Pretty Much Unbelievable

Lochness.

2008-06-28T22:04:00.002-03:00

Ok! Holy Moly. So much has changed! I have so much to catch up on. So short form:
Thursday we went to go to Grupo 5, but it was sold out! So instead we decided to go dancing... and I fell off this alpaca bench and hurt my foot! But anyways, it seemed fine at the time but then I woke up after about a half an hour of sleeping with intense foot pain, and didn't sleep the rest of the night! So I ended up at the hospital the next morning for x-rays, where I spent four hours in a wheelchair with my host mom being the sweetest person in the world as she got the doctors to look at me and eventually they told me there was nothing wrong, just crazy pain and that I had to take ibuprofen and rub gel on it. So we went home, and to my extreme surprise I could swollow the ibuprofen! Kelsey coached me through it, and now it is my very best skill! I did miss a day of travelling, but all was fine.
Saturday we left for Machu Picchu... one of the wonders of the world! We got up and first went to Pisac, where I hung out with the cab driver while the girls (including Julie, Jess' grant supervisor) climbed the mountain... my old foot kept me from being able to. Then we went to Urubamba for lunch, where we ate at the muse 2 (our fav) and they had a special menu for volunteers! Then we took a crazy combi to OllentayTamboy where we saw a baby who looked just like our friend Camarote... and from OT we took the train to Aguas Caliente, where Machu Picchu is. At the train station, they had a wheelchair, and since my foot was killing and I had an excuse, I hopped in. We laughed a little, and then when it was time to board the train the girls ran to the train but these train guard people would not let me get our of the chair! They kept telling me to just wait... and then finally almost everyone had boarded and they carried me, in chair, to the train! And then they bumped the girls and I up a class, because they wanted us to be comfortable! It was so funny! Since we got to AC at night, we didn't really see anything, and just went straight to bed.
Sunday we got up at 4 to catch the 5:30 bus to Machu Picchu, because it gets really full really early. So we stood in line in the pitch dark with about 70 other tourists, waiting for our bus up the mountain. When we got there, the sun was just comming up, and we climbed about a gazillion steps (painfully!) until finally we were looking over the crazy Inca ruin town! It was so insane! It's like, an entire village, preserved. So crazy. Anyways, the girls went off to climb WaynaPicchu, but I couldn't really with my foot so I checked out the village at my own pace then sat down for a little while near the gardens, where I heard about 12 tours stop and heard about 12 different explenations... one tourist asked 'are there any avacado plants here?', to which her guide answered 'no'. The next guide came along with his group and said 'and here is the avocado tree'... haha! It makes you wonder how much these guides make up! Anyways, we spent the rest of the day checking out Machu and AC, then trained home, where we had some crazy conversations with an American man who had seen more of Canada than I have, and was once pulled over by a mountie in the Yukon!
Monday we volunteered at the clinic in the morning, I cannot wait until I have sufficient time to tell you all about those kids. Ask me about Roger. You will laugh. After the clinic, we had parade prep! My foot was still sore, but I was determined to dance, so Marita gave us huge yarn braids and we threw on our rediculously short skirts and puffed sleeves, and got ready for the parade! It was so fun, and even though I wanted to cut my foot off by the end of it, it was an unreal experience! After, we went to Camarotes house for a traditional Peruvian after party, haha.
Tuesday was a holiday, their version of Canada day. But that night we had a kind of 'closing ceremony' with Jorge, and got our volunteer certificates and then went out for pizza. After pizza we met our friends in the plaza, and Jorge, Beth, Monique, Julian, Kelsey, Jess, Brian, Fab, Camarote, Celine and I went to celebrate Cusco day, before burying some keys.
Wednesday was our big finish up day. First, we volunteered in the clinic for the last time! So crazy! Then we had tree planting in Chocco, so we picked up our trees then went to the community and planted for a couple of hours. The kids were so cute, they all had their picks and buckets and we just going at it! Then that night, we had our final meeting with the adolescents and the photography group. Seeing their pictures was unreal, they were so good! And their albums were amazing. Finally, we went home for our last supper with Jess, but had to run off to catch a night bus to Puno.
Thursday we arrived in Puno at about 4am, and got a hostal for two hours before our 7am tour of Lake Titikaka. We saw floating islands, and hiked up island Tequile. The floating islands were the best part though, they are man made and the people who live on them are so crazy! But the weirdest part is, because of the humidity and unstability of the ground, they are super susceptible to arthritis and their life expectancy is under 50. Finally, we caught the night bus home (coldest thing of my life. At first, people kept offering us blankets and coats and we were like 'they are so weird!' ... joke was on us though!) and got back to Cusco at about 5am.
Friday was wrap up day. We spent a lot of time at the market, buying our final souvernirs, and then had a laid back supper with the family before taking our last family pictures. :( I cannot believe how fast this was all ending!
This morning we had our last breakfast with Celine, and then said goodbye as she left for the jungle, and we left for a Spanish evaluation with Jorge. We are now at a low Advanced level of Spanish! When we got to Cusco, we were high Intermediate, so we got a bit better, which is awesome! After that, we finished packing, had a quick lunch, then had to go to the airport!! IT was so funny, we got in the cab after saying our goodbyes and Kelsey and I just looked at each other and started bawling! It is so weird to be gone... it really felt like home there for that month!
So now we are back in Lima, spending a few nights at the volunteer house. It's nice to be back, but I feel like I left half my heart in Cusco! We had so many good times there... but who knows, maybe we'll be back someday!

Por Favorcito

2008-06-19T18:23:00.003-03:00

Yikes!
I have a lot to catch up on it seems, but the internet has been down here for a couple of days so updating has been tough!Ok, so last time I wrote was thursday, a week ago today. I´m not sure what I wrote about thursday, but what I can say is that we had our environment class in the morning, which went really well, and our photography class at night, which also went well! After photography, we went to the plaza to meet Tessa, a volunteer from April who´s term crossed into ours, so we spent the first week together. anyways, she was in Cusco for a bit so we met up and went to a little cafe in the plaza adn then to Mama Africa, where we met 5 other Canadians! Who all just graduated from Dal! How crazy is that?Friday we went to the airport at 1:00 to pick up Lupe... I´m not sure if I wrote about it or not, but Lupe has never seen cusco and she´s from Peru, so that´s a pretty big deal, but she just couldn´t aford it, so the five of us and Katie put some money together to buy her a ticket, and last weekend she came down! We hung out with her during the day, and at night Mel hung out with her while we were supposed to go to a play with our Peruvian friends. Unfortunately Alex had other plans. Alex is what we named Jess´parasite...friday night she got really sick and had to go to a clinic, where they found out she had a little parasite, which meant no sugar for the next three days while they worked him out of her system. So instead of the play, we went to a little cafe Kent had recommended called The Muse, and it was awesome! We got HUGE juices that tasted like heaven and the beat cheapest food ever. It was wonderful really!Saturday was the city tour, so the four of us, Mel, and Lupe hopped on a bus that took us on a 5 hour tour of the city, seeing many sights but having the worst tour guide of life! His moto was ´no time for fun´... every sight he rushed us for no reason! hahaha but we had a great time because together, we are a little crazy and therefore always fun. However, being not a fan of fun, the tourguide seemed to take an immediate disliking to us, haha.
Sunday morning Celine, Kels and I got up at 4:30 to bring Lupe to the train station so she could get to Machu Picchu, and practiced our dance moves while she waited in line. After that, I went back to sleep until church at 7:30, and then came back to the house to meet our Peruvian friends Brian and Fabricio who were taking us to Tipon, an irrigation ruin-y cite outside the city. This was much better than our tour with the crazy man the day before, and a really beautiful place. After Tipon, we went out for cuy. If you don´t know what cuy is, it´s the Peruvian specialty... guinea pig. So we went to this crazy outdor place where a woman threw a guinea pig in a furnace, cut off it´s head, andserved it to us. FEET STILL ON! It was nuts! But anyways, we tried it and it tasted slightly like chicken. I know people always say that, but this time it was true! But very weird, so I could only eat a little bit. After that we went back to the house, and since it was father´s day there was a big barbeque outside, which was awesome! So basically we just ate and played jenga haha. HOWEVER when everyone was eating, the radio was on in the background, and Celine and I had been trying to think of a certain Brian Adam´s song allllll day and it was driving us NUTS and all of a sudden it came on the radio in Spanish! So, as a reflex, I yelled CELINE!!!! and everyone stopped and looked at me and Kels couldn´t stop laughing and I just got really quiet hahaha. That night, the six of us (Kels, Celine, Jess, Brian, Fab, and I) went back to the Muse and played pictionary.
Monday. We volunteered at St. Juan again in the morning, then had Spanish lesson with Jorge at a cafe down the road from our house. That night we had intense dance lesson with Marcela´s whole group, because the parade was only a week away! So we practiced the night away.
Tuesday we went into Chocco for our community clean up day, and at first there were only three kids there! So we were a little nervous, but by the end there was probably 20! We cleaned and cleaned and then washed up and then came home for supper before heading back in for our photography project. The youth had finished their biographies, and were so cute about them! I love them! Finally, we came back home for more dance lessons.
Wednesday we got up and went to the clinic, and it was finally nice enough to take the kids outside! It was so cute, we had bubbles and they were fascinated. After clinic, we came home for lunch and then were supposed to go into Chocco to plant trees... but we got a phone call from Jorge saying that they were having administrative problems with the government and we couldn´t get the trees yet! So we had to move that to next week, and instead went to check out a little market in downtown Cusco. We had some celebratory ice cream, because Alex was finally gone as well! That night we had more dance lessons, and we all feel pretty ready for the parade... it´s going to be so crazy! Angel always says we´ll be the spectacle of the parade, because no white people have ever done it in Peruvian dress before.
This morning we got up and planned our environment class... we were reviewing the four R´s and sorting, and then teaching about the life cycle of a tree haha. After our lesson at the school (which was crazy, the teacher just was like ´ok, i´m going home... the class is yours´... and the director finally came around to us!) we came home for lunch and did lauuuundry. Tonight, we are meeting with the youth again to collect their cameras, and then going with our Peruvian friends to the GRUPO 5 concert! HAHAHA! They are the biggest Peruvian band, and sing just about every song on the radio, so we know them half well. Anyways, the concert is only 10 soles (about 4 dollars) so we are definately going! I´ll let you know how it turns out...

