Quite a Week

My group for Video 1 has been working diligently. We found out we couldn't do a movie scene, so we had to choose a telenovela. It all is working out, though. Tuesday afternoon, Catrin took pictures of Natalie and I. We had to write who we are on the palms of our hands and then stand in front of different backgrounds. I wrote my full name "Violet Marie Lucy Herman" and stood in front of some flowers. I always stand in front of flowers. Natalie wrote "Indefinable" and stood in front of some cool graffiti. That evening, I made some sugar cookies and put a chocolate frosting on them, and they were yummy. They didn't see Wednesday morning, lol.

I saw Wednesday morning, however, and I enjoyed it. We watched two films by a Danish director in Film History class. His name is Carl T. Dreyer, and we watched Praesidenten ("The President") and The Parson's Widow. They were really good. Silent films, of course. I've really gotten a lot out of my film history course that I would not have gotten at Cal State. However, the time has come to admit that I won't get as far along in film history as my peers in the film department at CalState have gotten. Even though I started father back and could teach them a thing or two, I'm only taking the first part of a two part course and it's important to at least skim to the end.

Evening class wasn't that exciting. Thursday was quite busy, however. I had my morning class then I met with my group. We talked for quite a while, and we went out for lunch not too far from the university. Then I had my evening class which took a little longer than usual. That was interesting too. We watched a Gregory Peck film called Cape Fear. It was pretty good. Not great but good. Yesterday was super fun. Yesterday, I went to video class (which was boring) then after class, our jefe de practica, Carlos, showed us the TV studio we'll be working in. OMFG! I HAVE NEVER SEEN A TV STUDIO SO HUGE! The ones at CalState are nowhere near as big. And they have two! An enormous one and one about the size of the biggest one at CalState. But, it's like, seriously, freaking HUGE. It's two stories tall, and they have a walkway up in the rafters. The booth is one story off the ground, so you have to climb stairs to get to it. There's a giant television to view what's on the air. And not like the one in the studio at CalState, this one is big, widescreen, and LCD. The equipment is newer. Dude, I think all the equipment in the department is newer than at CalState. Either this school just has more money or their communications department is newer than our film department. Either way, I will admit that I will miss the equipment. We got to play with the equipment yesterday too. Like, when I got on the camera, I realized that my directions will be in Spanish. One of my group members got on the intercom to direct the cameras, and I could pretty much understand her, so I don't think there will be too much problems next Thursday. Thank goodness, lol.

I don't think I've mentioned much about my new roommate (if I've mentioned her at all). She seems alright, but I don't like to be around her because she's always on the phone. Either that or her phone is always ringing. And she's not in the apartment so much anymore. She's from Arequipa, so I do feel kinda bad for her being the only Peruvian in an apartment full of exchange students mostly from the US. But still, when I try having a conversation with her, she won't engage me. Idk, we'll see. I'm hoping to get out of Lima next weekend, but we'll see.

My Best Weekend Yet

I had a really good weekend. I was not looking forward to my group meeting Saturday night, but it ended up being really good. Daytime was annoying though. I had to go back and forth to the Plaza San Miguel to replace my phone. The meeting was good too. We ordered Pizza Hut for dinner, and we got a lot done. We're replicating a scene from Leon: The Professional. Except it's in Spanish. We did casting and talked about set design. Then we just sorta hung out. THAT was fun. I learned a Peruvian drinking game called vikingos (vikings) but I don't know how the rhyme would work in English. We played that and we played I've never. It was fun.

Sunday I went to 8 am mass. Lots of people were there for Mother's Day. I later went to Huaycan which is a poor barrio en Lima. Natalie and Katie volunteer there, and Gio and Catrin have been going with them. Katie, Gio, and Cat teach an art class, and Natalie teaches two English classes, so I went with her. It was very touching. The homes are quite like I expected. Brick walls, a couple rooms, tin roofs. We did private tutoring in one home. The older sister had picked toys up off the floor and swept it. No matter how poor you are or what your house looks like, everyone tries to keep it clean. Any sane people, anyways. We also taught class in a building called a "comedor" which is like a communal eating area. Women take turns cooking and serving food for everybody. The children were very sweet and very smart. There was an adorable stray kitten that hung out in the second classroom. Beautiful area. None of the roads are paved, though. Not even in el centro. It's tucked right at the root of the mountain and when you get up high enough, you have a beautiful view. I grabbed an empenada de carne for dinner at a bakery that Natalie claimed was the best. She's probably right. In total, we spent about 4 hours commuting.

Today wasn't too exciting. I have to start working on my literature project which I'm not looking forward to. The last half of the year will be a lot of work, but I'm excited for it. We'll see. Hopefully I'll have time to do more as well.

Parciales

This week was parciales and it got me pretty wound up all week. The exams, though, didn't go so badly, though. I mean, I had so much trouble studying, but I did eventually study for each of my exams, and they all were easier than I initially projected. Like, I thought my Quechua exam would be like the homework we did last week. Six pages of translations or something with no vocab list and it was only, like, three pages with a vocab list. So that was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Then, while studying for Film History, I started to get all worried because I was like, "How am I supposed to remember all this? And when I do do my exam, how am I supposed to know what he wants to know that I know?" Because that's what our teacher told us last week our exam would be like: just write what you know. Simple enough, right? Well, he ended up asking us four questions, and I knew how to answer all four of them. My lit exam was more difficult, though, but I think I did alright. So I just relaxed Wednesday evening after my last exam. Yesterday was a lot of fun. Natalie and I put together a little 5 de Mayo fiesta. Natalie made MexiCali food, and I baked a Tres Leches cake. All of it turned out delicious. (especially the cake, it didn't survive the evening) A few of Natalie and Katie's friends came over and Gio and Cat ate with us, so it turned out to be quite a party. Then we started crumping and having a crump-off. It was fun. Today was pretty fun too. Natalie and Katie go to this Starbucks five minutes from here often, and the three of us went today and hung out for a couple hours reading. Then Natalie and Katie's friends came over again. Just for like, two hours or something but still. They're cool, so I was glad we got to hang for a bit. That pretty much is my week in a nutshell. Stressful beginning but relaxing ending.

I Guess You Deserve More

I guess my week was more interesting than that. Thursday I went to the mass to celebrate the beatification of JP2. It was nice, but they looked like they were expecting like, 500 people or something and only like, 200 showed up or something. I got an extra bookmark which I guess I will give to Nick. (They gave us blessed posters and bookmarks) There were 8 priests. We watched a Chinese movie in my film class, but I didn't get it. It was about a boy and a girl in 1966. (one of a series of shorts) The girl works in a pool hall and the boy is a soldier who visits her. He leaves and when he returns she's gone so he has to try to find her. She keeps going from pool hall to pool hall, and I don't understand why. I don't know. I just didn't get it, personally. Eventually he found her and the film ended with them waiting for a train and they held hands. Sweet ending, but I didn't get the rest of the movie. Then in the evening, the girls from Indiana and I saw Water for Elephants. I had forgotten how much I miss the movie theater. Nick and I went at least once a month. Although, I don't think I've been to the movies since December or January. I even got popcorn which was super yummy :-)

Friday was normal class. We presented our projects, and I think ours turned out well. I couldn't really tell. Even after critique I couldn't tell.

This weekend was full of studying and avoiding studying. The whole weekend. I finished a whole book, watched a movie, two episodes of Monk, and got halfway through another book. Oh yeah, and I read like 5 pages for literature. I don't know. I've been feeling empty, though, but it's not an unfamiliar feeling. I think it will just pass. At least I hope. I'm serious, though, I want to go home. I just miss Long Beach so desperately. Not just Nick, EVERYTHING. I miss the trees as I walk to class. I guess la Catolica has trees, but they're different. I miss the squirrels, Newman meetings, the film department! Oh, how I miss the Interfaith Center and the Film Department! I miss using my key card to get into the International House. I miss Yogurtland. I miss driving the Zipcar for a surprise weekday visit to Nick while blasting Amp Radio and dancing at the stoplights. I miss the 22, lol. Even during rush hour. I miss fellowship, officer meetings, Bible study. I miss Netflix. I miss Chuck. Ah!!!! I've missed almost the entire newest season!!!! I miss cuddling up on a Friday or Saturday night with Nick and watching an episode of MST3K. There's a lot that I miss. I didn't realize how much I really would miss the US when I left. Aside from people and my chiropractor, I thought there was nothing. All of that, though, is a symbol of LA for me: a symbol of home. I don't so much miss American food because it's not that great to begin with, and I enjoy almost any type of food as long as it's cooked well. I miss my clothes! For God's sake, I have 11 items of clothing. And only 11 items of clothes for 3 months is getting to be quite loathsome. I miss my red dress with the white polka dots but it was impractical to bring with me at the time I left. :-( Yup, I miss LB. Gilligan!!! I miss Gilligan!!! He must be so lonely...Ah, well. 3 more long months until I fly back. 3 more long months until I fly back. 3 more long months until I fly back. 84 days. I counted down the days until I left, and I'm counting down the days until I leave. I want to go home, love Nick, do Newman, and make movies. Then I will be a happy Violet.

I forgot to mention how cool mass was today. Well, mass itself wasn't particularly interesting. We did have a new priest at the church in the park. After mass though, for the feast of our Lord, we processed a crucifix around the church. It was a cool crucifix and people kept taking turns carrying it. We sang and prayed, and it was nice.

I've had an interesting week, and I wanna go back to Long Beach. Right now.

