Livin' Life!

Sorry it has been so long since I updated.  Life has become pretty routine here so I don't feel like I have as many exciting adventures to share.  Friday I went to a casino to play Bingo with my friends Sydney, Megan, Jenna, Kevin, Sarah, Laura, and Rosaura (the only Peruvian).  Thursday was Sydney's birthday so she picked the night's activities.  Her host mom plays Bingo every Friday night and Sydney had been twice before.  It was much more intense than any Bingo I played before.  I spent less than $3 playing but sadly did not win anything.  Some rounds you could win as much as 300 soles which is about $100.  After Bingo we were going to go to a jazz club but everyone was hungry and so we just ended up at a restaurant called Adios Chow.  Five of us decided to split a family size pizza which really ended up not being enough for all of us, but it was tasty.  I took a taxi home from Miraflores at 2am because the buses were not running that late.  It was the first time that I took a taxi all by myself, since I almost always take a micro unless I am with a group of people.

Saturday I got up and went running.  I started running last week on the street outside my house with is sort of ovular because I technically live in a "park."  I like running right outside my house because it feels more enclosed than if I were to venture out to a real park or just run on the streets.  Today there was a man standing outside of his house the whole time I was running and he kept counting my laps for me and even offered me a powerade, which I politely refused.  I try not to encourage strange men to talk to me because they're generally a bit creepy (I get whistled at a lot).  Still, running in the street outside my house is very safe and I have no reason to feel uncomfortable even though people stare at me sometimes.  Back to Saturday.  After I running, I met my friend Lauren at an artisan market on La Marina, a huge street fairly close to my university.  Lauren wanted to by a scarf and some gloves for our trip to Machu Picchu because it supposedly gets cold at night.  I was not in the market for buying anything but I ended up buying two scarves because I just really like scarves and they were so cool and cheap (at least one of them was cheap)!  The market was really similar to the artisan market that we always go to in El Salvador except everything said Peru on it.  From there we went to my host grandma's house for lunch.  I generally eat at least one meal at my grandma's house (it's actually an apartment) on the weekends, although usually it's on Sundays.  As soon as we finished eating, we left for Miraflores to meat our friend Sarah and my friend Franco from my music appreciation class.  The four of us went to see Lluvia de Hamburguesas, aka Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and spent most of the movie laughing.  When I got back to my house after the movie, I hung out with Blanca and Juanka for the rest of the evening and we made pizza, which was not really all that tasty unfortunately. It hard to make good homemade pizza when they don't sell any of the things here that I generally use to make my pizza at home, like dough in a can, good pizza sauce, pepperoni, mozzerella cheese that actually has flavor, etc.  Still, it was fun to make pizza and hang out with my host sister and brother-in-law.

Sunday I went to a restaurant with my family called Tumbes Mar for lunch.  I got to order my own plate because the rest of my family was sharing a bunch of seafood plates and I do not like seafood at all.  I was very thankful that my family let me order my own food and I quite enjoyed my pollo saltado (chicken with french fries, onions, peppers, and tomatoes).  I did try what I think was a muscle, still sitting in its shell.  I actually really like that because it didn't taste at all fishy and it had a bunch of spicy onion stuff on it.  Plus, the texture wasn't too bad . . .many times the texture of seafood/fish gets to me.  After lunch I met my friend Mary (the sister of Teo the empleada) in Miraflores to go to her church with her far away in the district of Los Olivos.  This was actually the first church service I have been to since I got here although I have been to a youth group and the christian organization on campus.  I don't think I would go back to this church, however, because I did not particularly like the music and it is really far away.  Next Sunday I am going to try a church on Avenida Brasil, about 7 blocks from my house :-)  I met some students from the Católica that go there and they invited me to come with them.

Monday my only class was canceled, so I went to Dunkin Donuts to study in the morning and I thought I would be really productive, but Lauren and I just ended up chatting for awhile and I did not really get much work done.  This seems to be a recurring theme, but I do get my work done eventually :-)  In the afternoon I had my volunteering.  I don't know that I have mentioned my volunteer position.  I am working with an organization called Mundo Libre which is an organization that takes adolescents off the streets and rehabilitates them, offering them a home, schooling, counseling with a psychologist, workshops of all sorts (cooking, knitting, art, dance, music, computers, etc.), and also works with their families.  Another girl from my program (Candy) and I are in charge of an afternoon workshop from 3-5:30.  We generally have two - three girls from ages 12-16 and we are free to think of activities to do with them.  So far we have taught them how to make boxes, done some drawing, played bored games, and played soccer with a tiny plastic ball.  In some ways this home reminds me of the Shalom Home in El Salvador that I have visited 5 times, but it is not totally the same.  Actually if anyone has any ideas of activities to do with the girls I would definitely be open to ideas because I don't have many ideas for the workshops and I think the girls get bored.

Last Thursday my history teacher handed back out "control de lectura" which consisted in answering two questions about a text that we had had to read.  Although I had felt like I did well on this "test" I was unsure if my grade would reflect it because I was unfamiliar with the grading system here.  However, I was pleased to receive a 19, which is really good because the grading scale here is out of 20.  Hoorah!  Now let's just hope I can do as well on my midterms next week :-)

Tomorrow I am leaving for Cusco bright and early.  I have to be at the airport at 5:40am which means getting up at about 4:45!  Ahhhh, it is definitely time for bed.  Our first day in Cusco will be spent adjusting to the altitude and then after that we will be participating in various activities including, of course, a trip to Machu Picchu!  I am all packed and ready to go.  All that remains is getting some sleep!  So with that I am going to end this post, but I will be sure to post again soon in order to report my exciting adventures from the coming weekend!