Anyways, we´re square now, and I´ll try to update faster next time!

Feliz Navidad

2008-06-12T00:22:00.002-03:00

Ok, it has been a week, and so I will try my best to update thoroughly but quickly!
Thursday and friday we did more orientation and planning with Jorge, and friday night we played football with a couple of Jorge´s friends... very fun!
Saturday we slept in a little, and then went on a mountain hike in chocco, organized by previous Hampy volunteers. We seriously hiked for 4 hours! But it was beautiful, mountains, river, etc. Then in the night Marcela (our host sister) and her friends took us out to a little discoteca called Muki (ketchwan for troll), and we just danced the night away haha. Very fun.
Sunday among other things we played football with a few of Marcela´s friends (it was girls against guys, and we won! and I got the first goal! heck yes!), then basketball, then in the night we had more dance lessons. We´re getting pretty decent!
Monday morning we met with the municipal government to talk about our environment project, and got 50 trees donated for planting! It was also our first official volunteer day, and we taught English to all of the kids in the school. It went awesome, and then loved it, but the director cancelled the class! We were so mad! Because he´s just really stubborn and traditional and afraid of change, and by traditional I mean old fashioned... and by old fashioned I mean the kids are not allowed to talk in his class, and we saw him hit one of them on the side with a meter stick, but there was nothing we could do about it. And now we can´t go back in his class, so we were just really frustrated. I probably made that sound worse than it is, but I just do not love that profesor/director man. However, the other teacher is awesome, it´s just too bad that he has to work under the other man´s direction.
In the afternoon we stopped by a clinic for kids with disabilities that volunteer aborad works with and decided to work there monday and wednesday mornings (since we don´t have English anymore). It was a beautiful clinic, but they are extremly understaffed.
Tuesday we met with a recycling plant, and got some garbage cans and bags donated, spent the day planning, and had dance lessons before supper. After supper we had our first meeting with the youth of Chocco regarding our photo project, and it went awesome. They seem like a great group, and we were pumped to see Juanamaria out!
Wednesday we went to the clinic from 9-1, and it was awesome! We just went into a room with about 12 kids all under 4 in wheelchairs, and spent 3 hours playing with them! They were adorable, none could really talk and only one could walk, but they had the hugest smiles and were so fun! One kid that I was playing with did not seem content with anything, and no toy would please him. So finally I just picked up a little pump that was on the floor to blow up beach balls and started pumping air in his face, and he died laughing! Suddenly I was sorrounded by kids who wanted to have air blown in the faces, it was so funny! After playing, we took them out and fed them, which was a little harder because they did not always want to eat, but still fun. After the clinic we went to the Plaza and planned our environment class for tomorrow, then came back and got a gazillion environment crafts ready haha. These kids are going to love the environment, I´m telling you!
Anyways, I believe that is all, and I am very tired (you can probably tell by my writing) sO I better get going!

Quick Update...

2008-06-04T21:53:00.002-03:00

Hola!
I have computer for about 10 minutes so I´m going to do a quick quick update, because I´m not sure when I´ll get to again!
Yesterday, we went back to Chocco and visited a family in their house. Honestly, it was like going back in time... their stove was made of rock... they put giant sticks of wood under a rock with a hole in the top and light them on fire, and that is their stove. There were guinea pigs running all over the room, the clay room with no chair, no table, and a few holes in the walls (literally) for shelves. It was crazy... and the craziest part is that the family who lived there consisted of a twenty year old mom, a twenty three year old dad, and their 8 month year old baby. But honestly, the mom was the nicest (she made us lunch!), happiest, most optimistic person I have ever met.
The school was crazy too, and the kids have so much energy! They loved trying on our sunglasses, and doing our hair haha. On the way back to Cusco, a few of them hopped in the taxi with us! They were so sweet, and kept hugging us and just non-stop smiles.
We figured out what we are going to do here... we´re planning a conservation program in the schools, where we teach them the importance of not littering (their land is beautiful, but they litter like crazy, which is hard because they´re trying to attract tourists), as well as planting trees (they use wood for everything, and so cut trees down all the time, but never re-plant them)... we will also be teaching the children a little English (which will help them get jobs in the future, as well as help with tourism), and are planning a photo project with the youth. It´s comming along really good, and we´re all super pumped. It may not sound like much, but I´ll explain it better when I´m back in Canada!

As for family life, Marcela taught us to dance last night! So fun! And today we went to a little cafe that had the BEST juice and desserts, but they gave us complementary candies that tasted like fish. So we wanted to be polite but could not force them down... so when they weren´t looking I shoved them in my camera case and they didn´t know any better haha...
Anyways, that´s all for now but I will do my best to write as often as possible!

I May be a Professional Dancer...

