Up next... Columbia (2/2012), then Iceland (1/2013)

Waikiki, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

2011-11-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

Looks like I still haven't updated my post for Costa Rica...
One of these days (hopefully before my notes on Costa Rica look like chicken scratch to me) I'll get around to posting it...

Monday
Arrived at around 1pm... got on a shuttle (SpeediShuttle, the "official" shuttle from HNL to Waikiki hotels)... It was approximately $13 each way for each person.
Since the town was getting ready for APEC the whole week, there were lots of blockages and we didn't get to the hotel till around 2pm... We ended up looking for somewhere to eat since our room wasn't ready until about 3pm. We ate at Ahi Bowl and Pot (in the Ruffage Natural Foods market; 2443 Kuhio Ave).. It was really close to the Hyatt Regency (where we stayed) and was quite yummy. I had the Ahi Poke Avocado bowl ($10).. this actually ended up being my lunch staple for the rest of the week. I LOVE sushi and sushi-like food... :)

We got into our hotel room and were settled and ready to leave by around 4:30pm more or less and headed back out to get a 4-day bus pass from ABC market ($25). After talking to the concierge, we hopped on the bus to get out to Moana Falls... we ended up getting there by around 5:45 more or less..so our hike ended up being an evening/night hike... if you look at the flickr photos, you'll see my view of the waterfalls was just dark night... it was a very pretty hike though, so well worth it.

By the time we got back it was quite late... almost 10pm, grabbed some dinner at Fatty's Chinese kitchen... (2345 Kuhio Ave) Recommended by the Hyatt bell desk staff.. very good for fast chinese food. I got Szechwan Shrimp ($9 + -?) which was QUITE good. We grabbed a LongBoard beer from a convenient store and ate in our hotel room :)

Tuesday
8-5 Conference - I should mention by the way, that we were in Hawaii due to me going to a conference on Vocational Rehab for veterans with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and TBI (traumatic brain injury)... there were speakers from Japan, so they had good rationale to have the conference in Hawaii :)
After the conference, we wanted to find a nice little happy hour to get drinks. Both B and I are suckers for piNa colada... we were directed to Wang Chung (2410 Koa Ave) which is now my favorite bar ever! (and i'm not one for hyperboles :) ) ... this is how i imagine bars should be... the owner was so warm and friendly, including all the other patrons ... (which included other bartenders who were hanging out on off days).. it was just like a nice family/long-time friends feel. Ordered a few drinks, bartender/owner made us a drink as well and also gave us waters for the road. We ended up going twice over the week and this really added to a memorable week there. ---oh, but they don't have pina coladas FYI
For dinner we got food from Me's BBQ (151 Uluniu Ave). B had Kalbi ($9.50), which was tasty. I got the tofu soup ($11) which i thought was soontubu, but is in fact tubu gigeh.. which was still tasty, but slightly disappointing.

Wednesday
8-5 Conference
We wanted to try out another Happy hour, so we went to Five-o (25% off drinks; 2201 Kalakaua Ave). The bartender there was really nice as well. After we drank our piNa coladas, he made us a concoction which was super tasty and has possibly converted B on to chocolately/snicker/cream type of cocktails. Very friendly vibe so far in Waikiki :)
We also walked around International market Place and just bought a bunch of souvenirs at an ABC store.
We ate at Mikawon a korean restaurant (2345 Kuhio Ave). $59 for 1 soontubu, 1 so-long-tang and 1 kalbi... a bit on the pricy side, but was tasty.

Thursday
9-5 Conference
Went Paddleboarding, which was ALOT of fun. Went for about 1.5 hours, rented from Moku (2446 Koa Ave)... we were trying to decide between that and surfing, but the surf was very small (which is actually nice for me), but we decided that we wanted to try out the paddleboarding. Brian at Moku (2446 Koa Ave) was super nice... even with me obnoxiously (usually i'm not obnoxious) saying out loud "i dont think they have paddleboards!" he was really nice and helped us out. It was about $14/hour. I highly recommend them and highly recommend paddleboarding :) it's not any sort of adrenalin fueling sport, but it's really cool to be floating/standing along the water.. sort of leisurely catching waves.. (B caught one and rode it to the end!)
For dinner, we went to a udon restaurant that could possibly be the best udon i've ever had.. Hawaii seems to have a very large japanese population, so they know their Udon... (there also seems to be a large korean population.. saw lots of korean liquor store owners and korean restaurant owners).. Anyway, highly recommend Marukame Udon (2310 Kuhio Ave). When we got there at 7pm, there was a long line outside, though it moved pretty quickly. We got a Kake Udon (tempted to get the bukkake udon, just because, but i opted for what would taste better to me). I added 2 tempura shimp to mine, B got a curry udon and added fried chicken to his and also got this pile of fried onion/potato/thing. It came out to $17 for an incredibly tasty dinner. (We tried to make it out here Friday night, but it didn't work out)...

Friday
Woke up by 6am to be checked out and catch the shuttle by 6:50am. We were picked up and brought to Budget rent-a-car at the HNL airport. We also met up with Aloha Airport Delivery and Storage, who were super fast in arriving to pick up our extra baggage from where we were at Budget (within 1 minute!). We paid $20 for the day of storage. The car rental was $58.93 (government employee leisure travel rate). We took off for Hanauma Bay and arrived by 8:45am :) with plenty of parking. Also, very relieved that my GPS had finally decided to start working (i think it was just not working anywhere around waikiki for some reason). The entrance fee was $7.50 each, parking $1, and if i remember right, the whole snorkel set was something like $12 each... We also paid for a locker at $5 i think... it was like swimming in an expensive aquarium... we even saw a sea turtle :) (see flickr pictures)... ALOT of fun.
We took a drive up to north shore and watched the pro surfers... incredibly impressive... collected some cool lookin' sand... then just before sunset we drove to Tantalus/Roundabout drive which is a really pretty drive up to a vista point. Unfortunately no battery in my camera at this point, so no pictures :( we attempted to drive back to the udon place, but with traffic, APEC craziness at Waikiki, it was not doable.. so we went to a curry place instead which ended up being pretty tasty (Curry House coco ichibanya; 1009 University Ave). We got two curries (1 chicken cutlet and 1 tofu/gyoza) and 2 salads (1 corn and 1 squid) for a total of $22. .. not bad...
since we saved some time with not sitting in traffic, we got to the airport a bit early.. after getting our luggage from Aloha Storage and checking in, we went to some bar at Gate 12 (tequila something) and each got a pina colada while waiting for our flight. :)

Pictures: Click here

Costa Rica trip

2011-08-21T17:54:00.001-07:00

Pictures to accompany itinerary below :)

Warning, my review is packed full of boring details in case the information is helpful for others to put together their itineraries :)

I'll start with our Flight tickets... we got a 1-stop (texas) flight on American Airlines from Los Angeles. my ticket was $625 and brentt's was $325 (he had a $300 off voucher from another time he agreed to delay his flight).

So we arrived in San Jose Airport (Costa Rica) around 8pm and were soon found by the Tri-Color car rental people when we arrived. Similar to other S. American countries I've been to, the arrival is somewhat chaotic because there are taxi drivers and other solicitors are trying to grab your attention. One of the first thing out of the Tri-color staff's mouth is "I've got good news and bad new" (That's always the setup for scam right?!) and then explains that he doesn't have the car we reserved, but has the next upgrade up. Sounds more like good news right?... well when we arrive to the rental place, he then tells us that they don't accept Visa payments anymore unless we pay $140 more for coverage. (and then later also adds 'well with the upgrade it all evens out).. at first we just said 'f that' and said we'd find another company in the morning and were going to take a taxi to the hotel, but with everything that we have squished into a 7/8 day itinerary, i wasn't sure i wanted to add that stress... so ultimately we decided to go with Tri-color. Oh, I should add that I asked him when they knew of this policy change and he said 2 days ago and i gave him my piece of mind about how i thought it was quite convenient of them to NOT email me about the change seeing that I could have remedied the situation before I came to the country. Assholes... (btw it cost something like $470 for the week, which isn't horrible, but it was originally supposed to be $330). If I could do it again, I'd go with either Service Car Rental www.servicecarrental.com).

Anyway... so we get situated with the car and thank goodness my GPS is working!!! (paid $49 for Costa Rica map--10 days-- through www.navsatcr.com --also available through ebay from the company--, which is a must-do if you're driving around).. we find our way to the hotel (Hotel Casa Tago, www.hotelcasatago.com). Very nice hostal. Conveniently about a mile from the airport and from Tri-Color (the rental place was not at the airport, but they shuttled us from there). I highly recommend this place... I've been to a number of hostels and this is a great example of what a hostel should be. You can't beat the value with the quality. The owners and other staff are very kind and helpful. The other guests who stayed there seemed to be like minded travelers.
There is a nice little town nearby "Municipal de Alajuela". Conveniently located walking distance to stores, center of Alajuela (central park), banks, restaurants, stores. There's a souvenir shop in town if you need any last minute gifts. The restaurant that the owners recommend is pretty decent, Cafe Dream. Casados for lunch or dinner and not too expensive.
The staff speak both spanish and english and were happy to speak spanish with me even though their english was much better than my spanish. :)
Breakfast was included... lots of fruit, eggs w/ ham, bread/butter/jam, juice and coffee (i dont drink coffee and they made me hot chocolate!). Ensuite bathroom, Showers had hot water. white towels, fan (you don't need the a/c), clean. comfortable beds.
($35/night for room with private bath and fan)

And then we were off for a 3 hour drive to La Fortuna where Arenal Volcano is. We got to La Fortuna and ate at a "soda" named Soda Mimis. Each lunch was about $5. Food was good. Owner was super nice, explaining some of the fruit to us that we hadn't had before. Chan (slightly sweet, slimy) and Cas (apple/pear-like; we liked this much more).

We then found our hotel, Leaves and Lizards:
I'll start with the negatives and end with the positives because this nearly perfect place only had one negative and an amazing list of positives... Though I'll start by saying that I'm used to traveling from hostel to hostel.. sharing dorms, sharing bathrooms, etc.. staying at L&L was the luxury part of our trip.
The negative: This has already been commented on in other reviews and you'd think they'd consider the feedback and adjust accordingly. From the very beginning we were barraged with pressure to sign up for their tours. Despite letting them know that we had already put together our schedule... it was a daily "people who don't do our tours don't have as good of a time here"... and "i'd hate for you guys to leave and feel you missed out"... "read the guestbook, people love our tours".. etc. etc. etc... he'd even preempt it each time with "i hope i'm not coming off as pushy" heh... I'm guessing he doesn't realize how obnoxious this comes off as. Oh and even on the last day as we're checking out, he gave this sort of surprised response when we told him that we had an amazing stay there again stating "oh usually people don't have as good of a time when they don't do the tours." I'm generally tolerant of this sort of behavior, seeing that we're in a touristy town, guess they feel compelled to do what they can to sell and promote themselves to the tourists, but it was a real turn off. It's enough for me not to consider returning there. It was a beautiful location and amazing accommodations, which i'll describe next, but despite this (as there are other locations that I imagine are equally breathtaking locations), I'll consider another place to stay next time i return.
That said, if you can tolerate the above, it's an amazing place to stay.
The positive: The cabins are spacious. There's so much attention to detail. Minifridge with fresh cow milk, couple beers, sodas (all complementary)... Fresh coffee. Tea. Coffee maker. Glasses (even wine glasses)... A safe. Even a basket with women's sanitary needs. Plenty of fluffy towels and robes. Beautiful fresh flowers throughout the cabin. A tupperware of cutlery and plates. Alarm clock/ipod doc. One of the beds had a cute swan/heart towel art on it that was very cute. The facilities are just really nice. The showers had stone walls and hot water; with shampoo/conditioner/soap dispensers. Beds were super comfortable. An entire glass wall facing the volcano. The very roomy spacious patio had 3 hammocks and a couple chairs. A place to hang clothes (which really came in hand with all the rain). Every morning there were beautiful hummingbirds; every night (when it wasn't raining) there were fireflies. Breakfast ($3) was yummy. The grounds are just beautiful.. away from everything...lots of privacy... good place to just get away and it's just you, your loved one(s) and nature. A vacation from our vacation. I generally travel in budget hostels, so this was absolute decadence.
It was $135/night. Oh, and it was a good idea to have a 4x4 car when staying at that location.
We stayed here for 3 nights.

