La Selva Negra

I don´t know about you, but I have never tried black forest cake. I guess it´s pretty popular everywhere because all the exchange students give me crap about it. Earlier, Kevin and I were bored so we decided to go exploring around El Centro, he picked me up and we began our walk (Arequipa is really not that big distance wise and once I figured this out, walking places is pretty quick and easy). So we´re walking along, talking in Spanish (it´s good to practice with someone your same level) and he says something about Selva Negra (black forest) and so I automatically think 'Yum! He´s talking about the cake, maybe I´ll finally get to try it!'. Jaja, I get really excited and everything but no, he wasn´t talking about the cake, he was talking about a park near where we were se llama Selva Negra. Needless to say, I have still not tried the cake but I did get to spend some time walking around a really cool park. It had a few animals that were pretty cool, cute little monkey, some birds, parrots, an ant eater looking guy, llamas but they were all in small cages and kids were tossing them popcorn so that part was kind of sad. The park was up pretty high and a really good view of the city. Right below it was El Inter where I work out at and the Río Chili that separates the two sides of city-it was pretty cool. After hanging out at the park for a bit-watching Kevin slide down this cement slide next to the stairs, we decided to get going because it get´s dark and chilly pretty early and we were both without jackets. The walk home was fun, a mix of Spanish and English and I found out some stuff that made me pretty happy. You see there are a few different Rotary clubs here like I have mentioned before, Yanahuara has the majority of the exchangers (25ish) and there are about six of us that are the only ones in our clubs. Well Yanahuara plans a bunch of trips around Peru for their students, to Colca, Cuzco, a month long trip in Jan., etc. but has had problems in the past with exchangers from other clubs and so I, along with the other five exchangers don´t get to join them this year. Bummer ¿no? Anyways, Kevin informed me that our six clubs have gotten together and are organizing for us to do the same trips as the kids from Yanahuara, so that´s fun news. And then my family said I can pretty much go anywhere I want as long as I have Kevin or someone with me so that´s cool too. I was worried for a little bit that I wasn´t going to get out of Arequipa and see the rest of Peru...

Hmm what else. Last night was fun, the high school where a bunch of the exchangers go had their 82nd anniversary and so they had a big thing in their auditorium and Steph and Kev were both in the music group so I went and watched and met up with some other exchangers. After that, once again six of us crammed in a tico, and took off for helado at La Artica which is a really good ice cream shop near La Plaza. It´s always a good time with the exchang students.

Friday´s at school are always good for me too. I only have two classes and so I start at 1:30 and get done by 4:30, it´s pretty slick. I felt really proud, I actually understood a lot in Historía, which is a class that is normally way over my head. Now I can distinguish the different characteristics between ceramics, temples and other artwork of the Wari/Huari vs that of Tiwanaku and Nazca cultures :D jaja school is fun.

All for now! I have two more stories but they will have to wait till my next post! Hope you guys are having a fabulous weekend. Besitos!