Las Clases Empiezan

Since last time I updated, I've been very busy with the start of the semester! During the week that I last updated, I went to some extra classes to try out different courses and professors before we had to officially matriculate as exchange students. The week was very interesting, and I ran into a few problems along the way! For example, I knew that Ecology was the one class I really needed to take to get credit for my major, so I was hoping that everything would go well when I tried it out. Little did I know, my professor is from Brasil and talks with a very thick portuguese accent! I could barely understand even the basics of what she was saying, and neither could the Peruvian students! To make matters worse, I ended up leaving class thinking that it was over and not realizing that we were having a 10 minute break in between the two hours of class! I realized what time it was and what had happened when it was too late to go back!

Nevertheless, I still decided to sign up for the Ecology class, because I think I will be able to work with the professor after class for extra help if I don't understand something and the other students are very helpful too. Other than Ecology, I decided to officially sign up for Photography and Peruvian Social Reality (along with the Spanish language class of course). I'm really excited, because I find all of my classes very interesting and I think I will be able to learn a lot from them.

During the first week of classes, we also went with our friends Rey and Jonna to a bar on Thursday night to see a band called Tavarra play. Jonna had grown up with all the members of the band, and they reminded me of a Peruvian version of Sublime. I absolutely loved the music! On Saturday night we went to Meg and Jen's house to meet a bunch of our friends. We had a little fiesta on the roof patio of their house, and Rey, Fernando, and Rumi gave us some brief festejo lessons. After, we all went out to dance at a discoteca. On Sunday, Meg, Meredith, and I woke up early to go for a long run along the coast to train for the half marathon. We went for a two hour run and got some beautiful views of the sea and the huge cliffs on the coast in Lima.

This past week was a very busy one! All the foreign students officially matriculated on Monday, and I got into all of the classes I needed. On Monday when I was standing outside of the classroom for Peruvian Social Reality waiting for class to begin, a boy named Guillermo approached me and started a conversation. He asked me where I was from and when he confirmed that I speak English, he told me he really needed help with his homework for English class and asked me if I could help him understand some of his readings. I sat with him for 10 minutes before my class started, and then ended up meeting with him for a few hours later that day to help him out. I figured I might as well take advantage of an opportunity to finally help someone here, since I feel like for the past two months everyone has been helping me! It was also a nice chance to make a friend, and I got to know a little more about my new friend.

Other than classes this past week, I decided to try out a few new activities. I tried out the chapel choir that sings at mass on campus at La Católica, since I sing for the chapel choir at Holy Cross. All of the kids were really nice and I really enjoyed it, but I think the rehearsals conflict with my schedule so I may not have the chance to do it. I also went to my first class of Afro-peruvian dance, which meets every Thurday evening to practice. It definitely put me out of my comfort zone, but it was so much fun to learn such a uniquely Peruvian dance! On Thursday, my new friend from Peruvian Social Reality class invited me to come play basketball with her. She plays every week on Thursdays as part of a 2-credit class, and she said it would not be a problem for her to bring a friend. It was so much fun to play, even though I haven´t really played much basketball since I graduated from High School, and I got to meet a lot of really nice girls on the team.

The other activity I started last week was my volunteer work. Every Friday from 9am to 12 I will go and volunteer at the public Children´s Hospital in Lima with Evelyn. This past Friday, Evelyn and I went for the first time and got to meet the Católica professor who runs the program Aprendo Contigo in various hospitals throughout Lima and will be there during the times we volunteer. I absolutely loved it, and I am so excited to start volunteering. The program is through the education department at La Católica, and the volunteers visit with the kids and help teach them since most of the kids cannot make it to school.

We got to meet some of the kids, and saw one wing with HIV patients and another with cronically ill patients. I met a 16-year-old girl named Leidi who has basically lost all physical use of her body and had bandages covering sores on her head. Despite her heartbreaking condition, she had the most positive attitude and was talking to me about how she likes helping foreign volunteers improve their Spanish. The maturity and positive attitude of a little girl placed with such suffering was truly enlightening for me to see. I have a feeling that I will be learning more from these children than they will be learning from me, but I do hope that I can make some sort of impact in their lives.