While in the Arenal area... during the day we did several activities that we highly recommend: the Ecoglide ziplining (they have a great Tarzan Swing that really sells it; $45 each www.arenalecoglide.com/), hiking around Observatory lodge (you can walk on a suspension bridge, visit the museum, we did a super easy walk to waterfalls and we also did cerro chato hike; $4 entrance), "taboncito" free hot springs (they are the most beautiful hot springs i've ever been to; they're across the street from the tabacon hot springs resort), and we ate at Las Tablitas (which we highly recommend) in Monterey (the closest town on the other side of the lodge) a few times; $5 casados/dinners and lunches).

From there we went on our 6 hour drive to Manual Antonio. I believe we ate at Soda Viquez at one point (it was in the guide book).

We stayed at National Park Backpackers (www.nationalparkbackpackers.com; $25+/night)
I'll start with the redeeming qualities because it wasn't all bad... It's location is incredibly convenient. Right next to Manuel Antonio National Park. Walking distance to the beach and restaurants. Secure parking. Pool clean. Wifi (that is mostly reliable, but slow). And for the most part the rooms were clean. Movie projected on wall at 8pm every night. Showers are not warm, but don't need to be. Just your bare bones hostel. Bed in square room. Not bad... it's all you can really ask for right?...
Well, what left a slight bad taste in my mouth was the initial interaction and a few other things. I had emailed and received confirmation of my reservation about 3 weeks prior. Upon getting there, the front desk guy tells me it's $5 more a night than originally quoted. I informed him that I had confirmed with someone that it was $25 (not $30 as he was charging me). He just said "sorry, cant' do anything about it"... (i know $5 isn't much, but this was not the first time that week that the price had changed on me and I was NOT going to let it happen again). Fortunately I had my iTouch with the email and told him I had the email that had the original quote in it and he asks me to go get it. I pull up the email and as i'm about to show him, he says he doesn't need to see it as he has the email on his screen. (umm ok). He then says that he'll give me the originally quoted cost and he's doing me a big favor by doing so. (wow, thanks for giving me the cost that was originally quoted.. ). Thank goodness we were only staying for 2 nights because after that awkward interaction, i didn't quite feel comfortable staying there after that. Not sure if they did this on purpose, but we were placed in the room that was right in front of the pool pump that would start at 7am. The walls are incredibly thin and we were able to hear the talking, moaning, breathing and bed creaking in the room next to us at 10pm and 3am. As I'm sure they could hear ours. The women's bathroom was a little disturbing... the wood doors have blood/finger stains on them... I'm guessing menstrual in nature. The toilets would get stopped up often and run out of toilet paper. There are bad music videos until 8pm when the movie starts.
I would not return. There are a few hostels on this same street with the same perks of locality and pool. It looked like there are parking lots available for 1.5k colon ($3) so if the parking lot was a must, you can still go someone else with the parking lot option nearby.

There was pretty good breakfast at a hostel (Costa Linda, www.costalindabackpackers.com) a little bit down the road. $4ea for a decent breakfast. We had our first dinner at a restaurant that ended up being a bit on the more expensive side seeing that we only had drinks (pina coladas, yum!!) and some bar type food ($33 total)... We found later at Costa Linda the drinks were much better and cheaper. During the day we went to the National Park, which is $10 entrance per person and a hefty $20 per person for the guide. As money frugal as I am, the extra $20 per person was well worth it. Our guide (Nicolas Abarca; slothtours2009@hotmail.com; niabarcanu@gmail.com) must have had some sort of honing system implanted in his brain. He had a really nice telescope with him and he'd spot something super far away and show it to us. He also found small insects and crabs that i wouldn't have otherwise seen and many sloths (see our flickr pictures!). We spent alot of time in the water, which was soooo warm. Musta been around 85 degrees or something.

other random thoughts:
Pura Vida: i have to say.. despite this saying "Pura vida" being all over the guide books and kitchy souvenier stuff, we only heard someone say it once.

So Costa Rica is absolutely beautiful.... and rainy... rained pretty much every day we were there, but it also let up long enough for us to enjoy everything we had planned.

Here's a run down of how much we spent.... it came out to $2954... looks like i made it just under $3000 for 2 people 8 days--2 travel days; 6 days in country).
Cost includes: lodging + tips, entrance fees, guides + tips, food + tips, ziplining, rental, gas ($136), plane tickets, travel emergency insurance ($148 total), GPD CR map, airport tax ($26x2), pet sitting + tip($72), airport parking ($62), hostel parking ($4), and $6 cab back to airport from hostel...

Last post for now...

2009-08-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to update that this will be the last official post until I decide to go traveling in January... if that happens.....

Until then.. for those who know of my other blog.. feel free to go there instead :)

Finally some fotos!!

2009-08-22T23:40:00.001-07:00

So, I've uploaded some photos, but I've gotten a bit lazy in my weeks back here as far as blogging my last few weeks of traveling/living in Peru..

So instead of blogging long stories, I'll post a few pictures and links and you can put together the story =)

1. My despidida (farewell week)
2. Week at the Shamanism and Plant Medicine conference
3. Last few days in Lima 1
Last few days in Lima 2
4. Plane ride home (had an interesting incident in my stop over in Columbia heh)
Long story short, apparently they were suspicious about something in my bag (not random check, but actually suspicious)... I had a few questional things in there, I guess, but most noteably, the bottle of washing soap i had in there that appeared to be a suspicious white powder.. after explaining what it was .. (washing soap) and then him asking me what i do with it (washing clothes)...and he'd ask me several times... i told him i could demonstrate it as well hah.. anyway, he let me go... :)
5. So, the big question is .. what am i doing next.. right now I'm living in Monrovia, east of Pasadena with Brentt, my boyfriend. As it looks now, and it's been about a month.. There doesn't seem to be any jobs out here on the east side.. Apparently there are a few contract social work job options on the Westside.. So it looks like unless i can stand the anxiety of being unemployed and uninsured (health), then I'm going to need to move to the Westside... I've really began to enjoy living in the nature'y, quiet, traffic-free, pleasant living on the Eastside... but it's too expensive to live unemployed in this town...

So plans are as follows:
1. If I dont find a good job and it continues to be contract work until January 2010.. I will again leave on Part 2 of my travels which is Patagonia to Central America .. approximately 6 months.. likely less as it is exhausting being on the road...
2. If i find a good stable well-paying job that I like ... I will stay and not quit, because it's quite foolish to quit a job right now...

So..

Back home!! And trying to catch up.

2009-07-24T09:47:00.001-07:00

I'm back in my mother's home in Torrance! I'm feeling a bit disorganized, but after i get a chance to move my stuff to Monrovia (moving in with Brentt) and organize some things, I plan to update on:
1. My despidida (farewell week)
2. Week at the Shamanism and Plant Medicine conference
3. Last few days in Lima
4. Plane ride home (had an interesting incident in my stop over in Columbia heh)
5. Probably other random things i cant' think of right now.

See you all soon!

another mugging.....

2009-07-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Guess Peru is as unsafe as people make it out to be.. however like i've mentioned in previous posts, if you take certain precautions you can stay safe.. I really can't recall anytime that i've been unsafe (though i'm generally very careful and in general while walking i carry a "don't mess with me" sort of face heh)... so from how it looks, of our volunteers we've had some sort of theft incident at least once a month.. though it coudl be worse.. once a month kidnappings would be worse...

So yet another one of our volunteers got mugged.. this time it was pretty involved but at the same time nothin was taken... I wasn't there at the time, but from what she explains, she had left the bar to get something to eat.. (already #1.. don't walk around alone at night)... she went down a street that she did happen to notice was quite empty (so #2.. don't walk down empty streets)... and then some guy came up and started chatting her up.. which she figured was fine to have some extra company while walking.. then all of a sudden, in a mass confusion, she found her self flat on her face being dragged by her purse.. the guy had grabbed it and started running, but in her confusion she held on tight and then realized what was happening and began to scream... eventually the guy ran off because she was screaming so loud the neighbors came out.. police were called and gave her a ride home...

so she was left with a pretty dark bruise on her face, scratches up the side of her leg and on her shoulder... and bruises all over her arms.. from the looks of it, the guy must have wrestled with her a bit to get her purse away...

anyway, the guy didn't get any of her belongings.. and thank goodness it wasn't a worse situation...

One week left with SKIP....

2009-07-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

...and 18 days left in Perú...

The time went just about as you'd expect... time flew at certain points... and time seemed very slow at others...it definitely feels like it's been 9 months and although I'm going to miss being here, I'm quite ready to come back home.

Generally with just about everything that's happened in my life, there have been subtle changes within myself, though I'm really just the same person who came. I definitely feel a bit more confidence in myself, less fear of the unknown, and a bit more cynicism about certain things after having seen the level of poverty here (and it's not even as bad here as it is in many other countries)... The homelessness I have seen in our country is quite the luxury compared to what homelessness is here... in fact, i should say that quite a chunk of the population here that HAS a "home" has it worse off than the homeless in the U.S...

I've learned a new language which is quite awesome and has given me the appreciation of knowing more than one language (which i never quite appreciated with korean) and the amazing relationships that are discovered as a result ... (although I took 3 yrs spanish in high school, i learned less then than my first two weeks here)

Who knew it would take traveling +3000 miles away to another country (after living in southern california coast my entire life) to learn and love surfing...

I've learned that there is a time and place for planning and knowing and it's not necessary all the time.. :)

There are so many more places I want to explore in the world.. though this desire conflicts with my continued desire to have a stable, secure life near to family and friends... I want to hike through patagonia... visit the salt flats in bolivia... volunteer at the sloth sanctuary in costa rica... ..i still want to go to belize, honduras, columbia, brazil... so that's still the plan (to go back out in January), though leaving home again will be difficult despite knowing the amazing adventures that are out there...

So its possible to quit a stable, very secure, well-paying job, leave a great group of friends, and leave a life that was going really well to discover another life in a country where you don't know the language and come to live in with only a backpack... I could never have imagined the experience that I had here.. though, I have to say that I didn't come with many expectation... I've been blown away by my experience here...

I'll be coming back to the states unemployed, without health insurance and needing to start life all over again... wish me good luck!!

Transportation system

2009-06-25T14:38:00.001-07:00

I'm going to really miss the transportation system here.... If it was like this in Los Angeles, I wouldn't have purchased a car.. or maybe I would have, but would only drive it once a month or so, which isn't really that worth it... but anyway.. it's very entertaining and at the same time efficient and cheap...

Basically how it works is that there are two sorts of buses.. micros (large buses) and combis (minivans)... in their window they have a letter (and sometimes #).. from the type of bus it is and the letter in the window, you know what the route the bus goes (well, this is known just from asking people and personal experience)... from there, all you have to do is go anywhere on their route and you flag then down when they drive by, they pick you up and then you get dropped off anywhere on the route you want (you don't even have to walk to a bus stop or bus station...).. in fact, you could get dropped off just 10 feet from the person who just got off before you.. though that's obnoxious... it costs 1 sole or 1.5 soles depending on the distance which is pretty much 33-45 cents... its half price for students.. and if you have a kid, as long as their sitting on your lap, the kid doesn't get charged...

The buses themselves have to be the most rattiest vehicles i've ever seen.. I imagine they would be awesome to take to burningman... a couple times i've been in ones that the cobrador (the guy you give your fare to) was sat there holding the door closed!... once the top of the door fell out of it's socket and they spent 5 minutes putting it back in...

in the combis (minivans) they squeeze about 16 passengers (plus the driver and the cobrador; making 18).. and then they usually will squeeze in two more people who are standing there bent over.. of course no ones wearing a seat belt.. but these cars are so ratty that a crash would probably not save you with a seatbelt anyway.. HOWEVER the passenger(s) do need to wear a seatbelt or at least appear to be wearing one...

This is true of the taxis as well... in a station wagon, we've fit about 9 people before.. which is fine, and we don't get pulled over as long as the front passenger has their seatbelt on...

Pretty much anywhere within the main part of Trujillo costs about 4 soles ($1.33)... going all the way out to huanchaco in a taxi which is about 20 minutes in taxi is about 10 soles ($3.33)... the taxis are often just as ratty as the micros/combis...

