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 :)



Updates

YEahhh...

Lima still sucks. Sorry that I am not having the time of my life here, but I mean I am blogging about my actual experience, not lying about one. Lima is cloudy all of the time, it is polluted, smells like smog, and there are SO many people who for the most part are REALLY dumb. You will literally be walking down the street and a bus will drive down the street with a guy screaming at you to get on. And then about 20 more follow that and by the 21st you just want to scream and punch the next person you see because along with the guys on the busses screaming at you there are cars that dont stop when they are supposed to, honking and car alarms everywhere, a thick, grey smog line that drives you insane, and stupid people whistling and screaming at you on every corner. Lima is NOT NOT NOT my kind of place. I don't even feel like I am studying abroad here. I feel like we studied abroad for 2 weeks, then came to some random nasty city to take classes. We are leaving in 30 mins to walk ALL THE WAY back to our school for an all day tour of Lima with Carlos, so hopefully that will make me appreciate the city a little bit more. If not, I have no idea how I will survive the next few weeks.

On Thursday we are going to Nazca for a 5 day trip and let me tell you...I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE EXCITED FOR ANYTHING IN MY WHOLE LIFE. Really. I am dying for an experience like the first two weeks of this trip. It is hitting me now that Cuzco is actually over and no matter how much I would love to do all of that stuff again, I am stuck here in Lima. Nazca will be AMAZING. :) We are going sandboarding, and going to see the Nazca lines! I am super excited about Nazca because it is sunny and we will be with everyone again.

Sorry to be complaining, but this place makes me so annoyed. I will def. suggest in my evaluation that they spend more time in Cuzco and less time doing nothing in this nasty city!

Host Family

As much as it pains me to say this, we had to leave Cuzco yesterday :( Although I was so sad to leave beloved Cuzco, sunshine, and Rafo...I was semi-excited to come to Lima to meet my host family and start a new experience here.

We arrived to Lima yesterday afternoon after dipping below the clouds and into the humid salty air which is about as opposite from Cuzco as you can get. All of us were in a bad mood because we barely ate anything all day and we were all missing our Cuzco adventures. At about 5pm Carlos told us that we would be meeting our families very shortly. Chrissy and I were so nervous! What if the family is mean, what if they don't like us? We were all like little puppy dogs in a pound just waiting to get chosen! Any time a woman would walk by, we would all think "are you my mommy?!"...some of us louder than others.  All of these crazy things were running through our heads until our host mom finally called out our names. "Elizabeth and Christin!" and we were so excited. I was totally embarrassed because I had 2 HUGE suitcases, a big hiking pack, and a duffle bag...the mom asked me if I were staying for a year...jokingly of course. We got to the house...or should I say mansion...and got the grand tour by our host mom. She was SUPER nice and talked to us for a while before she told us that she had 20 friends from her childhood coming over for a dinner party. We were kind of taken by surprise, considering it was our first night and all. We went upstairs to change and organize our stuff when Marcos, her 20 year old son, and his 3 friends came up to say hello. They were pretty nice, but made Chrissy and I feel super awkward...like we were not part of the group. We soon realized that one of the girls (an American) was studying abroad here and decided to stay a few more weeks after her program ended....soooo yeah she is also living with us too. The night went downhill from there. We came downstairs to a house full of drunk 40-50 year olds offering us Pisco Sour and speaking in rapid Spanish. I could basically understand what they were saying, but it was overwhelming...I can't imagine how Chrissy felt! We started drinking with them to be polite, even though all we wanted to do was have a nice sit down dinner with the family and settle in for our first night. Our host mom came up and told us we should go out with Marcos and his friends who were going to drink at a friend's house. We were very hesitant and did not want to go, but after we refused three times but they still instisted, we started to go. We then realized that neither of us had eaten since noon and it was about 10pm, so we told the group of kids we were gonna stay at the house. They gave us weird looks and were on their way.

After that we felt very uncomforatable, like they did not really want us there. The mom saw us sitting in the living room and instead of asking what was wrong, she kind of got annoyed that we did not go. She kept saying that there were snacks and we should eat snacks, but never anything to make us feel more comforatable. I thought I was going to CRYYY. We decided to go drink with the adults and get the night over with...free wine couldnt be so bad! So we went downstairs and drank a lot of wine while talking in Spanish to some 50 year olds. Our host mom kept ignoring us, not even eating dinner at the same table as us! We finally had enough and decided to go to bed. We emailed Rafo who helped us out a lot with the situation. The adults were up partying until 3am! It was ridiculous.