Yay! Film History! :-)

So, this week hasn't been too exciting. Monday and Tuesday were normal classes. Today, though! I was so excited. In film history, I watched a Swedish film titled Ber-Ejvind Och Hans Hustru, a Russian film titled Twilight of a Woman's Soul, and Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. I was wondering when we were going to watch that German film. But I was so excited that we finally did. :-) My teacher learned my name too. When he did role this morning, there were only 5 of us remotely on time so instead of going through the list, we just told him our names. He told me mine, though, lol. I am the unique one of the class, being the only exchange student. I love that class.

I noticed in my afternoon class today that one of the American girls is starting to talk like a Peruvian. Not her accent, but like the things she says and the way she talks. My literature teacher, btw, talked to us in English on Monday, and she had a British accent. Turns out she studied in England for a while. But it's like a weird cross between British and Peruvian. Well, just getting ready for exams, it seems. Not looking forward to them, but I'm planning to study hard this weekend.

Holy Week

Well, sorry I haven't written much, but last week I was a little ocupada porque mi enamorada me visitaba. :-) I'll just give you a quick rundown of how last week went down.

Sunday: I had to work on my project, so I went to 8am mass at my local church. On my way, I noticed something curious. There were women selling palms of intricate designs. I should have bought one, but I didn't, and I was one of about five who didn't have palms for Palm Sunday mass. After mass, I sent Nick on his way to El Centro. I told him exactly how to get there, but he was still nervous. I got no phone calls, so I assumed he made it alright. After my group meeting, we went on a little date in El Centro. Dinner at Norky's, Pisco Sours at Catedral de Pisco, y a walk in the Parque de las Aguas. Norky's wasn't so romantic but everything else was, especially the park.

Monday: We went to the Museo Larco which had ceramics from all throughout pre-Incan history and even some Incan gold. (Not much, tho) Then we went to the restaurant where my friends and I go every Friday, and Nick had Lomo Saltado (a typical Peruvian dish of beef, onions, and tomatoes). He avoided the juice. Then class and a quite evening of Date Night and ice cream. (Date Night is a great movie, btw)

Tuesday: I had morning class and a group meeting. But after the group meeting, Nick and I went on our anniversary date <3 We went to Larcomar in Miraflores where we ate dinner at a nice restaurant called Mango. I mean, all-in-all it's not that expensive in dollars (fairly cheap for an anniversary dinner) but in soles super expensive. Like, rich people expensive. Then we went to a bar overlooking the ocean (Mango overlooked the ocean too) for cocktails. We had an early morning Wednesday, so we left after that.

Wednesday: Super fun! We finally filmed our project. We drove all over Lima, and Nick became buddy-buddy with my teacher, lol. Which made sense because they're closer in age than Nick is with any of my group members. It was a lot of work, and we had much to overcome, but we did it. It was so fun, and we got all that we needed. We went out for drinks afterwards but just for beer, so Nick, one of my friends, and I drank soda. Then Nick and I called it an early night because he was super bored. At midnight, Nick gave me my birthday present which was a talking Elvis card (AAAAHHHHH!!!! <3 <3 <3) and the first season of Monk on DVD. Not something I really need, but if you know the story of my birthday present last year, it's funny. I suppose I can expect season 2 next year, lol.

Thursday was actually fairly busy. We slept in and went to El Centro where we went to el Santuario de Santa Rosa de Lima. There were so many people! Who were still walking around with palms. Some of the palms even had crucifixes in them. They're so cool! Anyway, apparently people were there to be blessed by the priest. Nick and I went to confession. Then we went to lunch, and I got to have my favorite food for my primero: cebiche!!! :-) We tried going to the Museo de la Inquisicion, but it was closed. Lots of people were at the Cathedral too. Nick and I couldn't go inside unless we waited in like, so we assumed everyone was waiting for a blessing just like at the Santuario. Since we couldn't go to the museum, we went to a bakery where Nick bought me a piece of birthday cake. I couldn't finish because it was mostly frosting, so we took it back, and got ready for our trip. In the evening we got on the bus and rode to Huancayo.

Friday: The best day ever!!! We check into our hotel, take a rest, and go to la Plaza de la Constitucion. I finally did it. All week I was jealous I didn't have one, and I finally bought myself a S/5 palm with a crucifix, and I loved it. Nick and I went to visit Jesus' tomb. We go up to Him to get the holy water to bless ourselves and my palm and touch the sarcophagus. At 3, we go to the Cathedral for Good Friday service. At the end of the service, we go up to a small crucifix and kiss it. There's a bigger, more lifelike one at the front, but the line is super long. We then head outside to wait for the procession. And then, they carry Jesus in a glass sarcophagus out of the Cathedral. Maria de los Dolorozos is soon to follow. We watch for a bit then eat dinner. When we return, of course the procession is still going on. I notice everyone has these weird crowns of flowers. I ask a girl selling them what they're for and I think she says that you give them to someone for a blessing. So Nick buys me one. Later, I'm holding mine, and a lady tells me I'm missing one for Nick. So we're like, ok, maybe guys wear them too or something. But no one's wearing them, just holding them. We put them on and have the lady take a picture of us. She laughs and mutters something to her husband that I don't understand. A few people stare at us and laugh at us. We follow the procession off and on for a while. Later, Nick realizes that the crowns are supposed to go onto the sarcophagus. Oops. Later, Nick bravely asserts fights his way to Jesus to give Him his crown, and he does it! Nick wouldn't let me give mine away, so I touch the skirt of Mary with mine. Woohoo! We have blessed crowns! We follow the procession pretty much back to the Cathedral. We head back early to wait at the Cathedral for Jesus and Mary's return. People were still kissing the giant crucifix, so Nick and I went and did it too. I touched Him with my palm and crown, and Nick and I kissed him together. It's pretty brutal looking. Jesus' knees, side, hands, and head are all bloody just like in the sarcophagus. Finally, Jesus and Mary make their way back, and after they're tucked away, Nick and I return to the hotel for a good night's rest.

Saturday: In the morning on our way to El Centro for breakfast, a parade of people playing music and dancing in colorful costumes is going on. Apparently some kind of festival was going on for the native people of the area of Huancayo. After breakfast, we went up to a different village on the mountain where I let Nick try some of my favorite Peruvian food: anticucho (cow heart) So good! There were lots of poor children up there though, which made me really sad. Because of the poverty, I felt strange when we took a walk through the village to get to another part of the mountain. I did like when some of the children said "hello" to us (in both Spanish and English) We didn't make it because Nick and I both were suffering altitude sickness, but we got high enough to a spot where we had a fantastic view. We headed back, and ate dinner back at El Centro de Huancayo. At 4pm, people were already lining up to get a seat inside the Cathedral for the vigil mass. (doors didn't open until 6 and mass started at 6:30) I bought Nick a palm because I thought he should have one, and we took it to Jesus' tomb to have it blessed. After dinner, we too waited outside the Cathedral, and found our seats. Nick then went to get us candles. We only stayed for the lighting of the candles because Nick knew he would be bored. We walked around a bit and ended up in a cafe to drink hot chocolate and talk. We went back to the hotel to collect our things and walk to the bus station. We left and slept on the bus back to Lima.

Sunday: We arrive early and head back to the apartment where we sleep for an hour or two and go to 10am mass in the park. That was the longest freakin' Sunday service I have ever been to. The priest gave the longest homily, and he had an opinion at every point during the service. He's cool, but he just talks a lot. We go back to the apartment where I make Easter breakfast for Nick and I. In the afternoon, we take a bus back to Larcomar in Miraflores to a bar along the ocean for Pisco Sours. After cocktails, we walked to Parque del Amor for a picnic. It's a beautiful park with quotes everywhere, and a giant statue of two people kissing, and it's right along the ocean. Absolutely beautiful. Then we head back to the house for an hour or so then to the aiport where Nick and I spend one last hour together before he goes through security and heads back to California.

Overall, Holy Week was great. Semana Santa was fun, and I was so glad to spend that week with Nick. I wish he could have stayed longer, and I'm grateful that he came at all. It was the best week I've spent in Peru so far, and probably will only be topped by Machu Picchu. I'll get back to my normal blogging tomorrow. Until then, Feliz Pascua!

He's Almost Here :-)

Today was quite the busy day. I went to school early to go to confession, but there was no confession. They had adoration instead, so I stayed until I had to go to class. (truth be told tho I probably could have stayed until the priest put the Eucharist away) It was nice. I confessed my sins to Jesus, but it would be nice to see a priest. Class was so boring. We had a presentation apparently that I didn't know about. See! It's a good thing my Video 1 class is a group effort because I would not have done any of my assignments, lol. I didn't say anything, and I was glad because I am self conscious about my Spanish especially since I'm the only exchange student in my class. My group knows, and they understand. I guess it's silly to be self conscious of my Spanish because I know no one would judge me. I guess it's more of a personal thing. I want to be really good at Spanish, but I'm not. I suppose the only way to get good, though, is to practice. Afterwards, a few of us went to lunch, and the director, the other girl who probably should be producer instead of me, and myself finalized our report to submit to our teacher about our program, and the other girl and I made the shooting schedule. I told her I just wanted to see the outline, and she and I sat there for like an hour working on it. Oh! And it's been bugging me because everyone keeps referring to the narrador as voz en off, and I had no idea why it was called that. I asked one of the girls in my group, and she told me it was because the voice was off screen. That makes sense, so I was satisfied, lol. I spent all day working.