The other cool thing is that there are always some sort decorations in the taxis (and micros) ... it's usually men taxi drivers (though i've had a couple women taxistas)... who have the ever popular bobble head dogs... sometimes mickey mouse characters stuck/hanging from the front windshield... lots of stickers all over the inside of their car saying anything from "no escupa" (no spitting)... to stickers about not accepting fake money...

some photos of a micro.. our trip to the zoo with the kids... actually the seats don't usually look this nice...

Pictures up (Lima/Cusco/Machu Picchu, Nursery, Surf competition)

2009-06-12T18:50:00.001-07:00

Pictures up.Here

A very thorough summary written by Nadia here:
http://livelaughlove365.blogspot.com.

Heres some pictures to keep you company:

I'll keep my summary very brief as Nadia's is very thorough..

Basically spent a few days in Cusco, then went to Agua Caliente, Macchu Pichu, Ollantaytambo, then back to Cusco.. with a couple day trips to Tibón and Pisac... Cusco is sooooooo incredibly different than living in Trujillo... it's even a different sort of touristy than Mancora and Mantanitas, Ecuador was... There's international food (like Korean food?!? and Indian... mmmmmmmMMmmmm) and so many tourists, I was not used to seeing so many non Peruvians... I was also not used to spending so much money. I can get a 2 course meal and a drink for 4 soles.. and we were going to restaurants where the plates were 40+ soles... All I thought was that I could eat lunch for 2 weeks on the cost of this one meal!!! But I really had to get over it, cuz it was just one week and I was treated for a few meals, so it wasn't breaking the bank so much. For Macchu Pichu, we didn't do a 4 day trek.. we took the train there and the bus to the entrance... Overall I think this was nice to save some days to hang out in Cusco more and have a more mellow unrushed time... plus gave us the extra energy to make it up Wayna Picchu which is a bit exhausting with the altitude.. and Britta and I did the extra Gran Caverna loop, which was sort of like climbing WP again... I was super spent after that and ready to pass out. I had alot of difficulty with the altitude and consumed quite a bit of coca products (tea, chocolate, candy, etc) while I was here because otherwise I had a horrible headache and lightheadedness (which I took tylenol every day as well to cope)... Learned i have great bargaining skills and can tell someone off in the worst way in spanish if i really needed to.. (which I almost needed to because,... well long story, but they redeemed themself, so I didn't).

Oh.. and i got really sick at the end of my trip... had nausea for 2 days before the 'runs' started (and lasted for about 5 days) and immodium wasn't helping.. at one point when i got back to trujillo, the nausea left and I hate a huge meal which immediately exited keeping me up until 2am... I went to work the next morning (waking up at 6:30am)... It was gone and came back for another go for a few days.. strange thing.. it was the sort that didn't give you stomach cramps before hand, it was just a constant run to the bathroom.. sorry probably not something you want to know details about, but it's a part of living here I think.. Hadn't had it this bad before though.. wonder what was in Cusco....

It was suuuuuuuuuuuuper cool to see everyone...

What else... Well I'm on my way out tonight to someone's farewell party, so I'll leave it at that... for now.

Things i will miss in Peru......

2009-06-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

My nursery kids, riding the micros/combies, surfing in huanchaco, liz (but will see her new years!!), the other SKIP volunteers, cebiche, 4.50 sole menús (like $1.50 for a drink and 2 large course), potatoes gallore (the best french fries, fresh not frozen), carts on street (to buy watermelon, papa relleno, meals, marcianos, acuñas, etc), dance class @ the gym, speaking spanish all the time, Grupo 5 and cumbia (hehe it grew on me), tortillas (egg kind), farmacias (don't have to go to the doctor for every little thing), chinita (grew to like this nickname that folks gave me here :)), traveling, exploring all that is Peru...

What I won't miss:
having a bad infestation of lice, talking on skype w/ brentt (and not having him in person), tons and tons of random bug bites all the time, whistling and cat calling (and taxis honking and waiting for you even though you DIDNT wave for them), unavoidable tanner/freckled skin (so much sun despite being caked on with sunblock all the time), coming home from work with dirty feet (though the flip side is going to work every day in flip flops was very cool!), so many meat options, 'the runs' every other day (tho i think it kept the weight down! heh)...

My future plans

2009-06-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

So, I plan to come back to the states for about 6 months before heading out for part 2 of my travels. Which means I will be in the states just long enough for the holidays and New Years and then the first week of January I plan to head out to Patagonia with Brentt and work my way up through Central America. At that point, I plan to sort of "settle down" somewhere and travels from there are will be 2 weeks here and there as vacation time allows from wherever I'm working permanently.

For the 6 months I'm here, I'm trying to decide if I am going to live in near Pasadena (Where Brentt is going to school and lives) or on the West Side (if job prospects are more over on that side)... I am going to sign up with a temp agency that I have known several social workers to use and have liked. I'm slightly concerned about the bad economy and being able to find a job, but at the same time, feeling confident that there has to be some sort of social work job out there... Just hope I can also get myself some good health insurance (since I will have NONE the minute I step on US soil). I'm looking at this as an opportunity to work with a different population... maybe with children? I would like to stay in Mental Health.

Moving to huanchaco

2009-06-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have moved to the cute beach down of Trujillo, called Huanchaco. Though this adds about 30 minutes each way to my commute, I thought it would be a nice move for my last month here so I can surf as much as I want and have a bit of a slower paced lifestyle on the beach. The volunteer house is now about 16 people, and although I miss the always-something-happening in the house and getting to know the other volunteers more, I am also enjoying the privacy of living with only 2 other people.

Thank you for DONATIONS!

2009-06-07T13:31:00.001-07:00

It'll take me a bit to catch up on blogging on Cusco/Machu Pichu, but I wanted to send out a thank you to all that donated stuff for SKIP. A majority of it was from Nadia and her coworkers (THANK YOU!!!) we received baby clothes, memory games, tracing paper, markers, kids scissors, toothbrushes (btw, the kids looooooooooooooove their new toothbrushes, they were so excited to get them), frisbee, and some adult clothes and a super nice camera donated by Britta (thanks!!).

Thanks to my friends who also brought down yummy gifts for me =) choc covered blueberries and other trader joe treats from A, music goodies (cds and an mp3 player!) from the terrakroma folks (my ipod had stopped working too so this was great!), chai tea from michael/britta, chocolate from brentt...

hope i'm not forgetting anyone/anything...

Long time no blog...

2009-06-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,
Sorry my Peru blog has been quiet for a while... I´ve been in Cusco for the past week and half..

In the aiport right now on my way back to Trujillo, just trying to hold it together!! I´ve had 4 days of nausea, 2-3 days of "bicicleta" (or the runs as they say in the states), a stomach ache like someone has punched me... and probably collectively have eaten about 3 meals in the last 4 days since everything i look at or smell makes me want to throw up... and therefore feeling quite lightheaded and delirious at the moment... fortunately this happened after Machu Picchu so I was able to enjoythat... I´m still able to walk around, so I don´t think i need to go to the doctor quite yet, but Im thinking if i can´t hold more food down or if the immodium doesn´t start working soon, Ill need to take a few more days off of work and see the doc... haven´t been this sick yet in Peru... my only other bad case of sickness was just like a half day of tummy ache and was gone...

Hopefully in the next week I will be able to update on:
1. My move to Huanchaco Beach (I´m no longer in the SKIP volunteer house). Though still working for SKIP of course.
2. Vacation in Cusco with A, E, Britta, Michael, Nadia, Anthony, and Misty!
- Plus generous SKIP donations from Nadia and Britta!
3. Future plans back in the states!
4. Things I will miss here in Peru (already have started a list!!!)

off to run to the bathroom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Nursery updates cuz it's my life right now

2009-04-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

Hey folks..

Decided to blog more about the nursery.. but this could potentially be very boring.. just sort of describing how it's structured...

so basically the day is split up between 20 minute segments.. each segment having a direct purpose.. even "free toy play" promotes preference and autonomy... Also each week has a letter, number, color and shape of the week. I had attempted to ahve a theme of the week as well. but it was way too complicated for me to try and incorporate that heh...

So we start the day with organizing the classroom, putting the alphabet mat out, chairs/tables, etc... and then they have free toy play (which all the toys also have some sort of educational purpose)...
then we start the morning gathering.. with these three songs "si estas feliz" (if you're happy and you know it), buenos dias (good morning) and dias de la semana (days of the week).. then we review the behavioral board (this 3 light system, everyone is on green, there are 4 simple rules.. no fighting, listen while the teacher is talking, walk in a line together (when going outside), and ask to go to the bathroom one at a time)... if you break one of the rules you move to yellow and this involves a discussion, then if it happens again, you move to red and this involves timeout)... on the flip side, there is the "star" chart, where if they have good behavior for first half or second half of the morning, they have opportunities to get a star, and after 5 stars they get to choose something from the prize box (sticker/card/other)..... then we go into talking about "what day/date/climate/season is it", who my helper of the day is, and review again the #/letter/shape/color of the week... then we read a story and do a language activity (for example reviewing the letters and writing 'Dd' like 8 times), then it's sport (there are two outdoor sections of the day) this is a directed sport/game that i teach them.. then we come back wash hands for snacktime and they brush their teeth after eating, then it's storytime.. relaxation/quiet time (to start learning to calm self, stress/emotional management, etc).. then we do a maths activity (using numbers, shapes, or other concept), then english (songs, alphabet, face/body, emotions, etc.), then art and personal development (personal development is sort of just learning the role of things in the world; self awareness and awareness of others)... then 'recess' for free outdoor play.. then back inside for music before putting all the classroom stuff away again for the end of the day.

Quite a full day, activities seem to work out pretty nicely to fill out the 4 hours.

So.. originally we had called "time out" "the corner"... but unbeknownst to me, one of our boys has "the corner" in house being a dark scary corner where there are rats that he is terrified of... so in addition to already not be used to our discipline techniques, he was terrified that we were sending him to "the corner"... which was when we changed it to "time out"... alot of times our kids are used to just being spanked when they do something bad.. so that's been predictable for them.. since we dont do that at the nursery, it seems they have gotten a bit afraid of the unpreditability of that and a few of them have sort of regressed into crying when their mothers leave (when previously they were fine)... hopefully that will improve as they see it's just time outside of participating when they do something wrong..

It's been really fun to see what works and doesn't work for games and activities. Something as easy as follow the leader and having them copy me as various animals is one of their favorite games.. they also love the "london bridge" game (este puente va a caer, va a caer, va a caer.....)

The ups and downs of nursery life...

2009-04-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

So, I'm having a heck of a time balancing the administrative aspects of coordination and then on top of that doing all the teaching and lesson planning. And then having to explain to the volunteers that are assisting me, what their role is in the classroom, as well as the mothers who we have each one volunteer one day a week (sort of as a parenting class sort of thing)...

It is not your role to watch me try and control 10 kids on my own. It is your role to assist me in maintaining order!! Grr.. I'm not a teacher, and even that seems common sense to me. When I'm having difficulty getting the kids to pay attention, you don't sit back and just watch me. But OK.. i understand that maybe these are all things I need to explain very explicitly... The folks helping me, have been a huge help in other areas... I'm not ungrateful... 'cuz I wouldn't have been able to keep my sanity this far if it wasn't for their help. Though, they could be of more use.. So yeah, apparently I'm also training volunteers as well. Oh, though I should mention that one of my mates, Jean Claire, has been super awesome in helping in the nursery.. taking on teaching some of the lessons, super great with discipline and helping with everything else without any sort of prompt... Elliot has been great too and the only difficulty has been his lack of spanish, but he's good with discipline and paraticipating in the nursery :)

In my state of frenzy of trying to start the morning and talk to 2 mothers at the same time (since the volunteers i had assisting me that morning didn't speak any spanish, I couldn't leave it up to them to lead the class), I allowed two more children into the program, just making things much more difficult, but my head was spinning at the time and it didn't come mind that:
1. It was going to make things more difficult for myself by adding two more kids.
2. It's better for the mothers to know and learn that if they want to participate in a program, they must follow the rules, which included going to several meetings, and having attended from the beginning of the program.

