Hasta Luego Peru!

My last blog post! How sad is that! In about 2 hours we are going to leave our home in Lima and head to the airport for our 12:40am flight to Atlanta! I really don't know what emotion I am feeling right now! I am happy to be going home to see my family, friends, Dan and everyone! But at the same time I am so sad to leave Peru!! We finally got settled in here and I am just not ready to go. I am so thankful for this experience and for everyone I have met and got to share it with. I feel like I have grown a lot over the past 6 weeks. You only get a few life changing experiences in your life and this has been one of those for me. I have met the most AMAZING people and had the most UNBELIEVABLE experiences here, most I am not even able to describe. It has been an emotional roller coaster and I have definately become a more independent person due to this experience. I have also become more confident in Spanish and just in general. The friendships I have made here are irreplaceable as are the memories!! I am SO excited to have a group of 40 great friends to go home with! We have had so much fun and bonded SO much as a group, I wouldnt change anything about this great trip!

Some things from the trip:

The two most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life....the sunset on the 3rd day of the hike when we were over the mountains and the STARS on the hike. I want to see something like that again SO BAD!

I have met the most genuine kind hearted people here in Peru than I ever have met in my entire life

I have learned that taking a crap in the woods is really not the worst thing in the world

I will probably never eat rice again....

I am SO thankful that I do not live in a place where car alarms go off all of the time, if I ever hear another car alarm again I will probably scream

I KNOW that I will go back to Cuzco one day!

And soooo many more things, but right now i have to leave for the airport! This might not be my last blog post after all, but for now HASTA LUEGO PERU! :-)

The moment youve all been waiting for...

Yo yo yooooo, RAFO RECORDS HERE WITH OUR NEW RELEASE, "Our guuurrrl Cha Cha"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk5GRdaufc4

DISFRUTA!!

(dont forget to read the post under this)

Get ready for more off our new album, "Chicken and Rice--Peru Style"

Winding down



Nuestra madre! :-)

 Last week in Peru! It is bitter sweet because we have realized that it takes about a month living somewhere to get used to the food, family, and area. I am starting to get really close to my host family, the american girl left which made it a lot easier to bond with the fam. I am learning how to save money by not buying lunch everyday and buying cheap fruit/ making sandwiches instead. I am finding things to do around Lima rather than just sitting in my room all day. Things here have gotten so much better and although I still don't like Lima half as much as Cuzco and Nazca, I feel like I am starting to settle down. The week after Nazca was actually really fun. We didn't have much bad weather and I went shopping and walked around different places after class every day! I actually saw a sunset behind a building one evening and was really excited! The whole group is getting a lot closer as well! We went out a lot this past weekend which was AWESOME and we all bonded a lot. So many funny things happened...for example I got stuck in a mosh pit.  That actually was a little bit terrifying, but I survived.

Last weekend we went to the beach with our family, Hannah  & Hannah's family, Marg's family, and Kaitlin & Eliza's family! It was super legit because we hung out with the dad and uncle all night and talked in Spanish about everything! They were teaching us cuss words (which was pretty hillarious), told us each what actress we looked like (once again, I was Sarah Jessica Parker....I am sorry, but I do NOT see it!), and made us sing our national anthem hahaha (of course I added in 'home of the WOLFPACKK!') which then I had to explain...in spanish :)  We got SO lucky with the weather that next day, it was about 85 and sunny. Perfect weather for the beach. Although it was so nice out, the beach there is pretty gross. There were dead birds all over the place! Buuuut the view of the island right in front of us was pretty sweet not gonna lie.