After the first day of volunteering, I was so happy with my preview of the kind of work I will get to do this semester. This volunteer work is exactly what I´ve been hoping to do for quite some time now. I have also been in touch with the same professor and am going to go try out a second hospital location on Thursday afternoons for children with HIV. Lima is full of opportunities to volunteer, and I am excited to get started.

Besides all my new activities, we had a pretty busy weekend as well! On Friday, the HC kids and I went to a dance performance put on by students from La Católica in a local museum. All of the student perfomers were extremelly talented and we saw typical dances from all over Peru. Rey danced in the Afro-peruvian festejo dance and Jonna sang the music for many of the mountain-region dances. They both have so much talent, and it was fun to go and cheer them on! On Saturday we had a mini fiesta in Sean and Peter´s house to celebrate Sean´s birthday.

El viernes - un baile de la sierra

Los chicos con Rey y Jonna despúes del show

On Sunday, it was the big half marathon day! We woke up at 6am to get to the center of Lima for the start of the race at 8am. Meredith, Meg, Peter, and I all ran together, along with our Peruvian friend Hugo. It was an amazing experience, and although I definitely got tired at times, we all finished the 21 kilometers/13 miles without having to stop at all along the way - and we crossed the finish line hand in hand! The weather for the race was perfect - the typical Lima weather of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy - and the race was almost totally flat. The route went all through Lima, from downtown to Miraflores to the coastal views, and there were different bands playing music along the way to cheer us on! It was a great feeling to finish the race, and we were all so glad we got to participate.

Los corredores con éxito despúes de la media maraton

Con nuestras "hinchas" dedicadas

After resting a lot yesterday, I have to start catching up on some of my homework and readings for classes! I will write more again soon!

Nos vemos,

Michelle

Una semana ocupada

Buenas noches,

It has been a little while since I last updated, and it certainly has been a busy week. The week that we returned from our trip was pretty relaxed, and we just had our language class each day and a few group trips in the afternoon. On Wednesday August 6th we went to el Museo del Oro, Peru's Gold Museum. Our guide was very enthusiastic and he showed us artifacts from the pre-Inca and Inca times, mummies from before the Incas, and a collection of guns and armor used by the Spanish Conquistadors.


On Friday we had another group trip, and we went to a film festival at the French Cultural Center in Miraflores. The festival displayed a collection of low-budget films by budding directors, and we saw a movie called El Tunche. The film was directed by a man who is in a master´s program at La Católica, my school, for Anthropology and film. It was a very interesting - and at times comical - film about a group of medical students in Lima who travel to the jungle to try to uncover the myth of El Tunche, a mysterious creature that kills people in the jungle. It was cool to see a low budget Peruvian film, and it brought back memories of my brother's days of making movies with his friends.


On Saturday morning we went to Parque de las Leyendas with our director Julio, which is a zoo nearby our university. It was cool to see some interesting animals like condor birds, monkeys, llamas, al paca, and vicuñas, but it was also a little sad to see them all kept in captivity. The funniest part of my day was when Meredith stuck her face close to the fence to say hello to a llama and it spit, grassy saliva and all, right at her face! Although a bit shooken up and laughing, she managed to survive the rest of the day. On Saturday night we met up with Fernando and his friends to go out to celebrate his birthday. It was fun to see them all again, and we always enjoy having some partners to help teach us to dance salsa and merengue. On Sunday, Meredith and I rested a little bit, went for a run around a nearby golf course, and went to mass at night with our family.

Vicuña y llama en El Parque de las Leyendas

Starting Monday, this past week was fairly busy with work for our Spanish class and planning for the start of the semester. It was the last week of our orientaion class, since classes started today, and we had to prepare for our final exam and presentation on our experience in Peru so far. Besides class work, we had an orientation on Thursday for all foreign students to go to each department within the university to ask about certain classes. We had to decide for this week what classes we wanted to try out, and after this week the foreign students officially sign up for classes. Although my schedule became a bit complicated to figure out, I decided to try out the classes Ecology, Peruvian Social Reality, History of Peru in Modern Times, Ethnicity and Mestizaje in Peru, Photography, and of course our Spanish class that we have to continue taking. From there, I will decide which courses I will actually take.