But oh well.. One of the new girls who came today is very ready for school and wasn't difficult to integrate into the class. The other family came, but just to let us know she couldn't attend because she had very bad tooth problems (her cheek was very swollen). Hopefully, she'll be easy to integrate into the class....

Whew..

On the flip side (yay, there's a flip side or I'd be having a nervous breakdown and ready to come back to the states right now)... the kids are absolutely adorable... They already have been copying things I say often... For those who have spent time with me long enough, you know i say "OOPS!" all the time. When I've done something, when someone else does something, an "OOPS!" comes out. Well one of my kids has decided to do the same hahah... It was adorable too because it was out of no where.. he came and tapped me on the shoulder and said "OOPS!"

The kids are real sponges and have been learning things really fast. The other day we sang a color song that included spanish and english (sing with me! to the tune of: Fere Jacques) Red is rojo, green is verde, blue- azul, negro-black, Yellow-amarillo, purple is morado, Brown-café, gray is gris.... So anyway, today I showed them some colors and they remembered the song from yesterday and were saying "blue azul!" and "rojo red!".... yay! that's exciting for me hehe... today we read a book that had sentences in english and spanish, and they were very eager to repeat the english words after me. Probably more so because they see the amusement in my face of them speaking english.... so adorable!!

But alas, they seem to be in the storming phase and in addition to all the stress I've mentioned above, they have begun to stop listening to me, and doing things to test my patience... which i generally have alot of, but will likely turn into an ulcer if i dont figure out how to manage it soon!! :P

Any tips welcome. As I've said, I've never worked with kids 3 & 4 before, so I need all the help i can get. Oh and if anyone's curious.. the budget for the nursery is $350. All the supplies it took to start it up was about $300.. ongoing budget is the rest...

Oh, and BTW, my knee is still F'd... continues to look like a fat, swollen knee.. can go upstairs properly now, but with extra support from railings when on that leg, but can't go downstairs without taking each step slowly and not bending my knee (cuz it doesn't support my weight going down). However, don't think it's anything a doctor can do anything about, so I'm just ace bandaging it and waiting for it to heal. Aleve helps.

is it karma?

2009-04-13T20:53:00.001-07:00

Well, I dont believe in 'karma' per se... my beliefs are more taoist.. but just for kicks we can call it karma...

After my little bragging session, I've very much screwed up my knee (however, I remind myself that it could be worse, like the peace corp volunteer here who broke his back in several places and had it treated here and fortunately is still standing/walking!)..

it's very big, fat and has a nice little cut on it.

I think a few posts back, I posted about my bad knee... well... Basically just fell down some stairs and because i was holding my computer i didn't have my hands to balance nor stop my fall and i landed on a corner (like pointed) edge of concrete against the side of the knee cap of my bad knee... i have a nasty cut and the knee is very fat and swollen now.. i can barely bend my knee, though i can somewhat tolerate the pain if i just keep the leg straight and keep total weight off of it. it was one of those injuries that instantly you know you've done something very wrong to it.. not just a scrape or bruise, but something has been damaged. was very close to tears heh.. and i can tolerate quite a bit of pain... after it happened i had to sit there for a while cuz basically my mind went black and couldn't do anything else... i'm goign to see if the swelling goes down tomorrow and how things are in the next few days and hopefully it'll start to heal without having to see a doc... right now i've got quite a headache; feels like the pain has sort of dulled and my brain is tired of numbing it... took an aleve... hopefully that helps...

will keep you posted heh....

Nursery update... a bit of bragging... cuz i can :)

2009-04-13T11:36:00.001-07:00

So, my name's on the Nursery Page of the SKIP website :)
http://skipperu.org/index.php/general-skip-news/nurserybegins.html
Decided I wanted to blog/brag a bit, and I feel slightly justified because of the sweat and tears from the past couple months and insecurities from having never done this sort of work nor worked with this age group.

So basically, it's been running quite smoothly :) activities were quite on target, daily schedule working out to fill the day. All activities corresponding with developmental milestones. etc etc... today I was quite elated because the kids are learning the songs I'm teaching them and a bit amused because they're saying some of the phrases I often say... (hopefully they won't learn my horrible pronunciation of 'r')...

So my bragging story is that in addition to various compliments by my fellow volunteers, one of them is an actual teacher and was asking me about my schooling I've had with child development and education (which again, is almost none, I remember a child development class in my psychology b.s. and maybe 1 in my m.s.w. and no classes on teaching).. and saying that she sees me using quite a few methodologies that are really good. She was describing some to me that I'm apparently using and how its been diverse to meet different styles of learning that the children exhibit. :) yeeeeeeeeee!!! Estoy feliz sobre esto porque pensaba que yo no sabía que estoy haciendo!

Apparently I'm doing something right! Never taught before... apparently it's something I can do :)

More pictures later, cuz i defo want to show off how i've decorated the room :) and show sports activities we've done :)

Housemate robbed in front of house

2009-04-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned that things have been relatively safe since I've been here, with common sense precautions...

However, there have been two incidents in front of the house since I've been here. (though none at the SKIP office which is generally "more dangerous"... )

The first incident occurred during the evening. I wasn't there, but apparently my housemates were in a taxi getting ready to go out, and some guy tapped on the window saying something. Lourdes who is Peruvian, was telling them to not open the door or roll down the window, but apparently no one heard, because they then rolled down the window. The guy then pointed into the car and stated that he left his wallet in the car. They were looking around and he then said something along the lines of having seen it right there and pointed on the ground. I'm not sure at that point who opened the door, but he reached right in and grabbed the purse of one of my housemates. She apparently had keys to our house, ID and money (not sure what else)... After that, we had to change the keys to the house, which was quite expensive.

Second incident was a housemate who was coming back to the house after going to the camera repair store to get her camera fixed. She had only keys, her camera (in a case) and 200 soles (in the case). The cord of the case was wrapped around her hand. As she was unlocking the door, a man ran out, pushed her, and then grabbed the camera case. She has a nasty cut on her hand from it and was quite spooked by the incident. The guy ran into a cab and they drove off (the cab had a passenger in it). Liz and I rode around with her to the tourist police station to have her give a statement so she can claim it on her insurance.

So nothing quite violent... but very close to home...

Cajamarca for Semana Santa

2009-04-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

May make this short, so i can continue working on lesson plans for the nursery.

Had thursday and friday off last week and a few housemates wanted to take a trip to Cajamarca, which was on my list of places I wanted to visit in Peru. I listened to spanish nursery rhymes and slept for most of the 9 hour bus ride there, so apparently I missed quite a bit of beautiful countryside, however, there was plenty to be seen beyond the bus ride!. Oh... and I can't forget to mention.. there was NO bathroom on the bus for the 9 hour bus ride. Which was ok because they did make one pee stop.. but was not ok, because apparently I ate something poor beforehand because I had a severe intestinal emergency and had to make them stop. Thought I was going to have a very embarrassing moment there, but after some pain and sweating, and some really nice bus drivers, my crisis was averted. (HUGE TANGENT: my housemate had just told us a story where she needed to go to the bathroom and the bus drivers refused to stop and stated that the bus was not going to restart if they stopped it. After some time, she ended up threatening to pee on the bus if they didn't stop and they went ahead and stopped the bus. Like clockwork, the bus did not start again.. and like clockwork, it started raining... everyone was very pissed off at her and they ended up being rescued by some truck that had railings above the cows they were transporting. They spent the next 3 hours riding the top of a truck with cows underneath them. Fortunately, this was not the fate of my situation!!).

So in Cajamarca... did lots of stuff like go to some hot springs:

walk around town

visit ruins (ventanillas de otuzco)

the town is quite rural

saw awesome rock formations, petroglyphs and aquaducts in Cumbe mayo.. including rock formations that look like other things (one part looks like a face facing our left):

Also went to an old hospital that was run by nuns, went shopping, bought some cheese, presents for friends/family, and saw a Jesus play with vignettes.

The altitude of Cajamarca is 2,700 m (8,900 ft)... which is a bit short of what Cusco is at 3,300 (10,800 ft).. and I had no altitude problems at all. In Cumbe Mayo which is slightly higher than Cusco (though we only stayed for a couple hours), I did get a bit dizzy, but nothing unmanageable.. we were hiking around quite a bit too.
It was quite cold (i had long johns, jeans and long sleeves and jacket).. and I was told cusco is colder than that.. about 60 F during the day at best is what i was told; nighttime of course much colder.

Actually, in a couple weeks i'm spending a weekend in Julcan, which is just about the altitude of Cusco.. So we'll see how the altitude feels there for a few days (I've been a little worried about the altitude adjustment in Cusco, cuz i've had problems in colorado when visiting my sis). Seems like it's not really gonna be a problem.

SUPER!

More photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157616582699603/
Many of these fotos are better viewed by clicking the option "all sizes" at the top of each picture. Or slideshow option. Don't forget to click on info for description.
:) Disfruten!!!

Former Peru President Fujimori convicted of mass murder, kidnapping

2009-04-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years. Activists say the verdict shows that even former heads of state cannot expect to get away with serious crimes.

By Adriana Leon and Chris Kraul

April 8 2009

Reporting from Lima, Peru, and San Agustin, Colombia -- Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was found guilty of mass murder and kidnapping Tuesday and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, a rare instance of a former head of state being found guilty in his own country on human rights charges.

More here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-fujimori8-2009apr08,0,1670805.story

Nursery

2009-04-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

So, I was meaning to take a nap right now, but thought I might upload a couple fotos for you guys to see with the nursery :)
There were 3 days this week, Monday being the first day of the nursery, and my weekend starts today because it's Semanta Santa (Easter)... Thank goodness, because after yesterday, I was so exhausted, I was a bit concerned about how I'd be able to keep all this up until I leave for the States in July. There's an awesome psychologist who just arrived who has been helping me out quite a bit with advice. At one point yesterday I was so mentally exhausted, I just couldn't talk/hear more about the nursery (not even stuff that would help ease the day).. but after a good night's sleep and an easier day today, I was ready to work on some improvements with the psychologist.

The way I have it set up, the 4 hours are all split up into 20 minute segments, these include: morning gathering, toy election (when they have choice to choose a toy, promotes independent thinking), storytime/language, mathematics, personal development, music, art, quiet time, sports, and snack time... each having an important role in child development. I've got 8 kids in total. Also have integrated a parenting skill objective (since one mother is to stay for 1 morning a week). Handwashing and teeth brushing every day (which the kids love, it's so cute!), folders for each kid with weekly reports, a piaget assessment, and will have all their finished work that they're parents can pick up at the end of the week... We've changed up the schedule to have two sports (1st directed by us and 2nd free choice/child-directed) activities, since the kids get ansty and it's tough to be in the same room for 4 hours... We've included a component where they help us set up and put the equipment away (not just the toys)... which helps me quite a bit because it's part of the time they're there (saves me 15 minutes before the 4 hours of nursery) and the kids learn and feel a sense of responsibility...

Grr.. the pictures aren't loading on blogger... you'll just have to wait for me to upload them to flickr, but that may be a while...

anyway, the nursery went as well as I think it possibly could... and then on top of that, having been created by someone who has never run a nursery, much less worked a nursery (other than the 3 recent days I 'observed'), and then it being done by someone who's spanish is barely intermediate... not so bad if i say so myself

My brain is absolutely pushed to it's limit... not only did I do the planning, I'm doing the coordination, lesson plans, and I'm the primary teacher... and as I've mentioned, on top of all this, I'm doing this all in spanish (which is still a struggle).. I think I've never pushed my brain so hard...

(hope i dont sound too much like i've been complaining in my last posts about the nursery)... just more expressing/sharing how difficult it has been and how, yes, outside of all the surfing and having fun on weekends, I'm working my ass off during the week...

the kids are absolutely adorable though... not trying to have favorites (at least being aware that I do is the first step to not showing favoritism right?) but there is the cutest little boy that just tries to do every I'm teaching and is just so happy when he's got something down.. raises his hand for everything.. is very independent, and kind to the other kids.... so adorable! :) all the kids are super cute. makes the stress worth every minute of it.

The Bathhouse

2009-03-31T21:46:00.001-07:00

Until reading my friend's blog, I nearly had forgot about the sauna incident.