This past weekend on Father's Day was probably my favorite day in Lima so far. We visited our host mom's deceased husband's extended family for a cookout. It was SO nice! The mother is American and the father is Peruvian. They are like grandparents, I love them they were so adorable. There were tons of cousins, aunts, uncles, and family friends there too. We had delicious steak and grilled potatoes after the appetizer of sausage and mini hot dogs. There was also a salad, but I was allergic! The COOLEST thing ever that we found out at this cookout was that our host uncle (our father who passed away's brother)...his great uncles were the ones who ACTUALLY DISCOVERED MACHU PICCHU! I know, so cool. They were the native Peruvians who knew about it and kept a lot of artifacts and gold to sell and make money. It was not until they met Hiram Bigham (the American who was credited for the discovery), that they gave away their secret! YALL I AM RELATED TO THE FOUNDERS OF MACHU PICCHU! I mean, related is a relative term....but they are my host great great uncles, so I think it is pretty legit. Our mom is going to photo-copy the book where it talks about it for us! I can't wait to have that. I feel like Machu Pichhu is so close to my heart now that I hiked there and to find out something like that makes me SO excited. Haha of course our 14 year old host sister thought it was just hilarious how excited we were getting about this. She is awesome haha I love her!

With all of that said, I am really excited to come home for the amazing summer that is ahead of me! I go straight to the beach with my family from the airport, then I get to see Dan (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!), then Andrew and Juliana are getting married!, then we are going to the outerbanks with Dan's fam, then I am going home, then the next weekend we are having a cookout for the crew at my house in C-town, then  I am going to georiga for a week to hang out with Dan and then Kristen Nick and Kate are coming, thennn I might be going to visit my aunt and uncle the weekend after and possibly might be going to 6 flags with them! Ah so much going on that I am excited for, but I am not going to wish my last week in Lima away :)

RAPS:
We also made up a song about our maid who our family is not very fond of (this rap along with like 2 others...we get bored), but we told Alejandra the rap (she is our sister) and she was DYING laughing. She made us tell our mom too. haha this is how it goes: "Manuela, what the hella, all you do is watch telanovelas!" (telanovelas are soap operas) It is so funny all she does all day is watch TV and our mom knows it. Soooo needless to say they loved our rap.

Here are some previews to our raps:

CHICKEN AND RICE:

 "Chicken and rice, chicken and rice, all day every day chicken and rice. Chicken and rice, I ate it twice, all day everyday chicken and rice!"

CHA-CHA: (first verse)

 "Cha-cha-chicha-cha-cha-cha-chicha cha!...
CHA CHA is our dog, she also our HOMEDAWG
That girl, she crazy, she also really lazy!
Her dino-claws are long and we take her to the Wong
Oh wait! Thats us! Camilla makes a fuss...
Thats our bird, shes a nerd, and she only screams and turds!
She thinks shes a monkey and cha cha smells funky!
Her spot on the floor smells really really bad
so we kick her out the door and she gets really sad :(
HEY CHA CHA! CHEER UP! You are our favorite pup! :)
...you just smell girl....yeahh you just smell...
Cha Cha Chicha Cha, Cha Cha Chicha Cha...LETS GO!..."

Copyright: Rafo Records 2011, Shout out to our boy Carlos! ....music video coming soon

"Hey yaaalll, welcome to NAAAZCA!"

Naaaaazca, Naaaasty NAAAAZCA was so awesome. It was a great get away from the cloudy weather in Lima! Every day in Nazca the weather was hot and sunny :) On our looong bus ride to Nazca I watched the sun set over a desert and it reminded me of the Lion King. I don't think I have ever appreciated a sunset like that before because I have been deprived every since we came to Lima! The resort we stayed in was AMAZING. There were 2 pools, multiple patios, a huge yard with soccer fields, tennis courts, gardens, animals, EVERYTHING! There was a strange llama who lives at the resort and we named her Fredrica. She was so scary and would like lunge at you and growl...funniest llama I have ever seen.

Some cool things that we did in NAYZZCA, lets see...

