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.