10 days until my return!

Well hello everyone!  I am finally sitting down to write to you all again now that my finals have been taken and I am done done done with my semester (schoolwise).  I am definitely glad to be done with my classes - finals week was a little bit stressful because I had a lot of activities to go to such as my program's final dinner for all the students and the final cocktail for students and their families.  Being busy suits me though - next semester I plan on joining more activities because I had way too much time on my hand this semester, leading to the discovering that I would much rather be really involved and a little stretched for time than have nothing to do which just makes me feel lazy.  Friday of last week I met up with Sarah, Kallee and Katrina in Gloria Jean's Coffee, which I did not know existed in Peru - I think it is fairly new - and later Megan joined us.  We stopped at Polvos Rosados, which is a shopping center similar to polvos azules that I have mentioned before, to buy a Christmas DVD and then went to Sarah's house so her host mom could teach us to make arroz con leche.  Arroz con leche is the Peruvian version of rice pudding and it is delicious so I am excited to try to make it when I get home!  She also surprised us and taught us how to make Peruvian hot chocolate, which if you have never tried hot chocolate from Latin American, you should know that it is nothing like that lame powdery stuff we drink in the U.S.  It is made from bars of chocolate that you melt in water and add milk and cinnamon and cloves and it is sooooo good, although super super rich.  I'm bringing home bars of chocolate, so let me know if you want to try some and I'll invite you over to my house :-)

The past couple Saturdays I have been going to a youth group on Saturdays for college-age students.  It is at the Christian Alliance church in Lince (leensay), a district really close to my house.  The first hour and a half is a small group, which I got connected with through my friend Ernesto who is one of the coordinators of Conexión Biblica Universitaria (CBU), the campus Christian organization I have been involved with.  Following the small group is a big group meeting, similar to a worship service...there are about 300 students involved in this part aka it is huge!  I really like it though - it has been wonderful to get connected with other Christians to encourage me in my faith.