Other than the business of scheduling and our language class, Meredith and I got three new arrivals to our house in the past week. Two weeks ago, Ana Maria arrived and earlier last week Kelly and Caitlyn arrived. Ana Maria is from Finland, Kelly and Caitlyn study at the University of Wisconsin, and all will be studying at La Católica and living in our house. Although I wasn´t really expecting to have so many students living in the house with me, it´s nice to get to know other foreign students as well. The girls are all so friendly and dinner conversations with Señora and Dante are always interesting, especially on Tuesday night when we spent three hours chatting at the dinner table!

This past Wednesday our group of HC student went to an old cemetary called Cementerio Presbítero Maestro, which had huge graves and tombstones from a bunch of famous people - including presidents, authors, and Lima´s nobility. On Friday night, our group went to a show called Brisas del Titicaca, which displays a bunch of dances from all over Lima. The room was set up with a bunch of tables surrounding the dance floor and a live band up above, and we were served appetizers and drinks. The performances were quite long and lasted from 10pm to 2am, but it was great to see the display of various dances and all of the audience got up to dance in between performances. Caitlyn came along with us, but Ana Maria and Kelley were traveling to Pisco this weekend. My favorite dance was called Marinera Norteña and is a very emotional dance with only two performers.

Brisas del Titicaca - un baile de la sierra

Brisas del Titicaca - Marinera Limeña

Saturday was a very long day, because after getting up to run we took a taxi with Fernando´s brother Juan Pablo (Juan Pa for short) to their house in los Olivos. Fernando had invited us over his house earlier in the week to have lunch with his family. We ended up spending the whole day chatting in their house, for about 6 hours! It was so nice to meet their family, have a home-cooked meal, and chat with everyone for the afternoon (of course in Spanish!). We got to meet Fernando and Juan Pa's nephews and ended up looking at their baby pictures!

Almuerzo en la casa de Fernando y Juan Pa

Saturday night we went to a discoteca on the ocean in the Costa Verde, called Drama. We went to celebrate Fernando's friend Hugo's birthday, and we also met up with our friends Rey and Jonna who eat lunch with us at school, Caitlyn (one of the new girls in our house), and Evelyn's two cousins Juan and Carlos. It was so much fun to have everyone we've been hanging out with so far in one place, and the discoteca was really nice because it was literally right next to the beach.

Una foto de todos los amigos en Drama el sábado

Sunday was a more relaxed day, and we just tried to look into our classes for the week and went for a run. Meredith, Meg, and I ran about 9 miles, which is the most I´ve ever run! We decided out of the blue that we are going to run the half marathon in Lima at the end of August! I never thought I would want to run a half-marathon, but when Meg brought up the idea I thought it would be something nice to work towards. The half-marathon is in two weeks and we haven't really trained properly, but our goal is just to finish it!

Today was the first day of classes and it was certainly a long day. Since I am trying out more classes than I am planning on taking, I was at school from 7:30am until 7:30pm! I had three classes today, and had time in between to rest. Photography this morning seemed very interesting, and we met some really friendly girls in Peruvian Social Reality (although the professor is much harder to understand than my other professors). History of Peru in Modern Times seems like a very worthwhile class, but it also seems like almost too much homework, projects, and readings.

Well that's all for now! After such a long day, I need to get some sleep!

Chao,

Michelle

Un viaje increíble ~ Puno

On Thursday we took off on our journey to Puno at about 7:30am. Although we were looking forward to sleeping on the bus, we were soon to find out that this was not an ordinary bus but a tourism bus. The bus had its own guide and made four stops along the way.