SANDBOARDING: We went sandboarding and dunebuggying down some HUGE sand dunes! It was ridiculously fun even though I was pretty much terrified after my scary skiing experience in January. I am SO happy I went and did it though because it was one of the funnest things we have done on this trip! First we drove in this huge and kind of sketchy dunebuggy through different ruins and up/down big dunes! Literally we would get to the top and not be able to see the hill because it was so steep! Ahhhh so fun I want to go again! Sandboarding was also so steep...it was like sledding times 10000000, I went down on my stomach to gain maximum speed. It was pretty sweet. We made some friends along the way with 3,000 year old ancient skulls and also had some fun peeing in the woods...this is becoming a regular habit on this trip. I am no longer afraid to pee in the woods, go me!

CERAMICS: Another cool thing we did was visit this awesome little ceramics shop and actually got to make and paint our own pottery! I made an earring holder for myself and some stuff for other people! At first I SUCKED at making the pottery, it was actually pretty hilarious. Sarah laughed out loud at my earring holder at first, but over time I perfected it and it looked pretty awesome if I do say so myself. I did not have time to paint my last item, so the guy who makes the ceramics at the shop painted this siiiccckkk design on it! I am SO HAPPY that I was being OCD on my earring holder and didnt have enough time to paint it :)

PACHA MANCA: So in ancient Peru, Pacha Mama was worshiped as "mother earth." A lot of the traditions are still carried out today and one of those traditions is a Pacha Manca lunch. This is where they literally stick all of the food in the ground and let it cook under there all day! It is really cool, but also tastes gross in my opinion. Other than the fact that its nasty, it is realy cool and I appreciate these lunches because they do it as a ceremony for our group! While we were eating our lunch that insane llama was trying to steal it the whole time! Soooo funny, but there is a limit to how funny I can think a llama is. Really Fredrica, get away. Anyway, about the only thing I ate from the lunch was this big corn called "choclo" (i think that is how you spell it anyway) 

CHICKEN FIGHT: Ahhh what an experience. Not a great one, but not an awful one either. Don't get me wrong...I do not agree with the actual fighting of the chickens. It is horrible and scary and sad! I really liked having the cultural experience though. First of all...no gringos usually come to these things (gringo = hispanic word for americans), so when we walked in rolling 40 deep we got quite a few stares. Not only stares, they ANNOUNCED US AFTER EVERY FIGHT AND PEOPLE CLAPPED! It was hillariousssss. The guys in front of us asked us if we knew Michael Jordan since he went to UNC. So funny! He also had chickens fighting that night, so when it was his turn to fight it was not so hard to watch. First, they put the chickens together to peck at each other and make each other mad. Then, they tie razor blades on the chickens and let them go at it! It is really very scary to watch. I enjoyed the fact that everyone was staring at us....some people even took videos, I enjoyed the huge 5 sole beer that we bought (sorry mom and dad, but it was like not even two dollars and it is legal here:) ), and I enjoyed talking in Spanish with the guys in front of us. So overall, I am glad I went, but not sure if I ever want to go again!

The trip to Nazca made me think of Cuzco and all of the fun adventures that we had there together as a group! I feel like we all bonded on this little vacation, especially on Sunday! It was the PERFECT day! Perfect weather for us, a huge pool, and fun stuff to do all day. At dinner Carlos and I made a pact that we can only speak in Spanish to eachother for the rest of the trip, so we spoke in Spanish for like an hour. It was sooo awesome and great practice. I loved Nazca, nooot as much as Cuzco, but I still loved it a lot! :) Now its back to Lima, but I am going to make the best of it with the last two weeks of the trip! I will update again soon, mucho amor! 

