Land of the Fire Dancers...

...last night I was riding in the car with my fam and at a stop light out comes this lady twirling these two lit torches as her friend weaved in and out of the cars collecting tips. This, however strange it seems, is pretty normal down here. I´ve come to the conclusion that pretty much whatever one can imagine can be turned into reality here. There are jugglers in intersections, guys on stilts, mimes and people dancing around in giant cell phone outfits, pretty much anything for a job. There is even the "shoestring guy", as we´ve named him, after all the other exchangers have seen him too -he walks this one block with hundreds of shoestrings piled atop his shoulders. There is always someone selling something and a lot of the times it´s something random.

¿Que más? My apologies for not posting in while, I wanted to make sure my next post included pictures. I´ll start today and work backwards.

Today was an adventure- I got called up to the whiteboard during Arqueología Peruana by the professor. I was sitting in the very back and I hear "Corrtnay Kayayher" (that´s how they pronounce it, most of the time it´s without the `t´though). Anyhoo, we had been reading from this huge packet and he wanted me to make up a theme on the board and then explain it to the class. Jaja and then there was me in my seat waving my arms "no, no puedo (no, no I can´t)" and him "sí, sí, ven (yes, yes, come) ." I just sort of looked at my friend next to me for some help. Luckily he allowed my friend to come up with me and then after discovering the my Castellano (they say they speak that instead of Spanish) wasn´t quite up to explaining the evolution of man he let me off the hook. Then later tonight I went with my mom and lil sis to mass for her mother that passed away´s birthday and met some of the family. She has a huge family and so it was fun getting introduced to everyone with a kiss on the cheek and then thirty seconds later going back around giving everyone a kiss goodbye. It´s funny, whenever someone hears that I am from Washington, even if I say Washington state, they always assume I´m talking about the D.C. area. No, no, el otro lado (the other side).

Yesterday (Wednesday), was my first time inside a peruvian supermarket. My mom, sister and I went after a very tiring session of Tai Bo :) The stuff is pretty much them same but they package things differently, a lot less in boxes, more in bags. Exotic fruits that I had never heard of, lots of sweets I have yet to try... My mom bought me some milk chocolate that my city is famous for, the same brand from before -Ibérica, and boy is it delicious.

Tuesday, was my day for thought and I decided that I needed to start working harder on my language skills because I hate being quiet.

Monday, I had inglés which consisted of me and the group I was sitting with pointing at different things we were wearing and asking each other how to say them in English/Spanish. I taught them the important words like spaghetti strap tank top, long sleeve shirt, scrunchie, hair tie, bobby pin, sweatshirt-jaja all the essential clothes that the book does not teach. Monday I also bought my first school book. It was for Antropología Cultural and only cost eight soles which is less than three dollars (all books here for school are black and white copies).

Sunday, well let´s just say Sunday was quite the adventure. Some of my family (mom, dad, Susy and Marita) decided it would be fun to go out to el campo (the country) since I had never seen it before. I put on my beloved Chacos, which I am extremely glad I brought (thanks mom) and hopped in the car. We drove through different parts of Arequipa that are more out in the country, this is a picture of some of the streets we were driving through-definitely not two-way. I got to see where my mom´s mom was born and then we hit the "cerros" which are the really dry rocky hills that surround the city. Here I saw the where some very poor people live and work making bricks and I got to see the giant ovens that they cook them in which are scattered about everywhere. I didn´t think to snap a picture until it was too late but the ovens look like partly finished brick houses. Here is a pic of the cerros....
Then started getting into the green part of el campo where all the farmers are. This is a picture of a farmer out in a maiz field with some cows. We decided to hop out of the car and go for a little walk. This is a pic of my parents on the road. Our little walk turned into a big hike and we didn´t get back to our car until several hours later with the setting of the sun. This is a picture of Marita, my mom. me and my dad. Let me elaborate...so right out of the car we come to this little river running across the road. It was actually quite pretty and then my sisters explained to me that the little black things in the water were tadpoles-there were hundreds of the little guys swimming around. Cool. There is also a lot of graffiti everywhere only it is political graffiti, like this picture of the current president´s name, which I was a little shocked to see since we were in the middle of nowhere. Around a bend in the road and we came upon a small pueblo (town), se llama Sogay-not pronounced how it looks for those wondering. We then decide to hike a trail up to las cataractas (waterfalls) which according to a guy we meet on the road are not that far. The hike was amazing, el campo is so beautiful. It was really peaceful too. All you could hear was the wind, the occasional moo of cow or well whatever sound a burro makes...I know it in Spanish... and the sound of the sandy path beneath your feet. It was awesome. The hills actually reminded me a lot of those in Yakima near the highway but with cactuses. I learned a lot along the way too. Like for instance these canals were built with money for the government because the old ones made of stone and grass from the time of the Inca weren´t quite cutting it. I also learned that methods of farming since the time of the Inca have not changed much. They still do everything without machines and farm the same basic crops of papas-potatoes, trigo-wheat, maiz-corn, alfalfa for the cows and this one other grain they use to make their alcohol.