2008-06-02T19:27:00.002-03:00

Hi.
I´m living in the Andes.
How cool is that?!
So we arrived in Cusco on Saturday, at around 12 noon... we didn´t get to sit together on the plane, but it was fine because I ended up beside these people from Transilvania (they know Dracula) who are living in New York, and were very nice. The flight was short, but beautiful, because we were flying over snow capped mountains. When we got to Cusco, our host parents met us and drove us to their beautiful house. They run kind of a hostal from their home, so we are staying in rooms similar to those at Belcourt, and the four of us (Kelsey, Celine, Jess and I are all with the same host family) share a bathroom with two showers.
The family is unreal, and super close. Our parents are Angel and Marita, and they have three kids... Angela and Marcela are both married and live out of the house, but visit everyday and usually eat with us (Marcela has a little son named Marcelo, he´s less than two are soooooooooo cute and well behaved. He´s hilarious!) Juan Carlos is 24 and still lives at home, but is out a lot. They are all super nice though... Marcela actually has a dance group that I believe she does choreography for, and they were in a parade yesterday... and so were we! They invited us to dance with then in the parade! haha it must have looked so funny, they were all in full costume and we were four white girls in street clothes doing our best to hop along. It was pretty cute haha. But we felt pretty cool, because after we were invited to their celebrations (besically a dance party with the marching band playing!) and once again we were the only white people. Also, Kels and I went to a tiny little church yesterday morning, but it was really nice because they had no choir, but everyone in the congragation sang at the top of their lungs! And it was so full that there weren´t enough seats for everyone, even though it was 7:30 in the morning, and who likes getting up at 7:30? haha.
Today we started our volunteer placements... or at least orientation. We´re working with a group called Hampy, which is Keschwan (native Peruvian language) for ´help´. Originally, we planned on doing a medical placement in a hospital, but the more we learned about Hampy the more we wanted to work with them. It´s a tiny tiny organization run by a man named Jorge, who is perhaps the nicest most organized person on the planet. We met with him yesterday, and today we met at his office (we´re all doing Hampy, and maybe a small clinic in Cusco if we have spare time) and we evaluated our Spanish (we are high intermediate! alright!) and then talked to us a lot about the area where they work. It´s in a small village called Choco, and is in extreme poverty. We drove out at around 11, and were shocked. It´s only 10 minutes outside of the centre of cusco, but might as well be on the other side of the world. There´s so much poverty... there are women everywhere wearing an almost uniform, that consists of a rimmed hat, a knee length skirt, a sweater, thick white tights, and a colourful wrap on their backs that they use to carry anything... sometimes bamboo, sometimes their babies. There are wild farm animals everywhere... sheep, cows, bulls, roosters, pigs. the houses are very simple, with no hygeinical services (no toilets or running water)... all built out of wood or stone. There is only one school, with two classrooms... one for kids aged 6-8, and one for 9-11... after 11, the kids either work or continue with school, but mostly work because the only school is in Cusco and they either have to walk (which would take about 45 minutes) or get a cab, as public transport doesn´t come out to Choco, and as you can imagine not many of them can aford a cab, if any. So after 11 years old, school is a luxury most of them can´t afford. The kids however, we adorable, and so excited to see us! They sang for us and kissed us on the cheek (that´s how everyone greets you here... a hug and a kiss on the cheek), and were amazing.
Another interesting thing about Choco, and it´s sister town (that is pretty much the exact same) Kuchuya, is that volunteers come in all the time but don´t really know what they´re doing... that´s what´s so good about Hampy, we get to know the people, and them work with them, not for them. Jess describes it as á hand up, not a hand out´. Jorge showed us show of the stuff that other volunteer groups made, without really knowing the people... such as a medical centre that is brand new, but doesn´t get used because it was built without any knowledge of the people´s needs, and therefore is just a big empty building. There´s also a brand new bridge that sits there so no reason, because only one person in the whole village has a car. don´t get me wrong, the people who donated those things had the best of intentions and the best of hearts I am sure, but just not a sufficient knowledge of the community and their needs... for example, the kindergarten has no electricity, and fixing that problem would be much more helpful than building a bridge. That´s what I like about Hampy... Jorge really knows the people, and is going to make sure that what we do will really help them in the long run. As for what we will be doing, we have a week of orientation and comunity visits to decide, but I´m really looking forward to it.

the weather here is insane... up until about 10 am it´s cold... from 10 to 4 it is desert hot, and then cools down and by 8 you need a jacket and mitts. Basically the sun provides a lot of heat, but when the sun sleeps it gets coooold! But it´s really beautiful, the sky is so blue and everywhere you look there are mountains, most of them have little houses built all the way up! It´s so nice, not like anywhere I´ve ever been. But the altitude had taken it´s toll on us! Taking stairs too fast leaves us short of breath... we feel like the most out of shape people on the planet! Today we climbed about 20 stairs in Choco and we all gasping for breath at the top! So we´re definately pacing ourselves. Anyways, I better go because I´m at an internet cafe and don´t want to pay a lot haha!
ciao!

El Ultima Dia En Lima...

2008-05-30T17:29:00.002-03:00

Hola!
Wow, it´s crazy, but today is our last full day in Lima! We leave for Cusco tomorrow, and I think it´s safe ot say that everyone is suuuper excited, and a little sad! But first, a recap of the week:
It´s a little jumbled in my head when we did what up until wednesday but some time between monday and wednesday we watched Indiana Jones (Kent had a burned copy of the new one, and we were pumped because it takes place in Peru... but it was NOT good.) We did a little Cindy, learned a little Spanish, and planned our Machu Picchu trip! Also, we had a night where Kels and I walked to the grocery store with out sunglasses on at night and bought some ice cream, which we brought back to the house and all of us got on the floor and ate it out of the carton.
Wednesday we had a lot of prep to do, because thursday was our communal birthday. Basically, we wanted to have a little celebration with everyone (Kent and Ana Maria, Lupe our chef, and Roasio our teacher) before leaving, and we wanted it to have a theme. So the theme was birthday, and as soon as we woke up thursday morning we were saying happy birthday to everyone! (Except it was really Feliz cumpleaños!) Anyways, we did a little prep wednesday night, and it was crazy because it is NOT easy finding cake mix etc. in a Peruvian grocery store (luckily we came across a British man who was very nice and helped us out. He was pumped that we were Canadian!) That night we worked on decorations and presents (we made little personalized books for all our teachers/coordinators, etc), and planned on baking a cake, but it was a gas stove and we were out of propane, so the cake had to wait!
Thursday we got up and greeted everyone with ´Feliz Cumpleaños´! We had Spanish in the morning, and spent the rest of the day baking and finalizing all of our plans. People came over at 7, and by people I mean Ana Maria, Kent, Katie, Lupe and her son Antony, and Rosario and her friend Roberto. It was so fun! We played pin the tail on the llama, ate a Canadian flag cake, blew out candles, sang, danced, played celtic music, it was so fun! AND before the party we had a conversation with Lupe, which means our Spanish is getting pretty decent.
This morning was our LAST Spanish class... which was crazy. And then we had our last lunch. And then we packed for our morning flight to Cusco... it is so crazy! I am reaaaally excited about going, because I´m sure it´s going to be unreal, but like I said earlier a little sad to go! I guess we just got really confortable here ... I love the house, know the city, and feel like family with the Volunteer Abroad staff. But this was only chapter one, haha, so we are off tomorrow to do what we came here to do, which I am extremely pumped about!
Two previous volunteers stopped by earlier this week, Angela and Austin. They travelled for two months after their placement and we just heading home to Canada this week, so they stopped by to say bye before heading home. It was cool, because they had worked at the same place where we are headed, and lived with the same host family, and loved it! So that was good to hear.
Anyways, I better finish packing, but I put some birthday photos up so be sure to check them out!
Hasta Tomorrow!

Hasta Tomorrow

2008-05-24T18:33:00.002-03:00

That is the cutest little thing that our chef/housekeeper Lupe says... she´s trying to learn English and knows we´re learning Spanish so whenever she goes home for the day she always says ´hasta tomorrow´. She´s wonderful!
I believe I left of at thursday... so thursday we had Spanish in the afternoon, which means 2-6... I don´t like that as much, I find it passes by much faster in the morning, but fair is fair so we spent the morning doing homework outside, it was a really beautiful day! After Spanish, Celine took us to this little cafe about 15 minutes from our house that Kent showed her, and we got coffee, desserts, and studied Spanish (we had an exam the next morning). It was a really cool cafe, but typical Peruvian in the way that our bill was wrong. It´s always wrong! And they always put everyone together... once we asked for separate bills and it was a nightmare, every single one of our bills came out wrong, so we learned from our mistake. Oh, and also, you can´t ask them to make substitutions or anything here, because they will get confused... like this morning Jess asked for no meat and an extra egg with her breakfast... and she got toast, one egg, bacon, and sausage! Anyways, after we got home from the restaurant we basically just kept studying, but got a little creative about it. We played charades to learn cleaning supplies, and clothing items. It was hilarious! But the funniest part was, everytime Celine would get up to act, one of us (usually Jess) would guess what she was going to do before she even started! Three times in a row we guessed with one guess what she was going to act out (dress, umbilical cord, then eyebrows) before she made a move. It was crazy!
Friday was our exam, and they are always oral so it was fine... plus we had studied like monkeys the night before. After Spanish, we all took a little nap, because we had stayed up late playing Spanish Charades and had to get up early for our morning class... so we slept until about 4 when we all got ready to do a little Cindy. I´m not sure if I wrote about Cindy yet... but basically it´s a Cindy Crawford excercise routine that is really fun/hard/great to do, but we think it´s hilarious because a)it´s Cindy Crawford, and b) Celine is in love with her. Seriously, within the first two days probably she had already confessed that Cindy Crawford was her hero! She loves her. So it´s kind of the house inside joke, but her excercizes are actually great! After Cindy we had supper, then got ready to go out... since it is our last weekend here we decided to check out the Peruvian nightlife, and it was crazy! One guy actually came up to me and asked me if I wanted a child (I said no). And nothing closes here until about 6am! It´s so weird. But it was a fun night, and we actually got to practice our Spanish a lot!
This morning we got to sleep in, for probably the first time ever. We slept until about 11:30, and then went out for a team breakfast (and by team I meant Kelsey, Celine, Jess, Kent, Katie, and I)... then we came back and I decided to go for a little walk to someplace I had never been before. I walked in the opposite direction that we usually go, and discovered a little adoration chapel! It was so cute, and there was only me and and old man there, and he was the cutest in the world and always smiled at me haha. It was really nice, and after I left I just bought a popsicle and went for a walk down by the water... it was a beeeeautiful day today, so it was so nice! And there were families playing soccer, and kids with crazy hats, I loved it!
Anyways, I´m back now and writing a little blog... and thinking about how one week from now I will be in Cusco! The trip is just about half over! It´s insane! But I am so ready to go to Cusco, this month was awesome but next month is really the reason I´m here, so I´m really excited. I think all of the girls are.
Anyways, I think Í´m going to stop here... but have a great day and perhaps hasta tomorrow!