Today was a lot better though. We had a nice breakfast with the mom and sister, until the other American girl came down and dominated the conversation from then on. It makes it very hard to make a relationship when there is some other exchange student living here with us. We spent the morning with the mom while she showed us around town, that was nice. Lunch was the best because we got to know the mom and sister a lot better. After lunch we came to our room and got on our computer forever! The mom and sister went to the aunts house without even inviting us...again we found this odd, but whatever...and we went to chilis with two of our friends to do homework. Since Chili's we have been back here, but no mom in sight. I am not sure if she is here or not? Chrissy and I get pretty delerious at night, so we have been cracking up in here because 1-we have not seen our host mom since like 4pm 2-She never offered us dinner (she didnt know we went to Chilis. And even so, we only got appetizers) 3- we are not completely positive who all lives in this house....new people show up every day. and 4- we are pretty sure a ghost lives in the kitchen.

I know Lima will get better, especially when we can see our NCSU friends again (tomorrow thank God), but as of right now...I am homesick for home and for Cuzco! Pray for us, this family is a little bizzare.

Whatchamacallit

Haha, so this is a random blog post...if you have not read the Inca Trail post yet, do ittt :) I just thought this was worthy of a blog post.

Soooo, you all know how Chrissy and I love Rafo and Carlos. They are SOO funny and SOOO kind, so we hang out with them a lot. The other day we had the best time teaching them English phrases. On the hike I taught Rafo what "beasting" was and what "in the zone" meant, he loves learning about these new words! Anyway, so the other day we were chillin with Rafo and Carlos and Chrissy's ipod auto-corrected a word to make it "whatchamacallit" She said it outloud and right after she said the word, Carlos and Rafo started trying to understand what the word was. This was the legit conversation:

Chrissy: "OMG I hate autocorrect, it changed 'whatcha' to 'whatchamacallit'
Carlos and Rafo: "What is dat?!"
Rafo: "What are you calling?"
Carlos: "What you are calling me?"
Rafo: "What call to me"
Carlos: "Watch me in college?"
Libby and Chrissy die laughing.....still laughing....laughing...ok: "Whatchamacallit!"

And then we taught them what it meant. They were so pumped about that word. One of the best moments of this trip, omggg so funny. We went on to teach them "homie" "bro" "pound it" and they taught us some Spanish phrases and words like "causa" and some word that means cool, but I can't remember.

Tonight is our last night in Cuzco// also our last day with Rafo was today :( Chrissy and I cry whenever we think about it! We love him, he is our best friend! So is Carlos! I wish everyone could meet them, they are two of the nicest people that I have ever met.

I will update with anymore funny stories like this :)

El Camino Inca

Hola todos! I survived!! Yes, I did hike 29 miles up and down steep mountains for 4 straight days....and I loved every second of it. For those of you who don't know...the Incan Trail is a 29 mile long trail with huge stairs up and down steep hills that leads from Kilometer 82 in Ollaytantambo (I think) all the way to Machu Pichu. We left for the hike on Saturday and made it to Machu Pichu on Tuesday! On Wednesday we walked around Machu Pichu...aka one of the seven wonders of the world. Pretty awesome. So here is how it went down.

DAY 1

We began the hike at kilometer 82 and judging by the first hill, we thought the rest would be pretty tough. We hiked for about 5 hours that day and finally made it to our campsite. On the way we stopped a few times, but Chrissy and I were jamming out to our Ipods and were beasting. Speaking of "beasting", we taught Rafo some English phrases (beasting being one of them) and it was so funny. We saw so many amazing mountains and cool views on the way! The most amazing thing about this day was the stars...the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my lifeeeee! Well one of them...the other one comes later in the trip! We all stared at the stars and then had dinner and went to bed...overall it was a great day :) 