This evening, a bunch of friends of my roommates came over for Natalie's birthday. We had like a pre-party where we drank, hung out, and ate the cake I baked. Everyone enjoyed it and thought the frosting was really good. Even us who aren't huge fans of frosting enjoyed this frosting. Last night when I made it, I tried it before I finished and it was definitely too sweet, so I just added more milk, and it tasted perfectly. Then we went to this club called Gothica. It's the most expensive in Lima. (S/100.00) Natalile's and Katie's friend got us all on the list, so we didn't have to pay. The alcohol was expensive, though, so we just bought a bottle of whiskey and split the cost. I hate whiskey, apparently. It was pretty fun. It was nice if nothing else, but it wasn't really that special. Like, I didn't feel like it was extraordinary. To be honest, friends make the club experience, and that's something I've definitely noticed. Good music, good friends, and everything else will come. I noticed I was very cautious about dancing with guys which I think I have every right too be. For a few guy friends it wasn't necessary but for one, he was definitely pushing my new comfort zone. Everything was fine, though. It was a fun night, and Natalie had a good time which was the important thing. So excited for tomorrow, all ready to go.

The Big Event

Last few days haven't been that exciting. I don't know, I don't feel like my life is more exciting because I'm in Peru. Well, Tuesday was the Big Event: my haircut! Yes, I went to Quechua in the morning and got my haircut a little while later. I went to the place down the street that did my roommate's hair well. I told him I wanted "capas" (layers) and not only did he gesture to prove we were on the same page, but he got out a book and showed me a picture. He was cheap too, only S/15. My hair turned out really well, as you can hopefully see in the picture. I didn't feel like doing homework, so I didn't. I watched a movie instead, lol. Didn't even take a nap.

Film History yesterday was really fun. We watched Intolerance. That also is in the book. I'm so glad that even though I'm away from the book and my Netflix, I can still cross movies off. I really enjoyed the film. My favorite character was the Babylonian chick because when a boy so much as looked at her, she was yelling at him. She took no crap from anybody. One guy kissed her without her consent, and he was sorry. And when they auctioned her off as a bride, she did not try to appeal to the male of our species and she didn't care. She rocked. While the other chick, like their story eventually got good, but the gangster dude pissed me off because he kept harassing the girl and was quite aggressive. In my afternoon class, we talked about that stupid book. No one liked the book except for this one American chick. I don't like romanticism - English nor Spanish. That's just the way I am. But my teacher even said that this wasn't a good piece of literature. We only read it to learn about the genre. In the evening, I went to the library and watched Midnight Cowboy. I've seen some of it already, and thank goodness I've already seen the ending because due to technical difficulties we couldn't watch the very end. They made it to Florida and the computer battery died.

Today wasn't too interesting either. In Quechua class, we learned about the different languages in Peru and a brief general history of them and the "Castellanizacion" of Peru. (Castellano means "Spanish" - don't ask, I don't know) I like Quechua, it's fairly simple gramatically, and I think it's very nice to listen to. Then I met with my group in the afternoon. The film department is very different from that of Long Beach. They have editing rooms, but they're bigger. They only have one television studio and no booth. (ha!) They have a really awesome service that's more for the protection of the equipment than for ourselves. We get a van, driver, and security guard whenever we have a film shoot off campus. People don't have cars, and public transportation and taxis are not safe for the equipment. (lucky us!) Also, we don't need a permit to shoot on campus and they have this special thing to let our teacher know when we're missing class for a film shoot. At Long Beach, we're on our own in that department. I don't know, I think it's about the size of the one in Long Beach, and has it's advantages and disadvantages. I wouldn't trade it for Long Beach, though. I realize that all film students around the world are the same. We all have the same dream, the same appreciation, understanding, and love of film. What separates me from them is, by the Grace of God I was born in California/EEUU. This afternoon in my film class, we watched a film called Dioses from 2008. It's a Peruvian film about a rich family. It gets really weird though because the brother and sister are in their 20's and the brother develops some strange sexual obsession with his sister. idk... it's part of the story though. Everyone kept talking about how the story was about the difference between the two classes. While they were talking about that, I was thinking about how they were wrong. And when the conversation was over and I finally put my ideas together, they were done, so now I have to write a damn paper, which in retrospect won't be that difficult. But still. I thought about how the film is more about dissatisfaction. The brother is unsatisfied with his father, his riches, and his lack of a sexual life. So he finds satisfaction in switching his major and obsessing with his sister. Obsessing over his sister though also doesn't bring satisfaction, but when a real woman comes into his life, he still thinks about his sister so in a way it still brings some kind of satisfaction. But all the members of the family were dissatisfied with something. I guess you could argue the class thing, but I think it's more about the dissatisfaction. This evening I baked a cake for my roommate for her birthday. I hope she likes it. She turns 21 tomorrow and wants to pretend we're in the states even though we're not, lol.

Countdown!!!

Nick's almost here :-) I'm so excited for his visit! I have lots planned, and you will hear all about it.

Well, I haven't worked much on my video project since Saturday. On Wednesday night we finally decided on our theme and since then we've been perfecting the show.

Yesterday was the elections, and so Ollanta and Keiko are going on to the final round or whatever. I went to mass in the park, but the church was closed, and I wasn't surprised. So I just went to mass at a different church in the evening.

I didn't do much yesterday except read. I loved the book I was reading. It was like a telenovela. It was a love story. One of those kinds that I hate. This dude falls in love with this chick. She falls in love with and marries a richer man. She cheats on said man and becomes pregnant. He leaves her. He dies. The first dude gets engaged to the chick's cousin. The chick comes back with her baby and without her late husband. Chick falls in love with dude again, and dude is still in love with chick. They get married and live happily ever after. It pissed me off that that dude never stopped loving chick. It reminded me of Jane Eyre, and I hated that book.

Today I read too. En la manana. Ooh! the first big event of today was I got a haircut. I went to the salon down the street. I made sure I knew the word for layers before I went, and when I told him I wanted capas, he made a gesture that indicated we were on the same page. He then showed me a picture, and it looked good. I got nervous halfway though though when he kept cutting the top layers. I was worried it would be too short, but it turned out well. It was a scary moment, but all is well. Then this evening, my roommate and I saw the movie Nobody Knows Anything About Persian Cats. It was so good! I want the soundtrack. They didn't have subtitles of the songs, but you didn't need them because the images they showed told you how the song felt which is the important part. Such a well done film. So tragic too. It was really good.

Video 1

Yesterday was quite a day. Class in the morning/afternoon. When class was over, we stayed around to work on our project. We met with our teacher/mentor for the project. Wednesday night when we met with him, we had to come up with a new topic, and it took like 2 hours, but we finally for real decided on a topic everyone can agree on and the teacher approves of. Our show is about famous directors of Latin America. Our first project is about Claudia Llosa of Peru. She directed Milk of Sorrow which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film last year at the Oscars. Yesterday we got familiar with the equipment which was fun. We're using a really nice camera. Probably nicer than the camera we used to make The Loan Shark. Beautiful picture. My teacher notices that I'm very quiet, and he talks to me. It's funny, almost everyone asks me if my real name is "Violet" or if it really is "Violeta" and then they sometimes ask why I just say "Violeta" so I have to explain about my first trip to Espana and how it's just easier. I am very quiet in the group. Sometimes I'll have something to contribute but usually not anything. I don't know.

Then today I worked with my group again. Afterwards I went to Plaza San Miguel for lunch and grocery shopping. I should have gotten lunch inside Wong, but I didn't think of that so I ended up at McDonald's. It was the cheapest restaurant I could find. I had a Big Mac, and I didn't like it. I don't know why I eat hamburgers because I'm very picky. I remember when I was walking around trying to decide what I want. I suggested McDonald's to myself, but I initially rejected the idea because I knew I would find it gross and feel icky afterwards. That's exactly what happened. I felt gross and the burger wasn't very good. So I got all my ingredients for my roommate's birthday cake. Her birthday is a week before mine. Then I came back and just sorta hung around. Tomorrow is election day, so it'll be interesting to see how Lima is on election day.

One thing I've noticed that I keep forgetting to mention, but there are Mourning Doves in this country. Everywhere I've been there has been pigeons but not always Mourning Doves. These are a different kind, but there pretty because they have a bright blue on their beak. I always see them having breakfast in the morning on my way to school. They're so sweet!

3 days of film, woot!

Tuesday, nothing exciting happened. I had class in the morning and nothing the rest of the day. I had another quiz in Quechua, and I did better, but not great. I went to the library to get my Quechua book. One thing led to another and I ended up checking my school e-mail for the first time in 3 weeks and apparently my teacher has been sending us e-mails telling us what's on the quizzes. fml. Well, now I know what will be for sure on the next one.

Yesterday was so awesome! In Film History we had a substitute (which wasn't awesome, I like our teacher), but we watched Birth of a Nation by David W. Griffith. It's a very famous black & white, 3-hour, silent film from 1915. It's in "the book," so not only have I heard of it before, but I've seen it. I got more out of it this time, so I'm glad I did see it again. The teacher talked about the film's place in history or whatever, but he didn't mention that the actors who play the black characters are white dudes in make-up. I find that to be a very interesting and important part of film history. Like in Shakespeare's time when white dude's even played the parts of the women. I still enjoyed the film. During the film, I realized that the rest of the class was having a different experience than I was having. This is a piece of my country's history (a very intimate piece even). I had no idea how my classmates were feeling or what they thought of the film. I think I'll ask someone next week. The girl sitting next to me though fell asleep halfway through. (I guess I don't blame her, on one level it's boring, but I love it) That's my favorite class so far, but I'll probably say that about the next one, lol. Then literature was normal.