Our first stop was only about a half hour into the ride, at the tiny town of Andahuaylillas. Here we toured La Iglesia de San Pedro, which was constructed sometime in the 1500s and was later turned into a Jesuit church. The church displayed influences from both the Incas and the Spanish, and some of the Incas who helped make it were buried under the floor while some of the Spanish who constructed it were buried within the walls. On the way out, our guide Juan pointed out a very interesting painting portraying the pathway to hell as full of flowers and the pathway to heaven as full of thorns - an interesting interpretation of the suffering experienced by the people who constructed the church. Our next stop was a site of Incan ruins called Raqchi, which was a huge temple complex dedicated to the god Wiracocha. After that, we stoped at a spot called La Raya, which is the highest point on the way between Cusco and Puno (4335 meters above sea level) and has a beautiful view of the mountains. The last stop on the journey was a tiny town called Pukara, where we saw a museum of ancient artifacts and ceramics of cultures from times before Christ.

Finally, after 10 hours of travelling, we arrived in Puno. Puno is a beautiful city overlooking Lake Titicaca, although most of the city remains in poverty. Lake Titicaca is an amazing sight, as it is the world's highest navigable lake. We explored the city of Puno a little on Friday night and made sure to rest up for a busy day on Saturday. On Saturday we left the hotel by 6:45am to take a boat ride on Lake Titicaca. First on our agenda, we went to Las Islas Uros, the floating islands that are about half an hour from Puno by boat. The people originally constructed these islands to escape from the Incas, and they speak the native language Aymara as well as Spanish. The islands were absolutely amazing - they are made simply of about a foot's depth of reeds and they are anchored to the bottom of the lake so they will not float away! As soon as our boat arrived, the people of the island came right over to us to welcome us to their home. A woman named Rosa approached me and invited me to see her house, which was a reed house with one room. She told me a little about the island and then gave me some clothes that the Uros people wear and told me to try them on! When I walked out of her hut, I saw all the other HC students wearing the clothes too, and we made sure to take plently of pictures!

After the Islas Uros, we took a 2-hour boat ride to La Isla Taquile, which is an island town built onto a hill. We hiked up the hill for a while, stopping to take in the beautiful views along the way. When we arrived in the main plaza, we saw all the island people dancing around the plaza to celebrate the festival of San Santiago. The people of Taquile wear unique clothing - married men wear red hats, single men wear red and white hats, and women usually wear a black covering over their heads. The people of Taquile speak Quechua and Spanish, since they descended from the Incas. For lunch on the Taquile Island we had fresh trout, and it was one of my favorite meals so far in Peru. After La Isla Taquile, we took the 2 1/2 hour boat ride back to Puno. That night we had dinner in the Plaza de Armas and met up with a relative of Megan who lives in Puno. Megan's father's cousin has been living and working in Puno as a priest for 40 years, and it was very interesting to hear some of his stories.

On Sunday we drove to a small town called Chucuito and saw a Spanish look-out point over Lake Titicaca, as well as the Inca Templo de la Fertilidad. In the afternoon, we took off for the airport in the city of Juliaca. On the way to Juliaca we stopped to see an old cemetary and burial ground for the Kolla culture from the years 1000 dc to 1600 dc. The site is called Sillustani and had many huge tombs marking the grave site for entire families. Many of the graves were destroyed when the Spanish came and stole gold and silver from the burial sites. The top of Sillustani also had amazing views of the two lakes on both sides of the peninsula.

After Sillustani, we completed our trip to the airport, waited a while, and finally flew home to Lima. It was an unforgettable week of travel, and I was so intrigued and amazed at everything we experienced and saw. I am so excited to plan weekend trips to further explore Peru during the semester. By the end of the trip, we were satisfied with all that we saw, but certainly ready to return to Lima - our new home.

Las Islas Uros - Islas flotantes

Con nuestra nueva ropa en Las Islas Uros

El festival para San Santiago en La Isla Taquile

Una tomba grande en Sillustani

La vista del lago en Sillustani

Un viaje increíble ~ Cusco y Machu Picchu

Bueno, let me continue on with the trip.