This week was a nice relaxing week without class.  I almost went on a trip to the jungle, but I did not have my yellow fever vaccine, so that combined with other reasons means that I didn't actually end up going.  Instead I hung out with my friend Lauren a lot since it was our last week together! Last Sunday we went to a church with one of our friends from CBU which I really liked.  And then afterward we hung out with Lauren's host sister.  We tried to go to the movies but it was a special day at Peruvian theatres, el día del cine, so movie tickets were scarce. . . they only cost $3.50 which means they were all bought super early in the day.  Therefore we ended up watching a movie at my house, "Up," which was super cute!
Monday Lauren and I went shopping at the artisan markets on La Marina to get some Christmas presents and then in the evening I helped my aunt Margot make alfajores which are a Peruvian cookie similar to shortbread with manjar blanco (a caramel-like substance) spread in the middle of two of the cookies and powdered sugar on top.
Tuesday was pizza day.  During my time in Peru, I have definitely not been eating enough pizza - I eat pizza at least once a week in the states and here I rarely eat pizza, so of course I would have a day of eating pizza twice.  Lauren and Jazmin and I went to get pizza for lunch at Papa John's - Tuesday is special offer day at all the pizza places in Lima, although we ended up not using the offer cuz you had to order big pizzas and there were only the three of us.  Jazmin had never tried pizza in her life, which was like heresy to me!  She thought it was ok, definitely did not love like I do :-)  After pizza we went to see the Ghosts of Scrooge in 3D which I had heard good reviews of but I didn't think it was all that great.  Later, my aunt made pizza for dinner, which was tasty, but really Peruvian pizza just cannot match up to Chicago pizza...I am so excited to eat Gino's East when I get home!
Wednesday I spent the first half of my day finishing up a paper that Lauren and I were writing together for our Peruvian Social Reality class.  Afterward and I went outside to exercise by power walking around the circular street that my house is on but it was cut short when a dog attacked me.  Yes, a dog attacked me, biting me on the leg near my ankle, but thankfully it didn't puncture my skin and mostly just left a bruise.  It was probably one of the scariest things I have experienced in my life though. . . I took off running full speed down the street toward the guard screaming because the dog was chasing me.  The guard just whistled at the dog and it stopped running after me.  Looking back on the situation I think it is sort of a funny story, but at the time I basically thought I was going to die.  Haha.  Since then I have only been using the elliptical that my family has upstairs instead of exercising outside.  That night I went to see the Adam Sandler movie Funny People, which I enjoyed - it had its crude parts but also many funny moments.
Thursday I went to the zoo with Megan and for some reason I was really tired so I took a nap in the afternoon, then in the evening I went to Lauren's house for the goodbye dinner her host family was throwing her.  It was sweet to meet her extended family - they were all really nice!
Friday Lauren and Jazmin and I went to a bakery in Miraflores for our last bubble tea! In the evening was the end-of-the-year dinner with CBU at a really nice Chifa (Chinese) restaurant.  It was my first time actually trying quality chifa and I liked although Chinese food is never really my favorite.  The evening was definitely enjoyable.  CBU has been really great because I have met a lot of really awesome people who all study at la Católica and I am really excited to get more involved in the group next semester!
Saturday was a sad day because I had to say goodbye to most of my friends :-( Lauren, Laura, Sydney, Megan, Jenna, Sarah and I all went out to breakfast at Crepes and Waffles.  Laura, Jenna and Sydney had been traveling all week so it was really good to see them again because it felt like they had been gone for an age!  I have been so blessed to have all of these girls in my life for the past 5 months and it was hard saying goodbye not really knowing for sure when I will see them again since we all live in different parts of the country (MN, WI, MA, NY, NH, OH, VA).  Before I came to Peru, I was scared that I would have trouble making good friends because when I began college it took me a whole semester to actually feel like I had friends.  However, I became friends with these girls early on in the semester and now it seems weird to think that I have not even known them for half a year.  I am looking forward to keeping up with them through skype, email and phone calls.  It seems as I get older I keep making more and more friends which I love, but it has the disadvantage of an ever-lengthening list of people to miss.  I wish I could be in a lot of different places at once!
In the afternoon on Saturday I went to Juanka's sister's house to celebrate her birthday.  She lives in a brand new apartment building, and when I say brand new I mean brand new as in parts are still undergoing some last minute construction and it smells like a construction site.  It is a super nice apartment building though and has a sweet view of the city.  I talked for awhile with Juanka's nephew Sebastian who is 17 and made me miss my brother a lot.  He goes to la Católica as well, although I think he is just about to start his first semester...not sure.  Hopefully I'll get to see him more next semester - maybe meet up for lunch on campus since we go to the same school!  :-)
Today was a the big game between Universitaria (la U) and Alianza, the two rival soccer teams in Lima.  People are always asking me which team I'm a fan of and of course I don't have an answer, not really having any particular reason to support one or the other.  When asked, I usually respond by asking the other person their favorite team and then once they tell me and tell them that it is my favorite as well, haha.  I went to my grandma's house with my family to watch the game and I found it highly amusing because part of the family was rooting for la U and other were for Alianza so they were quite loud and easily excitable. In the evening, my family started decorating the house for Christmas!  I put one ornament on the tree but mostly observed and tried to take some pics but my camera died.  It was nice to be part of some decorating since I missed the decorating part at home this year.  I cannot believe Christmas is in less than 2 weeks!
Once I get pictures up on facebook I will put the links here so you can see them...I haven't uploaded pics in a loooong time.  I will put two pics here for now:

Back row: Juan, Fernando, ?, Erick, Raul

Front row: Lauren, Sarah, moi, Kallee

Our CBU dinner was "formal" - all the guys were supposed to be in suits and girls in dresses, so I got another use out of this dress that I bought senior year of high school, which barely fit me :-)

These are the girls from the place that I volunteered this semester.

On the last day we decorated cookies with them!

I realize I haven't mentioned much about my volunteering, so perhaps I will talk more about that in my next blog.

I hope you are all surviving the frigid weather and snow!  I am trying to enjoy the warm weather while I can although I am kinda excited for snow...it just doesn't feel like Christmas when it is summery weather!  So if you drink some hot chocolate, think of me!  I cannot wait to see everyone and catch up!!!