DAY 2

Today there was the option of paying the porters to carry our packs. I wanted to save money and also wanted to prove to myself that I could carry my own bag on the day most notorious for being the hardest, so I did not buy a porter! We started the hike and after the first 6 minutes everyone was huffing and puffing. I somehow got in beast mode and was killing the uphills. We took a few breaks and then we were in the second hardest part of the day....hiking uphill through the forest. It was like a jungle and the stairs were so steep! We had been hiking up literally since 6:45am and it SUCKED, but for some reason I was in XC mode and was killing the trail. We took a break for about 45 mins after the forest and then hiked the last bit of the hill to "Dead Woman's Pass." Dead Womans Pass is the highest point on the Incan trail. After our break, we hiked up the hardest part of the mountain. It was about an hour and a half of straight uphill on dirt and rock with no shade....and GUESS WHAT....I came in first of anyone in the whole 40 person group who had on a pack. I was first with a pack and second overall. I even beat all of the guys....it was so fiunny. Making it to Dead Woman's pass gave me such a feeling of accomplishment. I have never done anything so physically challenging in my LIFE. We hiked uphill for 7 straight hours and we made it. After that we went back down hill for 1.5 hours and we were at camp! This day was the most difficult, but also the most rewarding.

DAY 3

Hmmm.... so there is not much to say about this day..other than the most beautiful view that I have ever seen (remember, I told you the other beautiful view came later in the hike). The actual hiking was not that bad, some uphilll, but mostly downhill and flat ground. The most important thing about this day was the campsite! We were literally on top of the world. There was a wall of fluffy white clouds underneath of us, barely covering the huge mountains across. We took pictures and then played some soccer against the porters. I was playing soccer in a cloud...pretty much the coolest thing ever. I was beasting all of the guys in soccer too, it was great :) Anyway, so after soccer we watched the sunset then looked at the stars....this time we were even closer to them...so close you could almost reach out and touch them it felt like. We could see the milky way and in the distance there was a storm cloud with lightning. SO AMAZING. I will never forget the view of that place...unebelievable.

DAY 4

Last day...YESSS. Ok so, I was not this happy on the actual last day of the hike. I was actually pretty grumpy and annoyed. For one thing, people were starting to get on my nerves, I didnt sleep much because of the cold, and I had not gone to the bathroom in 4 days because the toilets were literally a small hole in the ground. Needless to say you did not want to mess with me. That morning though, we woke up and saw the sunrise over the mountains....so cool :) We hiked downhill all day long and did riddles which made the time pass faster. When we finally got to Machu Pichu we were SOOOO HAPPYYY! We did it! We finally made it there. The last uphill was literally like an 85 degree angle....I was pretty much rock climbing. We took pictures and then went back to the hotel in Aguas Calientes! 

WE MADE IT! :)

So that is the basic summary of my hike! It was wonderful :) It was literally the best experience EVER. I reccommend that everyone does this at some point in their life. Some more random things that happened...THe cooks made me meals "sin leche" (without milk) and one time forgot and I almost ate something with cheese in it...SCARY! The guides, David and Mario were awesomeeeee! Every time we left Mario said "vamos a la playa!" which was so funny. We played games and sang songs and all bonded on this hike...I love everyone here and I am so in love with PERUUUU! :)

Some pictures instead of words :)

Nommin on some lunch

RAFO!! Our favorite!

At the salt mines!

so beautiful. Pisac

A house at Ollaytantambo

Ollaytantambo

Vew from hotel in Urubamba

I RODE A HORSE!

Ok so to most of you riding a horse might not seem that exciting, but I have never ever been on a horse in my entire life! Today the group split in half and our half went to Saxiouiman (spelling is so wrong there) and took a tour by horse back through the mountains. It was awesome except for I was terrified of the horse!! I was so scared to ride it because no one explained how to do it!! I told Rafo I was really scared and he made sure I got on the calmest horse and then this Peruvian dude like walked with me the whole way! The terrain was extremely rough and there were tons of holes and rocks on steep hills....everything here is about 10 times more dangerous than I would expect it to be..I am sure my parents will love to hear that one. Even though it was dangerous, I was careful and it was still fun. I was the only one in the group with a guide, but everyone was cheering for me it was pretty funny. I love our group of people on this trip! Everyone is so supportive of one another and there are barely any groups, we all just hang out and it is great.

