Comida

I'm up late and bored so I figured I'd do a lil post on all my favorite foods here in Peru and fill you in a little bit on typical dishes here. In Peru, they eat a normal sized breakfast, HUGE lunch, and then dinner really late at like 9 o'clock. Well, at least my family does. They take food very very seriously and if you don't eat it all they think something is wrong or that you are unhappy. Rice is also a huge part of their diet. It isn't typical asian rice it's made with a little bit of oil and salt and garlic if you want it. SO DELICIOUS. Let us continue.

 My first and favorite is Aji de Gallina (Chicken with pepper). It's a dish made with the peruvian yellow pepper, shredded chicken, potatoes, and an olive and hard boiled egg if you want it. You make the sauce, shred the chicken..?, and cook the potatoes. Mix the sauce and the shredded chicken together, put the potatoes on the dish and pour the mixture over the potatoes and then top it off with the egg and the olive. All of this is served with rice, of course.

Second, cuy. AKA Guinea pig. They don't eat it real often here and it's pretty expensive. They eat it on special occasions. I actually have yet to try this, but my friends who have say that it isn't very good. I will try it before I leave because I can't have come to Peru and not tried Guinea Pig!

Quinua is popular in the states now. I missed that memo, but they use it here too! In a lot of stuff. I especially like their quinua soups.

NEXT is the corn. They have huuuge corn here and they call it 'choclo'. You usually order it with cheese and eat it with your fingers, picking the little kernels out one by one. It's pretty good but I got it from the street once and it made me REAL sick so I haven't really been able to eat it since.

There is also a purple corn that they use to make a drink that kids love called Chicha Morada. It's like a juice, and it doesn't taste super corn like. It's pretty good.

They also make this thing called Mazamora Morada. It's kind of like a jelly but it's warm and they give it to me when my tummy hurts. It's pretty tasty.

Ceviche is next. This is a big dish here and from what I understand it's raw fish mixed with stuff? I don't eat seafood, like, ever, so that's why I don't know that much about it. Here is a pic though.
                                             

This stuff is called Inca Cola. It tastes like bubble gum and is a very popular drink here. I like it but its VERY sweet.

Lastly, the deserts. MY FAVORITE! We'll start with alfajores. These tasty little shits are crumbly cookie type circles that have dulce de leche in between them. Topped off with powdered sugar and coconut on the sides. TO DIE FOR.

Sublimes are my favorite type of candy here. Idk if they're in other parts of the world, but they're here and they're TASTY. You can either get milk or white chocolate and it has peanuts in it. So yums.

Picarones. PICARONES. The closest thing I can relate them to is doughnuts but theyre crunchy and have a warm syrup poured over them. I could eat a thousand of these and not get tired of them.

QUICK CORRECTION

I just realized that in the entry titled 'And then I got my butt massaged' I didn't ever elaborate or explain WHY that title has that title. So, without further adieu, let us go back to the day that my friend and I got our butt's massaged.....

We started out with the intention of going shopping for gifts for us, friends, and family. We meandered into the San Blas area which is where hipsters that come here go to evolve into full fledged rastafarians/hippies. We were meandering, looking at backpacks, looking at alpaca hats, looking at wallets; just looking at shit. We found a little nook that had a bunch of different types of items and were obviously intrigued. When we got back ther,e a woman approached us and asked us if we wanted a massage. After deliberating for all of a minute, we decided why the hell not lets get the massages. She led us into a little room and told us to take off all of our clothes. Okay, so far so good, pretty normal. We took off our clothes except our undies because we felt a little weird about that and covered ourselves in our little blankees and waited. They came in and went to work. I mean, it was fine, except the fact that the massage went extraaaaaaooorrrdiinaaarily high up your thighs. I told myself to relax and that it was Peru and they do shit differently here. Then, after massaging my legs, the lady got on the table and started massaging my butt! It was the most uncomfortable thing I've ever experienced! I'll save you the deets, but it was definitely unusal/uncomfortable/unreal.

love ya mean it

hi

So. I haven't forgot that this blog existed but I haven't had pictures to post so I've been resisting because the last few posts of mine have been pictureless and if you're anything like me you get bored after reading a paragraph if there isn't a picture along with it.

I shall fill you in on my vida. School is school, test in Latin American Lit on Monday, gotta read a book by the 30th La Casa Verde I hear it's pretty abstract. I have it but haven't started it. Woops. We had a guy come and ask us how everything was. I hate my Institutions in Peruvian Society teacher. He doesn't teach in an unbiased way it's all biased and (sorry to get a little political) he's a huge capitalist and just LOOOOOOVEEEESSS America, even though he's completely jaded about the way our country works. We obviously told them we hated him. Sorry not sorry. Spanish is Spanish. I have my final oral presentation in two weeks on local peruvian/cusquenian beliefs and supersitsons, yada yada.

