Adventures with the fam

Today I spent several hours devising my schedule and I think I finally arrived at conclusion, but I have to wait to hear from some Hope profs about whether the classes I picked will fulfill certain requirements. In other news, Saturday I visited a site in Miraflores called the Huaca Pucllana. Huaca refers to any large structure built by a prehispanic culture, such as the Incas (the most well known prehispanic culture in Peru). There are quite a few huacas around the city. They are sort of like half hill, half pyramid. In other words, they are nothing like the amazing Mayan pyramids in Southern Mexico and Central America, but they are still pretty interesting. The walls of the huaca were built out of adobe, with the bricks going vertically instead of horizontally to provide stability during tremors. I will put up pictures soon so you can actually see what I am talking about. After the tour, I went out to lunch with my friends Sarah, Jenna, Laura, Lauren, and Sydney at a café near Kennedy Park. Having not eaten pizza for at least a week, I decided to try some, but sadly it tasted nothing like american pizza and did not satisfy my craving in the least.

On Sunday I went on an adventure with my family to the municipality of Lurín, which is south of Lima. There were seven of us in their 5-seater car: my host parents, my host sister Evelín and her son Diego, and two of my host-cousins whose names I did not know at the time, which was a little awkward. I now know that one of their names is Augusto (said Owgoostoh). Haha. What a funny adventure! When we got to Lurín, we drove around on all these dusty unpaved roads trying to locate a specific restaurant that my family wanted to eat at all the while passing countless other restaurants. We never actually found the restaurant they were looking for so we went back into the center of the town which had a cute square around which were vendors with food and other goods. We ate anticuchos and picarones. Picarones look like onion rings but they are actually a fried sweet potato batter. Not too bad. Anticuchos, as a found out only after I had tried them, are pieces of cow heart marinated and grilled like a shish kebab. Really, they are pretty good. As long as I didn't think about the fact that I was eating heart, they tasted like beef. On the car ride home from Lurín we listened to an 80's hits Cd, which made me laugh because I never thought I would be listening to 80's music in English with my Peruvian family. And I think they knew the words better than I did. Also on the way out of Lurín, I saw a person in a Barney suit on the side of the road, trying to attract people to one of the restaurants. Alas, Peru is just full of surprises.

And now I must go to bed because it is quite late, but I will try to update again soon and put up pictures from the weekend. :-)