Mouse? Bear? Tail?

2008-05-22T00:03:00.002-03:00

Ok Ok Ok!
So yesterday was tuesday! We had Spanish in the morning, and then lunch of course. In the evening we did our mountains of homework, but around 6:00 we deicded to take it to the mall and pulled out our massive dictionary in the middle of the food court and did a little homework. After that, we decided to go see Narnia... tuesday is cheap night at the movies, and it works out to be about $3 Canadian. Anyways, we decided we should get popcorn and Kelsey and I chose to split the HUGE bucket... being two relatively small girls ordering a toddler sized bucket of ice cream, we got a few looks. So I decided to say ´we´re really hungry´ in Spanish... which is ´nosotros tenamos hambre´... but I said ´nosotros tenamos hombres´... meaning ´we have men´! haha!
Today we have Spanish in the morning again, but ate lunch in a rush beacause ManU was playing Chelsea in the soccer finals, and Jess is a pretty big fan, and we don´t have a tv at the house so we had to run to a local sportsbar to watch it. It was really fun, and we sat by some really cool Peruvians. There was an old man cheering for Chelsea in the front, and he was on fire. Loved to yell, and jump, and show off his jersey haha. Anyways, with 20 minutes left Kent showed up and said that they were trying to take Katie on a tour but couldn´t because there weren´t enough people, so we decided to be nice'ys and left to take the tour with them. It was about an hour, but when we got back the game still wasn´t over, because it went into overtime! So we RAN from the bus to the sportsbar, and just missed the end... ManU won, and I kind of wish I would have gotten to see the old Chelsea man´s reaction haha. After that, we came home for supper then headed out into Central Lima where we were going to meet the guys from Michigan who we met in Huacachina. We met at this really intense fountain park, and saw crazy fountains that shot water about 200ft. high, in all different directions, with lights and lazers... some of them were even synchronized to music. One of them had kind of a routine, and it was insane... they projected images onto the water, and they moved... ballerinas, violins... it was crazy! And they used the instrumental versions of We Will Rock You, Build Me Up Buttercup, Ode to Joy, and I Want it That Way (BSB). The music was funny, but the display was unreal.

Huacacacachina!

2008-05-19T17:31:00.002-03:00

Hola!
Ok, we just got back and I am very tired but I am going to write this all down now because I do not want to get so behind again!
Well, friday we had Spanish in the morning, and we had our first test... it was oral, and at the end Rosario said ´excellenté!´ so I think things are going well! However, I seem to only grasp concepts a week after we learned them hah which is good, because it means that I have grasped something, but bad, because I am a week behind! Oh well, overall it´s going really well.
Lupe made pesto for lunch which is unreal good, but we had to eat in a hurry because after lunch we had to catch our bus to Huacachina. It´s a little Oasis town in Ica (another city in Peru). Peru is divided up kind of strangely, because they don´t have provinces or states, just cities, which are then divided up into districts. But if we were comparing it to Canada, the cities would be provinces and the districts would be cities (for example, Ica is 5 hours away from Lima, and Huacachina is one of it´s districts I believe).
The bus ride was kind of funny, because there was this woman sitting right in front of us who would yell out random words, and we think they were snack names because everytime vendor would run to her (there are vendors on all of the busses, selling sandwiches, drinks, candy, etc.)... but they funny thing is she would not turn around and look at them when she was yelling... she just kept looking forward into space and would yell these words (and it sounded a lot like´Monica´). It made for an interesting ride.
We got to Huacachina (pronounced Wok-a-chee-nah) at around 8:00 friday night, and checked into our hostal with Carlos. The place was really busy this weekend, so we couldn´t stay in the dorm rooms as planned, and Carlos put Kelsey and I in a pretty much honeymoon suite haha. Jess and Celine had one too, and Kent was in a similar room but he called it his penthouse. Really, it was a honeymoon suite for one. haha. Anyways, we decided to head down to the restaurant right beside our hostal for a nighttime snack, and it was unreal. The most laidback place you have ever seen. And there were wandering animals, haha, three dogs and a kitten that just roamed the place, it was hilarious (and one of the dogs was hairless). Like, they would go into the kitchen, into the bathrooms (which were unreal by the way, they had stones inside you could climb) etc. Anyways, we ordered pizza which was the best thing I´ve ever tasted in my life, and met some people from Tenessee along with a girl who was constantly making the Zoolander face, and had tattooed on eyebrows. She was Kent´s fav.
Saturday we woke up at 8, and got to see the real Huacachina. Since it was dark when we came, we couldn´t tell the intensity of the sorrounding sand dunes. If you don´t know (I didn´t) Huacachina is this little natural Oasis completely sorrounded by sand dunes as high as sky scrapers. Completely sorrounded, like, you see them everywhere, and they are so high, and so beautiful. It´s unreal.
So at 10 we had to meet our dune buggy tour in front of the hostal´s offices, and we hoped in a dune buggy along with four other girls and a driver named Alfredo (we´ve become pretty tight) and headed for the dunes. He just drove us around, up hills, down hills, it was like a huge scary rollercoaster ride, and he was going the speed of light haha. Anyways, we buggied for about an hour and then he broke out the sandboards. Basically it´s snowboarding, but on sand dunes. Very fun. The first time, we went down on our bellies... but the second I was feeling dangerous and went down on my feet (not very many girls would do it! I did, and Celine did, and then Kelsey did... and maybe one other girl) anyways, I was actually doing really good, until the bottom... if anyone has ever seen me ski, they know that I just go superfast until I reach the bottom. My sandboarding technique is similar... so when I wiped out at the bottom I had been going pretty fast haha, which may have been the cause of my rolling over a hundred times and coming up (uninjured, don´t worry mom) with sand EVERYWHERE. In my nose. In my ears. In my hair. In my belly button. I was wearing a shirt, how did it get in my belly button? No idea. Oh, and my sunglasses were somewhere about six feet behind me. Anyways, it was fun and the next time I went on my feet my wipeout was not nearly as bad haha.
After sandboarding, we duny buggied back to our hostal and discovered the little pool outside. The weather in Ica is not like Peru, it´s pretty much a desert and therefore very hot and wonderful! We relaxed by the pool until 3, when it was time for our wine tour. We toured three vineyeards, seeing the grapes and learning the process and getting a few samples along the way. I think I´m even delopping a taste for it! Crazy Peru... Anyways, the real story here was our taxi driver. His name is Williams (plural) and he loooved the 80s rock. We sang along to Total Eclipse of the Heart, Eye of the Tiger, Heaven, Young Hearts, and more on the way there and back... and he didn´t know the English words but made funny sounds to sing along... and danced along. At a gas station, he even got out and did a little routine for us! He was unbelievably funny.
Post Williams, we met up for supper (pizza again... seriously, you have to try it there. It´s unreal. And we proabably ate them out of chocolate cake hahaha) with some people we had met from Tenesse and Michigan, and hung out all night at the crazy restaurant place where the tourists seem to be... Huacachina is a very touristy spot, and mostly Isrealies.
Sunday was our day of rest and we hung out by the pool, and explored the oasis. It´s so weird, and weird that it´s just a natural occurance. I´ll put pictures up ASAP. We ate lunch at the cutest restaurant in the world, and they were very funny because they were kind of slow getting Celine her food, so they kept bringing her fre stuff, first a shot of creme de menth (random much?), and then a salad. The owner was soo nice, and then we played jenga at the restaurant. After we met a crazy vendor named Alberto, and perused a few little crafty shops... and a vendor made me a free necklaces that means luck and energy, because we had a good chat! In Spanish! Alllllright!
Before bed Sunday night, we wantd a little snack, so Kels and I headed for one last visit to the restaurant beside our hostal. By now, the place had cleared out quite a bit and it was clear that they are busiest on weekends. Anyways, I was feeling random so I ordered a hotdog and tea (coca tea is huge in Peru, and really good). The tea was cool, because they gave me a cup of hot water, and a plate of leaves. The hot dog never came. Kelsey ate, Kent, Celine, and Jess showed up, ordered, ate, and still I had no hotdog (apologies for my comma abuse). Finally the waiter came, and told me it would be soon, and I said ´that´s ok, just give me a peice of cake for every minute I wait´ (jokingly of course, we were on good terms with the staff there)... or at least that´s what I meant to say. I confuse Spanish and French sometimes, so I really asked him for cats! haha! Anyways, my hotdog came... and it was a weiner cut in half on a hamburger bun! Weird weird...
Well, monday we woke up and headed back to Lima (reluctantly). Huacachina may have been the coolest place I have ever visited, and if any of you want to see it, let me know and we´ll go together. Deal?

