First and foremost, I want to let everyone know that I will be back in the states on Dec 18. I'm going to be staying with my Grandparents in Ocean Reef for a bit and then returning to Roanoke (and at this point, I don't have the date set). I changed my ticket on Wednesday after spending like an hour on the phone with airport officials; I will say that it was a very good way to practice my Spanish skills. Speaking of with, my speaking skills have improved drastically this week. I'm surprising myself, not only do I now feel extremely comfortable talking to anyone, but I started having daydreams in Spanish. It makes me really excited that I can actually understand about 80% of what people say and then respond in an educated manner. I find that I just talk instead of thinking about the proper sentence structure and conjugating verbs.
On Tuesday I made alphajores which are a type of Peruvian dessert; think a sugar cookie sandwich with manejar (or Peruvian carmel) in the center coated in powdered sugar. It was very fun making different combinations: fudge, manejar, walnuts, and coconut. I'm trying to master a few "buen Peruano" or very Peruvian types of food, so that when I get home I'll be able to prepare some of my favorites. In 2 weeks, I'll get to make some typical America food for Thanksgiving. We are having a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and everyone is preparing food. I'll be preparing a green bean casserole, mash potatoes, and a pie. Does anyone have any good recipes?
I went to an art exhibition with Martin and his family on Thursday. A doctor from Lima spends his free time traveling and taking picture, and the exhibition was of his photos from Lago Titicaca (which is located in eastern Peru). His photography was quite spectacular, and my favorites were close ups of indigenous people. I also enjoyed talking to a few of the guests about traveling and pastimes. Afterwards we went to one of my favorite places to eat in Lima - cafe San Antonio. It's fabulous! My favorite was the fresa y pina (strawberry and pineapple) juice and the dessert - torta tres leche (cake made from 3 type of milk - sweetened condensed milk, heavy whipping cream, evaporated milk).
My friend, Clen, from Paracas (the beach town I visited last week) came into Lima this weekend, and on Saturday night I met him in Centro de Lima. He showed me some cheap places to buy pearls, rocks, and beading supplies, and later we went for "juices". Here in Lima juices are so cheap and so good. A fresh squeezed drink of any type or combination (orange, pineapple, mango, papaya) is about $1.50. Later while walking down the street we met a lady knitting, I stopped to quiz her about her knitting, and she explained that she knits all her clothes. Wouldn't that be so cool?! I'm now inspired after Saturday when I finished my first ever hand made scarf. During this same trip to centro, I met 2 midgets!, and had my tarot cards read. All of which were quite exciting activities.
This morning I went to Wiener University to listen to an interesting talk about "health" (in terms of maintaining good health), karma, reincarnation, and meditation (all of which I'm very fascinated by). I took a class last summer "Tibetan Buddhism" at UVA, so I was able to follow all the concepts and understand about 80% of what the speaker was saying. Afterwards, my friend Jorge invited me to a Hindu vegetarian lunch at another place nearby. After lunch was over, I went to another site and attended a meditation/class in a Muslim center. Talk about diversity! The people were incredibly nice at all three location and wanted to listen to my experiences being from the states.
Tomorrow I'm headed to Luna Huana to go white water rafting and (maybe) 4-wheeling. Luna Huana is about 3 hours away, a good distance to start reading my large history chapter that I'll be presenting in a little less than 2 weeks. The majority of my classes are cancelled because this week is APEC a meeting of government officials to talk about trade. Lima has been preparing for this event for quite some time, painting, cleaning, repairing the streets. They expect to have around 60,000 visitors in Lima during this time and even our very own President Bush and my mother will both be in attendance.
I had an interview today for to live in the Spanish house. I'm proud to say that all went well, and that I will in fact been living there next semester! This means I get to perfect my Spanish skills and continue to learn about the culture when I return to the states.
The weather is getting warmer and sunnier each day! (And my back is now peeling from my sunburn...)