We finished the horse ride and had lunch at this trout farm....but I had chicken haha yuckkkkk trout! I actually tried the trout and it was pretty good. We went to downtown Cuzco to go to the bank after lunch and let me tell you we met the NICEST guy ever!!! He was a Peruvian guy who had great English and wanted to go to Utah for college and an education in International Trade. He helped us find the bank and was so nice. I have never had such a great first impression of someone in my entire life. The people here are so nice!

 Now we are just chillin for the rest of the day! I am about to go shopping at the Cuzco markets with some of the chicas and then tonight we have dinner on our own and might hit a Peruvian Irish Pub called Paddy's! I am excited to have a chill night with some good people :) I love it here in Peru! :)

Words cannot describe...

Words cannot describe, pictures cannot describe, nothing I do can describe the beauty of this place. I will attempt to do so, but everything here is so surreal and incredible that I do not even know the words to describe it. I will start off with Pisac. Just so you know, this will be long...the best part is about Ollantaytambo, so read that if you must skip the rest haha

On Saturday we FINALLY arrived in Cuzco after the hellish flight from Atlanta and were taken by bus through the streets to a nice little hotel called Hotel Garcilasco. All of the hotels are BEAUTIFUL here! We came into the garden courtyard and had a lunch packed by Monica---Rafo's wife---and started packing for our 4 day trip around to the different ruins! Before I describe the adventures that we have been having, I have to tell you about our group leaders, Rafo and Carlos. THEY ARE AWESOME. They are both the man. Rafo is probably about 50 or something and is married to Monica. They live in Cuzco and they host students studying abroad from all around the world! They are two of the nicest people I have every met. Rafo's job is to go around with university students to Cuzco and different places like we have been doing and pretty much just show us around Peru. He is so nice and funny! Hahaha--this seriously cracks me up every time I think of it...but when we take the bus anywhere he like narrates the surroundings over the microphone and says the funniest things in his spanish accent! He will be like "Ok...sooo....dis is where dey do da Inca stuff....Ok." hahah or "And if you look to da right you see da biiiigggg moooooon coming over da mountain...it is bery beautiful....ehh....ok." Gosh, it is so funny. Carlos is also so awesome. He is probably about 50 something and has been working with the NC State study abroad group since 2000 I believe. He is so helpful, they both are! They speak to us in spanish, ask about our families and our friends/ boyfriends or girlfriends, they actually care about what they do! I love them!

Ok so anyway, now that you know about the two guys pretty much leading our trip, I will talk about the trip!

So on Saturday we took a bus from Cuzco to Pisac and saw so many cool things along the way. We were all freaking out at the sight of the mountains, which now is still beautiful, but less exciting by bus. Actually that’s a lie, its still exciting. Anyway, the most amazing thing we saw that day was these three mountains—the one in the middle had snow caps on it and there was a rainbow above it. There was also a cute little village underneath them! We stayed at this hotel called “Hotel Royal Inca”…I think that was what it was called…but it was even more beautiful than the first! Gardens everywhere, a hot tub/ sauna which looked like a rainforest, and mountains all around. I was pretty much in heaven. We had dinner at this place called Ulrikes and they served pizza, but Carlos made sure I had something to eat! I had chicken and rice and it was pretty good. The Diamox medicine that we were using for the altitude made things taste kind of weird though. After dinner Chrissy and I went to bed because we basically go 2 hours of sleep on the plane.

The next day we woke up super early and had breakfast at the hotel. OH MY GOSH…I am sorry, but I am so obsessed, the watermelon here is soooo AMAZING! It is so fresh and juicy yummmm...Matt and Matt do not say thats what she said...jerks. ;) Ok so then after breakfast we went to the ruins of Pisac. We hiked this huge mountain and saw the terraces where the Incans would farm...it was mind blowing! We got to the very top of the mountain and took some pictures. I was DYING! Oh my goodness, I should have done more stair workouts before this trip! We then went to these like temple things that the Incans used for the God of the Sun....I honestly dont really remember exactly what it was haha...but it was beautiful. I think the part that blows my mind is the mountains around everything and how the Incans actually built this stuff. After seeing all of that we hiked down the mountain. Ok when I say that, I am being serious....we legitimately hiked down this huge mountain on narrow paths with sometimes not a lot to hold on to! I took a picture of the mountain that we hiked down...it was pretty hard to do, but I was proud once we finished. We got to the bottom and walked to lunch at the same place we had dinner the night before. Tim and I were stopped by these two little kids who had on crazy outfits and had a goat, so we took a picture. They started to ask us for money, but we did not know we had to pay! Whoops. After lunch we went to the market. AHHH THE MARKET. I am legit obsessed. Not even kidding. My teacher called me the "compradora" (shopper) of the group! haha it is true though. I bought so much and it was very fun :) We went to the town of Otallanaytambo after this and got our hotel rooms then chilled in the courtyard. The hotel, once again, was amazing. We all started playing this game called Ninja for like 30 minutes and it was hillariouss!!! I won..no big deal.. :) We went to dinner at this all you can eat place and Chrissy, Eliza, Kaitlin and I spoke in Spanish with Carlos and Rafo. I love practicing Spanish :)