Ok, so I have been compilling a little list of all of the funny mistakes we make in Spanish, I hope you enjoy it:

Caitlin -
Meant to say: Can I pay you now?
But really said: Can I punch you now?

Meant to say: For every minute I wait, you can give me cake!
But really said: For every minute I wait, you can give me cat!

Meant to say: Can I have a piece of cake please?
But really said: Can I have a heavy of cake please?

Kelsey -
Meant to say: Umm... maybe
But really said: Umm... cheese

Jess -
Meant to say: I´m scared!
But really said: I´m [poop]

Celine:
Meant to say: In the morning, I put makeup on
But really said: In the morning, I put butter on

Point Form...

2008-05-16T10:47:00.003-03:00

Ok, it´s ten to nine, and we have Spanish at nine, but we´re going away for the weekend after adn I am WAY behind on this so for now I´m going ot do a little point form-ing, and fill in the details later, k?

Reserve tour: amazing... desert, so vast, Argentinians = kind of sketchy. We met the Spanish Geroge Clooney at the bus stop on the way back, and police officers with 3 ft. guns were sitting beside us.
Sunday: pretty basic, but Kels and I got loston the way home from church and when ask for directions we said ´Where is Jose Gonzales (our street)´ and the man was like ´is he Spanish?´ haha! Supper at Luigis, and at night we watched Michael Clayton.
Monday: Spanish lessons... pretty laid bck night.
Tuesday: Spanish lessons... then gelato and Iron Man at Larcomarr
Wednesday: Spanish... then Cindy... (I´ll tell you allllll about Cindy later). We had a tour with a guy named Oscar around Lima, which was really cool, and then we went out to a little Cafe on Alcanfores... very cute. Katie from head office got in wednesday night.
Thursday: Spanish... then went out for supper with some of Jess´friends from Montreal who were in Lima. Then we found a CRAZY ice cream place and Celine ordered the ´Mexican´... ice cream with a banana man and a pineapple sombrero... but it was insanely cute.
Anyways, Rosario is here so I have to run, but like I said, I´ll update later.

Continueeeee

2008-05-15T13:08:00.002-03:00

Ok, so we got into the taxi.

We drove through Pisco at night, so we didn´t see a whole lot... but there was a really bad earthquake that hit there last August, and they are still recovering from it, so we did see a lot of piles of rubble. A LOT. Anyways, we got to the hostal safe and sound, and checked in using our pretty sweet Spanish. We even asked for our tours, and an extra pillow without any trouble! Heck yes!
That night we planned on sleeping. However, the farm animals outside had other plans. There were dogs fighting in the street all night, who apparently did not care that there were four tired Canadians trying to sleep next door. At around 4am, someone decided to slaughter a few chickens, which was not too quiet either. The rooster next door woke anyone who had been able to get back to sleep up with the sun, cockadoodledooing sometime between 5 and 6 am. Crazy times in Paracas!
So eventually we crawled out of bed and met our tourguide in the lobby downstairs. He took us too the dock where we would be getting on the tour boat, and we waited for about 10 minutes... just enough time for two crazy things to happen:
Crazy thing # 1: The people in line in front of Kels and Jess were Canadians! From New Brunswick! From 5 minutes from where Jess grew up. Small world!
Crazy thing # 2: There were pelicans everywhere, and a local man caugt my eye and waved me over. Feeling adventurous, and knowing that Celine was watching me to keep me safe, I wandered over. He put a fish in my hand, and gestured that he wanted me to feed his pelican. Gross. So gross! So I held the fish out to the birds, and he kept going ´not yet, not yet´, and so I was waiting but the pelicans knew I had their brekfast and kept following me around they are HUGE so I was not loving it and so I just threw the fish. The man got a little mad, because none of his crazy birds caught it they all scrambled to gobble it up from the ground but if you know pelicns you know that they have huge beaks and therefore can not pick something up off the ground without a lot of struggle. And they kept hitting beaks. I got out of there preeetty fast. Sorry pelicans!
Ok, so we finally got onto the boat, put on our ´Carol Adventures´life jackets, and headed for the Islas Ballestas, or as we like to call them, The Poor Man´s Galapagos Islands. The boat ride was about 30 minutes, and along the way we stopped to check out this crazy catcus-like sand imprint that was in a dune... I can´t really describe it, but I took pictures. It´s a very mysterious thing! Anyways, we continued on until we saw the islands. And then we smelled the islands. Blech. There were a kind of yellow colour, but our tour giude told us (and you could tell by looking at the bottoms, where the ocean kept them clean) that they were originally a dark red. The yellow was the product of years and years of birds pooping on them. Fancy.
The island, although stinky, was very cool. we saw a gazillion birds (Maria, never bring your mom here), some penguins, sea lions, and vultures. The penguins were the coolest, but pretty short... maybe a tall one would be up to my waist.
After the island tour was the reserve tour. Buuuut that will have to wait for another time! Sorry!

Abrir la Ventana

2008-05-13T10:41:00.002-03:00

Well it seems I have a little catching up to do, so here goes...

So thursday we hd Spanish in the morning, and that night was the Peruvian dance show. We got to the restaurant esque-place at around 9:30, and it was set up kind of like a dinner theatre, but bigger... there was a stage in front with the band on it, and then a lower stage for the dancers, and tables were set up all around. We had fairly good seats, and soon after we got there our waiter brought out a little Canadian flag and put it on our table.
The show consisted of a cast of about 25, who performed various traditional Peruvian dances in some pretty intense costumes, I´m talking full body gorilla suit, golden masks, and alpaca outfits. It was pretty crazy! And after every song, the band would play a song that the audience was to dance to, so that was pretty fun. The thing about Peru is that everyone here can dance. Whether they be 5 or 95, those Peruvians know all of the moves and can shake it to any song. It´s nuts! Anyways, about 3/4 the way through the show, they started calling names of people who were VIP so they were allowed to come up on stage and dance with/meet the cast, and much to our surprise they called us! Kent and Anna Maria must have organized it, but we were pretty pumped and ran up on stage and danced and danced with all of these people in crazy costumes, it was so fun! But we were NOT allowed to play their instruments haha unfortunately.

The show didn´t end until 4:00am apparently, but we left around 1:30 because friday morning we had more Spanish. At 1:00pm on friday, our first week of lessons was done! So Kent and Anna Maria took our group, along with Lupe (for mother´s day!) out to a traditional Peruvin lunch. The restaurant was enormous, and it was buffet so we tried everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. I ate a mini octupus, and potentially some cow stomach (both of which I did not love!) ... but there were some really good things too. We tried their fmous juice, Chicha morado, which is purple and made with corn... it was so sweet, and tasted a little like pepper and grape licorice... very weird.

