I met a frog...and some kittens..and a rastaman...and a crazy man

Hi.

new boyfriend

Ok so Thursday, I went out with a friend to find a cool bar to get a casual drink at. We ended up wandering the back alleys of Cusco. Kinda cool and slightly terrifying. First, we had a rastaman come up to us and say "Girls, I have some good green stuffs you like?" and we were all like "O.O no plz no bai I'm terrified." Almost immediately after that came this shithead in a janky lookin frog outfit. He talked in the weirdest voice I've ever heard I think. He wanted a picture with us. Weird. Too weird. So we get up to him and he goes "Sexy frogs....only in Cusco". I think he meant weird ass frogs. It doesn't help that I hate the shit out of mascots. They're too creepy.

Kittens...inspired by Kittens!

Anyway, at our volunteering there are two kittens that live in the laundry room. They can fit in the palm of your hand and are so cute you just wanna squeeze 'em til the burst. I spend a lot of time in laundry because of them. Hehehehehe. Volunteering would suck less if the nurses liked us. They could use a lot of help with the kids and I am willing but they don't tell us how to do anything and only yell at us when we do something wrong. Kind of a bummer, but the lady in the laundry and the ladies and the kitchen are nice.

cute pants, crazy man!

Finally, this last weekend was a big weekend for clubs. We went hard on Friday and the clubs were bountiful with crazies, old people, and assholes. At InkaTeam I got shoved by a douchebag dude with a dumb hair cut but thankfully I had some nice friends to yell him off the stage. Then we went to MamaAfrika. The only good thing about that place is the facepainting. I was too impatient to wait to get any though. But we met a crazy man and he honestly was narpin hard. He wasn't real. He was probably 45 and his pants were unzipped and he was obsessed with me. What can I say, I attract all the hawtiez....ha........get it? cause not really...Anyway I kinda noticed him during the night, but not really. He was in so many pictures from that night, though! I don't know how he's real. He randomly whipped his shirt over his head and it was the icing on the cake of non-reality.

Today, my family went to Urubamba for some festival stuff and I'm just lazing around. I think later we're going to Tipon to try to see some animals. I'm having some hella homesick moments lately though. I love it here but it's changed me so much already I wanna go back and start living my real life with this new outlook, but I can't. I know these next 76 days will fly by and I plan on making the most of them, but I miss the shit out of my family friends back home. Thanks for reading though everyone. I love you all and am so glad you're interested in knowing my adventures!

my life as liz(zy)

So I feel like this is the point in my trip where for the next few months I'll forget to update. Sorry I'll do my best! I DID in fact get a spinning membership and went to class this morning where the instructor was a dude and 69 million times more hard core. Still luv it.

Side note: I can NOT get used to their time here. So spinning starts at eight and I get there at 7:55...to wait for 20 minutes for the instructor to show up. And honestly I was there for a good 15 just bada myself. Time there is not like it is here. If it says get there at 8 you show up at 8:05 and don't start til 8:15. I kinda h8 it, then again I'm late always so it's nice to be early/on time for things.

Las Iglesias

Yesterday I walked around a lil after class to exchange a bill of 200 soles (they exist, and they're terrible) and try to look for a tarjeta to put minutes on my phone. It was a little rainy and very beautiful. The church on the left is the Cathedral, on the right is the one I went to for mass.

Street/Alleyway for peds

La Plaza de Armas

 

tatooooooooosss

After my little jaunt in the Plaza, I went home, chilled, had dinner, and then got tatted up with my host hermana Lucia. Her journals had a bunch of temporary tattoos in them so we went all out and got seven.

During our tattoo time Julieta got cranky and tired and decided she wanted the tattoo that I was putting on while I was putting it on and started crying. My host mama tried to take her but Lucia felt bad I think. When my host mom finally DID take Julie, Julie got pezzed and bit her on the cheek. She got a time out and cried for a long time but I definitely think Sara was right to do that. Two year olds are exhausting and do the dumbest shit for no reason. Like, they like the food they're eating but they refuse to eat it on principle. Of all the silverware to play with why the HELL do they choose the sharpest knife there is? The world may never know. But I'll be real I definitely WON'T end up a mom until I'm like 34. I feel I still act like a kid. All you moms, I honestly applaud you because children are impossible. IMPOSSIBLE. Yet a bunch of you seem to raise them pretty damn well. 