So, I'm used to going to the korean bathhouses in Los Angeles... in fact it's almost like my body craves going ... it's like a reset button for your body and mind.. you go sit in the sauna until you're delirious and then jump into the cold pool..do this several times.. and at one point in the process you're scrubbing all your dead skin off.. so by the time you leave you're feeling refreshed and clean inside and out... the whole process is like 4 hours...

So, i was quite delighted to find a bathhouse here... They had a dry sauna and wet sauna, and a cool pool (not quite "cold", but still alright)... oh and a gym... though I won't be returning, because I think there was a chance we had visited a brothel.....

So the incident went like this... I was laying down on the bench in the dry sauna.. and the chick who is naked on the bench next to me (which I'm used to because it's like that in korean bathhouses.. nudity represents something very different than in the americas.. it's not all sexualized) so then the chick looks at me and says "quieres bajar?"... and, as usual, i wasn't quite sure what i heard.. and so i have her repeated it.. "quieres bajar?"... so i think about this for a while.. literally this means "do you want to go down?"... i'm on the bench so i'm thinking maybe she's refering to us being on the bench and she's asking if i want to leave?... like get off the bench and go outside.. and then i thought she was asking me if i wanted to "bajar" my clothes.. cuz i was wearing a bathing suit.. and maybe she was telling me that the culture is fine to be naked in the spa... so very confused all i answered with was "esta bien"... "it's ok"... so then gets up and she walks over to me like expecting something.. and i look confused .. and then she said how since i'm not from around here i don't understand..

and then leaves the room...

some other strange incidents include the drunk chick (this was at like 2pm we were there) was insisting on teaching me how to use the spa's gym equipment... and she was exercising with her high heels on...

strange strange...

hoping to find a normal bathhouse....

DIY Nursery

2009-03-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

So... The past 8 years I've worked with mostly vietnam veteran vets.. mostly men.. occasionally I'll have a few women (ran a woman's group).. and occasionally i'll have someone who is a woman (but biologically a man).. occasionally i had someone who was as young as 20... there was a time 9 years ago when i worked at a group home for teens... and then even longer before that while i was in college that I worked with infants until the age of 2. That being said.. who more perfect to plan a new nursery program for 3 & 4 year olds! Heh.. anyway, yeah so here's my HOW TO guide to putting a nursery together by a person who has never worked in a nursery nor has any sort of experience with this age group.

1. Get excited about working with kids and then begin to freak out about how much work this is going to involve. (especially when you initially thought you were assisting someone else, and then it turns out you're the one doing it and no one is assisting you with the planning process and you're the primary teacher).
2. Spend endless hours reading about child development.
3. Spend endless hours reading about child development in developing countries.
4. Spend endless hours searching for an assessment tool, just to find out there isn't one available free and having to type one up yourself based on Piaget...
5. Spend endless hours researching nursery programs and what exactly it is.
6. Spend endless hours gathering ideas for lesson planning (also doing this in spanish) and what should be included in the curriculum.
7. ..... researching what the best sorts of classes should be scheduled for the day and figuring out the schedule (20 minute segments for each subject).
8. ..... researching how to setup the classroom (in regards to supplies/toys/etc) and what sorts of toys are best for learning
9. ..... researching spanish nursery rhymes and songs (and learning all of them).
10. ..... observing in a nearby nursery to actually see first hand this age group and their level (of attention, ability, etc.)
11. .... meeting with the mothers and organizing that end of it.
12. ... making posters, educational decorations and games (so you're not spending all of the small budget allotted)
13. ... researching parenting objectives (since the parents are participating and the nursery includes a parenting skills component)
14. .... planning lessons and then doing all the worksheets for all the lessons.
15. .... shopping for all the supplies (this is everything from paper to the locked cupboard to the mat on the floor small chairs/tables... educational toys.. etc...), then organizing/setting them up in the most efficient way.
16. .... writing up a guide so that the next person who takes over doesn't have to start from scratch.
17. ... translate everything into spanish so that spanish speaking volunteers understand.

I may have missed some steps, but that maybe gives you an idea... I did get some assistance with #11 and #15... and have gotten praise hehe.. which is encouraging...

My brain is fried and spinning at the same time.

Nursery starts 6 de april... wish me luck.

More about Porvenir, maybe some repeated stuff...

2009-03-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

hrm.. i seem to be blog happy these days..

So I recently found out that the corrugated roofs
that most of the families in porvenir and many in trujillo are made of asbestos... they're almost exclusively used in the Porvenir's schools....

Also, in Porvenir there are many people who cook using bricks of charcoal that burn for an entire day. When walking around Porvenir, you can smell this burning.. well its either that or all the trash fires.. none of this can be good for their health... There have been SKIP volunteers who have attempted workshops teaching the mothers how to do these simple adobe ovens with metal pipes as the chimney that would save quite a bit of money, but of that the group that attended i think it was only 1 family that made one. Change is hard to implement...

Have I written about safety already? Alot of guide books talk about how unsafe Peru is... I have found that it has been safe enough for me, though that's with some common sense about safety. I hardly ever go anywhere with more than 50 soles ($17). I never use my phone in public (if i can help it... if i feel particularly safe i'll pull it out to make a phone call, though with concealing it). Although I wear a ring Brentt gave me, the bead bracelet A gave me, and my earrings my mom gave me, I'm generally unflashy with my flip flops, worn out tshirt and sweatshorts.. Though as we bring in our boxes of random school supplies to the SKIP office, we have been warned that there are certain unsavory people who have been watching "the gringos"... at this point we need to be careful to lock our door behind us and make sure the door is shut the whole time (we have high walls with barbed edges as well). There was a time, not long ago that a few volunteers were held at gunpoint at the SKIP office (some convicted murder named Pato Negro or something).. they took a laptop, leather jacket (which the volunteer shouldn't have taken to SKIP in the first place), cell phone and lots of cash. Seems that it resulted in the police taking action and some sort of shootout happening by Indoamericano one of the schools we work with. Don't know much more about that...

Britta asked me today sort of what the living is like here because it's hard to imagine. I would say it is definitely something that is hard to understand unless you're there to see it. And even then, it's easy to forget when you return to your comfortable mattress, internet, and running water. Where I live, although it looks more like the dirty part of downtown Los Angeles (in regards to sketchiness and standard of living, not in regards to having large 20 story buildings..), I'm actually in the middle-class area... It's quite different from the dirt floor dirt brick houses of Porvenir. There are random sounds of sheeps on roofs, chickens clucking, the smell of something rotton, dog corpses... at the Plaza del Armas, which is relatively nice and clean (Center of town), you'll see an old beggar woman with arthritic hands asking for money (she's sat on the same spot every time i've gone to the center of town)... you see alot of folks like this. Not to mention the children asking you to buy something.

Drama with SKIP! and problems with migraines and my knee :(

2009-03-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

So, there has been drama lately with our organization for months now... but I should say that we only find out recently that there is drama because we were not an active participant in the drama.

Basically another organization here has for some reason felt threatened by us (and i'll elaborate on my thoughts of why) and created a mock website pretty much having copied the front page of ours (literally copied.. like a print screen copy or something) .. and what i mean by mock website is that they used the domain www.skipperu.xxxx (something else, ours is org) and then at the bottom they have something about the "REAL" history of SKIP and then they have a banner saying something about how our director in 2003 stole their project and named it SKIP. this eventually links to his site.. where he has yet another link to a webpage devoted solely to naming all the ex volunteers who "stole" his project, took it somewhere else, and renamed it...

So... my thoughts on why this guy feels threatened and has started to pick on us... apparently from things i've heard and read from ex volunteers of their organization (and i know a few people who used to work for them) is that despite the outragious volunteer program fees that they charge, the volunteers are not supplied with even basic materials such as paper and pencils for the projects they are doing... that among other problems (such as the organization not doing nearly half of the things it claims on it's website)... so basically the thought is that if the money isn't going towards the program... ... it's going into a particular someone's hands... so that being said i'm guessing we are a threat because recently a few people have chosen to come to our organization instead of theirs, taking away his precious income... it seems that he's been watching us for a while though because we only launched our new website format in january, and it appears (from his whois on register.com) that he coincidentally updated his mock one.

In our research to find out what else he may have been writing about skip, we came across quite a many negative reviews about that organization.. actually, an ex volunteer had told me that she had done some investigation on various projects that this guy claimed to be in the budget and turned out that these projects do not exist, but her apartment was broken into and her computer and files were all stolen... she decided not to further pursue this.

We were thinking it may be a good news story because from reading all the reviews (and from personal experience of some folks we know), it seems like theres a pretty good chance there is fraud going on.. and this is quite unfortunate because it is taking advantage of a giving community and putting a really bad slant on it. I would imagine he may be receiving grants and other sorts of funding... it is unfortunately if all this stuff is actually true that this money is going into one person's hands instead of helping a community that is really in need. I'm not one to yell and scream "DOWN WITH THEIR ORGANIZATION!" but if what's being claimed by many people is true.. then someone needs to expose what's going on... alas, none of us know any journalists... I dont even know that this would be a big enough story anyway, despite my thought that they would find out he and his wife are running a fraudulent game...

Anyway, it's annoying that he's bringing our name into it.. it just looks unprofessional for the both of us to be playing this "SKIP stole my project" game. When has helping a community been an original idea to steal? And besides, we are far from doing what he's doing... we're actually spending our money on projects that we claim to be doing.. and no one here is getting any sort of "profit" (except hopefully the families we are working with... hehe well and the intrinsic rewards for us of course; but lets not get cheesy here). :)

On another note.. ive been having quite a few migraines.. have i mentioned before i think how much MSG is in the food here.. i'm thinking this is a likely contributor.. also seems to happen on the few weeks that i have decided i need a bit more energy (such as the last 2 weeks pounding away at the nursery planning).. and divulged in some chai tea for the caffeine... and i haven't been so particular on the foods i'm allergic to (which also seem to be related to my migraines)...

another ailment i woke up with was my knee in a bit of pain.. it's right in the front of the knee slightly to the right (on my right leg) its swollen and hurts to put pressure on... probably didn't help that i attempted to surf today. i say attempted because although the waves were beautiful today, they were slightly over my level and i barely made it up for 3 seconds twice heh..

10 months...

2009-03-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

Also turns out, I'm actually here for 10 months, not the 9 that i kept saying all this time...

I plan to be illegal for 3-4 days.. heh..

2009-03-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

Trujillo, Peru to Montanita, Ecuador and back...
Trujillo to Tumbes 9+ hours in bus (Emtrafesa) 45 soles ($15)
Tumbes to Guayaquil 6+ hrs in bus (CIFA) ($7)
Guayaquil to Montanita 3+ hours in bus (CLP) $6
Same route back home ~20+hrs $28
Hostel in Montanita: $6/night 3 nights = $18...
Total costs: $74... plus food/drink costs...

So just got back from Ecuador to renew my visa.. mostly went unscathed, however had a bit of an argument at immigration office on the way back to Peru.. at first they were going to give me 3 months.. i have about 4 months and 1 week left here in Peru.. after some argument about how i'm here volunteering (not earning money) and spending my money in their country and how i dont have money to buy another plane ticket out for an earlier date, etc, etc, etc.... ... i somehow managed to get 1 more month in there... so i'm legal for about 4 months, but that takes me to july 20th more or less and my ticket out is july 23rd.. so i'm illegal from the 20th to 23rd... basically that just means that i pay $1 each day that i'm over.. i continued arguing with the chick (however in my own head for some reason i thought i was 2 weeks over and kept saying this, she probably thought i was such a nut).. but anyway, it just doesnt look good in any way to be overdue.. and i'm hoping it doesn't affect future traveling plans, but i dont plan to be in any one country for more than 1-2 months in the future anyway...

on the way to montanita, we met this young chick from denmark who was traveling alone so she hung out with us most of the weekend... we also met a group of guys traveling together from canada/san francisco/switzerland who we hung out with for most of the weekend as well... didn't get around to surfing, though it was supposed to be the premier surf spot in ecuador.. apparently last week there were 9 foot waves, but this weekend the waves were a bit lame.. plus i ended up being a bit too exhausted to want to surf... mostly vegged out and did a bit more nursery program planning..
the food costs in montanita was quite expensive (though expensive being that it's 1/3rd the costs in the states instead of 1/9th which i'm used to in peru)... tried the cebiche which was ok... though maybe wasn't that representative, since i bought it off a cart on the beach (though didn't get sick!).. tried a cebiche right on the border on the Peru side which was very tasty..

