So I still have two final presentations in my History of Graphic Art and Visual Arts classes which have to be presented in Spanish in front of all the Peruvian kids in my classes and one of the professors is a crazy/picky teacher so I am nervous. I finally finished my second month at the Language Institute and I am not going back, which means now I’ll have all my mornings free. The language institute was kind of cool in the fact that I’ve met people of all ages from all around the world who’ve come to Peru. People from: Peru, America, Venezuela, Germany, India, Korea, China, Russia, Brazil, Australia, etc… but my free mornings will probably be spent wisely – either exploring or sleeping. Which brings me to the sad fact that I’ve realized that I only have 4 more weeks in Lima! Eeekk! Just now that I am finally adjusted and comfortable with life here I realize my time is almost over. It’s absurd how quickly the time passed. That first month chugged on slowly because every day was a new adventure, but now the days blur by into weeks and months.
On Tuesday I finally went to this famous old bar near our house and Plaza Bolívar called Antigua Taberna Quierolo (The Old Quierolo Tavern). It was very relaxed and they also serve lunch so a lot of business people go there on their lunch break to grab a bite and have a drink. They are famous for their pisco and I want to go back to do a tasting because I’ve heard you can ask to taste test their pisco for free. I hung out at the house of a couple Peruvian friends on Thursday night and went to this cool house-turned-bar called El Oso (the Bear) where we ran into a couple of Sayo’s friends, one of whom is a UVA graduate from like 2000 (small world!) who is living in Peru and engaged to a Peruvian girl. The walls were painted really cool with bright colors and strange cartoon-like characters. On Friday we all had a group dinner at Don Tito’s in San Borja to hang out with Paco and then got desert at Manjares, the best desert shop EVER. Their lúcuma-flavored tres leches (three milks) cake is absolutely incredible. They also have flan, an amazing lemon meringue pie, huge coconut balls, churros, sweet rice with milk, mousses of different flavors, chocolate cake, other fruit-flavored pies, and so much more. Afterwards we walked down Aviación to go cosmic bowling which was located in the basement of this shopping center (the same one with the discoteca, Onuba, where we went for my b-day).
Yesterday I tried to go with Rubie, Melissa and Abby to these ruins an hour outside of Lima but it didn’t work out so I found myself wake in San Isidro (the meeting place before the trip) at 9am. I didn’t want to have woken up early on a Saturday morning for nothing, so I grabbed a cab to Barranco and decided to walk around and explore on my own for the morning. Barranco is quite beautiful during the day (I had only seen it at night before). The buildings are old and have a charming colonial feel and there are flowers everywhere. The ocean is nearby as well (even though it’s a long way down) and if you walk west of the Plaza you can find quaint little residential areas overlooking the ocean. I also found some interesting graffiti which created a neat contrast with a view of the ocean behind it. I got a cup of tea at this café and bar made out of a train car that I’ve seen before and always been curious about. I sat outside enjoying the morning peace until some Peruvian guy decided to sit with me and start up a conversation/hit on me. While we were talking he mentioned how he, like many Peruvians I’ve spoken with, had this concept of Peruvians as being very friendly in contrast to American culture, which is more cold (for example people don’t usually make eye contact on the street or talk to random strangers). I do tend to agree with him that Peruvians are generally far more open toward strangers, but in certain cases, like the one I found myself in, I would have preferred he take the hint that I wanted to be alone and not force his company on me. Next time I will pretend I don’t speak Spanish to avoid having random older men try to pick me up. No gracias.
I took a micro home after that that was decorated on the inside with shiny posters of Jesus right next to Dragonball Z stickers, which I just found really funny. Anime is actually kind of big here, bigger than in the US anyway. It really surprised me at first but there are many other cultures that have influenced Peruvian culture. The main ethnic contributors are Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that Pokemon has made it to South America as well as the States. And of course, American culture is a hot commodity here. It’s prestigious enough for a middle class Peruvian teen to work at Burger King, but it would not be considered acceptable to work at locally owned restaurant, because despite our stereotypes of people who work at fast food chains, Burger King represents internationalism and modernity, which is way more “hip”. Also, places like Pizza Hut are fine dining establishments (they serve lasagna here!) and Pati, the woman I work with at the museum told me that the image of “cool” for most Peruvians is someone dressed business casual, sipping their latte in a Starbucks, on their laptop and listening to their ipod at the same time. Often “trendy” American or just more expensive restaurants have walls of glass so that psychologically the customers gain status by being seen by passerbyers as consuming Starbucks, or McDonalds, or whatever it happens to be.
