A lot has happened since my last entry so I’m gonna do a brief overview of events. First off, my internship at the Museo Larco Herrera has begun. It’s an archaeological museum located a 15 minute walk from my house, directly in between my house and the university so it’s quite convenient. The exhibits are really nice and the museum itself is pretty and has flowers everywhere and a kind of sculpture garden. One of the notable parts of the museum is the Sala de Cerámica Erótica, or the Hall of Erotic Ceramics. The Moche dynasty apparently was pretty freak nasty and liked to sculpt people having sex in various creative ways on their jars. I’m working with the curator of the museum, Ulla Holmquist, who is really nice and speaks English so it’s easy to communicate. My volunteer work right now is to take the Spanish text which she has written for a catalogue of the museum’s permanent collection and translate the entire thing into English – no easy task. My entire Tuesdays and Fridays are dedicated to this project as well as time outside of the museum at home.
We also had another birthday recently – Matt’s cumpleaños was the 1st of April and we all went out to a nice Mexican restaurant called: Como Agua Para Chocolate. Despite what you gringos might think, Mexican food is totally different from Peruvian food. For example, Abi and Melissa’s host mom didn’t even know what a burrito was, and as we all were tired of arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) we decided to go out for some fajitas, quesadilla, tacos, etc… Above the restaurant was a quiet little bar area with lots of board games like checkers, chess, connect four, and playing cards so we sat up there playing around for the evening. That reminds me, the Spanish classes at the institute are now well underway and I have starting reading “Como Agua Para Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel (a Mexican author) in Spanish as my novel I have to write a report on next week. It’s SO good; I totally recommend it in any language. The institute is pretty cool because it’s for not just Americans or other English speakers but for people from all over the world who are here in Peru for various reasons, mainly because their spouse/family moved here for work. There is a Brazilian girl, a German guy, a couple Chinese girls, a Korean woman, a Japanese girl, an Indian girl, an American missionary, Rubie and I. Quite a mix…
Now, sports! The group of us went to a fútbol (soccer) game between Alianza Lima and Aurich a couple weeks ago. Alianza and La U are the two big competing teams in Lima. My understanding of Peruvian soccer is limited but from what I’ve picked up, la U was originally a “university” team and is typically supported by more upper-class Peruvians while Alianza is more the inter-city competitor that formed itself as a response to La U, so obviously we are all Alianza fans, sticking it to the “man” (elite Peruvian society). The game was held at the Alianza Stadium which is not in the best neighborhood and we were warned by our host parents: not to go as a group of only girls with no males, not to wear shorts or anything revealing, and even (in Melissa and Abi’s case) not to go at all. We thought we could handle it, but after getting out of the taxi into a swarm of drunken testosterone-driven Latin American soccer fans, we immediately realized our error. The leers/catcalls were overwhelming as we had to make our way through a crowd of rowdy soccer fans. Julia almost got molested my some guy who grabbed onto her yelling “bea-u-ti-ful!” We made a beeline for the security guards who directed us where to buy tickets, and met up with the guys, to our great relief. We sat in the safer, more relaxed section but we still got stuck behind some fan club which was waving flags in our faces the whole time. There is another cheaper section of all of the hard-core fans that stand and shout and cheer through the whole game and bring signs and stuff. Alianza played horribly and didn’t score a single time while we were there, but it was still fun to watch the game and definitely a cultural experience not soon forgotten. Also, my compañera de casa, Julia, is from Kansas and a big fan so she had been following them throughout the NCAA tournament. For the finals, we and Jesse made the trip to this American bar in Miraflores called “The Corner” to watch the finals between Kansas and Memphis, because it was the only place we could think of that would be airing it. And what a game! It felt so good to be an
We’ve found some other cool spots in Miraflores as well, but local hangouts, not touristy places. On Friday night we started out at Café Beirut where we smoked hookah and got 2 for 1 drink specials, then we headed out to Eka, which is this really cute, relaxed but trendy bar with a small dance floor in the basement. We know it’s a local place because it’s totally hidden down an alleyway off Parque Kennedy. It has no sign or anything marking it – it’s entrance is just this random lacquered wooden door. Afterwards we went to Tayta, which was crowded and very chill. It’s all on the 2nd floor of buildings facing Parque Kennedy but one side had a room for dancing and the other is more laid back with live music. Last Saturday we somehow got on the VIP list at “Aura”, this expensive, popular discoteca in Larcomar. So we all got in for free and even got to use the VIP room! The club was very nice (kind of reminded me of Fur night club in DC, but with a classier crowd) and we danced all night Peruvian style (as per usual) to deafening Latin beats. The time is just flying by. I can’t believe it’s almost the weekend again! Who knows what we’ll get into this time… ;o)