Anywho, after that litte debacle, Luci and I played cards. There is a game called Nadie saben por quien estan trabajo or something like that. In english, that's No one knows who they're working for. Basically, you lay 5 cards down and try to make pairs. It's pretty fun. After that we played Nerviosa. Kinda like slap Jack except more fun (in my opinion). THEN Lucia wanted to tell my future. I asked her three questions 1.) Will I get a BF in Cuzco. The answer was no (KEWL) 2.) Will I win the lottery? I THINK the answer was yes, but I couldn't understand what she said. 3.) Will I get good grades this semester? The answer was no. I'm in trouble!

Other than that my life is not exciting. Classes, volunteering, translating recipes, doing random stuff on the weekends like going to beautiful churches for mass. No pix allowed though, sorry. Today is Ash Wednesday, I'm giving up sweets, except sugar in my coffee. But pop, candy, etc. WISH ME LUCK.

Futbol

Hola, short entry. First, I've been hearing how many people have read my blog and without sounding too pretentious I am really flattered. Thank you guys for reading and I'm glad so many people enjoy it.

I said this entry was gonna be short but then I remembered how much stuff I have to say so it probs won't be. So, sorry for lying heh. In one of my classes that's required for the program I went through (International Partnership for Service-work and Learning), our professor had these three guys come in and talk to us about some Non Governmental Organizations. They work in rural areas near Urubamba and help build greenhouses for different small communities in the mountains. They then teach the children how to grow vegetables in these green houses they otherwise couldn't. The children in these areas are often malnourished because all they eat is....are?...potatoes. So they grow a shit ton of vegetables to get some nutrients in their diet. A lot of NGOs in Peru go by statistics: "We have 73 green houses currently built." That all sounds great, 73 green houses! In reality, a lot of these communities use them to dry laundry, or to hold chickens, or use them for other things. This defeats the purpose and is a waste of money. So Alianza Andina (Andean Alliance) builds the greenhouse, hires a man who knows how to grow, and kind of just oversees everything so the people will be able to use this greenhouse and learn knowledge of growing plants for generations to come. These guys were really cool and smart...and cute HEH! We're planning on going out for a weekend to help. Or at least I am.

Anyway, that was a few weeks ago. Last night we went out to our bar of choice, Norton Rat's, and guess who we saw there? THE SAME GUYS! We chatted with them for a bit and then told them to come out with us but they were meeting friends. At least that's what they said. They're also in their mid to late twenties and probably didn't want to go dancing cause they're all adult like and run an NGO and stuff. I still have a crush on all of them. NOT ASHAMED.

Pensive Andy

Hoy, we had a partido de futbol against some men who outranked us. We got KILLED 8 to 1. I hate to say I'm competitive, but I am so much that it's ugly. I hate trying your hardest only to be schooled. Competitiveness is an ugly trait when you can't control it and I defs couldnt control mine today. Afterward, they sprayed us with foam and tried to pour water on us. It's some type of carnival here or something. I was like too crabby to enjoy it though. I'm such a DiVa. H8 myself sometimes.

HEATED

Also, that decorated tree is for some festival. Apparently, a bunch of couples dance around it and all use an axe to try to chop it down. Whatever couple lands the final blow and chops the tree down has to a.) pay for all the drinks and b.) plan the same party for next year. FUN, EH? For couples at least...ha. Anyway we didnt participate in the dancing and chopping of the tree, but like I said we did get foamed and water thrown at us. Today was fun and it's nice to be active and run around and play soccer again in a friendly environment.

All the kids and us!

ONE LAST THING! The football game was for the kids at the clinic that I volunteer for. They sat and watched us play. Well they came out after like an hour of playing but whatever...they were still having fun. I'm glad they got to change up their routine and go outside too it makes me so sad to know that really the only forms of entertainment they have is music, tv, books (they can choose from like 2), and having us power walk them down the long hallway at the clinic in their wheel chairs. This experience has definitely made me realize how lucky I am.