I told you this would be long!

READ THIS, BEST DAY! The next day we went to the ruins of Ollanaytambo, this was by far the best day. We hiked up these HUGEEEE stairs to get to the top of the ruins. It was pretty hillarious because we were all out of breath and taking breaks. It is pretty hard to climb those mountains dude, I was dying. We got to this random spot and a group of us decided to go up to the top of the mountain. I would just like to start out by saying that this was not my choice! I was scared to climb up, but most of all I was being lazy because it was hot and the trail was steep and not part of the normal touristy stuff. I decided to go anyway...peer pressure. We started to climb....and climb.....and climb...then I made the mistake of looking down. I instantly got terrified at the height and made myself get up the rest to the top. We took some pictures then we realized that we had to climb BACK DOWN THE SAME WAY! I was almost in tears and I put my camera in Ryan's backpack and we made our way down. Guys I am telling you I have never been so exhilarated from something ever! We found our group and finished up the tour with a trip to another market...yes...then went to the most beautiful hotel/restaurant for lunch. When I say beautiful, I cannot even describe this place. Pretty much paradise. There was music, flowers, beatiful tiki hut things, llamas, parrots, a huge field to lay in the shade...ahhh gorgeous. And lay around is what we did. We left there and went to Urubamba to this really fancy hotel! We went to a ceramics shop and saw how they make it! Then we went to dinner and I had chicken/fries at this place called Tonis....EW EW E WEW EW E W W EW KSHGKASJHG;A'....uhhh yeahhh it made me very sick last night. I had to mention it, but thinking about it makes me so sick! We then toured a church and went to the hotel. Although the ending of the day was a bit rough, the things that I experienced were unreal.

This morning we woke up and got breakfast at the hotel. Chrissy and I were still pretty sick from last night and overall just exhausted. We got on the bus feeling like crap, but then we realized that we were driving by the most beartiful mountains ever! I wish the pictures were working so I could show you how wonderful it was! Rafo was talking to us the whole way, he cracks me up! Our bus driver, Elvis, is pretty much a baller. He drove on the side of the mountain about one inch from the edge! We were headed to the salt mines! When we got above the salt mines we went out and took pictures. What an amazing view. You need to see a picture. We were so high up and there were mountains and blue skies all around!!! The salt mines were underneath of us, I want to be there right now again! We then went to the salt mines and walked all over them and learned about how the water goes down from the spring and then after three days the water evaporates and then they just have salt. The best way I can describe it is hundreds of quadrants on the side of a mountain with a stream of water waterfalling onto each one! After this we went to the ruins where there were just circles upon circles all of the way down a different mountain! We went to the bottom and layed in a circle for 2 straight minutes of silence! Haha, kind of weird, but whatever it was an experience. Stupid bugs were flying all around me though, so I was kind of breaking the silence. Apparently the silence cirlce thing is supposed to channel energy??? haha I dont know. We then had to hike ALLLL THE WAYYYY BACKKKK UPPPP to the top. Oh my gosh, this never gets any easier. I could literally hear my heart pounding in my head. We left the ruins to head to lunch with some of the natives. When we got there they had us do this ritual thing with the Coca leaves where they honor mother earth, aka "la mama pancha", and then they made us lunch! These people were the nicest and sweetest people I have every met. They literally made everything from lunch by hand from the stuff that they grow. We had some kind of soup that tasted like earth...not being mean it really tasted like earth...then we had chicken, potato things, straight up potato, and vegetables/ fruit. I was so happy after this meal. The people were just always smiling and hugging us...what a great time :) After this we went to the textile market in ...I forget the town!...and watched how they legit make things from scratch. The lady had alpaca wool and washed it with some shampoo she made from a root and water mixed. Then they dyed the wool with natural things like mushrooms, and then spun the wool. I didnt buy anything at this market...first time the whole trip....but the stuff was awesome. On our hour long bus ride to Cuzco I talked to Rafo in Spanish the whole time! We went to dinner at this place called Jacks afterwards in Cuzco, but I had trouble finding food I could eat. I got salad meh.