After lunch we all said good-bye to Jo, because she was leaving for her placement on Saturday but we would not see her becuase Kelsey, Jessica, Celine and I were heading away for the weekend. So we said our goodbyes and then the four of up hopped in a cab to the bus stop. There we bought four tickets to Pisco, and hopped aboard. No one told us that we were getting the crazy horn obsessed bus driver, and every ten minutes he would start honking his screechingly loud horn like it was his mission... it was sooo annoying! And made sleeping impossible haha. The bus ride was cool though, because we got to see a lot of the countryside... and it was very poor. There were so many little shacks and tiny communities that seemed so disconnected from the rest of the country. You don´t see it in Miraflores, but there really is a lot of poverty here. I think we´ll really see it in Cusco.

So we arrived in Pisco about four hours later, making it 7-8pm. A cab driver asked us if we wanted to go to Paracas, and we said yes... but when he showed us his car we were quite sketched out... worse than the nuge, and it just had a little sticker on the front that said ´Taxi´. Anyways, Jess told him we wanted to see his taxi license, so he got out his drivers license... and we were like NO! TAXI LICENSE! But it turns out he had one, and he had a huge picture of a nun hanging from his rearview mirror, so we hopped in. The drive to Paracas was safe, but we almost broke down like, 5 times. Like I said, worse than the nuge.

Ok, I hate to do a ´to be continued´, but it´s almost 9:00, which means Spanish, so I have to stop although I still have a lot to say! buuut I will try to update again tonight!

Ruidoso = Silencioso

2008-05-07T22:30:00.002-03:00

Hola!
I just want to start every sentence with that... it sounds so nice and welcoming! I think I´m probably going to be greeting every moving object that way when I get home.

Ok, so wednesday. In about 6 hours, we have officially been here for one week. It´s insane, it flieees by! Anyways, today was day three of Spanish and it went really well but for some reason I was reeeally tired. I´ll have to get to bed early tonight I guess! But it was really nice out, so we had the last two hours of class on the roof! Very nice!
After class we had lunch and it was some sort of combination of vegetables and FISH. And I ATE IT! You wouldn´t even believe me, nothing scares me! At least nothing in the way of food. So we had lunch, and then some of the girls wanted to go paragliding so I went down with them and then we just walked to the supermarket. But the cheap one, not that fancy wine sampling one, although they did have some pretty crazy cakes. Like ones with insane jello flowers on top, that looked half real, and then some that were entirely jello cakes... and ones with glazed limes... we´re thinking we might give ourselves a collective birthday party at the end of the month to celebrate and eat one of those crazy things.

After we got home we did a little studying, then Koki (Jorje?) came over to teach us salsa! It was so fun, we just danced and danced in the dinning room so his crazy latin american music, I loved it! I want to remember the moves and blow the crazies at the island DPs away! haha. Anyways, we danced until we were reduced to little piles of sweat on the floor and then went back to studying our Spanish. It´s so weird learning a whole new language so late, but Rosario is a really good teacher so it´s going well.

We are thinking we might get out of Lima this weekend, and see a bit more of Peru. Lima is reallly nice, but when it comes down to it it´s just like any other big city... Kent always says it´s like living in a bubble. Anyways, I think we are going to go check out the ´Peruvian Galapagos Islands´... it´s like the cheap version for people who can´t afford to see the real thing, but there´s talk of penguins so I really want to go!

Well, that´s all for tonight, like I said, I have to to go bed eaaaarly tonight to be in tiptop shape for Spanish tomorrow... soooo hasta menana los Canadiences!

Como se dice... surfing?

2008-05-06T22:13:00.002-03:00

Hola Amigos!
Well well well, I missed yesterday so I´ll give it to you know:
Monday. We started Spanish lessons with Rosario (she´s awesome, sooo nice) and it was kind of hard because in my mind, as long as it´s not English it must be Spanish, so I kept speaking French! And I didn´t even realize I was doing it, I was just thinking ´wow Spanish is easy, I know every word!´... yeah right! Anyways, we did Spanish and then had lunch... rice with lentils, sauce, bacon, and potatoes... kind of weird but I ate it. I am not picky here at all, I´ve been surprising myself! I´ll try anything... hopefully I can keep that when I go back home! Anyways, after lunch we were supposed to have a session with Kent but he was out for a couple of hours so we decided to go SURFING! It was insane! Some of the girls promised to go weekly, so Bruno (the instructor) gave us special rates... usually it´s $20 American, but he charged us s.30, which works out to about $12. Anyways, we got our wetsuits on, did some stretches with our instructor Carlos, grabbed a couple of boards and got in the water. First of all, the water was not blue... more of a green brown, so it was grossssss. And I´d say as a group we swallowed enough to fill a bathtub haha. Anyways, some of the girls (Jess and Celine) caught on really fast and did awesome. As for myself, things were a little difficult. First of all, you have to be constantly paddling, which is like ridding a bike with your hands underwater. NOT EASY! I got tired so fast! So anyways, I paddled out to where Carlos wanted us to be and waited for my wave... it came, and Carlos told me to paddle... but I didn´t know that that was when I was supposed to try to stand on the board! So I paddled and paddled as fast as I could and the wave carried me faster than you could imagine and I just kept paddling with my eyes closed (pretty sure I knocked someone over... I had my eyes closed but I felt my hand hit and knock over a board! ahh!) until I felt myself hit the rocks on shore! Then I was bummed, because I wanted to be back in the water! So I tried and tried to get back in but as soon as I would get about 4 feet in, a huge wave would come up and throw me into the rocks... I´m surprised I can walk today haha. Anyways, eventually Carlos came to shore and helped me back out, but I still had a rough time for the rest of it. As for Kelsey, she was snuck into a private spa by Bruno... but that´s another story.

Anyways, surfing was haarrrrrdddd but I don´t regret it at all! It was still fun! But today I am soooore. After than we had our session with Kent and then we moved the couch into the dinning room and watched Atonement on the computer... it was really cute haha!

We had our second day of Spanish today, and it was a lot better. I feel like I´m kind of catching on, and although it´s four hour sessions, they go by really fast. I find it pretty easy to understand, it´s just thinking of the appropriate words that takes time. But it´s only the second day, so I´m confidant that I can get it. After lessons we had a session about our placements with Anna Maria, and then we booked our flights to Cusco (where we will be volunteering). After that some girls had to go to the flight offices, and some needed scribblers for Spanish, so we headed out into Miraflores and did a little window shopping. Then we went out for waffles! They were so delicious and the place we went was adorable, the lights were tea kettles hanging from the ceiling. Anyways, we´re back now and everyone is just studying for Spanish! It´s nice having a lot of girls in the house, we always seem to be hanging out together but haven´t gotten sick of each other yet! (not that we will right?!)

Cioa chickas!

desperdicios nucleares

2008-05-04T19:53:00.003-03:00

It means ´nuclear waste´... it came up today at lunch, when Melanie from Ottawa was going through her English-Spanish translation book, and saw that phrase, and asked us why anyone would ever want to know that. We tried to convince her that printing the translation for nuclear waste is not a waste of space in her dictionary, and that we use it all the time... so now we´re trying to do that. hahaha!

But I´ll start at the beginning:
This morning Kelsey and I got up t 9:00 for church, but didn´t know what time it started at and hoped it was at 10:00... but then we heard church bells at 9:15 and ran out the door, getting there at 9:30 just before the first reading. The church was beautiful, very spanish looking with colourful patterns and gold embelishments... also there were tons of statues and carvings in the wall, and some really beautiful stoned glass windows. Next week I´ll take pictures. Mass was all in Spanish of course, but we could kind of follow along and always understood Amen and Alleluia hahaha.