FOAMED

Lastly, a friend and I went to a spinning class at a gym near by and I'm hooked! Getting a membership Monday.

Also, vocab of the week: NARP- Not a real person. You can be a narp. Example: "Dude, he's a NARP for reaallss." Narping is also a verb. Example: "He's NARPIN' haarrrdd right now." Also, instead of saying "I can't" when you see something you just CAN'T deal with, say "No puedo."

Love ya mean it.

The Weekend that Wasn't

Hey friends it's been a while! Sorry for the break I'm just soooOooOooOooo busy being popular I don't have any time to update. Just kidding...HA. Um, so this weekend (Fri thru Mon) a group of friendskis and I went to Puno, a city on Lake Titicaca. The name does NOT mean what I'm sure you think it means. Actually, no one knows what it means so it COULD in fact mean what you think it means. The translation the guide told us was something like "Rock Puma". Remember, pumas are the sacred animal of the earth world. ANYWAY. There was, like I said, a festival. La Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria to be exact! This shit was beyond a parade. The outfits...not real. Actually, the whole weekend was unreal. Let me start at the beginning...

Wall at Rachi

The first day, we drove roughly 7 hours to Puno. It took that long because we stopped at a church and ruins. I only have a pic of the outside of the church cause they wanted you to pay to go in and you couldn't take pics. If you're scoffing at me I've already seen la Catedral in the main square of Cuzco and I feel like if you've seen one church you've seen 'em all.

soOoooOo artsy

Anyway, the next stop was these ruins called Rachi, I think. When we first got there there was a little market with kinda the same "handycrafts" as the Peruanos call them. Over the fence you could see a huge wall. The majority of us were so game to pay the 10 soles it took to get in, but three stayed behind claiming they could "See the wall well enough from here". WELL, we got in and the ruins were actually huge. We didnt have a tour guide so I didn't know what the hell I was looking at, but it sure was cool. Also, we stumbled across a f*cking tarantula. Not right. I got a sweet pic though. On the way out, we found some cool flowers so I took some ArTzY pIcZ.

just a tarantula NBD *voms*

Pretty flower

We finally arrived in Puno and after our driver asked 8 different randoms how to get there, checked into our hotel, showered and rested. At around 8, we went in search for dinner. A woman flagged us down and enticed us with a three course meal for only 18 soles (a.k.a 10 dollars) with wine or pisco sours included! The food didn't live up to expectations and we were all hungry afterward but didn't do anything but complain about it. Actually, the boys went and got a shit ton of rice/lo mein for 5 soles. We sat and played Phase 10 in one of the girls rooms but then all decided we were tired and retired to our rooms for the night where I took the best shower I've had since I've been here. Seriously, so hot and water pressure that I think is illegal in the United States.

How they build the islands

Saturday morning, we were up at 6:45, had breakfast at 7, and were out the door ready for our tour by 7:45ish. We got on a bus and picked up other groups that were touring with us, then went to the boat. There were 22 people in total on the tour but only 8 of us from USIL. There was this one hispanic family that everyone hated because they were rude and took pictures of us like we were zoo animals. Otherwise this other group of Brits with Toucan Travels who had a cute tour guide named Rico, a couple from Sweden, some random other American girls, and finally our tour guide named Leo.

Leafy

my pride and joy of a pic

We rode on the boat for about an hour before we got to the Uros floating islands. These things were seriously so cool. They showed us how they built them which is with dirt, and these reed things they lay on it. They put it out there and basically just let it grown and then add layers and layers of reeds for the flooring. The island itself is like 2 meters thick. They use special anchors that go way back to shore to keep the island in place and then live in these little huts. We got to try the reeds which are really good and apparently good for you too.

They mostly tasted like you'd expect them to taste - kinda lettucey. Luckily I like lettuce so it was delicious. We took a cool tourist reed boat over to another island where I got my passport stamped and took probably the best picture I've ever taken. It might not be as cool as I think it is but I'm really proud of it.

I found the island from Lost!

