips, so I could do without the suave seductive salsa music, but it came, they danced, and I drank a little more. It was funny cause I made reference to my genetic 'flaw' of lacking these hips to my roommates by calling them "maderas" instead of "caderas", the former actually meaning wood. So, not only do I not have these hips, I also have been calling my hips "wood" for the past few weeks... so maybe this is a sign and it's actually true? Lol whatever... also, I loved his dog.
One of the coolest bars I went to was a German pub called "treff" (which literally just means meeting place) to watch the Germany vs. Australian game. Along with my German roommates, there were students who are from Lima that attend a German business school here, plus some other German exchange students that are here studying. Everyone ended up going Deutsch on me, painting their faces and wearing the colors... I swear I would have erupted had Australia scored a goal, but ze Germans ended up with a 4-0 defeat and the cheering didn't get any less ecstatic after each goal. Good german beer, some alright French fries, then a walk in Parque Kennedy afterwards made for an overall giddy up experience!
Last night was my first time in the Central Part of Lima, which is the most (what I would call) South American Colonial part of the city. It was pretty dark so I couldn't get any pictures, but the buildings were super 'what you would expect' from a city founded 500 years ago by Spain. A Peruvian guy named Marco, who is super cool, said they were restored a few times and probably not more than a century had passed since the last remodel. We went through 4 or 5 bars in Plaza San Martín (here is a wiki pic of it, hopefully I'll get some of my own soon), ending up at what I would consider a hipster bar. All the bars there were a little dirtier, a little tighter, and a littler cheaper than what I've been experiencing in Miraflores (definitely one of the most upscale districts in Lima).... just how I like it! It was the goodbye party to my roommate Mathilde, the French, who I very much love for her attitude, opinions, humor and laid-backness (yes, I am the king of creating words)... just a lovable human being. I'll miss ya girl!
Today I ended up taking a combi to somewhere I've never been before, the district Jesus María. My plan is to do this every other day for these last 3 weeks. The whole way I wanted to get off every few minutes to look at something, which I did end up doing a few times, but there's just so much I don't know how I could manage that unless I walked the 6 miles home... actually, maybe I should just do that! Anyways, there are soooo many opportunities to eat food, anywhere you are. Little stands with sandwiches, chips, cookies, soups, coffee, candy, full meals with rice/potatoes/meat/salad, and of course beer are always within a block, no matter where you go. I just see all the prices, divide by 3 (exchange rate), and just think to myself "Dude, that is like $2... do not pass that up!". The only thing that does make me pass it up is their abundance. But sometimes, that dank aroma just gets me :-p I kinda like that the price of living here is so low that people can actually support their families by selling stuff on the street like that (even though I'm sure they'd prefer something else), even considering all the economic/political/humanity struggle stuff I just jumped over with that statement (yes, I know...). In any case, check out this 3 pounds of fried rice for $3! (No, I thought they were little bags of drugs too, but it was just the aji and other sauce)
I have also come to realize why I really enjoy (and miss) the big(ger) city life in the US: no one looks at you. In Spokane, I feel like most everyone looks at everyone else as they walk by each other, maybe because it's small enough that you feel like you could know them, or because it's so suburbish that being close to other people and possibly brushing shoulders with them would be... weird. In Seattle, or San Francisco, or even Portland, people just walk with their eyes fixed ahead, not giving a shit about the people passing by. This is what I like, and this is something I am definitely not experiencing here in Lima. I think I have to come to accept the fact that any non anglo-society or 3rd world country I go to, I will most likely be stared at when I walk by, but still, I have a hard time not wanting to not look at them looking at me (sorry about the f.u.b.a.r. sentence, but you catch my drift...). I'm tall, I'm white, I have blue eyes, I wear different clothes than the people here... I would probably stare at me too, but I just don't dig it. Especially when I'm on a combi fitted for 15 people and it has 30, it's made for people that are under 5'4", and I have diarrhea (for example... I've had quite a bit of stomach problems like I said). I'm starting to get over it though. Most of the time I just take a seat somewhere until the passing crowd forgets to notice me, and take a few snapshots of graffiti :-) It floods the city, everywhere... I love it
GRAFFITI
As far as my plans for travel after Lima, I have a loop in the south of Perú planned that will take me through Arequipa, Cuzco (& Machu Picchu), Puno (& Lago Titicaca... which always makes me think of Beavis, anyone else?), and hopefully a town deep the Peruvian Amazon. As far as my weekends in Lima, I definitely want to visit Caral, the oldest city in all of the Americas. The Nazca Lines are also doable in a weekend, and I think a roommate or two might wanna do it with me. But we'll see...
Spanish-wise, I feel like there was a dramatic increase in my speed at the beginning, and now, reviewing hypothetical tenses and moods of verbs & having written down over 200 words I didn't know (or didn't remember), I feel like I am really trying to be careful with my structure and word choice. I came to realize also that I really don't have much opportunity to practice the academic Spanish that I will be using at the University level for the rest of my career, but only the quick, ever-so-efficient (or I would just say ever-so-minimal-physical-effort) street Spanish that is needed to successfully function in a Hispanic society. I am learning a certain style at my school, then using a different one daily, so it's kind of a weird balance. Don't get me wrong... I am very pleased with my teacher so far, as she knows some English & Portuguese as well (which is perfect for me!) and always has extra insight that I wouldn't expect or anticipate, but it's like I need to call my professors at ASU or go a certain setting to apply what I'm learning. I will feel like I learned so much and made so much progress in a day, then get on a combi and not understand what the fuck the driver is saying... Then again, I've heard combi drivers are some of the biggest mumblers and 'whatever' type speakers, as my roommates and even Peruvians have said they have problems with them, but still, it kind of shafts me mentally. I was listening to the combi driver saying the word Benavides, which phonetically should be /be-na-BI-des/, but when I actually transcribed him literally, there were absolutely no consonants, so it was /we-a-(barely a 'v')i-eee/ (sorry for the lack of phonetic symbols, but still... it was just fucked).
Anyways, that's all for now. More adventures to come, more shtuff to be done! Tweet/update/blog/email/text/call ya later! But I ask you...
P.S. Here are all of my pics in Perú so far
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