For pictures click here.. ecuador was surprisingly very green.. I didn't realize it was so jungly right on the coast... i have just about 30+ mosquito and sandfly (?) bites on arms and legs....

On the way back, on the bus, as i'm ready to fall asleep... some guy came on to the bus talking VERY LOUDLY .. at first i wasn't paying attention but then i looked up and noticed a gross picture he was showing of someone's naked backside and a huge pile of worms.. .. and right next to it, a face of a very infected looking baby... the guy apparently was talking about worm infestation in order to sell his herbal product. Almost forgot to blog about it because I forget that that's not normal... while on the bus to pretty much anywhere, there are always people coming on to the bus selling something, whether its food or some other product... this actually comes in handy when I forget to buy water, or i'm starving... as of yet, i have not gotten sick from anything i have bought from them...

my ceiling continues to fall on me.. in general, buildings in peru are not equipped to handle rain... the house i live in is no exception.. so when it rains, one part of the ceiling in my room leaks.. the other side of my room ceiling has paint that just continues to peel whether or not it's raining... came home to a huge chunk of paint on my bed.. probably not good for my health heh... oh well...

5 for 5....

2009-03-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

So, I can't keep track, but i'm pretty sure it's been about 5 packages that have been sent to me (possibly 6??)... and i'm at 100% of packages being mailed... the motivation to post this particular post was that I received one in RECORD TIME!!... Brentt sent me a book that was meant to stay with me, but got carried onto the plane with him :) tho it was well read and sent back to me... I received it within 6 days of mailing. AMAZING...

I've also begun to send some l

More on Nursery.. living conditions... and scorpion...

2009-03-08T23:45:00.001-07:00

So, just a quick update.. i'm continuing to plan the nursery.. been doing alot of research on developmental stages, nursery programs, lesson planning, and various other related stuff like nursery songs in spanish.. etc...

We have just about 6 mothers or so who are interested (possibly more after a meeting this past weekend)... I dont think we can handle more than 10 nursery kids at this point... So to give you an idea of what it's been like to get a program like this going at SKIP.... fortunately we have a monthly meeting for all the families at SKIP... so they're supposed to come to the office (though not all do)... but if you want to get information out to them otherwise.. its this inefficient system of going out to each of their houses.. this means walking through the sand to each of their houses, which are at times .5-1 mile apart.. if you're lucky there's a bus that goes near their house.. and if you're really lucky, one of them either has a phone or knows someone who does.. so this needs to be done each time we've been wanting to meet with the mothers for the nursery program. though slowly but surely, it'll all come together...

on another note...found out the other day that one of the kids (14 y/o) has been working in a shoe factory for 70 hours a week just earning about $5 for the week. SKIP has talked to the parents and discussed how we can change this (alot of times the parents don't know the maths and don't know there may be other options available)...

We found a scorpion the other day in the room next to mine.. it was small, but just as scary as they look with their pinchers and huge spiky tail.. will need to do some research on what to do if i get stung heh...

continue to feel homesick.. though i'm sticking it through of course...

End of Summer Camp and What comes next....

2009-03-02T23:27:00.000-08:00

Summer camp ended over a week ago.. We took the kids to the zoo and ended the last day with an Open House.

I'll be starting the planning for a new nursery program ... something I've never done before (though i had never planned a summer camp before and that happened!)... if anyone knows anything about nurseries (better yet, a nursery in a developing country), I'm all eyes/ears...

I have about 4 months left.. it would seem this would be an easy home stretch ... but with Brentt's visit, it seems to have reset my "homesickness" and the last month has been a bit of a struggle.. though, i'm looking forward to the nursery program, trip to Ecuador to renew my visa, trip to macchu piccu (with a, e, britta, michael, nadia, anthony and possibly others?), and then ending my "Part 1" travels with the Shamanism conference in Iquitos...

Oh.. one last note.. i was really excited this past friday night; we had found an electronica party with the type of music i like (tech house)! Only took 5 months, but there is hope :) the best selection i have found of electronica has been some cheesy house music...... it was outdoors, on the beach, under the stars :) I was in bliss.

Google analytics

2009-02-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

So I get a kick out of the stats related to my website.. (have i already posted about this?)... So I'll share with you some of the interesting stuff...

From the beginning, approx Sept 26, 2008 to today...

I've had 714 visits from 31 different countries to my blog (top 10 countries in order of visits is US, Peru (probably me blogging), Solvenia, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and India)
56% of my visits are from returning visitors :) yay! thanks for coming and reading my stuff :)

When someone has come to my website through a google search, here is some of the stranger keyword searches:
christine xxxxx (last name censored)---woah! someone came to my website after searching for you Christine... weird?!?
lice ---hah great.. glad people are finding me with that..
bush falls off cart in peru--huh???
chinitas peru
coreanita
freckles ---i would imagine that they would have had to been on the 1000000000th search page to have mine pop up..???
peruvian mancora creamy yellow salsa recipe---tasty.. too bad for the person for not finding this recipe on my blog.. hah...
peruvians are missing parties beach in peru this summer--wow very strange google search...
show me what peru looks like right now --huh?..
shrimp unfridgerated
skip peru lizette--hrm.. who's searching for me?

not sure if that's interesting to anyone else but me.. :) but thought i'd post it...

My first time in a well...

2009-02-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Had to jump into a well today...

There's no running water where I work.. so in order to flush the toilet, I need to go to the well and fill up a bucket... As I'm filling up the bucket, i hear a plop and my heart sinks because i know just what it was.. I dive into the well and grab the phone, but none to early, it's completely drenched from the inside and with each shake theres a rain of water...

This is the phone I use in the states... and for those who know, it's EVERYTHING... my schedule, my contacts, my alarm clock, all sorts of information that doesn't fit in my head, goes into this phone.. etc etc etc... and was quite a bit expensive at that.. Made me contemplate quite a bit about my attachment to this phone and whether that's something I need to change...

Anyway, one of my peruvian friends informed me that you can go to a phone place in the center of town and get it dried/cleaned.. Feeling quite defeated, I went for it, though I figured all the circuits were probably blown and I would need to invest in a new phone and unfortunate it was that i had spent so much on this one...

Well.. S/.20 (which is about $6) & 50 minutes later--including a nap in the store--- my phone is once again functional... yay!!

Wishlists

2009-02-21T08:57:00.001-08:00

So, right now the only thing on my wishlist is TOFU. I had found one place that sold tofu and now they discontinued it, I don't know why...

As for SKIP.. we have a wishlist as well....
http://skipperu.org/index.php/Wish-List/wish-list.html
SKIP would never function without the generosity and time of everyone involved.

In addition to our constant fund needs for education and related activities, we are currently seeking donations of the following items:
books for the skip library
Books in Spanish for children : dictionnaries, atlas, fairytales, school books, comics
Books in English: fairytales, dictionnary
Books for the parents and the volunteers, preferably in Spanish: psychology, health etc
paint, play dough, pens and pencils
Gardening tools,
Athletic gear: balls, shirts
Notebooks,
Caligraphy books,
Pens,
Pencils,
Paints,
Crayons,
A4 paper,
All other scholastic materials.
Childrens toothbrushes

Otra vez....

2009-02-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

Well, there was definitely good reason to invest in the industrial strength nit/lice comb... looks like i've got lice again.. it's no wonder, because i'm in the classroom all day with the kids... no one else in the house seems to be getting them but me..

so the old wive's tale is that you get them if you don't wash your hair enough.. but from studies, it's actually that lice prefer clean hair... so just so you know I am keeping myself clean!! :)

Half way mark

2009-02-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

Did I mention that I'm at my halfway mark for Trip 1 of my travels. I will be coming back to the states at the end of July which is in about 4.5 months.. I had decided that likely Trip 2 (other countries in S Amer and Centr Amer; --S.E.Asia?--) will be after the holidays (need to talk to Cassanna about that!!)... so i'll be home for a good 6 months before heading out again.

There's this whole thing with one-way tickets costing more than round trip tickets.. and i have spent hours and hours researching the best cost to get home.. up until today the best cost i could find was about $600... until...........

Not exactly sure how I came to do this, but I decided to check out a ticket from Lima to Miami instead of Los Angeles.. lo and behold, they are half as expensive, if not less than that... so that got me on to a search for one way tickets from miami to los angeles, which are really not to bad either... so after months of searching I have finally found a route that will take me from lima to miami (avianca) to los angeles (american airlines) ...(all will be done in one day 5:50am - 8pm) for $434 (including all taxes)!!...

I'm booking this tomorrow as I feel wiped out tonight and don't feel like dealing with it right now.. but it looks like i'll be coming home for a little over $400... yay!! And I'm setting the date for 23rd of July... (might set it for 24th of july if that's easier for someone to pick me up)

-----------update

TIckets bought... will be arriving in LAX approx 8pm on Thursday July 23rd.

Brentt Visits!!!

2009-02-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

It was so wonderful to have Brentt here visiting me for 3 weeks. Was counting down the days since buying the plane tickets. So I took a 9 hour bus to meet him in Lima since we were taking off by plane to Iquitos from there (Iquitos/Amazon can only be reached by boat or airplane!). While in Lima, I found a cookbook that is ONLY available in Lima.. if you try and buy it online it's only sold for like $200+ ... had been searching for it in Trujillo and it is indeed ONLY available in Lima... was still a bit of a hefty purchase for a book, but I figured it was going to be my one big gift to myself... has great reviews on amazon and is quite an amazing cookbook with explanations on all the foods unique to peru... I am definitely going to miss the food here when i get back home so I had to invest in a really good cookbook. I've already got brentt sold on the papa a la huancaina.. and he tried and really liked the aji de gallina (which of course we'll substitute the meat with some sort of tofu or something since his vegetarian hiaitus was only for his time in Peru)....

So.. we got to Iquitos.. a friend of a friend was to pick us up from the airport, but he was preoccupied with work and forgot to pick us up... which turned into an interesting ordeal because the mototaxi guys are a bit insistent and finally we allowed one to call this friend (since i ran out of minutes on my phone, which sucked as it was, since we were a bit stranded cuz i neglected to get the address of this friend since i thought he was picking us up) we weren't actually sure if he actually called my friend and hestitatingly got into the mototaxi not really sure where we were going... as we're in the mototaxi, this guy in a motorcycle comes by and they just nod at each other and the mototaxi guy starts following him... brentt and I are staring at each other like.. what did that mean? is that my friend (neglected to ask him to send me a picture so i had no idea what he looked like) how'd he know that was him with just a nod... ... anyway, end up at the guy's house and there's a frenzy to get the backpacks out into the house, which added to our strange suspicion.. I look at the guy and i'm like.. "are you xxx??" to which he says yes... anyway, it turns out it really was him, but it was an odd experience for us... to add to the oddity, so my friend had offered for us to stay at his place, so i cancelled our reservations at the hostel... he neglected to mention that his bedroom/apartment is one room... this was a bit awkward as it has been 4 months since brentt and I have seen each other and were hoping to have some level of privacy to catch up on our lives and have alone time... it was an incredibly generous offer for him to allow us to stay at his plce, but a bit awkward .... so we ended up going back to the hostel with our cancelled reservations where the lady kept going on and on about how she had reservations for us and we cancelled them and now she doesn't have them... to which we explained the situation, but she continued going on and on about it.. oh well... my friend found a hostel down the street for us, so it all worked out....

so the next day we were off to the jungle lodge... it was incredibly surreal.. just sort of amazing that a place this beautiful exists naturally..

It was the start of the rainy season so there were alot of half "flooded" trees, flooded houses (houses only used during farming and therefore flooded during rainy season?), houses on stilts... Some animals we saw were venomous/nonvenomous snakes, friendly/domesticated monkeys (who were very cute and polite), iguana, praying mantises (alot of them!!! which was cool cuz brentt and i are obsessed about them), anaconda, armadillo, tarantulas, frogs, poisonous catapillars, massively huge ants, parasitic trees, pink dolphins, lots of amazing plants, ... etc etc etc... it was surreal to turn around in the canoe to find a tarantula crawling by next to me (actually it was the ants that scared me the most)....

we were covered in head to toe in the heat, because the mosquitos are relentless... i had just about 100 bites on my hands and feet/legs... we used alot of deet, but any oportunity they could get to bite where there wasn't deet or bite where there was deet they did... we did end up taking malarone pills, you take it for 1-2 days before you enter the malaria area, then during the time you're there until 7 days after you've left. I didn't notice any side effects.