After the floating islands, we took a 3 hour boat trip to the island Amantani for the tour and homestay. The boat trips were one of the most fun parts for me for some reason. A lot of us just sat on the top of the boat and basked in the sun and shot the shit and over all just enjoyed ourselves. The only thing we were missing were a few bottles of cerveza cusquena! I got sufficiently sunburnt on the ride over and as we approached the island I thought we were for sure going to capsize the waves were so big. We didn't, in case anyone was wondering *WINK*

Anyway, we got to the island and got split up into two groups of four and assigned host families. This island seriously reminded me of the Shire from Lord of the Rings, and all the views were honestly breathtaking. We hiked up to our host mom's (Mary) house, passing sheep and donkeys grazing on the greenery. The people here live such a humble life it made me wonder how they would fare in los Estados Unidos, where everything is rushed and hectic and there is never enough time. We finally reached the house and took a little rest before we had to leave to play a soccer, pardon me, futbol, game against the locals.

Hiking was seriously KILLER here. You really don't realize how much the altitude affects you until you're out of breath from going up a baby ramp that was maybe twenty feet long. Not to say it wasn't hard, I was sore from my ankles to my butt on Sunday. Anyway, they asked us to play soccer which I haven't played since 8th grade. We lost pretty pathetically to some little shits from Holland. They were offsides basically the entire time and won by CHEATING. At least, that's what I'm gonna tell myself. I look pretty much like a dumb ass in these pics but I did get the ball away from a girl!

Touristin' HARD

After soccer, we went on a hike up to the temple on the highest point of the island. This hike is the hike that made me want to not live any longer. We tried this natural plant called Muña. If you roll it in your hands and then deeply inhale it smells like mint and completely clears out your respiratory system and helps you get your breath back. Great for hiking at 12,000 feet! I can't get this out of caps, omg...ovs it. Anyway, we got to the top of this "mountain" and I never wanted to leave the view was so incredible. Honestly, even the beautiful pictures don't do it justice. If you walked around the temple three times and made a wish as you took a rock and put it on the temple wall, it's supposed to come true. But you can't walk around it more or less than three times and you have to go to the right not the left. It was seriously so beautiful though I can't say that enough.

THRILLED

We walked back down in the dark, and I nearly broke my ankle. Okay that's an exaggeration, but it rolled a FEW times and scared the shit out of me. We got back to our host house and ate dinner, which I loved but everyone else hated. It's weird how picky I used to be and how picky I'm not now. It was rice and potatoes and random vegetables. Of course soup also. Oh, we also had lunch there where I had the best cheese so far on this tour. It was fried and it was squeaky and DELICIOUS. Anyway, after dinner we went to "descansar" or rest, which is something they do a lot here. A half hour later our host mom brought us lovely traditional garb to put on before we headed to the discoteca. 

 Happy campers

I was not feeling it and as soon as we got to the discoteca a friend and I bought a beer and planted our asses on the sidelines. Call me a party pooper but I hate stuff like that where everyone looks stupid together and they call it "fun". After the beer, I was ready for bed and we left for our host house. The three other girls and I talked about our pets and how much we missed them before we fell asleep.

Yes, I was that close

On Sunday we woke up at 6:45 again to get ready and eat our breakfast of strange luke warm pancakes and jam. After that we headed back down in our ponchos to the boat. We said goodbye to our host mom and headed back onto the boat. We did about an hour of traveling to another island called Taquile. The hike up Taquile was another miserable one and I have never been so uncomfortably hot and freezing at the same time. I got a cool pic of a cow, though.


We got to the main square and I got the best banana I've had here, then headed to the restaurant where we had to sit and listen to the tour guide talk about shit we did NOT care about for an hour. Mostly, we were hungry and wet and crabby and didn't care which hats they wore to signify if they were single or married. I just about murdered the inconsiderate spanish speaking fam because they talked through the whole thing. The daughter was in damn heels for Pete's sake. IT WAS A HIKING TRIP. Moving on...we finally ate and then headed back down the 569 stairs to the boat. My legs were jelly by the end of the stairs, but I am so glad we did went up them instead of down. 



A few friends and I were the last stragglers (sorry not sorry) and when we arrived we were told that the Brits were jumping into Lake Titicaca. The water was maybe 40 degrees so this is a crazy thing to do, but two friends and I wanted to do it as well. I went to get my swimsuit cause conveniently I had packed one for the trip only to find I had left it with my other back at the damn hotel -_-. I wouldve done it if I had another bra/not see through shirts/a change of close but I had none of these things. So I just stared wistfully as my two friends jumped into the chilly water.