Today wasn't that exciting either. I went to class, and we ended the class by translating long sentences, and I was proud of myself when I learned that I could. Nuqa huk t'anta Pedrop wawkinman mikhuypaq quni. (Doy un pan al hermano de Pedro para comer.) Afterwards, I sat outside the church and wrote down my sins in Spanish so I could go to confession. I went to the little church on campus, and not only could I find no confessional, but I could find no priest. I'll go again on Tuesday and try again. So then I went to the communications department to wait for my group because we were going to give the screenplay to our teacher. While I waited, I talked with another group of students. They spoke quickly with me, but all-in-all I could understand them and respond quickly as well. I surprised myself in that way today. I also was able to talk quickly as well during film class. Apparently I didn't "grasp it all" but I was proud that I could communicate. That pissed me off because in the first class the teacher said there wasn't a wrong answer. I hate when teachers do that. Well, only one member of my group showed up, and we couldn't print the screenplay, so a little afternoon I left. Then had class and the rest of my day was uninteresting. Sunday is election day so only a few more days. Today there was like some kind of closing ceremony that I watched on the TV. Oh! I forgot! I watched La Betty Fea during dinner. I had a little trouble getting into it because I didn't know which actor was which character (except for Betty). Once I figured that out, I was good to go. And the Mode office looked similar to the American one. I was glad I caught that.

Trouble with Tribbles. I mean Literatura.

Today was a slow day. This morning I finished my reading for Literatura, and I was so excited! I knew what the play was about. I knew enough that I could yell at it the way I yell at Ugly Betty. I felt so ready for class this afternoon. Turns out though we were supposed to read something else instead, and the teacher forgot to tell us. Pero bueno. We still had the lecture.

It was cold when I walked home from school. It was cloudy with a light layer of fog. It was foggy in the morning sometime last week too. I guess it's getting to be that time of year in Lima. I guess the April fog in Lima is famous in poetry and stuff. I can't wait for Nick to bring me my leather jacket. That'll keep me nice and warm. :-)

This picture is of me en la Plaza de Armas in Central Lima in front of the fountain. This is kinda old, but I thought you all deserved something interesting.

NOW We Can do Pre-Production

Today I just worked on my video project. I went to 8am mass where we sang, but not as much as at the other masses. Then I went to school and of course was the first of my group to arrive. We went to Luciano's house. (he doesn't live far from La Catolica) We spent 5 hours talking about what our show should be when I thought we'd already decided it. For lunch, instead of going out, we ordered Norky's delivered. The six of us ate 1 1/2 chickens, french fries (ate my with aji; yum!), salad and like, 2 liters of Coke. The chicken was really good. I think I can enjoy chicken a la brasa. Well, we finally decided on a topic, and this week we'll start on pre-production.

Peruvians love chicken. I had it for each of my meals today: chicken sandwiches for breakfast, chicken a la brasa for lunch, and broiled chicken for dinner. I just know it, I'm going to hate chicken when I get back. I was so grateful for my ok tasting fish last night.

Tonight was the presidential debate between the five candidates. Honestly, you have not experienced a campaign until you've experienced a Peruvian one. Parties painted on walls, mountains, PPK set up a display or something in the park, there are signs everywhere especially of Keiko and Toledo. They all seem to be running on the same platform, PPK has a PPKuy (a guinea pig mascot), I've seen Toledo dance on TV, and the candidates didn't look natural nor relaxed during the debate. Plus they kept reading off their notes. Election is next Sunday, so we'll see.

This evening I baked a different kind of brownies with marshmallows and peanut butter with the chocolate. They turned out quite well, but nothing too special. We'll see how the roommates like them.

An Exciting Weekend

Yesterday was pretty good. I had class, and my group just worked on our project. Then we went to lunch, and one of my group members helped me figure out meatless food. Even though I stopped fasting I'm still honoring the no meat on Fridays. In the evening, the school showed Rosemary's Baby in the library amphitheater. (which was actually quite small) My Companero PUCP Luis and I went to see it, and we both enjoyed it. It was both our first time watching it. It feels good to go to the movies with another film student. There are more films next week that I want to see, so I'll invite him to come with me.

Today was less exciting than yesterday. I have tons of reading to do for Literatura entonces I spent almost the whole day reading. I got through half the play. I took a break in the afternoon to go grocery shopping for brownie ingredients. I'm baking different brownies tomorrow. I stopped at Starbucks on my way home because I wanted to buy a travel mug that my roommates have. I also got a frappuccino. The senoritas at the Starbucks were so nice! They were like asking me about what I'm doing in Peru, how long I'm staying. One of them guessed correctly that I study at La Catolica. They also said I spoke Spanish very well and asked how I learned. I didn't have my contacts in, so I couldn't read the board. I told one of the senoritas that I wanted a frappuccino, and she recommended one to me. I don't know what it was because I couldn't understand her. She said something about forty years, so I just said "ok," lol.

I was so proud of myself because I made it halfway through the play I need to read. (only because it's a fairly quick read compared to what I've been reading) This evening, my roommates, and I chilled out together. Natalie is in the US but the rest of us are here and we drank and played cards. Giovanni and Catalin taught us an Italian card game, and it was pretty fun.

Not much planned tomorrow so once again a chilled weekend. I need to get out more.

I LOVE FILM!!!!!

Yesterday was a great day in film history. We watched fewer films, but one of them was a largo metraje (feature length) Yesterday was a focus on Italian films. We watched Nero, or the Fall of Rome, L'Inferno and Cabiria. L'Inferno and Cabiria are feature length, but we only saw Cabiria all the way through. They were both black and white and silent, but I enjoyed Cabiria much more than I enjoyed Birth of a Nation. The Italians were the first to go feature length. Americans were the first to do moving pictures, French were the first to use moving pictures to tell narratives, and Italians were the first to tell feature length narratives. We also finished that boring lecture in Literature class.

Today I enjoyed my Quechua class. I need to practice more, though. What I think is so interesting about the language is that because of suffixes, you can tell an entire sentence in as few as one or two words. Obviously more as well, but I can technically have a one word sentence with a verb and noun (and even a possessive indicator). I like the way it sounds too. I had a very chill day. Mom sent me a book on my Kindle on Monday or something. It is the first of a trilogy, and I've basically been reading that book nonstop, and today I started the third one, lol. So I spent pretty much all day reading the second one. Then I went to class in the afternoon. In my film class, we watched an Italian film. I don't know what it's called. It's a series and we only watched one of them titled "El Trabajo" in Spanish. Then we talked about it. I was irritated because I spent the whole class period coming up with something to say. I finally did and I didn't get to say it. Now I'm irritated because I'm a shy participant in class, and I think the teacher is going to think it's because of the language not my nature, so I'm going to have to write a 1 page paper every week. It won't be that hard, but it's the principle of the thing. Plus, I want to be in a room with a bunch of film students, not people who just want easy credits. Basically, I want a room full of Joshes, lol. I was so excited to talk to him the other day, so I could have a proper conversation about film again. I guess some of the film students I could talk about film properly with here, but not the way I talk to Josh about film. I miss the film school at Long Beach. The department, the other students, the faculty. Being away from Long Beach definitely helps me realize that it's the right place for me to be.

Sorry About the Delay

Sorry I skipped a few days. You weren't missing much. Sunday I went to 8 am mass. Dude! It was so cool! They didn't sing until like the very end! I have never been to a church that wasn't St. Bonnies that didn't have music at the mass. After mass I had breakfast and went to La Catolica to meet my group. I forgot my group is on Peruvian time, so I showed up at ten after ten and didn't see anyone in my group until a quarter of eleven. Not making that mistake again, lol. So, instead of going to the cemetery, we decided to go to one of the guy's houses to work on other things. Something about filming at night, I wasn't entirely sure. I think they said they wanted to film at night, but I didn't know why that meant we couldn't go to the cemetery to check it out. Either way. No one wanted to direct, lol. I'm producing. We went out to eat then separated. I came home, took a nap, and did nothing the rest of the day.

Yesterday I met with my group again. We were supposed to meet at 12. I showed up at ten past 12 and didn't see anyone until about 12:40 or so, lol. It was chill. We worked on our homework. Then some of us went for lunch before my class started. We ended up at the art cafeteria where we had salchipapas. (cut up hot dogs sprinkled on top of french fries) How it works is, each of the different cafeterias have a different menu: the menu, economic plate, vegetarian plate, and extras. The main cafeteria only had the economic plate which was just pasta, so we went to the art cafeteria and had salchipapas. They were pretty good for what they were. Class was so boring. We had a guest give us a lecture on the type of literature we were reading. I like my teacher's lectures better. I liked the play we read, though. It was full of drama. Although, I notice that the women in the literature we're reading are all wishy-washy. They marry whomever people tell them to marry. It's so weird. I don't know. It's interesting, though. I liked it.

Today was even less eventful than the last two days. We had our first prueba in Quechua today, and I did awfully because I got everything mixed up. Thankfully we can make up a quiz, so I'll just make up this one. Then I came back, did homework, and I talked to one of my Cal State Long Beach friends for four hours. Seriously! We were on Skype for four hours just talking. It was great! (Even though I should have been doing homework. I always put people before my homework. I can just sacrifice a few hours of sleep.) That was pretty much it. I baked brownies last night, and now there are only two left, lol. These ones turned out better than the last ones. They were more dense than the last ones as well. I think they were sweeter too. I think I also put a little more vanilla in, and I think a little less salt, and the girls all agree they're better than the last ones. (I used the same recipe) Who knows. As long as people like them. I still have tons of ingredients left over, so I'll just hang onto them.