And that brings me to here. I hope you actually read all of that...but if not I understand. I will try to add pictures when I am able!! :) I miss everyone from home! As you can see these days are insane, I feel like we have been here for 2 weeks! I love you all :)

Vanilla Twilight

Sooooo....I'm FINALLY in Peru! We arrived in Lima at 7am this morning. We were supposed to arrive last night at 11pm, but our plane had some landing problems which were not realized until 30 mins into the flight! We had to fly in a LEGIT CIRCLE around the Atlanta airport for 2 straight hours so that we could land with a light enough weight. Basically wating fuel and wasting time. We were all delerious in the airport, Eliza rolled on her skateboard down the hallway....oh yeah she was on her back. We dealt with a mean waitress and then we were back on the plane at 11:45pm to HERE in Lima! And that is how I got here :)

Right now we are sitll at the airport waiting to board the plane that is coming at 11:45! (We are one hour behind NC). I randomly found this free internet access and have never been more excited about something in my whole life!

Yesterday saying my goodbyes were so rough. I was pretty much the only one in our group bawling my eyes out. I said goodbye to Dan for six weeks and it sucked/still sucks really bad! I wish he was here with me :( I am making tons of friends though and having a good time, once we finally leave airports I think it will get a lot better :)

The best thing that has happened so far is that this morning around 5am we were flying over Ecuador and I watched the sunrise all the way to Peru. It was at its best moment when we were flying over Peru and it was rising right above the Andes mountains. SOOOO PRETTYYY!! I took tons of pics....which are still on my camera since I have not left the airport...but it was amazing.

Also, this song pretty much sums up my life right now with seeing amazing things and also missing Dan back at home, sooooo I decided to put a link on here. Also, it came on my shuffle while I was watching the amazing sunrise, so I thought it would be appropriate!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIz2K3ArrWk


I miss you all so much and I can't wait to see you in 6 weeks!!! :) I will update again as soon as I can! Everyone add me on skype! :):):)

3 days!!

Oh my goooooddnneeesssss. I am FINALLY finished with exams and have one last small paper to write before I am officially a senior and officially have PERU as the only thing on my mind :) I walked into my room about 10 minutes ago after coming back from the exam from hell and automatically went to open my backpack to pull out materials for studying--then I realized-- NO MORE STUDYING! yesss.
.....................................................................................................................................................................


...seriously.



aaaand then I turned the corner and saw this massive pile sitting on my floor, just waiting for me to organize, pack, and make weigh less than 50 lbs each before Friday. Looking at this pile of random stuff is equally exciting as it is intimidating. First of all, HOW am I going to pack all that I need in 3 bags that are each less than 50lbs when I am going to Lima then to Cuzco then to the Incan Trails then to Lima then to Nazca then to Lima?! (Sounds confusing, but you will understand when I actually do it). Whatever, right now I am just going to lay in my bed with my window open and my music blaring, celebrating the fact that I just had 4 awful exams in 4 days and they are over :)

So, back to Peru. Enough of me complaining about my exams, more of me talking about getting ready for Peru...that is why you are reading this after all. My dad called me today to tell me that in about 72 hours I will be in ANOTHER COUNTRY! How is this even real! Tonight I am having a dinner date with my roomies Christine and Ravelle (Chilis of course), tomorrow I am getting lunch with Dan and Carey, hanging out with Amanda, dinner with the older Lipetzky siblings and visiting the rest of Dan's family afterwards, and on Thursday I am finishing up packing and then going home for my last night with the fam! So many goodbyes, so little time.

For the Incan Trails hehe :)

I have most of my hiking gear, as you can see I am well equipt with a sleeping bag for the hike! Pretty much any time I wanted to procrastinate from studying I would go through my Peru pile (thats what I call it now) and start packing things. Apparently Dan wanted to procrastinate too and packed me into the sleeping bag. Other than a few minor things, I am all ready and have spent as little money as possible! :) I wish all of you could come with me! *shout out to Nick Graham* and to all of my friends and family! Thanks for all of your support and I am going to miss you all this summer!!!

