Mi Ultima Entrada hasta Marzo!

I have finally returned back to the land of the free and the home of the brave. My flights went perfectly as planned (including a sweaty run through the Lima airport to make it onto the Miami flight...) and I am back with my family for Christmas. I'll be returning to Peru in late February so make sure you stayed tuned for more updates in the future! Feliz navidad y Un Gran Ano Nuevo!!

Ciao -

MB

AYER

Here's a play by play of yesterday.

I woke up at 8. Took a delightful shower in hot water and had a scrumptious breakfast in the hostel (plate of fruit, granola, and yogurt). It was the first time I have ever tried a prickly pear!! Quite exciting and yes, I did like it. From there, visited the Monastery of Santa Catalina - this gorgeous city within a city is over 400 years old and only opened to the public in 1978. The monastery is ENORMOUS and has streets inside it and orchards. 30 nuns still live there today. Small World note: I ran into Jonas (one of the German volunteers from Urubamba) there. What a crazy coincidence that we happened to be there at the same time. Next, I went over to the Museum that houses JUANITA! The mummy is absolutely incredible. She is in pristine condition and all of the garments that she was wrapped in are also on display in the Museum still retaining their original colors and patterns. We were lucky to see her because she is taken out of exhibition at the end of December and doesn't reappear until May every year so that she can be kept completely in the dark. Light deteriorates her appearance. Anyway, that was incredible.

After lunch, Elena and I went back to the shopping mall to look around (didn't find anything) and saw New Moon again. We then bought our tickets at the bus terminal for tonight and headed over to the Plaza de Armas to have a look inside the Cathedral. It is grand, stunning, and completely latin - filled with figures of Jesus and Mary with full heads of hair (which I find totally disturbing) and real clothes and make up. UGH. The organ at the back of the cathedral is UNBELIEVABLE and HUGE. I really wished it could have been playing so I could have heard what it sounded like, but, alas, this was not the case.

Anyhow, that's it for now!

ciao y besos.

INFIERNO, entonces el cielo :)

So, let me just reminisce on my busride to Arequipa. (And here's a hint to all you readers out there. That short, concise sentence means that I am feeling an extreme emotion. Considering it is not followed by a trillion exclamation points or in capital letters, I would brace myself for a minor explosion, filled with lots of sarcasm, and dripping with disdain.) Well, let's see... Started off with the bus arriving an hour and a half later than expected, leaving me, Elena, my host mom, and 3 year old host brother sitting on the side of a highway in the DARK until it pulled up at 7:15 pm. We then proceeded to file into a bus CRAMMED full of pubescent teenage boys and girls (aged around 16), who REEKED, by the way, and were stuck in the BACKKK when a group of boys decided to rearrange themselves around Elena and I to get a better look. I'm sure you're proably thinking ¨Awe, golly gee, and shucks! That's cute¨. Let me tell you something buddy, my idea of a good NIGHTTIME bus ride does not include, 16 year old boys giggling at me, poking me when they think I am sleeping, screaming OTRA MUSICA to the front of the bus at 2 am in the morning. OH! ANNNNNDDDDDD, I'm sitting in the back of the bus, gathering more and MORE bruises on my knees being squished by the seat in front of me (being 5'8 and one of the tallest people Peruvians have ever met) while 4 16 year old girls are sitting in the front with NO seats to cause them any discomfort in front of them who could only have POSSIBLY been 5'1! So, yes, I'm a little bitter. Alright, a lot bitter. It some of the worst 10 hours of my life thus far.

Let me talk about this ¨OTRA MUSICA¨ nonsense... So, I, being extremely open to most kinds of music was quite excited to be immersed into another culture with completely different styles of music. Let me tell you right now, I might pick Chinese water torture for a week than listen to WAINU or reggaeton or anything of the sort. It is horrifying and of course, the cherry on top of my life, it was playing FULL BLAST the entire 10 hours of the NIGHTTIME bus ride to Arequipa...yep.