The picture is of Catalin (my French roommate) and I at the beach our first weekend in Lima. It was like, Playa Hermosa, I think. Outside of Lima.

Finally!

Ah, I had a good dinner. Like, a REALLY good dinner for once. Well, yesterday wasn't so exciting. Although video was interesting. Apparently I don't have to be in class until 5pm every Friday, only 1pm which is a helluva lot better. I still stay and meet with my group. We went out to lunch like we did last week and I learned of a new food. It's called huevo relleno con cuevas. It's a hard boiled egg with the yolk taken out. The yolk is mixed with papas y un tipo de chili or something, not entirely sure what, but I'm sure you can mix it with whatever you want. Then it's stuffed back into the egg white. So, apparently my group talked about the kind of show we want to make. I had no idea what they were talking about. I got that they were talking about ideas. I think at first they were talking about music from the 60's or something, I'm not sure. I really had no idea what was going on. Then suddenly they were talking about places I had heard about in Lima. I had no idea why, but I knew they were doing that. Suddenly they asked me if I had plans on Sunday, which I didn't. Then I was told we were meeting in front of the school between 10 and 10:30. I had no idea where we were going. I just knew we were location scouting. That'll be my job. I'll just do what they tell me. A Liman accent is so difficult to understand. They speak quickly like Mexicans, but less clearly. I feel like it's the Californian equivalent of Spanish. Anyways, I hung out with them for a few hours. Then, when I asked if Nick could come to the shooting, I think they said that he could come and just hang out, he didn't have to help. Like I said, that's what I think they said. I know they said he could come, but the details I'm not sure of because they were talking quickly all at once. But I'm pretty sure that's what they said.

Today wasn't too eventful. I worked on homework, watched Eat Pray Love with my roommate Natalie from Indiana. This morning, we talked about hamburgers. I seriously have been craving one basically since I got to this country. Don't ask, I don't know. Which is weird because the first meat I ate when I stopped being a vegetarian was a Burger King cheeseburger, and I remember it tasted terrible. I like In-N-Out, but that's it. I still have been craving a cheeseburger for like, 2 months tho, idk. Well, my roommate was telling me how much she wanted to go, and that there was a Chili's at the mall nearby. It was a date. :-) We went to Chili's and it was about the same price as in the States, but expensive by Peruvian standards. And our waiter spoke English to us. It was kinda awkward. The hostess didn't, but the waiter did. We were annoyed. I was appreciative though that he spoke English well (unlike most people in tourism here who "speak English") But OMG!!! We both got a Beacon Cheeseburger, and they were amazing. I was so happy. I ate the whole thing. It was so weird, I ate the entire burger and all my fries (which were the best ones I've had in Peru). So freakin good. I felt very satisfied after dinner, but not full. Which, like I said, is weird because I usually don't eat that much especially on a day like today. I ate a lot today I was hungry. Pero bueno. I am excited for tomorrow. Practice my Spanish, see Lima, spend time with my group. It'll be good.

Imaynalla

Omg! I was late to class this morning, lol. I for some reason thought I had to have breakfast at 8 when in actuality class started at 8. So I get to the house for breakfast, and it's 8! So I scarfed down my breakfast and took a combis to school. By the time I got to class, the teacher was still doing roll and hadn't even called my name yet. Yes! I have to figure my stupid alarm out. Because I was almost late for class the other day. I don't know what's wrong with me. This is the most interesting language class I've taken. It's not like the Spanish classes I took in school where you memorize grammar rules and vocab words. Today we talked about morphology. An entire class about how Quechua words are structured! Which is actually quite complicated because they have so many suffixes. (no prefixes tho but it doesn't make anything more simple) It really is a linguistics class. Like, not really a language class as you and I know it but a legit linguistics class.

I had plenty of time between classes that I took a powernap and DIDN'T fall asleep during my film class. Didn't come close. Today we watched another German film called The Baader Meinhof Complex by Uli Edel in 2008. I didn't know about the terrorism and stuff in German. I thought it was an interesting story about how that radicals went from being protesters to terrorists. It was really good, very well done. I don't have my 1001 Movies book here (I don't think this movie is in the book anyways) but I decided to just note all the movies I watch this semester and when I get back to the states compare the lists. This is such a weird class, though. I though we would watch the movies and talk about it, but the professor gave us a lecture on the context around which this film takes place, turned on the movie, and left. And he didn't come back... weird...

This evening was really chill. My evenings are always chill. I told Nick I needed a life because I don't have anything to do anymore. Like, I don't have Josh to do film stuff, I don't have Newman to do Newman stuff, I don't have Nick to do Nick stuff. My life is boring, lol. I might go on an excursion this weekend. We'll see. I do want to take a weekend trip down to Ica, though. I hope next month, but it would have to be the first or last weekend. Maybe not because I'll need money for when Nick visits cuz we're going to Ayacucho. Or something.

I don't know, this has been a great experience and still is, and I am so glad I came. But I'm glad I'm here for this semester, and this semester alone. Last semester was great, and I know next semester will be too. I think I don't like this country because of how men treat me and the poverty. Like, I was fine as far as men goes in Southern Peru, but they are so poor there. Everyone in this country is poor except for, like, a few people. I don't know. I'm glad I came, and I've had fun but I wouldn't change the university I study at nor would I change the length or time of my stay. I just love Long Beach so much. I miss my friends, the campus, my classes, Newman, everything. I guess I'm comfortable in Long Beach. I'm not out of my element in Lima, but Lima is definitely different than LB. I think my video class will help. Idk, you can say what you want about LA: traffic, pollution, noise; I'll take it, lol. At least you have the highway. Can you imagine navigating from one end of LA to the other with out the 101, 10 or 5? Oh! And I felt like Indiana Jones once last week when I was crossing the street on the way to school; two cars were stopped waiting for the cross traffic to pass and two more cars were approaching. I decided to go behind the two stopped cars because I thought the approaching cars would have to stop anyways. I step onto the street and the cars drive away while the approaching ones go over the speed bump and speed towards me. My heart was racing and everything as I hurried across the street, lol.

I guess, in short, I'm enjoying Peru while I'm here, but I will also be happy when I return to Long Beach. Over the past year and a half, I have grown a life there, and I wouldn't trade it for anything I can find anywhere else in the world. And trust me, I've looked. And to be honest, I don't want to find another life anywhere else in the world. God put me in Long Beach (and I guess Lima for a while) and that's where I belong.

P.S. - I will give Peru one thing, food is HELLA cheap. Not just pretty cheap, not just really cheap, but HELLA cheap. Hella cheap. Just throwing that out there.

I Love Film History!

Today wasn't too exciting. OMG!!! Except, Film History ROCKS!!! We watched one of my favorite films today, Voyage to the Moon by Georges Melies in 1902. I still cracked up when the bullet or whatever landed on the eye of the moon! If you haven't seen that movie, look it up on Youtube it's the greatest. We watched a ton of his films. He made a bunch. I freakin love this class we watch movies and the teacher explains its importance in film history or why the film is so unique and famous or whatever. There are a lot of films where men kiss women. Like, in a film called "The Gay Shoe Clerk" by Edwin S. Porter from 1903, the shoe clerk is fitting a woman's shoe for her. She lifts her skirt so it won't be in the way. When her shoe is tied, the clerk jumps up and kisses the woman. Thankfully her mother beats him off with her umbrella. There was another one called "A Sticky Woman" by Gaumont from 1906 where a woman is in the post office sending mail. Her helper or whatever just stands there with her tongue out licking stamps. A man in the office is so impressed. He watches her lick the stamps and when the first woman takes the envelopes to the counter the man kisses the sticky woman. They then stick together and need scissors to cut them apart and some of the dude's mustache still sticks to the woman. I believe that is called SEXUAL HARASSMENT. But hey, what do I know? I'm just a woman. There are lots of really good shorts and stuff. I love it :-)

I had enough time for a walk back, lunch, power nap, and a walk to school. I enjoyed my literature class. I talked again! Teacher asked for a description of one of the characters of the book we read, and I was smiling because he's an interesting character. So the teacher asked me to describe him and I did. Without any hesitation. :-) Woot! I think that was the only thing I said in class, but I consider one answer this early on in class to be an accomplishment. It was cold and cloudy when I walked back from school. I think the time for miniskirts and tank tops are over. :-( I have to wait until the end of July! Blarg! I need a sweater. I'll buy one next month. I've done enough shopping this month. I have a jacket and shirts to keep me warm, but soon I will need a sweater. And Nick's bringing my leather jacket! Thank God I left it with him.

Oh! And the picture above is my ID card. I got it on Monday, finally. I think I was supposed to put my middle name on the paper, but I'm not the only exchange student who omitted their middle name. My film history teacher had trouble with my name today, so I told him to just call me Violeta. My literature teacher could pronounce my name, so I told her she could call me either one. Sometimes, when I tell someone my name is Violeta, it ends up on paper. For some reason, it's not weird for me to hear someone call me "Violeta" but when I see it on paper it's weird. I'm not too sure why but I think it's because it's my name misspelled. Or something like that. I don't know. I've gotten used to introducing myself as Violeta because in Spanish it's the natural thing to say, and I've been doing it since I went to Spain. Seeing it written, though, I'm not used to. I don't know.

Anyways, didn't do anything in the evening, but hung out with my roommates which was fun. These girls are really great, and I'm glad I'm staying here. Overall, a good day.