After that we went back to the house, and met up with the others and then we all headed out to the grocery store... it´s so swanky, they give out free wine samples! Anyways, Kent headed back to the house but we decided to wonder a little bit, and looked over a photogrqaphy exhibit by Kennedy park before stopping for a cheap Peruvian lunch... chicken, fries, and dessert for $3! So we ordered and ate, and then when we were waiting for the bill Kelsey and I went to the bathroom. As soon as we opened the door we were faced with a lifesize and very risky picture of Marilyn Monroe in fishnets... a little unsettling while you are trying to pee! Anywyas, when I was in there I heard ´´Oh no!! Caitlin!!´´ and I was like ´What Kels?´and then she told me that she thought she had brought 20 peruvian dollars... but brought 20 peruvian cents!! all she had was a little bronze coin with a 20 on it... worth about 7 cents american! Anyways, we worked it out but it was preeeetty funny at the time. After lunch we split up - four of us headed home and three of us stayed out to shop a little. I headed home, and read a bit while waiting for the others to get home.

When they got home we decided to learn a little Spanish, and translated Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes... we plan to memorize it and sing it to Rosario for our first Spanish lesson tomorrow hahhhaha! Then we got a little crazy and started translating EVERYTHING, and made up a few sentences that we hope to hide under our plates at lunch tomorrow and whip out to impress our chef Lupe! hahahaha if we carry it out, it will be preeetty funny. Anyways, I better get back to the Spanish! More later!

Marathon

2008-05-03T20:35:00.003-03:00

Hola!
Today was so fun - but I'll start where I left off.

Last night after I updated Kelsey, Jessie, Melanie and I went for a walk to the grocery store, because Melanie was leaving and she wanted to get some Pisco [the Peruvian drink, it's a grape gin I think?]. Anyways, white girls are pretty popular here so we got free samples and basically it tasted like super super strong wine. It was gross and it burned!! Then we came home and met Kent, our coordinator. He is super nice and very helpful. Then we said our goodbyes to Mel and hung out around the house before heading to bed around 10. We go to bed so early because the house was pretty empty and it gets dark so early!

This morning we woke up and there were three new girls here - Melanie, Joanie, and Celine. They are all from Ontario, and French Canadian, but their English is super good. Everyone is so awesome, I love all of the girls and so we are all good friends already! So at 9:00 am we left for a tour of Lima, on a double decker bus. We went through downtown Lima which was so different from where we are - apparently the VA house is in a pretty well off neighborhood and downtown is not so well off, very dirty and falling apart. Our tour bus stopped at a Cathedral called San frasisco (named for St. Francis of Assisi) and we toured the church as well as the catacombs underneath... this is basically a graveyard, but more open. We saw tons of bones and skulls etc. etc., it was gross! but cool... if you have ever read Matthew Lewis' The Monk, then it was exactly like they described it in that novel. We even saw a decomposing body... it was apparently a ´special tomb´, and so they were not taken apart but one entire body that was hundreds of years old. Grooosss. Also, in the cathedral, there were paintings all over the walls, but the strange thing is some of the faces in the paintings were whited out, or scratched off hundreds of years ago and no one know why! It was so weird, like, there were faceless statues, and no one knew why the faces were removed. Also, there was a very famous last supper painting that is particular for a few reasons - first of all, the table they were eating at is round. Secondly, there were children waiting on Jesus and the disciples. You should look it up on google, it's by a belgium man. Then we went outside and checked out a wall that is ruins left over from the wall that used to sorround Peru, or maybe Lima? I forget, our tour guide was Spanish haha.

We came home and left again to exchange our American money into soles, the peruvian currency. Then we went for a walk to the beach and had a talk with a 50+ surfer named Bruno, who promised us lessons and told us to go see his band! ahahaha! He told us that we had a Peruvian friend in him. We continued to walk for about three hours - into Borronco where we got some Pisco sour [Pisco, egg whites, and something else? It tasted like merigue... how do you spell that?] Then we walked home together and arrived around 6:30 - we had left at 2:30! But we weren't even tired, which means we are super strong. Anyways, we are all back at the house now and having a good time! More updates later!

Things I tried today:
Peruvian pasta, it had lime green sauce! But tasted like pesto, so it was good!
Inka Cola, the Peruvian pop, tasted like cream soda
Pisco sour, peruvian egg drink! yikes!

Best quote:
Hi. My car.

Eager as a Beaver

2008-05-02T18:11:00.000-03:00

That is what I concider myself for writing on this two days in a row. Eager as a beaver. But I figure I should take advantage while I can, because I don´t know if we´ll have internet in Cusco.

It´s 4:00 here, and Kelsey and Jessie (new girl who arrived this morning) are napping, so I figured it would be the opportune time to write a bit. I´ll start with the people:
Kelsey is of course the crazy Anne impersonator that I came here with.
Jessie, Melanie, and Tessa are other volunteers in the house. Three more girls are arriving tonight, but Melanie leaves tonight to go back home and Tessa leaves for her placement next week. Jessie is coming to Cusco with Kelsey and I at the end of the month.
Anna Maria is one of the coordinators, and she doesn´t live at the house but her office is here so we eat meals with her and see a lot of her. So far, she´s super nice.
Kent is the other coordinator, but he is in bolivia right now. He should arrive back at the house tonight though.
Lupe does the cooking and cleaning in the house, and she is so sweet. She is probably 50, and just a pleasant short little Peruvian woman. She knows very little english, but tries to talk with us and is always smiling. Melanie and Tessa can comunicate with her, and so I can´t wait until we learn Spanish and can too.
Rosario..or Rosaria? is our Spanish teacher. She´s gone away for the weekend with Tessa, so we won´t really get to know her until Monday.

The house is adorable. It´s so Peruvian! The walls are yellow and brown and green, all pastels, and rounded and lovely! The windows don´t have screens, just like, gate things so people and birds don´t come in. They don´t really have a problem with bugs. We can get up on the roof, and apparently it´s just like the one in Dominican, very concrete but gets a ton of sun so it´´s a nice escape. Our room has three sets of bunk beds in it, all with brightly coloured sheets and pillows, and the window overlooks the street with trees growing orange flowers and cacti... it´s awesome. There are two computers, one in Anna Maria´s office and one in the dining room that gives you crazy shocks! No one will touch the screen becuase it´s basiclly a suicide mission. Bad news.

Last night we went to sleep around 9:00, because even though it´s as hot as our summers here, it´s winter and so it gets dark around 6 or 7. We slept until 9 this morning, because we were suuuper tired still, and then had some breakfast with the girls. We hung out on the roof until lunch, then took a walk into the city and to the beach, down this crazy stone staircase that was probably 20000 steps haha. It wassoo hot too, which is nice still. Anyways, after that we just came home and that is where I am now! Jessie, Kelsey adn I are trying to book flights to Cusco but the website is Spanish so hopefully we get there! haha! Anyways, see you all in a few months!
:)

Feliz Navidad!

2008-05-01T19:29:00.002-03:00

Helllooooo!
Well I am in Peru, and it is crazy! I will start at the start, giving you a disgustingly detailed play-by-play:

Wednesday, 6:00 a.m.
I wake up in my hallway in Brown's, excited for the adventures ahead. Maria and I make a few muffins, and I spend some quality time with the vibrating farm.
6:45 a.m.
Ben picks me up and we go to the Moore residence... ready for adventure!
7:30 a.m.
A couple of crazy girls load up into the Moore truck with some good company headed for Halifax...
Ok, this is going to take forever. Basically, we drove to Hali, then got on a plane for Toronto. The first flight was nice, only a few hours... when we got to Toronto we checked in and ate some Coyote Jacks (alright Courtyard Cafe!) then hung out in a crazy big black echo thing, and caught our eight hour flight for Lima. LONGEST EIGHT HOURS OF MY LIFE! Buuuut eventually we got to Lima, and all you could see from the sky was orange lights everywhere for miles and miles. It was nuts! So we checked in, got through customs problem free, and then checked our luggage and met Anna Maria who was holding a sign with our names on it. She took us out to our cab, and the driver was sleeping!
We got to the VA (volunteer abroad) house around 2:30 a.m. It is adorable! Everything is so pastel and round... I'll take pictures of it for sure. But anyways, we were tired and greasy so we slept asap.
THURSDAY! we woke up at 11:00, showered, and settled in. Lunch was at 1:00 and even though it was foreign and Peruvian I ate it all! And a crazy purple fruit called tuna (like the fish).
Sooo after we went for a walk down to the water with two girls who are finishing up their placements, Tessa and Melanie (super nice!) and guess what we did? WENT PARAGLIDING! CRAZY! It was SOOOO high and insane and the guy (Juan Carlos) who was driving mine kept making jokes about how it was going to crash (like : Ohh no, Ohh noo, God of the wind, give us more power! It freaked me out!). And how we got started was basically just running off a cliff! It was INSANE! Anyways, it was amazing and I will put tons of pictures up in a few minutes!
Now we are back at the VA house, it's awesome and we are so free haha they gave us keys and everything! Love it!
Anyways, more later! See you all in a few months!
Love love love Caitlin

I love...

