¿Cuy?

¡Feliz día de Arequipa! Today is my city´s day and so there was a huge disfile (parade) that lasted all day and into the night and lots of parties and such. My adventure though for the day was at the fair that my family took me too and the meal after. It was pretty much like our fair in Yakima except for the stuff in the booths, the rides, and the animals are different. I saw an ostretch (lol I haven´t figured out spell check on this computer yet), llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, ponies and then some cute baby guinea pigs. After the fair I went with my parents and two of my sisters to a typical arequipaña restaurant. There again was a live band that played some traditional music from my city and different parts of Peru and were really quite good. Then comes the food, let me tell you that I am not very hungry to begin with (I know that is a shock to everyone that knows me) but I think the whole switching countries thing has effected my appetite a tad. Anyhoo, I had this pepper stuffed with meat, onion, etc with a plate full of potatoes which was muy rico (delicious) and then this thing that looked like a tamale but tasted like corn bread which was also very good and then...remember how I said I saw cute little guinea pigs....well they call guinea pigs Cuy and they are considered a delicasey here and well they eat them when they are not small but very large bigger than the pet ones. Cuy is what my mom ordered and they brought out this crispy critter, paws, head and all, but very flat and she breaks me off a leg to try. And guess what, it wasn´t bad at all. It actually tastes like chicken but it is a bit more chewy, I´d have it again, it was good. Hahaha so for those of you who I cook for when I get back, make sure you ask me what you are eating cause you never know what I might go pick up from the pet store. Oh so then after that meal I am sitting at the table talking with the fam thinking to myself that I am going to go write in my blog and tell you guys that Peruvians sure can eat, I was soo full, but then the waiter brings me out another plate of food! This time it was shrimp, potatoes, rice and three types of veggies. Now I can eat a lot but try being stuffed to the brim and then eating another whole plate of food. I´ll just say that I didn´t quite finish that meal, but I tried. The rest of the day was good. My mom arrived last night and she along with the rest of my famiy is very very nice. They took me to el club international which is a club to workout at. It was huuuge, picture Ike and Davis, buildings and all on the same grounds. They had any sport I could ever want to play, except for perhaps futbol americano which isn´t very big here and then they had courts for sports I had never even heard of like Fronton which from what I get is kind of like squash/tennis on a half court. Pretty much the club was beautiful and awesome and it going to be great for keeping me active. I read a bit, I´m working on my Spanish because I hate not being able to express myself. I am beginning to loathe the words sí and está bien because I say them so much. I´ve got to think bigger vocabulary :) Time for me to go work on my español in front of the TV. Love you all. Chau Chau.