I have realized that its when you leave the United States that you begin to learn the most about the United States. Go figure! It is amazing how much the U.S. impacts the rest of the world; and the U.S. impact was obvious from the beginning. Now after living in Peru for almost two months, I am still frequently surprised by how much the Peruvian society is influenced by U.S. companies/ideas/people/etc. For example, at all of the local grocery stores, after your purchuse has been rung up, the total always comes up on the screen in dollars and nuevo soles (Peruvian currency). I have plenty of other examples, not all involveing currency, if anyone is ever interested.

Today I was sitting in one of my classes, and my professor began to ask some history questions about the U.S., naturally, she would call on the only North American in the room to answer the questions (that was me). Well, the Peruvian kid sitting behind me whispered me the answers. Peruvians know more about the history of the U.S. than I do, and I am not even that bad at history! Granted, this example is a little biased considering I am attending Peru's most prestigious university, and these kids definitely know their stuff. But still, in general, people just know so much more about international news/history/events/etc. than we in the U.S. know about other countries, or even our own country!

One more note on U.S. culture, I went to a Peruvian Starbucks for the first time last week, and I realized that it is an automatic "gringo" (non-hispanic, white person) magnet (probably because Starbucks are the same in every country). For the most part, you can always find North Americans speaking English in any Starbucks here. So whenever feeling homesick in a foreign country, just go to the local Starbucks and order your favorite coffee drink. I guarantee you'll feel right at home. It was nice, even though I wasn't homesick!

In other news, I am going to be spending this weekend laying around in hammocks and drinking piña coladas in Máncora, Peru. It is a small surfing town close to the border of Ecuador. I am pretty excited, the beaches look gorgeous and its sunny everyday of the year. In case you don't believe me, here are some pictures... :)

Sorry to make everyone jealous! I won't forget suncreen, and I will post my own pictures soon!

One more thing, I got an A on my first exam (which was really nice!). Now I need to go study for another exam tomorrow. I am not too worried though, most of my professors are extra nice to and understanding of the foreign students (which might explain the first A...)! Although, I am not sure how far my "gringa bonus points" will take me. So I am still studying hard just in case!

Well, my homework finally caught up with me and I have been very busy reading, translating, and then rereading all my homework. I have worked out a system for reading long "lecturas" in Spanish. The process isn't too complicated, I just read the English version of the paper first (if there is one... usually there isn't, but sometimes I get lucky, especially in my literature class), then I read the Spanish version (highlighting all the words that I don't know), afterwards I look up the highlighted words and make notes, then I finally reread the Spanish version, with my notes. It takes forever, but I think I am actually learning a lot! So that feeling keeps me motivated.

I haven't been on any weekend trips lately due to school, but I have been enjoying Lima. Last weekend, I went an hour east to another district of Lima that is just east enough over the mountains to where it is sunny. I still think it is crazy that you can ride a bus for two hours and still be in Lima! The district, called Cieneguilla, is more rural and a lot of Limeños (people who live in Lima) travel to this district on the weekends to get away from the city and relax in bed and breakfast type places. All the hotels have lots of land, horses, playgrounds, swimming pools, etc. It was perfect to escape from the city for the afternoon!

My friends and I spent the afternoon horseback riding, hanging out, and eating (later, I got food posioning...I think it was the fried yuca). It was a lot of fun (except the getting sick later)! Here are some pictures...

Sadly, a lot of the horses are pretty malnourished... Then again, MORE sadly, a lot of the people in Peru are malnourished. I am getting used to this sort of stuff, so it didn't really surprise me.

My horse, Fantasma, and I. "Fantasma" means ghost in Spanish.

A very typical, rural Peruvian dwelling.

The urban part of Cieneguilla district (if you can call this urban...).

We rode to some ancient Incan ruins. There seem to be a lot of those in Peru! :)

This weekend I also took a trip to Lima's "Barrio Chino," the largest Chinatown in South America. It was definitely an interesting experience. I am still not a huge fan of "mercados centrales," which sell a bunch of raw meat (entire pigs, chickens feet, guinea pigs, all sorts of fish, etc.) which all hangs from hooks. There is just a little too much blood for me in these places. Anyways, there were plenty of other fun, cheap stores to look around in. Rather than having lots of imported Chinese goods (which is what I was expecting in Chinatown), there were more imported goods from India. Of course, I loved this because I love long skirts, jewelry, and incense. I had a great time.

There is also a ton of great food, the chifas (Chinese-Peruvian food restaurants) all looked amazing. Although, I have been a little scared to eat out lately, due to the amount of times that I have gotten sick from the food. None of my other foreign friends seem to have the same problem (even when they eat the same things...), I guess I am just not totally accustomed to something that is commonly used in the cooking process. Although, the dinners my host mother cooks have never been a problem. Thus, I eat at home as much as possible!

Barrio Chino isn't the safest place in Lima, so I didn't carry anything with me, especially not my camera! So I unfortunately couldn't take any pictures. For the most part, it looked like any other Chinatown (with the big gate), only it was more crowded, and had more people selling random things on the street.

Here are two maps, one of Peru, and the other of Lima. Just in case you're not familiar... :)

Click to make them bigger!

I live in the San Borja district. On the map, it is just west of Cieneguilla (orange) and La Molina (brown). I go to school in San Miguel (purple, right on the ocean). On the map, San Miguel and San Borja seem pretty close (and they are), but in moderate traffic (which always exists) it takes me about fifty minutes to get to school in a bus.