 Also, I wanna give a shot out to my Great Grandma and Pop-pop Anders! Thank you for reading my blog all of the time and thinking of me while I am here in Peru! I am thinking of you guys, love you :-)

En espanol

I am going to write this in Spanish mainly because I am bored and have nothing else to do, but also because I need to practice. Sorry if my Spanish sucks. For those of you who want to read in English, just pass the Spanish part and I will write it in English at the bottom! Oh yeah also I dont know how to do accents on this computer

Bien. Ayer fuimos al mercado en Surco se llama "Polvos Rosados" y este mercado tiene cosas para un precio MUY barrato! La cosa que yo me gusta el mas sobre este mercado es las peliculas que venden! Tienen  casi todo DVD que puedes imaginar y el mas caro que yo vi era solamente 4 soles..aka un poco mas de $1. Muchas de las tiendas alli tienen 3 DVDs para solamente 10 soles! Ahhh, yo compre 500 Days of Summer, Life as we know it, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter 7.1, Water for Elephants, Tangled, Kings Speech, Morning Glory, y How I Met Your Mother season 6 para solamente 38 soles....que es casi $13 en los Estados Unidos. Voy a regresar porque me gusta peliculas!

Anoche, algunas personas en nuestro grupo trataban ver Pirates del Caribe al cine, pero fue en espanol y muy caro. Por eso fuimos a Larco Mar y bebimos "smoothies" y hablamos hasta medianoche. A ese momento, Chrissy, Hannah, y yo tocamos un taxi a la casa y miramos Water for Elephants hasta como 2 de la manana! Ah muy tarde! No tengo mucho sueno aqui, pero anoche yo dormi hasta 10 de la manana.

Hay muchas diferentes entre Americanos y Peruanos. Por ejemplo, el concepto del tiempo es mas diferente aqui que es en los Estados Unidos. Personas aqui  generalmente no planean cosas para el dia, pero se ponen la ropa para cualquier cosa...este es porque ellos son siempre en ropas buenas! Tambien, caminan muuuyyyyy lentamente...me molesta mucho, pero a ellos es normal. Otra cosa que es diferente es el trafico. Los carros en la calle SIEMPE son "honking"! Ay dios mio, no me gusta! Hay MUCHOS CARROS en todo el parte y no sigen las reglas de la calle. Es muy extrano para ver. El desayuno es mas diferente aqui tambien...pero un diferente bueno! ME ENCANTA DESAYUNO AQUI. Hay pan, mermelada, juevos, jugo, te, avacado, jamon, ahhh mucha comida y todo es deliciosa! Yo como mucho en Lima, mucho mas que yo comia en Cuzco.

Si pues, este es todo para ahora! Hasta luego :)

Ok yeah so I don't even feel like rereading that haha so ffor all of you Spanish nerds out there, that is why I have grammar mistakes! So I promised I would rewrite all of that in English...

Ok. Yesterday we went to this market in Surco called "Polvos Rosados" that has things for really cheap! The thing that I liked the most about this market was the movies that they sell. They have almost every DVD you can imagine and they are only like 4 soles which is like 1 american dollar. A lot of the stores there have a deal of 3 DVDs for 10 soles! I bought 500 days of summer, life as we know it, sherlock holmes, harry potter 7.1, water for elephants, tangled, kings speech, morning glory, and how i met your mother season 6 allll for only $13. I am def going back soon to get more movies.

Last night, some people in our group tried to go see Pirates of the Carribean at the movie theater, but it was only in Spanish and very expensive, so we went to Larco Mar and had smoothies/ talked until midnight. Then, Chrisisy, Hannah and I took a cab back home and watched Water for Elephants until about 2 in the morning. So laaatee. I dont get enought sleep here, but last night I slept until 10 this morning.

There are a lot of differences between Americans and Peruvians that I didnt know of before. For example, the concept of time here is different from the United States. People here generallly don't plan things for their days and get dressed as if anything could happen, that is why people here are usually dressed nicer. They also walk verrryyyy slowly here. It bothers me so much, but to them it is normal. Another thing that is different in Peru is the traffic. The cars ALWAYS honk. oh my goshhh. There are so many cars everywhere and no one follows the rules of the road. It is very strange. Breakfast here is different, but a good different. I LOVE BREAKFAST HERE. There is bread, jelly, eggs, juice, tea, avacado, ham ahhhh so much food and all of it is so delicious. I eat more in Lima than I ate in Cuzco for sure!