It was strange (and must have been strange to the guides at the lodge), when we arrived, there was an australian couple who were leaving.. where the guy was white and the woman was asian, then there was brentt and I, and then couple days later, another couple white/asian came (from england/japan)... there weren't alot of guests at the lodge, so this really stood out...

one of the coolest experienced was furiously canoeing for 1.5 hours in a thunder/lighteningstorm back to the lodge... our guide told us to take off any metal we were wearing as we could get electricuted.. it was quite fun though, we were all just laughing and jokes as we were having sheets of rain pouring down on us and still a long way to get back to the lodge... our guide kept telling us to take our raincoats off because the rain was healing... I spent most of the time bailing water out of the canoe, as our two guides and brentt were rowing ... though i did put some of my share of rowing to give the others a break every once in a while :)

one of our guides caught an anaconda in his fishing net the night before and showed it to us.. turns out he was going to "domesticate it" with tobacco leaves and then let it roam their home to eat rats and possibly one of their dogs??.....

on one day we ended up at a work party, where people from the people from the village get together and have a little party with lunch before they help clear a garden for a neighbor. They gave us a taste of some armadillo that they were just finished cooking...it was like rubbery chicken.

on our last day in iquitos we went to the butterfly farm.. there was a tapir there; did you know if you rub a tapir, it loves it so much it'll roll around on the floor?

At all times there are beautiful sounds all around you.. tried to capture the sounds one night:

It was incredibly loud at night, but soothing at the same time..

On the way back to Trujillo, we took a 3 day boat ride to yurimaguas... 3 days of this.... life is tough eh??

We needed to buy hammocks for the boat ride..

Brentt ended up getting sick in Yurimaguas to Tarapoto, so it was good that we spent one night in Tarapoto before heading to Trujillo.

The trip to Iquitos with the jungle tour, flight from lima, boat/bus ride back, and everything came out to just about $550 for two people more or less... (if you're curious how much it would cost to go to the amazon jungle... )

Back in trujillo, brought brentt around to see Chan Chan, the Huacas del Sol y de la luna, to Huanchaco for surfing (which brentt turns out to be a pro!! and the only skills i was able to show brentt was surfing on my knees and falling), went out dancing with my housemates (
), cooked some yummy japanese curry (which was not quite japanese curry, but got rave reviews anyway), trip to hermalinda, the movies, porvenir (where i work), and the center of town... had a very full awesome time in trujillo.... even saw a "fake Bones" ..

one story to end off with... we came to this one restaurant to eat and were deciding on a dessert... he was set on one but I was a bit insistent on him trying "tres leches" which has become one of my favorites here... so after a good long discussion deciding which one to choose, we got the 3 leches, which it turns out he wasn't so impressed... so we came back the next day to try out his choice... but then we we had another long decision session (keep in mind too, that brentt and I are probably the two most indecisive people in the world)... we finally decided that since we had come back to get this one dessert, we're going to choose that one... so we ordered it to go since it was brentt's last day and we were in a bit of a rush to catch the bus back to lima... we stopped off at this one store on the way home to pick up some cookies for brentt to take back... got home, now ready to eat the cake we had been waiting 2 days to try... it's gone.. likely at the one store we stopped at, we never got to try it...

back at the airport in Lima, we lost an hour of time together because when we checked in, they told brentt he had to get to the gate 2 hours before the plane leaves... that sucked, but his leaving was going to suck anyway :P

MISS YOU!!!!

More amazon videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/djelated
More of brentt's visit pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157613801296113/

Picture update and summer school.

2009-02-14T18:58:00.001-08:00

Posted some pictures from Christmas up to Brentt's visit (which will be in it's own album)...

The few pictures of Mancora that I got... including this beautiful sunset:

Some fotos of summer camp:

The makings of a poi workshop at our summer camp:
Before
After
And the kids:

For summer camp we had these awesome attendance boards.. instead of doing attendance, we had the kids put their name on the board:

We had 4 classes, so the other boards were butterflies/sky, apples/tree, and worms/earth...

Coordinating a summer camp is amazingly difficult, especially when yo'ure not a teacher nor have ever done anything like this before... fortunately I had the help of quite a few people--pretty much had someone as a co-coordinator majority of the time :) the camp was monday through friday, morning and afternoon for the primary school kids (elementary school).. more academic stuff in the mornings and fun workshops in the afternoon (such as cine club, poi, bracelet making, etc etc)... each week had a theme (ecology, animals, food, peru, the world, etc etc...) and its 7 weeks long... of our 400 primary age kids in SKIP, 90 signed up.. and about 70 show up... I have never worked so hard in my life!!! the camp required quite a bit of creativity considering the little resources we have and lack of actual teachers. but we managed and it was quite great!!

Rest of the fotos in this album here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157613795896761/

Still alive

2009-02-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

Haven't written anything in quite a while... had a really nice 3 weeks with Brentt. I'll write more later and post picture. It's been busy with summer camp and there hasn't been much time to breath (other than the 3 weeks with brentt).

Happy Valentine's day to everyone.

In Peru, it's more focused on a celebration of friendships and everyone sends each other text messages, phone calls, or emails to wish them "feliz dia de amistad" or something like that...

I am loved

2009-01-06T06:56:00.000-08:00

Yay! Was so happy to get a package in the mail from A... She hit it on the nail with all my favorites...

My favorite magazine: Seed
My favorite drinks: Chai tea and hot chocolate
My favorite chocolates: dark AND chocolate covered BLUEBERRIES! :)
My favorite crackers: Ok Mok

BTW folks... I now have chocolate to last me until July so no need to send that anymore :) hehe... I realllllly appreciate it all :)

Also fortunately got my mom's package in the mail that had a credit card included (WHEW!).. and a couple other books... and an xmas card :) Thanks!!!!!

So now, looking back at my "things i want list"... here it is updated:

1. Hat - Brentt has this hat and knows which one i want
2. Korean food... soon-du-bu packets... I can find firm tofu here
3. My fire stuff - poi primarily... thought it would be nice to have my little fire sticks so i dont forget how to eat fire (though i haven't found clean white gas)...
4. OK this sounds a bit weird and gross, but my mom knows what it is.. i want one of those toe/foot callous scrapers.. wearing flip flops is gross on your feet..

"OH NO Piojos!" update...

2009-01-05T21:46:00.001-08:00

Not sure if anyone really wants to hear about a lice update.. but I'm officially lice free.. well, i was after the first week of treatment... also I must be quite allergic to them, because the massive rash i had going down my neck and shoulders also dissappeared when they did... don't think that that sort of thing is a normal reaction to just having lice, but i was glad it was gone with the bugs and not something additional i had to deal with...

Hurray!!!!

Mancora Loca...

2009-01-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

Spent about 7 days in Mancora after Christmas through New Years...
although initially i was thinking it wasn't that remarkable, i found that there's quite a bit of stuff i had to write about the town...

I'll start with the hostel (will not say which so none of my stories will connect back to anyone, heh)...
The hostel had pretty much the feel of college spring break... lots of booze, hooking up, general partying and very, very early 20s sort of crowd... I enjoy going out to the desert with a huge sound system and dancing under the full moon to some great electronica, but the frat party scene is definintely not my thing... but despite what it was, i still had a great time. The food was awesome.. it was cooked by a very talented, toothless chef who was pretty much cracked out the entire time we were there.. at one point he was telling us how he wakes up every morning thinking that everyone in the hostel has just arrived that day (meaning, he does not remember one day to the next)... he was a mid-30 going on mid-60... despite all this, the meals were amazing... the hostel was right on the beach and you only had to walk like 20 steps to jump into the water... we were in "dorms" that were shared with 6 other people.. thankfully there was no craziness within the room (i've heard stories of people pissing on bed sheets!).... mostly everyone was running around speaking english (and lots barely knew any spanish at all).. it's one way to travel, but seems a bit strange to me to travel in a country by just going to party hostels and not learning the language.. (but oh well, to each their own)... however, there were a group of brazilian guys (!tan guapo!).. who were practicing their spanish (but it was a little weird because considering how close spanish and portuguese is, they didn't have a good grasp of spanish, seemed their english was better)... also the hostel had a cute little chanchito (baby pig) as a pet over on the corner of the property... the hostel was located in an interestingly isolated part of mancora way out of the way of the other hostels that were accessable via the main strip... to get to ours you had to take a mototaxi through the barrio (some parts looking sketchier than porvenir)...

oh, and one of my housemates won the pool competition :) booyah! (as she would say) hehe

the ocean was 20 steps outside the gate of the hostel... though we were way on the right side (sort of isolated) from where the rest of the beachgoers were and one morning a bunch of the brazilian guys got stung by sting rays (we were all goofing around on this fishing raft, libby and I sitting right next to the guys getting stung)... this is where things got lost in translation because they kept saying that a fish bit them and we're thinking "there arent paranas or anything... what are they talking about?" i kept asking them if it was stones they stepped on.. and split their feet on (they were bleeding quite a bit)... the ones stung got out of the water, but others stayed (furthering libby and my confusion that there was anything to worry about)... we continued to play on the raft and jump around in the waves till we got bored and came inside.. it wasn't till later that we found out they had to go the hospital, get an injection and antibiotics... apparently down on the far other side, one of the peace corp volunteers that we knew got stung by a jellyfish, though it wasn't as serious and she didn't seek any medical attention at all... i went swimming in the ocean every day and got pretty tan (despite my hat and 50 spf lotion)... my only gripe with the water was the tiny skinny fish that kept trying to get into my bathing suit.. it was quite unnerving... i learned how to body surf from a local which is a bit harder than it sounds and a bit scarier.. i'll stick with the board surfing... speaking of animals, there were sand flies that bit horrendously every morning and sunset... despite tons of repellant, i think i have like 20 bites on each foot/leg...

made it to some hot springs during my week at mancora.. actually it was ---A--- hot spring, the size of a small jacuzzi and there were algae things in that that really creeped me out (they would stick on your skin like little hairs that looked like worms.. again the whole parasite phobia reaction kicks in)....

I caught the first sunset of my first day in mancora as well as the first sun rise of 2009... the sunsets are beautiful in mancora.. just purple on a very long horizon and lasts for an hour it seems...

New years... oh I should mention, my camera for some reason would not function properly while i was in mancora (short of like 2-3 picture of the sunset and 2 others)... on new years my camera didn't work at all and i'm wondering if that was a good thing, hah!... we partied at the hostel and did the whole countdown thing there and then about 4:30am my housemate and i decided we wanted to go into town and experience the craziness there.. there was definintely alot of craziness, people sort of all over the places, lots of music, drinking and dancing... a nice Bolivian guy hung out with us as we were trying to find good music to dance to. (actually it would have been nice to get contact info since i plan to go to bolivia and it would be nice to have someone to show me around, but alas i forgot to and in my tiredness i later realized i totally ditched the guy after he walked way down to the other side of the playa to safetly walk us home...woops)...

i'm happy to be back home

countdown continues with 3 weeks till i get to see brentt (we're going to iquitos) :) called him from mancora to wish him happy bday and happy new year... also called home to wish happy new year to mom....

Child Protective Services....

2009-01-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

So in the town of El Porvenir... well to be honest, I haven't yet asked around so I really don't know, but it appears to me there is no sort of child protective services... of the stories of abused kids that i've heard of here, seems nothing is really done about the parents.. i'm guessing there are homes where kids may be taken away and placed into (though probably rarely and no doubt even worse living than the family home), but there's no such thing as a parenting class or anger management...