Then it was another three hour trek via boat to Puno. When we got there, apparently it had rained because the streets were flooded and I was horrified to find that these men were running their Bicicletaxis BAREFOOT in janky ass water. To each his own, I guess. We got dropped off at our first hotel, and had to walk to our second which was significantly less classy. After a slight catastrophe with the showers, we finally got hot water and showers. We went to dinner at this place called Mocjsa (I think) where I had the best Sangria I've ever tasted. After the restaurant, we went to find booze and mixers, returned to the hotel, and pre-gamed for the night out on the town.
We left and danced with the parade and got called gringos and I loved every single second of it. We found this bar and I had the best drink of my life called "California's Dream". They played American music and I ate that shit up. I actually think we all did. I talked to a bunch of people from so many places and it was a great experience. The next morning was rough with a capital R. I got up for breakfast but wasn't too keen to eat much of it, went back to bed for a bit, took a shower, then actually was ready to check out at 11 and go walk around. All of us were cranky and hung over and hungry so it took us a damn hour and twenty minutes to finally agree to a place to eat. After that, we split up and went shopping for random shit before the bus picked us up at two. It's weird to explain, but I was actually homesick for Cuzco. Puno was cool, but Cuzco is just better. I slept for a bunch of the car ride home and otherwise we all laughed and chatted and listened to the drivers weird music. When we finally reached home it was verryyyyyyyyy nice.
And THAT is my weekend! Otherwise, my other host sister, Lucia came home from Lima. She is so nice and I can't wait to get to know her better. Also, I found out that my host fam is building a bathroom and putting furniture in the bedroom upstairs so I can live there and Lucia can be back in her room. The upstairs bedroom is huge so I must say I'm pretty damn excited about it.

USIL

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME HOW DID I FORGET TO POST PICTURES OF MY UNIVERSIDAD!? 

Well, I am remedying the situation and posting pictures of our lovely little campus. The school I go to is called Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola. This school is stationed in Lima and it's huge there but they have our campus in Cuzco which is a solely international campus. It sucks kinda but is awesome kinda. I just wish I could meet more Peruanos. Anyway the campus basically consists of a courtyard so don't get too excited. It's really cute though and fun to chill and bask in the suns rays when you have a few hours.

Courtyard - it was cloudy when I took this pic!

Right side of the Courtyard

Left size of the Courtyard

A classroom!

Pretty much that's all that our school consists of but since there are only 30 students here I am not complaining. It's homey and eye luv et. Anyway, for my Minnesota friends EVERYONE keeps making fun of me for saying bag. I say bayg and not bahg so basically I'm cooler than everyone else here.

That's all for now folkz!

Lizzy

Insomniacs Anonymous

So I fell asleep like a good little child at like 9:30 tonight, but I fell asleep with my TV on. My host mom gets bothered by the light that shines through the little window of my room to the little window of hers. So when she came to turn it off, I woke up. Now I'm just awake and after tossing and turning for an hour I've decided to write a post about the night life I've experienced while here.

The band...and what may or may not be a beer

Last Wednesday, a few friends and I went out on the town because we hadn't gotten a chance to in the few weeks we were here. We first went to a bar called Ucucus, and there was a Peruano cover band playing a bunch of heavy rock music. It was pretty bad ass. They played Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Franz Ferdinand, etc. It was fun to actually sing along. The lead singer of the band was pretty strange looking. We ran into them later that night actually. Life is weird.

Felicidades!

After a few drinkskis, we decided to leave and go to Mama Africa, a big night club here in Cusco. I talked to Argentines, and I danced with I think people from Sweden. It was pretty wild for a Wednesday night but also really fun. I wanna do it again sooooon! Probably this Wednesday cause I don't have class til 12.