They farm, like the Incas, on terraces, get their water from the canals and are very poor. We passed this on the trail and I was like "is that a house?" and then I saw someone moving about inside and decided that, yep, it was.

My mom is hilarious, she has so much energy. The whole time up and back she was always way ahead of everyone or sitting on a rock waiting for us to catch up. My dad told me my second day here that he needs a GPS to keep track of her and after Sunday I would definitely have to agree. We passed a bunch of people with packs -we didn´t bring anything, water, etc. since we thought it was going to be a short hike but everyone we talked to kept telling us, oh just a half an hour more, ten minutes, etc. So we kept going. Finally we hit a marker that says cataractas this way and a guy confirms it but says the going is a bit dangerous. By this time my mom and I have lost the rest of the group-because she is so speedy (I could barely keep up and I´m not in that bad of shape) and we finally hit the river...and the rocks. It turns out that we have to jump across from rock to rock to the other side of the river and I find out that my mom is not only speedy but fearless. I have to admit that I was a little timid by this part of the trip but decided that I had come this far so I might as well see the waterfalls...she just hopped across like it was nothing. Then the fun really began where we had to use all fours to climb up (see pic) and around the rocks as the waterfalls were more upstream. She again amazed me as I was soon left behind. Finally we made it to our destination. The waterfalls were cool but nothing amazing, a lot smaller than I thought but the journey made them worth it. We took a little break, took some pictures (the first one is of me and then the next one is of my mom)
and then headed back down to find the rest of the fam. They thought I had sprained my ankle since I was in my Chacos but no, I was just following the la mami who is really fast. The hike back down was an adventure in itself. This is a pic of my mom cruising down the trail. I kept wondering to myself that this can´t be the same way we came, the path looks too wide and we are a lot higher up and then...tire tracks? that´s when I decided to say something. Remember the picture of the pueblo on the hill? Well we had to hiked our way down all farming terraces back to the car. This is a picture of the girls (me, Susy, Marita and my mom) prior to hiking down. It was quite the experience trekking down the paths made by either animals or by the farmers. The same ones that have been used since ancient Incan times. This is a look down the hill at what we had left to go and the next pic is of my dad and susy following us down the hill...the decent was fun.
Once again la mami and I are way ahead and make it to the pueblo first and have to navigate our way back to the car-on the way however we hit a bunch of cattle and have to wait for them to cross as the road is so narrow.
It was more like a walking path than road. Finally we make it back to the car, to a beautiful sunset and the moon that had been up all day far off the in branches of a tree. Exausted and very thirsty we pile into the car and head back into town for a drink and some food. What an adventure.

Saturday was far less eventful, I went out with my older sister Susy to a restaurant that has a band and lots of dancing. It was fun, we were with the group of her friends from high school who were having their little reunion.

Friday was cool because I made my first journey home from the University by myself in a combi (the minibus that is more like a van than anything). I really need to get a picture of one to do it justice.

And finally Thursday night, where I left off from my last post. I ended up going out to Annika´s house (Holland) with Kevin (Canada) and Suilita (exchanger last year to Canada) and we made pizza in their brick oven outside and sampled some wine from her father´s vineyard. Peruvian wine is really different, it´s really sweet. When Sui was in Canada and Annika´s host sister was in Germany they told us they really missed the wine from Peru because nothing else really tastes like it. Other than that, we pretty much just talked for a few hours and then headed home. It was crazy to speak that much English but good to have a nice chat. Jaja oh yeah, on the way out to her house the taxi driver didn´t know exactly where it was, it was pretty far out and so we hopped out and ended up getting lost for about on hour-fun times.

Miss you all, I´ll try and write more often! Love you! Here´s a link to all of the pictures.