2007-10-31T16:00:00.000-03:00

...stepping on crunchy dead leaves. Cruel as that may sound, it is intensely satisfying.

Pasta La Vista

2007-07-09T20:03:00.000-03:00

I'm not going to lie, I had Pat & Willy's for lunch. But at least I didn't have Pat and Willy. That would be awful.

If you couldn't tell, I have nothing to say. But I was trying to make a comment on Kady's blog, when I realized I forgot my new sign in name. So I went to the blogger website to see if I could figure it out, one thing led to another, and here I am, writing about my lunch. And here you are, reading it. Vicious cycle (vicious is sort of a tough word to spell eh? I'll be honest with you, I had to spell check it. I had originially spelled it 'viscious' ).

Since I'm being so honest, I might as well tell you that I need to go grocery shopping. I wrote a little list, and it's sitting here beside my computer: bread, milk, syrup, eggs with the a question mark, because I occassionally want them but never finish the carton. So I will wait until I am in a grocery store to decide if I really want them or not... I mean, I do like to make french toast, but 20 peices in 2 weeks? Not likely, and since my muffin mix is just add water, there's not much else I use them for.

Oh, a funny little fact I learned about tourists: husbands in a rush will buy anything. Today at work a man bought a $220 purse for his wife...as a diaper bag. Or maybe it's one of those 'little man big truck' things. Like, 'smelly diapers expensive purse'. Anyways, I found it out of the ordinary.

Well, I guess that's enough for now. Perhaps sometime in the future I will update again. How's that for keeping you on the edge of your seat?

Just So You Know...

2007-05-16T11:59:00.000-03:00

...well it seems all of my friends are either running off to foreign countries or creating little human beings, and in comparison my life appears a lot less interesting. So, I have devised a list of little changes to shake things up a bit:

-from now on I will answer only to Princess Chicken Cordon Blue

-I have thrown out all of my right footed shoes. In doing this I hope to create a new phenomenon where my children will all be born with two left feet. Or at least a left and a half.

-Although I will not actually get a tattoo, my tattoo sleeve will become the staple item of my new wardrobe: old movie tickets adhered to my body with peanut butter.

-I have decided to take the Chinese couple up on their offer, and will be marrying their 18 year old son this July.

Well, I guess that will do for now. Good luck recognizing me.
Sincerely,
PCCB

This is me NOT doing my French homework...

2007-02-13T19:49:00.000-04:00

Hello.
You know when someone you love goes on a trip, and if they just go for a weekend then that's fine but if it's longer then a weekend you start to wonder if they'll bring you back something? And the longer they go, the bigger the present you expect becomes? Well replace 'someone you love' with my blog, 'trip' with stopped being updated, and 'presents' with not a single thing, and I may have just created a beautiful analogy. My blog is updated and no one gets a present. Unless it's your birthday, but that would be just a coincidence.
Tomorrow is Valentine's day, which means Katie and I bought ourselves heart shaped chocolate, and some sigma6 valentines. I think that's a cartoon... either way 'in our class you're the ninja master' was too good to pass up.
In other news, I'm addicted to buiscuit express [am I eating them now? yes] and mmm creams [the best fake oreo ever invented. Maybe even better than the real thing].
Just to keep to tradition, I may add something random, like:
Everytime a ladybug comes into my livingroom, I feed it dried pumpkin seeds. This is super inconvinient while it's not pumpkin season, so lately I've been using the seeds of cucumbers with elephantitis, but keep it on the d/l.
Have a good Valentine's day everyone, and check out the free food at the CC. And I do not mean classroom center with that crazy secret cat.

No One Updates In The Summer

2006-06-02T09:46:00.000-03:00

And since that seems to be the case I'm currently making myself a bfl* by doing this but... maybe if I make a mind blowing post I can be excused.
I guess I should start with the obvious: it's June! Holy Moly/Hurrah! Does anyone else love the smell of freshly cut grass? mmm...
Ok I'm going to make a game, trivia perhaps, where I look up random things on google and you have to find them... here we go:

1. Which website claims to be 'the best in the universe'?
2. Which songs by Jimmy Donley were released or something of the like on October 6th 1962?
3. What is the little boy holding on the homepage for the North junior High School [Boise, Idaho] website?
4. List three of Degrassi High/Junior High's staff members.
5. Which of the following are not an acctual ingredients in potato wine?: strawberries, potatoes, sugar, apples, raisins, granola, lemons, peanut oil, oranges, yeast

Bonne Chance!

*big fat loser

You're Wasting Your Time...

2006-04-22T20:57:00.000-03:00

Ok, I may have been a little slack in the area of updates, so I decided I would force myself to come up with something. BUT, I really have nothing to say, and therefore nothing that appears in this entry may be held against me. Here we go:

Yesterday my friend Franco and I were walking around Richmond, and we decided to go to the Petro. I opened the door for him, so he got in first. Immediately upon entering, Frank [I'm allowed to call him that] grabbed my arm and pulled me around the corner outside. I was a little surprised, as Franco comes from a place where pulling is illegal, and so I knew this must be serious. After catching his breath, Frank told me that there was a celebrity inside. I admit, it is not irregular to see a celebrity inside the Richmond Petro, but I was pretty pumped nonetheless. Franco told me that when he was in the Petro he saw JoJo, the famous someteen year old pop star! I pretty much passed out right then and there. Luckily, I managed to remain conscious long enough to run home and grab my camera and autograph book, and ran back to the Petro before she had left. Franco and I had made a plan: he would distract her while I took eleven pictures, and then when she was all dizzy from the flash I would ask her for her autograph.
Unfortunately I overshot, and took twelve pictures. Just as unfortunate: Jojo is allergic to cameras. So Franco called an ambulance and I got some chips and the three of us rode in the back of the ambulance together [we told the paramedics we were her parents]. Anyways, when we got to the hospital a specialist told us that the only cure for her condition was rain, but I had a plan. Frank wheeled Jojo outside, I did a rain dance, and of course it worked. Jojo regained consciousness as I was just finishing up, and since my moves are sensational she asked me to be in her next music video. Sooo basically I'm famous and BFF with a superstar. All in a day's work.

What An Experience

2006-03-06T18:54:00.000-04:00

So here's my story:

About two weeks ago, [a week from last Thursday to be exact] I got myself a new belt. Anyways, the second time I wore it, one of the decorative jewels fell off of the front. Now I'm not one to waste a perfectly good belt, so I decided I was going to super glue the little jewel back into its hole rather than never wear this practically brand new belt again. Well, tonight was the night. I got the belt out, got the jewel out, and asked my brother if he could krazy glue the two together. He gave me the glue and said 'do it yourself'. Anyways, luck would have it I couldn't get any glue out of that little bottle, and had to call him back for help. He fiddled around with it until finally, there was glue on the belt and a jewel on the glue, and my brother instructed me to hold it together for a couple of minutes. Well hold it I did, but when the minutes were over, something very strange happened: my finger would not separate from the belt! I was krazy glued to a belt! And although it was a nice belt, I wanted to be free! So I read the instructions, freaked out a little, a hurried to a sink. I filled it up with soapy water, and stuck my finger/belt in the sink. I became pretty much a spectical at my house, as my family walked by and laughed and I was pretty much crying thinking I would never be separated from the stylish yet surprisingly heavy peice of leather. I mean, it is a nice belt but it might not fit into my mittens. Anyways, as the story goes I eventually did get un-stuck from the belt, but not all of me. I now have a lovely jewel-encrusted belt, along with a lovely peice of ring finger attached to it. And as sketchy as that is, I'm still planning on wearing it. It's a new belt!

As for those of you who stuck around to find out what happened to my finger, that's another story for another time. Have a good night!