Hi! I am still enjoying Peru. I have been pretty busy relaxing, hanging out with friends, and practicing my Spanish. Well, the practicing Spanish is constant, but I just wanted to assure everyone that I am accomplishing something educational down here! In my spare time, I work on my homework. The material in my classes is not difficult by any means, but what makes the classes difficult for me is the fact that they are all in Spanish. Readings, papers, tests...everything takes three times as long. My Spanish is still improving though!

Other than that, days are becoming more routine as I have become used to everything for the most part. The 45 minute commute to school on the combis (mini buses) passes by quickly now, when it used to seem like a never ending ride. I have made some friends in my classes, and everybody is still super nice, patient, and helpful all the time. I am really lucky to have gotten great professors and students in my classes!

I have discovered how amazing the pirated video and music deals are down here. It is completely illegal (I guess?), but there are dozens of stores like this down every street, and nobody is doing anything to stop it. Needless to say, I am taking advantage of it (when in Rome, right?) and adding to my movie/music collection. I'm currently looking for the "Planet Earth" series. I wonder if pirated videos come in HD??? :)

My friend Kevin bought me a jar of peanut butter for my birthday. Peruvians don't really like, eat, or use peanut butter, so I haven't had it since I have been here. I had been looking for it at the markets, but only a few grocery stores carry it. Anyways, peanut butter has never tasted so good! That made me really happy.

In other news, my mom bought a ticket to come down and visit me in October. We are planning on visiting Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. I am really looking forward to it!

Confetti and Peruvian Flags at a parade.

Alyse, Colleen and I, and my two cakes on my birthday. So sweet of everyone!

I woke up to a "Feliz Cumpleaños, Alison!" sign with lollipops on my door. Very nice.

Thank you so, so, so much to everybody that sent me birthday cards/wishes! I am having the best birthday ever! That was so nice of everyone to think of me, even though I am so far away :) This morning, my Peruvian family made a huge special breakfast of crepes and sandwiches for my birthday. They even got out special dishes, and there were ballons and signs for me, too. It was really sweet. I also got to choose what we are having for dinner (spaghetti!). It seemed like everyone was more excited for my birthday than I was, which made me really excited, too! It has been a great day so far.

Right now, I am heading to the black market of Lima, "Polvos Azules," to buy some birthday presents for myself (for cheap after bargaining, of course)! :)

Last night I got home from another weekend trip to Nasca, Peru, which is about seven hours south of Lima. I have had a lot of opportunities to travel, so I have just been taking them (especially to escape the overcast weather of Lima's winter!). I went with two friends also from Indiana University, Jacqui and Jaycee, and we had a great time!

The attraction in Nasca is the Nasca lines, which are simliar to crop circles, only they are in the desert. Anyways, there are tons of different lines that were etched into the desert by the Nasca people thousands of years ago, and thanks to the arrid climate of southern Peru, they are still visible. We took a tiny airplane over the desert for about 45 minutes in order to see all the lines. There is also a tower that you can climb to see a few figures, however, it is not nearly as cool as seeing the lines form a plane. The Nasca lines are a huge tourist destination in Peru, although aside form tons of Japanese tour groups (its really fashionable to travel to Peru if you're Japanese, as I was told by a Japanese friend), there weren't tons of tourists in the city.

Also in Nasca, there are some semi-freshly uncovered burial grounds that are thousands of years old, but also very well preserved thanks to the climate. There were tons of skeletons and mummies. And more Japanese tourist groups, too.

We also saw some neat aquaducts that were constructed by the ancient Nasca people. The aquaducts stream water into the city from the runoff water of glaciers in the Andes. The aquaducts are actually still completely intact due to the ingenious engineering of the Nasca people. The water from the aquaducts is still used, and we were invited to drink some because it is supposed to be completely purified, too. I drank some and didn't get sick, so I guess the Nasca people were really smart because that is the first place in Peru where I have seen a source of clean water. And it was constructed over a thousand years ago!

As it so happens, these couple weeks in Nasca are the weeks of fiestas for the patron saint of the city, Guadalupe. Every night there was a TON of music, dancing, street vendors, food, and other festival like things. It was cool to see everybody celebrating in the city's plaza. It was very apparent that everybody from the entire small town, and probably everybody from all the other small towns close by, was in the Plaza de Armas for the festivities. Our hostel was right on the Plaza de Armas, so needless to say, it was hard to get adequate sleep as parties are only getting started around midnight here. The walls of our room were constantly vibrating as a result of the loud music.

This is one of the huge aquaduct spirals. There is water in the hole at the bottom.

Mummies. The one on the right has really long dreadlocks. For the Nasca people, dreads were a mark of the upperclass. I think its amazing that hair of people from a thousand years ago is still around...

More skeletons.

Us with our pilot. This was the smallest plane I have ever been on. Maximum of four people, including the pilot.

Jaycee and I in the backseat of the plane.

La araña. The spider.

El mono. The monkey. It might be a little hard to see the figure on the small photo, but the monkey has a spiral tail. It was my favorite Nasca line.

Here are some pictures from my weekend trip to Huaraz. I will write about it soon, for tonight I have tons to study and I don't have time!

Reina from Japan, Eli from Peru, and I

Most beautiful lake I've ever seen!

I am standing in what used to be a town, called Yungay, before an earthquake and avalanche destroyed it a few decades ago.

Colorful llama.

I had to climb a lot of stairs to get to Jesus.

Cemetery that Jesus is looking over.

Andes.
Mt. Huascaran, the tallest tropical mountain in the world.

We went to a trout hatchery for lunch.