 

5 days

So I am not very good at this blog thing. I read some other blogs and mine pretty much sucks, so all of you bloggers out there help me out! But anyway...

5 more days left in the US until I step on a plane and leave the country for 6 weeks. To some of you that may seem insane and to some of you it may seem like nothing, but to me it is HUGE. I went shopping the other day with my Peru roommate, Chrissy, and we spent $90 on random stuff for our trip...not the kind of money I was trying to spend on travel sized shampoo bottles, hand wipes, and socks. I am so excited to go on this trip, but this week is going to be a rough one...especially after my exams are over. Ha--that is a strange concept...a rough week after you finish the tests that you have been dreading for over 15 weeks. I am just pretty horrible at goodbyes, and since I will be saying goodbye to the most important person in my life for pretty much the whole summer I would have to say this would constitute as a rough week in my book. Other than that, everything else is AMAZING! On Friday night I had a bunch of friends over for one last goodbye before the summer and I have been visiting with other close friends as well :) Diane wrote me a letter to open on the plane with the words "Porque esto es Africa" all over the front. Even though I am not going to Africa, this letter means a lot to me considering I will probably be homesick the second I step on that plane! Love my friends :)

Seeing my family tonight made me even more excited/nervous to be in Peru! It doesn't even feel like I am about to leave, but I know I will be crying non-stop next Thursday when I go home for my goodbye dinner with the family (and Dan/Jonah of course). My grandmother wrote me a letter telling me good luck for the trip and it really meant a lot. It is great to know that I have people all over the country thinking about me for this summer!  Just have to get over that hump of saying goodbye and I will be in Peru having the time of my life in no time :)

Ok, so you all probably don't want to hear my pre-trip rambling, but then again you followed my blog...I swear it will be good once I am in Peru doing things that are amazing! So I guess I can be done procrastinating the studying I have to do for my two exams this week, but I will be back all of this week in preparation for lift off! (and hopefully improving my blogging skillzz)

So close

15 DAYS! There is 1 class, 4 finals, and 1 paper standing between me and Peru. I seriously cannot believe that I will be in Peru in 2 weeks! I have never been out of the country, sooo packing for this trip is becoming extremely difficult : / How am I supposed to choose clothes that I am going to be wearing a month from now in another country?! Haha, ok but really, packing is the least of my worries. I can't tell if I am more excited or nervous for this trip. Leaving Dan for 6 weeks is going to be the worst part of this trip! I know it is only 6 weeks, but still, we see eachother every day right now, so I am predicting that it will be very hard for me being away from him most of the summer! We will get through it though :) The best part about this trip...hmm...I think it will be the Incan Trail hike to Machu Pichu. Yeah yeah, I know that is what everyone probably says, but I am really looking forward to it! I am also very excited about speaking spanish with my family in Lima!

The other night a bunch of us from the trip got together and had dinner, so I got to meet some of the 40ish people that will be going to Peru with me this summer. They are all awesome! I am so excited to be sharing this experience with some great people and I am looking forward to getting to know them all better!

For now, I am packing, taking multiple trips to REI and feeling like a fool because I know nothing about camping/hiking, and spending as much time with friends and family as possible before I go. I am praying that God will keep me safe in Peru and will keep everyone that I love here safe while I am gone :) Ahhhh 2 weeeeekkssss, almost there!

Counting Down

Oh heyyyyy everyone! I am still counting down for the adventure in Peru this summer. Only 25 days and I am only minorly freaking out :) I have SO much to get done before I leave. I will write a ton when I am in Peru, but as for right now all I have to say is that I am very excited and I need to get started packing! Ah!

Counting Down...

Hola todos! Solamente 32 dias hasta voy a Peru y estoy muy emocionada :) I am super pumped to keep this blog to practice my Spanish and share my crazy Peruvian with everyone from home! If you can't understand some things that I write just copy paste it into Google Translate and there ya go :) Hopefully by the end of this trip I will be fluent in Spanish, but we will see. Anyway, thought I would start off the blog with a 32 day countdown! No puedo esperar!