Boring

I don't think I'm going to like Tuesdays. Today was really boring. I came back from class around 10:30am. I took a shower and started my laundry. I wanted to do some reading, but was curious if anything interesting was on television, so I turned the television on. I found The Shining! One of my favorite movies! So I decided to watch it, lol. I love the cinematography and the acting and the set design and basically everything! Had lunch. Took a nap. Although my homework was interesting. When I woke up from my nap I started my homework and it's taking me longer than I expected. I had a short novel to read this weekend, and I did. However, we didn't talk about it in class yesterday. So we have to read it for tomorrow. Apparently I didn't comprehend much of it when I first read it because I started talking about it with this girl in my class, and apparently there's a whole half of the story that I missed, lol. So today I started reading it again, and it's taking forever because I'm going paragraph by paragraph to make sure I know what's going on. So I read a paragraph five times, make sure I highlight or write something and then move on to the next one. Now I know how long my homework will take and will spread it out and start early instead of doing nothing all day and trying to do it the day before. Guess I'll have a late night or something. Finished my book. Watched Sex and the City. Skyped Nick. Yeah, nothing exciting. I need to figure out what to do with my Tuesdays. Maybe I'll do homework all day or something. idk. I am proud of how hard I'm working for my literature class and the reward I'm getting. Over the summer in my lit classes in Mexico, I felt like my efforts were fruitless. I read a paragraph and had no idea what was going on. Read the paragraph again and still had no idea. Today, I looked at each word carefully. Then I looked at each sentence (the words combined). Then I looked at the whole paragraph. Words I didn't know I looked up in my electronic translator which helps so freakin' much. It feels so good to actually be comprehending the reading which is something I've always struggled with in English and even more so in Spanish. I always found it weird when in classes or something, people who couldn't speak the language as well as I can would understand the readings better than I could. I suppose reading and conversing are two different skills, so a person could be good at one and not the other. I am proud of myself, my work, and my increased comprehension. I hope reading will be a breeze by the end of the semester. Until then, I see this as a challenge I've struggled with for years and finally have the opportunity and knowledge to tackle it head-on.

Registration!!!

Ok, so TODAY I actually registered for my classes instead of just reserving my seat. Registration for exchange students started at 9am. My roommates and I got there at 7am, and I was number 67. So I sat in the classroom and read and did homework. I finished at 11:30. Whew! Here's the final verdict:

Lunes: Peruvian Literature of the 19th Century 3p-5p

Martes: Quechua 8a-10a

Miercoles: Historia del Cine 1 9a-1p, Peruvian Literature 3p-5p

Jueves: Quechua 8a-10a, Cine 3p-6p

Viernes: Video 1 10a-5p

I dropped one class and had to change my section for Cine. I am super paranoid that I will fail the Contemporary Peruvian Narrative, so I decided it best not to take it. The Tuesday Cine class was full by the time I registered, so I just switched to Thursday. nbd because I have Friday class anyway. Lol, my brownies I made yesterday are almost gone, they're super popular. Class today was fine. I was so proud of myself!!! I spoke up in class today!!! Which I found interesting because at the beginning of class I was thinking that it will take about 3 weeks before I have the courage to talk during class because of the language, and my teacher runs the class like a seminar. But I spoke! Not very well. She asked what one of the articles meant, and no one claimed to know the answer, but I knew the answer. :-) Then I got embarrassed because I couldn't figure out how to express what I was trying to say halfway through my sentence, and I just sounded like an idiot. But I talked, and I was proud because I have made it through entire semesters without uttering a word during class. And this was in a second language. :-) This will be a good class. I also met with my video group this afternoon, and we did our research for the Biography Channel. I also helped by asking questions, interjecting some facts, and giving my opinion. I like my group. They're good friends, and they're very nice to me especially Atenas. All in all, I felt like a good student today. I think this will be a challenging yet fun semester. I know my video and literature classes will be my hardest, but I think they will work out fine.

Long Weekend

Sorry I missed yesterday guys. Can you believe I forgot? I don't know. Well, yesterday I went to the beach with Catalin. We went to Barranco which is south of Miraflores. The beach was really dirty and not very pretty. The cliffs were beautiful, and there were many tall, modern, pretty buildings, but the beach itself wasn't so good. One of my friends suggested I get a new pose, so I decided to try something new, lol. During the day I didn't really do anything. Just homework. We came back and had dinner. Oh! But at lunch yesterday Chela gave me a package. It was from Nick! It was a cute note and a set of DVD's with fifteen movies on them (3 of them were mst3k ^_^) There's a good mix, so I should be set for the rest of my trip, lol. I'll probably end up buying bootleg DVD's anyways because, well, I can.

Today was a full day. In the morning I went to mass in the park. It was really nice! I thought it was so cute at the end of mass when they announced ppl who had birthdays then the priest called them forward and blessed them. Lots of good things happened at mass. Although, one thing they do at all the churches here and at a lot in Mexico is before each reading (including the gospel) some random person will tell the congregation what the reading is about and then say "Listen atentatively." It's really starting to bug me. They never use the wine here either. That doesn't bother me I just find it odd. After mass I went to the grocery store with Natalie, one of my roommates. She showed me a way where I will get less comments when I walk down the street. Gracias a Dios. I feel like it was quicker too. We were able to find everything we needed. Then I had lunch and after lunch I went to el Centro with mi companero PUCP, Luis. He had a photography assignment so we just walked around and took pictures. He showed me different places. He came up with a weird meeting place, and I ended up getting lost, lol. He found me though. We watched the changing of the guards in front of the what's-it-called. Where the president lives. He didn't seem to like the president. I don't know much, so I guess I should learn some. We ended the day by going to a park. It was really nice. Was big and had lots of tress. We walked around in the weirdest area afterwards to go pick up a carro. I did and came back for a quiet evening. Had a quiet evening yesterday too. After dinner I baked brownies. Apparently I did buy self rising flour, so I didn't use baking powder or soda. They turned out really good I was worried about the quality of the chocolate powder but they weren't too bad. And for the first time in YEARS I baked with walnuts. None of the girls opposed. I don't usually bake with walnuts because my brothers don't like them. Mom's not too thrilled with them either. When I first started dating Nick, I hoped that he liked walnuts too so that I wouldn't have to sensor my goodies, but no. I felt so free! Yes, putting walnuts in my brownies made me feel free. They were good. Not great but that could have been the ingredients. Next week I'm going to bake chocolate cake and everyone is excited. I am a popular roommate; all of my roommates had 2 brownies tonight, lol. They'll be gone by Wednesday. ;-)

Just another Friday

Oh, the weekend! I had class today. I finally went to the copy center in the library and got the copies of the articles I need for my 19th century literature class. (gracias a Dios) I had trouble following the lecture in my video class, but it's not as bad as my other literature class. I was glad. Class was supposed to be seven hours total. The lecture was only two hours and then the practica was only one hour. I felt out of place. I was the only exchange student, and all the students knew each other already. We have to work in groups, so during the practica I just got up and talked to a group. The practica ended at 1, and my group invited me to eat with them. I went even though I didn't actually eat anything. Nor drink any of the beer they bought. We hung out for a little while before I left. They all had class in the evening, and I didn't, so I didn't have much of a reason to stay. I was glad they included me, though. Well, came back to the apartment and didn't really do anything until this evening. Catelin (one of my roommates), Maria Jose (our Spanish friend), and I went to a bar in Pueblo Libre with some of Maria Jose's friends. We came back kinda early, must have been around 1:30 or something, and our roommates were already back. Apparently they went to the bar right next to ours and got back 2 minutes before we did. Then the four of us watched a couple episodes of Sex and the City before turning in. Tonight was fun, and I'm ready for another day. I've started my countdown already. Not my "Get Me Out of this Country" countdown, but my "Yay! Nick's Almost Here :-)" countdown. (yes, the smiley face is necessary) Only four more weeks, and my love will be back in my arms again. :-) Not much planned for the weekend, so we'll see how it goes. :-)

Chill

Today was a pretty chill day. I thankfully only had class in the morning. I love my Quechua class. I feel challenged because I was getting confused and had to try really hard to pronounce some of the words. I enjoyed it. We also learned the body parts which I have explained in the following video.

Then I had Contemporary Peruvian Narrative. This class was easier that it was Tuesday but my teacher still didn't assign any reading so I'm just confused what we're doing. I had an easier time following the lecture, but still was not great. One minute he's talking about mestizos the next he's talking about Mario Vargas Llosa. Beats me. Well, came back and had lunch. Hung out with one of my roommates like half the day. I took a nap! Finally. I took a good nap for like 2 hours, and my roommate and I talked and we hung out. One of the Americans, not the French girl. The evening was pretty chill too. We were supposed to go out with a couple of the guys at Chela's. We were going to go to a bar in Miraflores, but we started watching Sex and the City, and my roommates got out the wine. All four of us girls could not be pulled away from the show, lol. Like, the guys we were going to go out with ended up just going down the street, so we could have walked but we were too comfortable and couldn't be bothered with the fuss. So tonight was all girls all night, and I loved it. (see Facebook status) The wine we drank was apparently the cheapest wine you could get. (like 3 bucks, apparently) It's a Chilean wine called Gato. I'm not a fan of wine, so I didn't like it so well. It was still nice, though. I had a good evening. And I have class in the morning at 10. My roommate has class at 8 so I stopped complaining when I found out, lol. And it's not like my freshman year when I had Friday class in the morning and had my afternoons off. No, I am in class from 10 in the morning until 5 at night. My whole daytime is gone. :-( That means I can't really take many weekend trips because depending on where I want to go, by the time I get back to the apartment and get to a bus station, it would be too late. So, we'll see. I don't have a lot of money anyways, but I do want to go to Ayacucho for Holy Week when Nick comes, and I want to go south towards like Ica for the sand dunes. It would be nice to go to the Northern Highlands too, but idk. Cuz I still have to go to Cuzco in July. We'll see. No matter what happens, though, I know this will be a good semester. If I can survive my classes.

