Whew...finally!

Apologies once again...it has been forever since I last posted but I am determined to keep this thing going. A lot has happened since my last blog and so it is going to take several posts to fill you all in.

First off I want to say thank you to my grandma and to Staud cause yesterday as I arrived home late from school my mom said "Ah, Cournay (jaja Courtney) tienes cartas." And for all you non Spanish speakers (the majority) she told me that I had received some letters. It was so nice to get some mail, so thanks again Gram and Staud-love you both lots! Haha that can be a hint to everyone else too-if you are ever bored or have some free time feel free to write :) I enjoy getting mail very much. My address just in case:

Courtney Kelleher
La familia de Benavente
Lazo Urb. Universitaria F-6
Arequipa, Arequipa Perú

Let´s see-this week has been good so far. Monday I went over to Steph´s (Australia) with some other friends and we chatted and then made this one German dessert which is basically deep fried battered apples with cinnamon and sugar. They are called Apfelküchle and besides knowing that they were clogging my arteries, were quite tasty. I also snagged her recipe for Queso Helado which is a type of ice cream typical of Arequipa. For those of you who know queso means cheese, no the ice cream does not taste like cheese or have cheese in it-it´s sweet and kind of coconutty. Promise I´ll be making lots of it when I get back, it´s really easy. Yesterday was good too. Went and spent some time after my classes in a coffee shop owned by the family of one of my favorite girls here (Anika from Holland) and we chatted for a bit. Both of us are worried we´re not learning Spanish fast enough and so we decided we are only going to talk to each other in Spanish-it´s quite fun and I´m sure fun for other people to listen to "Don´t tell me, I swear I know the word". After that, I went to the mass for my abuelito (grandpa-they have masses for the deceased on their bdays) with my mom at a gorgeous church with beautiful paintings on the ceiling, etc. and then went home and prepared for my presentation that I made tonight for all the Rotarians. Tonight my presentation went pretty well, talked about home, my family, friends, good ol´Yakivegas, life in WA and the US, showed some pics and maps. Jaja the only thing was (sorry Kim) but I was explaining that my sister was coming down to backpack around SA and that she would be coming to Arequipa too and I used the word "mochilando" which means backpacking but here I guess, like I´ve learned with a lot of words, it has a bit of a different meaning. It still means traveling but it´s more of begging your way for rides, really scummy and so everyone was like "what?" but hey, it wasn´t that horrible and now I know (thanks to my mom for telling me...after). So now I´m really happy to be over and done with that but now I get to start on college applications...yay....not. They shouldn´t be to bad though.

Qué más? Well the week before last I went on my first trip. It was a blast-I absolutely love traveling and I am determined to see as much of Peru/SA as I can. I´ll write about the trip later and post pictures (I have a ton) but it´s getting late and I need to get up early and go work out tomorrow. I do have a few quick fun pics of some food though.
This first pic is Chupe de Camarones. Camarones are shrimp and Chupe is soup. The shrimp here come from the river, not the ocean and they are huge...like mini lobsters and the soup is delicious...really hard to eat though cause they shrimp come whole. It´s entertaining, time consuming and it´s pretty messy. It´s a definite must try if you are ever in Perú. This second photo is of chancho (pork) cooked really yummy (yes shocked mom and dad, I´m a carnivore here-lots of meat twice a day), the red thing is Rocoto Relleno (typical Peruvian food) which is a spicy pepper stuffed with meat, raisins, and some other veggies (prob one of my favorite foods) and rocoto is always accompanied with Pastel de Papas which is potatoes with milk and cheese (it has a different flavor but the closet thing I would think of is scalloped potatoes. I have to warn the animal lovers and vegetarians of this next image, it´s a bit graphic (Tocaya I´m sorry you had to see this lol). This is a picture of Cuy or as you all know it as Guinea pig. Back home a pet and here a delicacy-it comes out whole, served with feet, nails, teeth and everything. This was actually my moms dish, I haven´t had the urge to order it yet but I did have the nerve to try it and it is actually not bad at all, kind of good when you don´t think about what your ingesting. So here in Peru they grow the fruit big and the people small. This enormous thing to the left is a papaya, well half of one and the thing to the right of it is a good sized pineapple. The papaya is huuuge, when I first saw it I was like what is that thing? It´s so good though. Mmm I love all the fruit here, especially mangos, they are my new favorite :). And last but not least this thing below-I´ll have to ask my mom again what it is called but it´s a type of veggie that looks to my like corn husks. This is a picture of only half of it and it looks pretty disgusting but it´s actually really very good. It like rocoto relleno is stuff with meat and pasas (raisins) and veggies and stuff. Like most everything else here it is served with rice like you see below. I dunno what Juana does (our housekeeper) but she makes the best rice-it sounds funny but it has an amazing flavor-I´ll have to learn and then cook for you guys. I have some other food pics but they are still on my camera so they will have to wait till another day. Hope you all enjoyed your lesson in Peruvian cuisine-the food is delicious in this country if you ever get the chance to try it. Miss you all tons and I´m going to try and update more often. Lots to catch up on. Besitos-Court.