Four of us are going to LA SELVA or in english words THE RAINFOREST next weekend for four days. Can NOT wait. It will be amazeballs. We got our Yellow Fever shots today. Let me tell you public hospitals here are something else. It honestly looked like a hopsital out of a horror film. Here are a few pics of where we're staying/what we'll be seeing.

So that animale is a Capybara and I know Chelsea will love that. But we're gonna see a shit ton of animals. I will take millions of pictures so ye be warned. The other two pics are the rooms and the grounds of the place that we're staying. Pretty nice, and all food included!

After our shots, we went to the peruvian Burger King, Bembos. They have the best food there. THE BEST. Then we explored a market but the smell was too strong and horrifying to really enjoy it. We found a beautiful church though, so I snapped a few pictures.

Other than that, I've got exactly 3 weeks left here. I can't believe how fast time has flown. It feels like I just got here, just experienced my first rain, just awkwardly made conversation with the people I now call my best friends. I can't believe this adventure is coming to an end. It probably won't hit me until I'm back and doing something that makes me miss the shit out of Peru. Meh. As the french say it, C'est la vie!


Besos betches <3

And then I got my butt massaged

Of many of the wonderful things here in Cusco, I would have to say food is the most wonderful. It's just so damn good. The rice is made with oil and salt and water and it's not typical white rice that is missing something. But let me just tell you about the PIZZA here. It's pretty much all thin crust, and DELICIOUS. It's served with a spicy sauce and a garlic sauce. While there is no ranch, these sauces really make up for it.

On Thursday night, I went with my host Mom and sibs to my host Dad's house where we made pizza. IT WAS SO GOOD I could've eaten all of it but instead I made myself stop. It was fun to spend time with the family. We talked about what superstitions we had and if we believed in ghosts. Pretty fun.

Friday night, a few friends and I went in search of this bar called Indigo where we had heard they have hookah. Well they did! It had been so long since I had hookah I was beyond excited to have it again! I tried blowing smoke rings and it only worked some of the time but I think I've mastered the French Inhale/Irish Waterfall. LOOK OUT WORLD BAD ASS COMING THROUGH. Ha. Jk.

Today everyone is doing fun shit besides my friend Molly and I so we are going to go back to Indigo and smoke some hookah, enjoy the happy hours, and possibly go out. Who knows. My time in Cusco is coming to an end, but I won't let my last days consist of me sitting on my ass!

Besos

When I Come Back

I'll be real: shit will be weird. My friend, Bryna, has a blog (she's in the Peace Corps and way more of a bad ass than me). She had an entry that talked about how she was eating breakfast, and there was a monkey and her first thought wasn't "Holy shit, a monkey!" it was "That monkey had BEST not try to eat my egg". She went on to say that a year ago she eating breakfast with a monkey would seem absurd to her and now it's just...routine. 


I think a lot about when I first got here: who I was, how ready I was to experience something completely new, how naive I was, how immature I was, how CRAZY I was to do something like this. Then, I think about who I am now: how this has been like a pandora's box for me-only in a good way, how privileged I really am, how much I've grown up, how completely different from the me four months ago I am now, and I can't help worrying that all this good and scary change isn't going to last.

I often wonder if it would have been better that I went to some fashionable, first world Spanish speaking country. I could have even studied in a bigger city like Lima, Buenos Aires, Valparaiso, etc. and had a completely different experience. But this is the experience I wanted...this is the experience I needed. I needed to go somewhere that was dirty, and see young kids who were obviously malnourished. I needed to go somewhere that I had to walk or take a sketchy ass bus to school. I needed to go somewhere where men pee on the streets only two feet away from you, where dogs run rampant, where there are no laws about driving, where pedestrians don't have the right of way. I needed to have a Service-work placement in a clinic where kids with mental disabilities stay. I needed to be reminded of how absolutely lucky I am to have the life that I do regardless of the problems I have. I look back on how upset I'd get about stuff before I came here and just want to smack myself. I am so lucky.

I feel such a mix of emotion when I think about May 12th at 3:30pm. With just about thirty days left here, I feel an anticipation to go home and take advantage of things I always took for granted before coming here, but I also feel this pang of anxiety knowing that I'll never get to come back and do this experience over. I see myself returning to Peru, yes, but will it be with the same people who have become some of my best friends? No. Will I ever get to live with my host family again? No. Will I ever get to eat the amazing authentic food every day again? No. If I ever come come back here, it will be as a visitor and not as a resident. This is what makes me so sad.