Oh, so that's how it works!

Today was better than yesterday. I went to the library early before class to see if I could find the articles I needed. I found the collection of El Mercutio Peruano and went through each book and couldn't find the articles I needed. Fail. Then I went to film history at ten and realized class started at 9. Oops. I won't be late again, lol. But we went way back to the very beginning of film. Like, the very beginning. And we watched like a million shorts. One of my favorites was the documentation of a sneeze by Thomas Edison. Yes, it was exactly that. We watched a series of shorts/clips by two French guys named Auguste and Louise Lumiere. They have a famous clip from 1896 called Arrival of the Train, which was one of my favorites. All it is is a shot of a train pulling up to a station and people getting on and off, but the shot was well set up. It was really cool to see the train arriving and the people in different layers of the image. We watched tons of others that were really good. We got up to 1903. Then I came back, ate, and took a ten minute nap. Then I went to class. I had a lot more energy for my afternoon class than I did the last two days. I think a power nap is just what I need sometimes. It'll save money on coffee. I contemplated that option before my afternoon class yesterday. At class this afternoon, I learned the other American girls found the articles. I ran all over this school and no one told me there was a copy center on the basement level of the library with the articles I need. I didn't bring enough money to buy it, so tomorrow I'll go buy the stuffs I need. I worry about this class. I have a feeling I won't do well on the tests. I don't know. I'll try my best and hope it works out. I took a nap after class. I came home and laid down to read. I got really tired so I set my alarm to wake me up for dinner. I then fell asleep for like, must have been a half hour before my alarm went off. I felt so much better. Luckily I don't have afternoon class tomorrow, so I'll have lunch and go to sleep then get started on my reading. I think that's all I need. I've been tired this week, but I think I just need to sleep, so we'll see.

One reason I was glad I went on my pre-Lima adventure is that I learned that that's not the kind of travel I enjoy. It has it's advantages, but it was not as fulfilling as my trip to Mexico, and it will not be as fulfilling as my time in Lima. I don't think I will do the wanderlusting again. It's strange, though, as opposed to feeling pressure from co-workers to do better/work harder/make more money or whatever, I feel like there's some kind of pressure/competition within the travel community too. It's a strange kind of competition, though. It's how many cities and countries you can visit before your trip is over. For me, though, that isn't fulfilling. I prefer this. Living in another country instead of travelling another country. See, I like to live. You don't necessarily live when you wander around. You do learn problem solving and to be flexible and other valuable skills, but I don't feel like I give back to the world at all. Yes, I grew as a person, and I feel like I grew into a person that will benefit the world, but I need to move towards doing that: benefiting the world. My roommates told me about some volunteering they do on Sundays that I think I will do too. But see, I still feel pressure from other travelers. Like in the business world, I feel like I have to "keep up". Like, I only did Peru. People spent two weeks in Peru and moved on. I spent four weeks and I have another five months left. I just have to learn to detach myself from that and embrace what truly fulfills me. Volunteering on Sundays would be the first step toward that goal.

Day 2 of Class

Well, today wasn't so bad. It wasn't so great either. Well, this morning at 8 a.m. I had my Quechua class. It's really interesting because it's a linguistics class. So my teacher was showing us how he was going to break down the language. Apparently there are a bunch of different dialects and some of them can't even communicate with each other, so it's like another language. We're going to learn the Cuzco dialect. They have some sounds that they don't have in castellano (or English), but they're not too difficult to say. My teacher is from Puno, and I thought he was from the Southern Highlands when I saw him. I had an hour break where I tried figuring out how to obtain my school books. I think I checked out the wrong one, so I have to go to school early tomorrow to see if they have the right one and then read it before my first class. So, I went to class at 11. I think, for me, I shouldn't have any classes between the hours of 12 and 5. I can have class before 12 and 5 or later, but I seem to be more tired and less fresh between 12 and 5. My second class was Contemporary Peruvian Narrative. This class seems to disappoint me a little because it seems like it's going to be boring. I don't know. It just might be that today was the first day, but my teacher didn't seem to be going anywhere with his lecture, he seemed like he was just talking about literature. I am excited for later when we get to Mario Vargas Llosa. He's the most famous Peruvian author. Like, ever. The subjects look like they will be interesting, but we'll see how the lectures go. I kept zoning out but that also had to do with I was so tired. I seem to be really tired lately. I don't know if it's I'm not getting enough sleep or if it's my diet or both, but I have been just so incredibly tired the last week or so. I should have taken a ten minute powernap after lunch. I didn't think I'd have time because it usually takes me a while to eat, but I was done with 30 minutes before I needed to go to my last class, so tomorrow I'll do that. It's cool, on classes when I have classes in the afternoon, I have time in between to have lunch, so I never need to bring my lunch to school. I discovered today, that it takes me exactly 30 minutes to walk from the house to my class which means I get at least an hour of walking every day, which totally rocks. So, I had my last class at 3. I'm so not dropping this class, lol. All we do is watch movies and then take time to discuss them in class. Just like, what we thought of the movie. Today we watched The Lives of Others. Which was cool because I've been wanting to see that movie. We didn't discuss it because we didn't have time. In all 3 of my classes today, there were lots of exchange students. In my film class, my teacher told us that if we exchange students didn't want to talk in class, we could write a two page paper and turn it in the following week. F that noise, I'm going to participate in class. That's what I'm there for, right? Oh! It was so funny. I'm glad I'm as good I am at Spanish because the movie was in German, and the subtitles were in Spanish, lol. It worked. I had little problems. But I needed a powernap or coffee or something, lol.

Today was one of the boys' birthdays. So, we had a normal dinner. Me and 3 of the boys ate. (Natalie and Katie cook for themselves and Catalin and Sebastian were in class) After Daniel (the birthday boy) finished, we sang and he blew out his candle. Chela had a cake for him. Dude's 19! Yes! Someone younger than me, lol. I'm not the baby anymore. I've been the youngest person I've met on this trip so far. Daniel's one of the guys from Cuzco. We sang happy birthday in English and Spanish. They do that here. I love that so many people live with Carlos and Chela. There are 8 of us all together, and we're getting one more girl in mid-April. I usually always have someone who either is there when I get there or who comes while I'm eating. I love my roommates. They're all so nice and so fun.

And apparently my schedule seems so packed because it is. I'm taking more units than I'm permitted to take at Cal State without permission. I mean, I don't need permission here to take so many units, but that's why. It seems like I'm taking a lot because I am, lol. Because the units are the same here as they are at Cal State. I don't think I want to drop any of my classes. I don't know, I might drop Contemporary Peruvian Narrative, but I would need to find a back-up, and I don't know where I would do that, and I don't think any other literature class would be too different. I guess what's mostly throwing me off is the teachers don't have textbooks. I sent an e-mail to my companero today to ask him how it works because I've asked people, and I'm still confused. Arg! The only thing I don't like. The campus is so pretty though. Sad to say, but better than the Long Beach campus.

This is a video I took at the park last Thursday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ohg5jz2NYk

First Day of School :-)

Today was my first day of classes at PUCP. I only had one class at 3pm. I definitely should stick to morning classes because I'm definitely fresher in the morning. 3pm is siesta time, and I was feeling it, lol. It was cool tho. It's not going to be as difficult as I thought it was. A lot of reading, but in class we get a lot of contextual information. I'm excited because we will do a lot of history of the first revolution of Peru and around that time. My teacher talks in a manner in which I can understand what she says. The class is really small. No more than a dozen of us, and four of us are exchange students. (all from the states) The textbook system is also really weird. I don't need to buy a textbook, but I think I have to buy like a packet from the department or something. My roommate tried explaining it to me, and I'm still not sure how it works. I'll try and buy the packet tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. The walk to school isn't so bad. I'm going to walk again tomorrow morning. Haven't decided yet if I will walk in the afternoon for lunch. I think I have just enough time between classes to do that. And classes don't start on time. My teacher was like, almost ten minutes late. I got to the classroom ten minutes before class, and right when I did, the other 3 Americans showed up and we were the first ones. At Cal State, if I show up ten minutes before class on the first day, I don't get a seat or I get a seat in the back or something. It was weird. I guess that'll be good for tomorrow morning. Give me a little time to find where my classroom is. Oh, well. Chela is still cooking good food. She usually cooks the same thing for dinner that she made for lunch, though. I've met all the other boys that live in the house. So total, there are 8 of us. The other American girls in the apartment aren't getting their meals. It's kinda cool doing the meal thing because I have the opportunity to have company while I eat. (Even though the TV is always on every single meal) I get to get to know the other people and stuff. I don't know. I like it. Both the other guys at the house are Peruvian. I don't know why they don't just get an apartment or something, but I guess this is something common in Peru. Who knows. Apparently my cookies turned out good because my roommates loved them. One of them kept eating them all day, lol. I tried them this evening, and they for some reason taste better than they did yesterday. They're also a little flatter. I don't know. But all my roommates like them, and I think they're going to enjoy my baking. Next weekend I'm going to bake brownies, and I'm super excited. (mostly because brownies require less ingredients, lol)