Ok yeah so that is all for now! I will blog more when I do something exciting :)

Here comes the sun :)

Oh hello everyone! So guess what! IT HAS BEEN SUNNY THE PAST TWO DAYS HERE! I never realized how much I am affected by the weather, but since the sun has been out I have liked Lima a whole lot better :) Yesterday was a great day in Lima and with my host family! Chrissy and I settled things with our American host sister and we really like her! Our mom has been spending a lot of time with us and we have had a lot of conversations with our other host siblings! Our favorite in the hose is Cha-Cha...our doggy! He is our best friend! Camilla is the parrot and we hateeeeee it! hahaha it thinks its a monkey I SWEAR! Gaaah it is screeching as I type right now ....

...Anyway, so yeseterday we woke up and it was completely sunny and beautiful outside. Breakfast is the best meal of the day here and we had class an hour later than usual, so the morning was already off to a great start. We got to school and noticed all of the flowers and palm trees all around (we had not noticed this in the cloudy weather). We ALMOST skipped class, but we went like good kids :) After class Eliza and I took a nap on the grass overlooking the ocean! Our school is on this huge cliff that overlooks the beach and the Pacific, it really is beautiful when it is sunny :) After class a bunch of us went to Chilis for lunch...my favorite yum. I got some ribs and I was a happy camper!

After lunch Chrissy and I decided to go home so that we could spend more time with our host family. Our mom was getting ready to go on a date to the theater so we plopped down on her bed and talked to her while she got ready! I was really excited to spend some quality time with her :) After she left we got on our computers for a while and just layed around. This weekend is election weekend and therefore there is a "dry law" where no one can sell alcohol for the whole weekend! We went to the Wong, our grocery store, got some wine, chips, and delishhhh salsa and came back home to eat dinner then watch a movie and work on some homework! We drank a little bit and watched Shawshank Redemption, ah so good. Then we busted open the chips and salsa...OH MY GOD. So good I am about to go buy more because we ate it all!

So yeah, overall a great day :) Nothing as exciting as Cuzco, but good in a different way. We are going to Nazca in less than a week and I am super pumped about that! More updates to come!

Ok, I take it back...a little bit..







Plaza de Armas...look its the sun! :)



aaahhh so much fun



Ok sooooo we just got back from our tour around Lima and I have to say, I enjoyed it. I knew I would, I am pretty sure that I am just not a fan of the area where I live. We visited the Plaza de Armas, some museums and churces, and this fountain park which is in the Guiness book of world records! The museums were actually pretty interesting, other than the sexual pottery which was so weird and hillarious because we are all actually 10 years old and cracked up the whole time. Seriously, I want to post a picture of some of this stuff, but I wont. You guys would be laughing too! We also went to this church which was kind of boring, but I was thankful for it because we were actually doing something rather than just sitting around in the smog! The weather was probably one of the major factors of my happiness with Lima today, it was nice and sunny and we actually saw BLUE SKY!! We got so happy and started to take pictures of it :) Chrissy and I are making up a rap about our host family (inspired by Sir-smoke-a-stoge) and we were singing that like the whole bus ride it was so funny. The most fun part of the day was at the fountain park! There are all of these fountains and it is in the Guiness book of world records! A lot of us ran into the fountains and played, I got completely soaked, but it was totally worth it. Once again, we all realized that we are actually 10 years old and we were playing tag in the fountains ahhh so fun :) At dinner I ate a french fry that I was almost positive was soaked in butter, so Chrissy, Carlos and I ran to a pharmacy to get some Benadryl, but I didnt even have a reaction! I was so scared and I felt bad for making Chrissy and Carlos come with me, but I guess better safe then sorry? I tried rubbing ice cream on my arm to make sure I am still allergic to milk, but nothing happened! AM I CURED?! I want to try something with milk in it and test it out, but I will wait until I get home for all of that.



Anyway...today was a great day after that last blog post and I am glad that I got to experience the nice and fun part of Lima :)