Anyway, this weekend a group of us are going to Puno to visit Lake Titicaca and the floating islands. For those of you who don't know what that is it's a group of around 40 hand made islands on Lake Titicaca. The Uru people inhabit the islands and pre-date the Incas. If all goes as planned we are doing homestays on the actual islands themselves and then going to a huge festival called Festival de la Virgen de Candelaria. I'm gonna try to find a video to post on here cause it's a big deal. I'm excited to have plans for the weekend cause I'll be real I was dumb and didn't do much and got homesick and miserable. I've found as long as I'm distracted I don't miss the US too much, but if I've got nothing to do I miss it terribly. Anyway here is a video of that festival!



Buenas noches!
Besos,
Lizzy

Norton's & the Super Bowl

Ok so I suck at updating but I always feel bad cause I am the worlds worst picture taker and I feel like a lame when I don't have any pictures to accompany my blog. But my guilt outweighed that today so here I am.

Today, Sara and I went to the Mercado de Wanchaq (our neighborhood) and bought a bunch of vegetables and chicken and meat for food. My favorite part about here is how fresh and cheap everything is. She got so many fruits and veggies for so cheap and they're all grown by the people who live in the highlands so its just like quality, pesticide free, food.

They also eat cow tongues here. There were just cow muzzles chillen on stands like it was NBD. My host mom laughed at my reaction when she pointed them out to me. Being here has made me kinda wanna be a vegetarian simply cause raw meat is relatively terrifying. Like today when she got chicken it still had its little claws on and he just chopped them off. Idk it was weird. Its terrifying and cool at the same time. But when I was cooking at the Clinic for our Volunteerwork I had to slice up Turkey and cut the fat off and it still had it's weird furry and featherless skin. So I feel like if I can do that I can do anything.

After the mercado, we went to a restaurant with my host tia y tio and host abuelo and my host tios kids and obvi Sara and Julieta. I had Chicharrones and this really good soup. They also gave me Pisco Sours at 11:30am. I felt kinda like a bad ass. Did you know Pisco Sours are Peruvian? So remember that next time you order one and cheers in my honor! My host prima asked me what a bunch of words were in english. I really lucked out with such a welcoming family. They seriously are the best. But here they eat SO much for lunch I ate myself to a food coma and fell asleep for 3 hours once we got home.

When I woke up I got a text from one of my friends who said people were meeting at a pub to watch the game. I went cause I've done literally nothing this weekend and got a few drinks. I think I need to stick to drinking beer here cause I ordered a Long Island first and a White Russian second and neither were even close to as good as in the States. That's my opinion.

Also I didn't really pay attention to the game because unless the Vikings are playing I couldn't care less who wins. Sorry not sorry. Vikingz4lyfe. Even though they break my heart every season.

Anyway, tomorrow I have class at noon and after that I am absolutely DETERMINED to find the Salsa school here and take some salsa classes. I also wanna work out here and get used to the elevation so I can come home and working out can be a piece of cake. I'm not sure if that's how it really works but I'm gonna pretend it is....

Ciao besos,
Lizzy

Host Family!

Okay, guys, I got some pix with my little sister Julieta. I need to ask Sary if it's okay to post them I don't wanna do something she doesn't want! But she's seriously the cutest lil bug I've ever seen! I'll get a pic with Sary and Lucia when she gets home (next Sunday I can't wait!)

I really love my host family. Sary has been so so so nice to me and dealt with my terrible Spanish and taken me out and I can't be more appreciative. Anyway, today was the second day at Clinica San Juan de Dios. I cut a shit ton of food. Literally spent five hours preparing lunch/dinner. It was pretty cool but I got cranky due to lack of sleep. After, some friends and I went to La Mega, a super mercado by our houses, and each bought one different kind of cookie and then traded to taste. The cookies here are FANTASTIC! My favorite are called Morochas but there are seriously so many. I keep thinking about how it seems so far away that I leave but I know it will be here in an instant. My heart is already broken at the thought of leaving.


Okay so I got permission from Sary yay! Today her, Julieta, and I are gonna go to el molino which is this big market with a bunch of illegal things like north face jackets, nike shoes, knock off sun glasses, and dvds for 3 soles a piece! But Sary wants to buy a Popcorn machine so we're headed there after a nap. Anywaayyy I'll get a picture with Sary soon and you will be able to see my host Mama!

Ciao besos!