Last Day Before Classes

Well, today wasn't as much of a party as you would think it would be. I went to El Centro to go to mass at the Cathedral. It was really interesting. Something must have been going on because (as you can hopefully see) the mass was being filmed and the bishop presided along with four other priests. The congregation was full, and I guess there were groups there. I think they were school groups but I'm not sure. They had like, signs and uniforms and things to identify themselves as a groups. I was so pleased. The whole congregation went up for communion. It's the most important part of mass, and not everyone goes up all the time, which is a shame. The churches don't decorate for Lent but the priests wore purple so that's a good sign. Then I walked around and had ice cream. Peruvians love their ice cream. You can get ice cream at every restaurant and all the stores have D'OnaFria ice cream you can buy. If not D'OnaFria then Lamborgini ice cream. I don't know. It's interesting. The ice cream's not the best I've had but it's really good. I took a while and ended up at the Santuario de Santa Rosa de Lima. I was disappointed that it was closed by the time I got there because I wanted to go inside, so I have to go a different day. I took the public transportation there and back. I had a little trouble getting there, but Carlos helped me out. Then on the way back, I was on the wrong side of the street but the bus driver corrected me, lol. So, when I got back, I decided I couldn't wait any longer to bake, so I walked to the grocery store. When I got there, I realized that I forgot to write down the translation for some of the ingredients, so I basically had to guess. I eventually figured out what the baking powder was. I bought what looked like baking soda, but when I got back, my roommate and I found out it was like, ground up freeze-dried potatoes or something. Speaking of roommates! My two American roommates came last night. They were here last year, and Natalie was giving me tips and stuff. They're both really sweet. They didn't have chocolate chips so I bought a bar of chocolate. (I ended up with extra which made me excited, lol) And I couldn't find brown sugar, so I decided to use Lucuma syrup. Lucuma is very popular in ice cream and other things. I wasn't sure how it would go, so I just decided to go for it. After dinner, I finally baked my cookies. I was not only looking forward to the cookies themselves, but to the baking. I haven't baked in so long, so I was super excited to go again. The cookies turned out alright, it looks like. I used some kind of Peruvian chocolate. Idk. It had a picture of Machu Picchu on it. The chocolate wasn't very good. The batter was good tho. Except, I was short of butter and I forgot to put less flour in but it seemed to me like I needed more flour anyways, but I think I put too much flour in because my cookies turned out really fluffy. The pan also burned the bottom of the cookies. Other than those two facts, yes, Lucuma syrup is an acceptable substitute for brown sugar when making chocolate chip cookies. In conclusion, today I invented Peruvian Chocolate Chip Cookies. But next time I'm using a different chocolate.

Just a Normal Day

Today felt like a regular day. My roommate and I went to the mall which is normal. I didn't even feel compelled to do anything touristy. We both needed shoes and clothes. We were going to go to the beach too, but we got back kinda late. We ended up going to the movies instead. The school was screening Winter's Bone, so we went and saw that. We thought it was at the university, but apparently it was at an off-campus location. The Centro Cultural is in San Isidro not at the university. So we went to the University and we got there like, right at 7:30 and found out that we had to go to another neighborhood, so we took a taxi only because it would have taken an hour by bus. We weren't too late. Movie started at 7:30 and we got there at 8:00. It must have been short tho because we got out a little after 9. We were supposed to meet our new friend Luis there, and we met him after. Then he gave us a little walking tour of el centro de Miraflores, which is the really touristy area. I was surprised because they had a TGIF. We saw Chili's too but I saw that in Mexico too. I didn't think there would be a TGIF all the way in Peru. And Pinkberry!!! I was so excited!!! The first (and probably only) sign of my favorite food ever in Peru. Frozen yogurt!!! There was a really long line, and I wasn't sure of the prices so I was worried they would be expensive, so we didn't eat there. We ate ice cream later tho. We went to Parque de Kennedy. (yes, named after JFK) There were lots of people and artisans. Lots of little stands that had Peruvian food and desserts and snacks. We also took a walk down a busy pedestrian street there called Las Pizzas. It's named so because there used to be lots of Pizzerias but now there are lots of bars and clubs there now. It wasn't too exciting, so we didn't stay. I don't know. Wasn't too exciting but it was kinda cool. Then Luis helped us onto our bus back. The people here are very kind and helpful. Today was fun and chill. I have more plans for tomorrow, so a good weekend before school starts Monday. Honestly, though, I'm getting a little nervous, but we'll see.

An Extra-Peru Adventure

Today was an...interesting day. Me, my roommate, the girl from Spain, and I wanted to go to the beach. We got on the bus to go, and we apparently were going to one outside of Lima that had dolphins. On our way, we decided with the Tsunami alerts it's not a good idea to go to the beach. However, we were able to stop at some ruins called Pachamac which was pretty fun. We didn't have a car so we had to walk through all the ruins which isn't so bad except it was very hot, lol. The ruins were pretty cool. I guess nothing real special. They were adobe so they weren't well preserved. Earthquake destroyed them a few years ago or something, so they're being restored. Pachamac is a whole city. And of course with a Huaca del Sol. So, we met a guy there who apparently teaches at La Catolica and he gave us some tips for what to do after. We went to a market for lunch where the girls ate fish. Afterwards, we took another bus to a beach called La Playa del Silencio. It wasn't too bad. The water was yellow because of the plankton, but the water was warm. I heard the water in Lima was cold, but I guess it wasn't technically in Lima. I don't know how much of a difference there would be. Eventually we left and took a very long bus ride home. It was quite an adventure. The man we met was very kind. We met him again at the beach, and he told us how to get back. I was so exhausted by the end of the day, though. I don't think I've gotten a full night's sleep since I got here. Today was a long day, and I'm definitely ready for a long night's sleep.

Registration/First Night Out in Lima

Today I registered for classes. It was quite a complicated process only because I'm taking so many different kinds. Well, I don't know how this will work because I'm taking more classes than I planned, so I have class everyday. Monday to Friday. And not just in the morning on Friday, ALL DAY. 10 to 5. Fiesta. Or is it 11 to 5? Either way, forget about weekend trips to Chiclayo, Ica, or Huarez. No way. :-( Well, I could do Ica. But not the others. Well, I don't have class on Monday until 3, but still. Well, here's my horario.

Historia del Cine (Film History) 1 Miercoles 10 hasta 3

Video 1 Viernes 10 hasta 5

Narrativa Peruana Contemporanea (Contemporary Peruvian Narrative) Martes 11-3/Jueves 10-12

Literatura Peruana del Siglo XIX (Peruvian Literature of the 19th century) Lunes/Jueves 3-5

Quechua (Native Peruvian Language) Martes/Jueves 8-10

Cine (Film) Martes 3-6

Quechua and Cine are elective courses that I don't really need. I'll take them if I need the credits but I don't think I will. I might drop them depending on the workload of my other classes. We'll see. I'll wait at least until I get the syllabus, but when will I get the chance to study Quechua? And Cine is just once a week, and all we do is watch movies, so I don't think I'll drop this one. Quechua I might though. I have to say, though, in total I'm taking 23 credits (which I think is the equivilant of 17 units pero no se. It certainly feels like 23. I took 18 units last semester but this feels worse. I think because I'm taking 2 literature classes in another language. Pero bueno. Vamos a ver.

We had a lecture about staying safe in Lima, and it made me all paranoid that I was going to get robbed or raped or something. I don't think I'll get raped if I just stay smart, but I might get robbed at some point in my five more months here. We'll see.

After that, a bunch of the other exchange students and I went to Lima for the evening. We started out en La Plaza de Armas and walked around. We wandered into a free art museum. Don't know what it's called but it had art from the 80's and a really cool exposition of a sculptor who had a really interesting style. His sculptures were very droopy and when he sculpted Jesus on the cross He was always screaming. We had dinner at a popular polleria se llama Norky's. It's a chain like Pollo Loco except you can be served here. They served chicken a la brasa. (braised) I knew that I would eat a lot of chicken here. If you buy a "hamburguesa" en la calle, usually it's a chicken patty. (?) And everywhere there are pollerias. En la casa tambien they serve chicken a lot. I'm not a huge fan of chicken, so I really won't be after this, lol. It was good. Apparently not many gringos like Inca Kola because it tastes like bubble gum. But that's why I like it, lol. Idk. I'm not a fan of soda, but for some reason I have a weakness for Inca Kola. Well, the chicken was very good, and we walked to Plaza San Martin. It seems every city has one of those too.

From there we went to the most wonderful place ever! You can say what you want about Lima, but you can't dis the Parque de las Aguas. Que hermoso!!! The fountains are so beautiful! I've decided to keep a list of the things in Lima Nick and I can do together, and this is definitely on the list. It cost S/4.00 para entrar but it's totally worth it. It's so big. If you've ever seen the show Fantasmic in Disneyland, it's kinda like that except spaced out. So incredible. I was hoping to try a Pisco Sour tonight, but alas, my plan was foiled. Oh, well. Overall today was a great day. Registered for classes, had fish for lunch (with aji! me encanta :-] es spicy), went out for the first time. It was funny, there were like 20 of us, and some guy, I have no idea his relation to us, but he acted sorta like our guide, I guess. idk. But he got us everywhere and told us where to go, and stuff. Idk. What I do know is, I'm going to enjoy a nice weekend before the craziness begins. I have no idea how this week will go, so we'll see. :-)