Cusco:

We arrived in Cusco by plane on Monday around noon. Cusco is about 11,000 feet above sea level, so we rested for most of the day to avoid getting altitude sickness. Luckily, the only symptom I felt on the trip was exhaustion and I managed to avoid the worst effects. The city is beautiful and although it is fairly large, there are no tall commercial buildings - just small houses and businesses with tiled roofs surrounded by mountains. On Monday night we went to a restaurant called Inka Wall where we saw a show with traditional Andean music and dances typical to various regions of Peru.

On Tuesday, feeling refreshed, we drove out of the main city area to an area with many ruins from the Incas. There we saw Saqsayhuaman, Tambomachay, Puca Pucara, and Qenqo. All of the ruins were located near each other and had great views of the city of
Cusco and the surrounding mountains. The area had llamas and alpaca roaming around the hills and streets freely, and we made sure to take pictures! We then drove to a beautiful look-out point on another hill overlooking the city, which has a statue of Jesus with his hands streched out over the city - a small replica of the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

For lunch, we made sure to try the typical dish of cuy (guinea pig) and, although it wasn't my favorite, it really wasn't too bad. Later that afternoon we toured the main Cathedral in the Plazas de Armas, which was interesting because it had influences from the Incas as well as from the Spanish. In a painting of the last supper, for example, Jesus and his apostles were dining on guinea pig and chicha morada - a very popular food and drink in the Andes. Finally we went to La Iglesia de Santo Domingo, which is a Spanish church built on top of the Inca's Templo de Oro. Tuesday night we meet up with our friend Felipe, who is a fellow Holy Cross student studying in Cusco for a summer program. It was funny to see another familiar face in Peru when we randomly ran into him on our first day in Cusco in the Plaza de Armas.

On Wednesday we left the hotel at 7am to go to the train station for Machu Picchu! It was a day full of travelling, since the train took about 3 1/2 hours each way, but it was well worth it. After taking a 20-minute bus ride up the mountains, we were finally there! The view of Machu Picchu seemed unreal - it was like all the postcards and photos I had seen previously but ten times better. We first hiked up to a spot where we got a panoramic view of all the ruins. The view was breathtaking and I really wanted to stay in that one spot forever! Since we only had about three hours before we had to catch the bus again, we made sure to explore all of the ruins with our guide July. It was interesting to learn a little about the ruins too. Machu Picchu was not a city but rather an expansive home for one of the Incan rulers - probably the best known ruler Pachacutec - built sometime in the 1400s. Over time grass and trees grew over the ruins, and it was rediscovered by accident by Hiram Bingham in 1911. All in all, it was an incredible experience and I really hope to return so that I can hike part of the Inca trail and the mountain next to it called Huayna Picchu.

After such a long day on Wednesday we made sure to get plenty of rest. On Thursday morning we went to the Museo Histórico Regional, which had artifacts and paintings from the pre-Inca cultures, Incas, and Spanish settlers. After we stopped at an animal shelter where we saw rescued pumas, huge condor birds, parrots, a giant turtle, and the tiniest monkey I have ever seen. Not far from the animal shelter, we went to a huge market called Pisaq where there are tons of stands set up selling all kinds of goods, for prices that are always up for bargaining. After lunch we drove to another set of Inca ruins called Ollantaytambo, which was an Inca city turned into fortress. Thursday night we went to another dinner that had a music and dance performance. At the end a few of us got picked to dance with the performers! After dinner we went out to a few "discoteca" clubs, and on Friday we had to wake up at 5:45am to leave for the 10-hour journey to Puno.

I think I would call Cusco my favorite destination, because I was left speechless at the beautiful views of the city, the clear blue sky, and the many ancient ruins left behind by the fascinating culture of the Incas. There was so much to see in this one city, and I was intrigued by all that we visited and saw. I'll save the final destination, Puno, for tomorrow.

¡Buenas noches!