Once we got to Arequipa the tables started turning. The city reminds me of Rome, which makes me happy because Rome is very modern, but looks very classic. Arequipa is much of the same. The Plaza de Armas is gorgeous with a cathedral that takes up one entire block. The hostel Elena and I are staying at is only 3 blocks from the Plaza and is extremely cute (not to mention has free internet access for all guests 24 hours a day!). Oh, and Arequipa has a movie theatre. This may not seem like a big deal, but it IS. I have yet to encounter a movie theatre in all of my time in Peru and I have been to a few big cities during my stay. So anyway, watching New Moon in ENGLISH has brightened my day and I am happy to say that the bus incident has almosssstttt completely left my mind....mhmmmmm.

CIAO y BESOS.

By the way, tomorrow will be my ¨historical¨day in Arequipa so if you are reading this blog to learn about Peruvian culture rather than to hear my rants about my materialistic life, stayed tuned. I will try to be insightful.

Una Vacacion...

I'm headed off to Arequipa (an area of Peru on the COAST!) with my host-fam and Elena. Oh, and my host-dad´s class of high school freshmen which should add an interesting twist. Arequipa is said to be much more modern than Urubamba, and even Cusco. They have a movie theatre (that is currently playing New Moon in english with spanish subtitles! HUZZAHHHHHH) and a lot of expensive restaurants. They also have the museum that holds JUANITA - the mummified girl found in a glacier in the mountains of Peru. Historians believe that she was a sacrifice to the Incan Mountain god.

The bus ride there will be approximately 8 hours and as we are leaving at night, expected arrival time is 4 am. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep the whole way.

I'm sure my updates will be more interesting once I actually get there so, stay TUNED.

Ciao y besos.

FELIZ DIA DE GRACIAS! Y mas…

Recap of one of the most amazing weekends I've had in Urubamba to date…

Thursday – Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of the volunteers and the proPeru staff. MUCH FUN! I spent the earlier part of the day creating an absolutely delectable pumpkin pie (or pye de calabaza as it's called here) in Elena's house. No oven and no ground spices meant I had to grind the nutmeg, cloves, and ginger myself as well as use the communal "horno" which no one has any idea about its temperature and caused me to have to double the cooking time of said pumpkin pie… But all things considered… THAT pie ranks with some of the best I've had in my life! I was quite proud of myself.

Friday – Worst of the days. Woke up very late, lounged around, cleaned my room, played guitar for a while, met people for dinner (received an upsetting phone call) and then tried to regain my excitement, but ended up going to bed fairly early instead.

Saturday – SHOWERED!!! In hot water which is always nice… Then went to a picnic at proPeru with ALL of the homestay families. The food was delicious (and very Peruvian!) and we played a few heated games of volleyball—volunteers vs. staff. Volunteers started off weak, but we ended up being quite the team and put ended strongly. It was a lot of fun. Still have some lingering bruises though… Saturday night was Maddie's going away party at the German's. I had great fun DJing with Brian and participating in the festivities. Everyone then headed over to Tequila (the club in Urubamba) for some dancing and a continuation of the party. I had a great dancing partner in Travis and thoroughly enjoyed myself whether on the dance floor breaking a sweat or conversing at the bar or on the sofas in the lounge area. Walked home at 5 am—back to my closet sized room and nonexistent mattress; nevertheless, I call it my Peruvian home.

Sunday – BBQ numero 2 with the Seminarios (a fairly well off Peruvian family due to their pottery/ceramics business which is so beautiful that it is sold in shops all around the world). Delicious food, great company, always a good time.

Anyhow, today I worked for the first time in over 4 days and it was great to get back into the routine of things. We drew self portraits in Los Valientes with the kids and now I have a rather large collection of drawings of myself that the kids did when they were finished with their own. Three of the girls were attempting to persuade me that I have blue eyes rather than green. They got quite a kick out of my response, "Que raro, he tenido ojos verdes para toda mi vida, y ahora son azules? No sabía que sea una bruja…" (English translation: How strange! I've had green eyes for my whole life and now they're blue? I DIDN'T KNOW I WAS A WITCH!!)