I miss my family and friends so much. I miss my country. I miss fitting in and not being an obvious gringa. But at the same time, my heart already aches for the things I will never get to do again once I leave. My Mom once sent me a video that Louis CK did about students who study abroad. He spent his time making fun of twenty-somethings who don't really do anything THAT important while they're abroad, or in general. While there is plenty of the stereotypical beer drinking and nights out, I whole heartedly disagree with him. Maybe my service at the clinic won't have a life changing impact on those kids, but the things that I've done and experienced have forever changed my life in a profound and irreversible way. And for that, I am glad.

Easter Sunday

Today was packed! After weeping like a small child for the majority of yesterday when my parents left, I woke up this morning to go to play some soccer and volleyball with my family. It was pretty fun, but I am really competitive and hate losing so I got kinda annoyed when we lost at everything.

Anyway, after that we went to ride horses! I was so pissed I didn't bring my camera! I've been waiting to do that here all semester. The horses were different and cooler though. They were like mountain horses and could climb on all these rocks and shit. They also had really long hair which was kinda kewl. But my host dad, host mom, and I were the only ones who really knew how to ride them and my host brother and sister freaked out and had to get off. On their behalf, the terrain on the trail was either muddy as HELL or rocky as HELL and there were a lot of steep hills so even I got a little nervous my horse was gonna take a tumble.

Even after THAT we went to see a game at the Garcilaso stadium! Cusco has a soccer team named Los Ciencianos. The game was kinda boring and the crowd was NUTZ! They cant have any alcohol in the stadium because otherwise there would be riots and fighting and such.

After the game we came home and all my friends got back from their vacation so I've been able to catch up with them. I also caught up with Miss Lisa Harrigan who I haven't talked to in LITERALLY months. On top of THAT lent ended today so I ate a shit ton of candy! This has resulted in a head/belly ache. So overall after a bad day yesterday, today has been pretty good.

Tomorrow we start school again -_- but there are only 35 days left in my journey. Insane. I am excited to leave, but also dreading it. It's the weirdest feeling EVER.

Besos

parents!

Hi all! As you all know, my parents are visiting! It has been a packed and fun week and I am so glad to be able to see them after 3 months! The day they got here, I dragged them to a festival at Lucia's school for all the sports teams. It was really cool and they met my whole host family/extended family right away. After that, we went to lunch up by Sacsayhuaman. It was deliiiicciiiooousss and it was nice to be able to get to sit as one big familia. After they were dead tired, so they went to their hotel and to sleep.

The next day (Sunday) we went on a tour of the Sacred Valley. So sites like Chincero, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and one other place that I forgot. It was so cool to be able to have my parents see how incredible the ruins are and experience it all with them another time. I also felt very fit because I've been here for 3 months and they had been here a day so they got winded easily. HEH.

We had a day off, and Monday was 'La Procession' because Holy Week here is HUGE. They have a Jesus crucifix in the Cathedral of Cusco that they take out every Holy Monday of every year and parade him around the city. His name is 'El Senor de los Temblores' or the Lord of the Earthquakes. The rumor is, in 1650 there was a huge earthquake and all the people were terrified so they took this Jesus outside to the plaza and as soon as he was out there the earthquake stopped. That was prettyyy kewl. The next day, we were going to Machu Picchu and we were LEAVING at 4:30am, so we retired early.

sup, Jesus?

Machu Picchu was BEAUTIFUL this time around. The weather was perfect, I am so glad I have nice enough parents to let me go for a second time :]. We didn't hike Wayna Picchu because after I told my parents how hard it was they said they could do without it. We did go back to the Inca Bridge, though, and that was SO COOl in the daylight! Last time I was there, you couldn't see five feet in front of you due to fog so it was amazing to be able to see the river so far below instead of just hearing the roar of it.

cool pic of the clouds

haaayyyyyy  

advice: don't wear capris to the Picch. I have 69 bug bites.

Today is a very important day in Holy Week. Here in Peru, you eat TWELVE dishes for lunch. All of them were fish or seafood because they don't eat meat today, tomorrow, or Saturday. So my whole family even my host dad and host brothers came to eat lunch. My parents met Julietita finally, not to mention everyone else! It was a really fun day and I'm glad my host family got along so well with my real family. Tomorrow, I'm spending the whole day with my parents as it is their last full day here. I'm sad this week has gone by so fast, I think it's gonna be pretty tough saying goodbye to them again.