Megan y yo enfrente de la ciudad de Cusco

El grupo enfrente del catedral en La Plaza de Armas

Machu Picchu ~ una experiencia increíble

Machu Picchu ~ una experiencia increíble

Niños andinos cerca del Ollantaytambo

Un viaje increíble ~ Cusco, Puno, y Puerto Maldonado

What can I say? This past week was one of the most amazing weeks of my life! For the past eight days, the Holy Cross kids and I have traveled to Puerto Maldonado, Cusco, and Puno, and we have seen countless breathtaking sites along the way. I'll break up the trip by each destination and start from there.


Puerto Maldonado:

We left Lima at about 5:30am on Saturday morning July 25th. We were all exhausted because that night we went over Fernando's friend Rumi's house to have a farewell get-together with our friend Jenny before she returned to the United States. Despite the exhuastion, I found myself sitting next to an extremely interesting Australian man on the plane. Instead of sleeping, I ended up chatting with my new friend Rod for the entire flight. It was so enlightening to hear about all of his travels throughout the world, and it inspired me to start thinking about ways to travel in the future.

After the flight we arrived in Puerto Maldonado, a small city in the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest in Peru. After browsing the city markets and buying some delicious Brazilian nuts we got in a long thin boat and took an hour boat ride along the Madre de Dios river to the EcoAmazonia lodge. The lodge included a bunch of straw and wooden bungalows, just like I had imagined a village in the jungle would look like! It was surprisingly cold in the jungle on the first day and there was no heat or hot water, so we bundled up. For lunch when we arrived we ate juane, which is a rice and chicken mixture folded up in a huge palm leaf. That evening we went with our guide Luis to a little island across the river, called La Isla de los Monos (Monkey Island). There we saw all kinds of monkeys in the forest and none of them were afraid to come right up to humans. One even stood on Evelyn's shoulders!

On Sunday we started the day by hiking a few kilometers into the jungle to find a lake, called Apu Victor. Along the way our guide Roni showed us some interesting plants: a garlic tree, a huge "Father tree", a termite nest, a rubber tree, etc. We stopped at one tree where Roni took out a little nut-shaped object and cut it in half with his machete. He pulled out a little white worm called a suri and explained that this worm is commonly eaten by natives of the jungle. After he asked if anyone wanted a taste a suri, Meredith, Peter, and Evelyn tried one! I decided that you only live once and I might as well keep an open mind to new things while here in Peru, so I tried the worm too. It was a little slimy, but all in all it wasn't that bad! We also tried termites, which were tiny and seemed like candy compared to the suri.

The lake was absolutely beautiful and we took a little boat ride to see some plants and animals in the area. We got within a few feet from a huge brown caiman, which is an alligator-like creature. After the lake we took another boat ride to a small side river off of the Madre de Dios. This river was a little less brown and supposedly had less caiman lurking around in it, although it still had pirhanas! After having no luck fishing in the river, Roni asked us if anyone wanted to go swimming. I decided to take the opportunity and volunteer first - when else would I get the chance again to swim in a river in the Amazon rainforest? Roni got out a rope swing and tied it to a tree on the river bank, and without thinking about the caiman we saw earlier I jumped in! Eventually Meredith, Peter, Jen, and a man from Greece tried the rope swing too, but not until I had jumped in four times already!

On the boat ride back to the bungalows we saw the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen, a bright orange and yellow over the forest canopies and reflecting in the river. Later that night Roni asked us if we could help him with some of his questions about English. He speaks four languages: Quechua (the native language descended from the Incas), Spanish, English, and French. It was cool to try to help him improve and to learn a little more about his life. Like many of the other guides, Roni is from Cusco and had to come to the jungle to find work. Many of the guides come from extreme poverty and work far away from their families and homes with only a few days off each month.

The jungle was an experience that I'll never forget, and I really hope to return later on in the semester to see Iquitos in the more northern part. I'll have to write more about the rest of the trip later, but for now: ¡Hasta luego!

Suri worms!

The group in front of the "Father tree"

The beautiful lake Apu Victor

Sunset on the Madre de Dios river

Our bungalow