I've thought about the kids that i see working on the street selling necklaces or other products that their parents are selling at the stand... i wonder about what sort of things these kids are learning growing up this way versus others that are in day care or playing at their friend's houses... at times it may be fun to go person to person and talk to various people try and sell something almost like a game.. but maybe that's only for a minute and then when the child wants to go play or look at the bug on the tree, he can't because that means losing potential clients and money for the family....

there was one afternoon i spent walking through alto trujillo which is a bunch of little huts on sand dunes... and i see this boy all alone dragging his huge bucket (not sure what he was going to do with it)... he must have been about 5 years old... and way behind him was a little girl that turned out to be his sister.. she wasn't keeping up with him and at times would just sit down and play with the sand. no parents in sight, but it seemed the kids knew exactly where they were and where they were going, though they were in no way safe... no doubt that if there were any child predators around, they'd have a field day in alto trujillo ... then there's another kid i see on the bus every day by himself.. he must be not more than 8...

now that i've posted about some depressing stuff, i'll now post about my crazy new years week in Mancora (the post above this one)

End of year... and pictures

2008-12-26T12:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays and New year!!!!

Spent Christmas camping out on the beach and spending New Years at a beautiful beach 9 hours away (bus ride)...

Meanwhile, enjoy pictures I've recently posted

Link to rest of fotos here: CLICK HERE..

Sin gas

2008-12-22T16:16:00.001-08:00

did i already post on this? at the store you always have to request your water "sin gas" (by the way, all the corner markets are behind bars and everything you want you have to order at the gate and they bring it to you... my main guess is to prevent theft.. pretty much everywhere---foto copy, internet places too--- has a gated front door)...

not sure why there is so much sparkling water here... but if you don't specify that you want it with "sin gas" you are inevitably going to get a sparkling water...

La Cena para Navidad

2008-12-21T21:38:00.000-08:00

The trip to the movie theatre was soooo successful!!! :) it was just about 400 more or less kids and parents bussed from Porvenir to the center of trujillo for the cinema... for many of the children it was their first time being in the movie theatre... we were quite organized and in turn rewarded with a smoothly run event, with no injuries or problems whatsoever! It was quite a beautiful thing to hear how excited the kids were during the movie (Madegascar 2)... and just how appreciative they were of the whole thing, it was quite amazing and (dare i get cheesy) practically brought tears to my eyes... it was just a really nice thing :)

The dinner we hosted for the SKIP families was quite successful!!!! there were about 600 people more or less... we hosted it at one of the nearby elementary schools. We had to move all the tables and chairs outside, the place was decorated, we had a number of dances and performances... including firespinning (me!!) leading out to a fireworks show... the preparing and serving of 600 plates of food (paneton, pork, potato salad, bread) and hot chocolate (which was also quite amazing to watch the mothers make the fire and prepare the hot chocolate)... was quite smoothly organized and just about perfect... hrm.. i dont think i'm giving enough justice to the amount of work we put into putting this together... it was ALOT.....

Now we're officially on vacation... i'm spending christmas with housemates, we've got a really cool crew right now (i think i've already mentioned that a number of times, but i'm quite happy with the folks i'm living with)... and then we're off to Mancora through the 3rd of January... I'm hearing it's quite crazy during the summer, and crazier during the holidays... so it'll be a nice break from reality (which of course isn't so bad), hehe :)

Then on to a successful Summer Camp....

my donation to SKIP

2008-12-20T12:23:00.001-08:00

So i've just bought my major donation purchase for SKIP.. bought a MUCH needed file cabinet:

happy to contribute OUR FIRST FILE CABINET!!! :)

this isn't THE one, but pretty much looks like this one... don't have income and am living off of savings, so it will probably be my ONE major purchase for SKIP... we need one for the home office though... (this one went to the office at the SKIP location in Porvenir).

It was about S/.310... which comes out to $100...

we're getting ready for our 700 person dinner.. actually we're thinking of the people who show up, it should be a little less than 600.. which is crazy, but less than 700.. heh.. keep in mind we are an org of about 15 people more or less.. we have a few other people helping us, but we're preparing and serving all the food.. doing the setup, entertainment (I'm spinning fire), and cleaning ... EVERYTHING...

We've already wrapped 170 books for gifts for families (so you may be confused with all the numbers.. there are about 170 families more or less, but that comes out to like 500 children (more or less) and 200 parents...

tonight i'm cutting panetones into 8 pieces

we have been lucky to have donations, so fortunately it's not totally out of our pockets....

it's going to be crazy tomorrow...

Guy with whistle... and my new room

2008-12-18T17:26:00.000-08:00

Did i mention about the security guy with the whistle outside our house? He walks up and down the avenue doing his whistle... seems like the purpose is to tell people that he's there it keeps robbers away??? ??? ???

and the other day there were gunshots.. lots of them.. and a housemate said it's the same guy.. but probably that he was drunk... he was shooting his gun like every 5 minutes or so ... up in the air maybe?? who knows...

not sure which way i feel safer..

either way, the noise (and other noise, like the windows rattling every time a truck goes by, honking, front door--everytime someone entered or came at all hours in the day/night, conversations in the house, etc etc etc) were keeping me awake..... but no longer!!! a room opened up and i have moved.. and i had my first realllllllll good sleep tonight :)

the room is really nice.. enough space (cozy, but i dont really want more room)... and most importantly enough internet signal to keep me skyping and happy :)

my worst fears....

2008-12-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

so.. just to make sure i wasn't feeling bad enough about the relationship situation, i get another kicker....in the head...

so most of you who know me, know about my one HUGE phobia... PARASITES!

well.. so my head had been itching for weeks now.. and being allergic to almost everything, i figured that it was maybe my shampoo or new laundry detergent... or just a couple days of dry scalp.. or the water from surfing.. it COULD NOT be lice... even though i work with children infested with them in a community that hasn't had the proper education about prevention of them... IT COULD NOT BE!! so i continued to wait.. waiting for the itching to subside.. but it didn't..

anyway, finally my housemate was convinced that she had them.. very matter-of-fact, without fear of them.. she was going to head off to the pharmacy to buy a comb, so i asked some housemates to check my hair "just in case"... but likely i don't have them, right??

nope...

apparently i was infested with them... 2+ weeks worth just about, maybe more????... and again, may i remind you of my phobia.. not just squeamish about parasites, but like panic attack sort of feelings... anyway, my housemates were awesome in helping me feel alot better and we spent the next 3 hours picking the buggers out and using the shampoo and comb...

can i just tell you I did not realize how freakin' big these bugs get??? I don't remember ever having this as a kid, so this was a first for me.. and it was sort of like the reality was almost worst than the fear.. as fearful as i was about having them, i thought they were maybe the size of tiny dots.. not like.. milimeters long... like the size of rice... :(

also i seem to have an allergy to them because i have a rash all down my neck to my shoulders (...please don't tell me it's somethign else altogether!!! let me believe its a result of the lice.....)

ugh i feel sick just recounting it..

felt just about as bad as when i found out my cat had tape worms... UGH

anyway, apparently this is just going to be a reality.. we're going to attempt to do some more education about lice during summer camp with the kids, but it's just gonna be something i'll have to deal with for the next 7 months....

AND LET ME JUST SAY!>...... that i shower on a regular basis and am very clean ..so it has nothing to do with my personal hygeine! :)

hope you weren't eating while reading this post!

not my picture, but it was similar heh.

good articles: http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/lice/headlice018.shtml
http://www.drgreene.com/21_640.html

oh.. so for my future reference .. here is what i'm doing for removal....
so from talking to mates here, it looks like it's going to be an ongoing problem while i'm here, so rather than using pesticides (which is usually how parents go about delousing their kids...) what i did the first day we discovered the little buggers was to shampoo (actually the shampoo had the slightest bit of the pesticide), condition the hair (to make it easier to comb)... then you start the 3+ hour long process of combing the hair very carefully with this fine tooth comb specially made for lice to get each and every lice out and cover every strand of your hair... the 3 hour process also includes you sitting there with mates picking out the lice with their fingers like monkeys... the nits (eggs) are literally cemented to the shaft of your hair, so you have to carefullly pull very hard to get them off your hair.. the bugs are easier to pull off, but they do move around, so you have to catch them, heh..

this happened on wednesday, i'm doing it again today (friday) and every couple days or so for 14 days (the amount of days it takes for eggs to hatch).. the idea is to catch the baby ones before they become moms to lay eggs again...

i'm the picture of sexiness :)

Relationships

2008-12-16T07:59:00.001-08:00

Not sure if I should be posting this since it's a personal matter (though I've posted on other personal feelings)... but I figured it's all a part of my traveling experience, so maybe I'll just comment on it really quick...

It's an obvious statement to say that long distance relationships are hard.. and i think taking on the challenge of keeping one up for the amount of time that i'll be gone was a bit overconfident... going that long without that physical presence is not very natural and no matter how often you talk on the phone or skype, the emotional connection is impeded upon... you're definitely not getting your needs met on either level...

no matter how much you love each other, it's not fair to either to put through i think.... and the strain of all of this is a recipe for disaster I think... a potential disaster that could affect any sort of future at all in that relationship...

so that being said... brentt and I have broken up... before any disasters happening... things can be re-evaluated when I return to the states... though my travels plans continue for the next 2 years (with a few short term stays in the U.S.), so it'll be a long wait...

Successful Korean DInner!!!

2008-12-15T06:29:00.001-08:00

So, yesterday was one of my coolest evenings here because with the encouragement of a housemate, I cooked up a korean dinner... I was quite nervous about the whole thing because:
1. I dont cook often... if at all... (i can cook eggs and pasta)...
2. I have never cooked an entire korean meal by myself.. muchless the dishes i was about to do ..... (i have to admit, whenever meals were cooked at home it was either my mom, my sis, or my bro)....
3. Many of my housemates had not had korean food before... so lots of pressure to choose stuff that was tasty, and would make a good impression about korean food...

So, I cooked up some korean bbq, fried tofu, a bean sprout thing that is often served as "banchan", and a spinach thing often served as "banchan".. and rice... oh and i served kimchee with the meal...

Turned out great!!! People raved about the sauce... which was your sort of traditional korean flavor (soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, green onions, sugar)...

And i was sooooo excited to finally get some korean food in me.. yuuuuuuuuuummmmmmm

i've got some pictures that i'll post later...

And another package! AND... holiday plans.....

2008-12-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

Got a package from my sis and Matt with christmas gifts!! :)

So I'm 3 for 3 with receiving mail from the states... my mom just sent me something again, so we'll see if it arrives... only thing is, it still is quite expensive to send stuff to me :(

I was careful not to look at the contents when the postal employee sorted through the package.. however, i unfortunately looked at the customs sheet on the outside of the package and saw one word! Sorry, Julienne!! I didn't mean to peek.. Anyway, only saw that one word, but it's actually somethign i was just about to go buy some of (and felt I was in "need" of)... so, looking forward to seeing what's actually in the package!!! :)

THANKS!!!!!!!

Looks like I'm spending the day after Christmas through New Years in Mancora.. a beautiful beach way north of Peru.. and then it'll only be a few more weeks after that that I get to see Brentt :)

Just so you know I'm actually working (and not surfing every day)....

2008-12-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of some of us volunteers doing some fundraising and volunteer recruiting... I seem to be not looking in the camera, but oh well :)
I know we look a bit silly with our hats.. :)

Fundraising/recruiting for:
1. Christmas dinner we are hosting for 154 families and more than 400 children.... we still need some funds, sugar, and chocolate (they have something called a Chocolatada, where everyone gets hot chocolate or something....?) ... but we're giving them a full dinner with paneton and hot chocolate and books as presents...
2. Volunteer house needs a fridge.. right now we have 9 volunteers living in the "SKIP house".. and we have 1 (small!) fridge... not sure if you can imagine how jam packed that can get.. We are expecting several more volunteers in January... so ... we're in need...
3. We're recruiting for volunteers in the summer for our summer camp :)

Actually, in the spirit of the holidays.. if you feel like donating money to SKIP... you can do so here:
1. Donating
or
2. Sponsor one of our kids

If you have questions about where the money goes to, you can email me... like for option #2 I personally know the kids in our program...

Page-A-Day Calendar

2008-12-11T19:59:00.000-08:00

I get a daily Page-A-Day calendar (thanks A!)

Today's was:

MACHU PICCHU, PERU
Guests at the Sanctuary Lodge, steps from the entrance to this “lost city” of the Incas, have the unique privilege of wandering about the moonlit ruins after the day-tripping crowds leave.

More pictures up!

2008-12-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

Of... Huanchaco, billiards, Chicama, surfing with SKIP teens, SKIP, Thanksgiving, random others

click picture...

New fruits: Cherimoya and Locuma...

2008-12-07T16:02:00.001-08:00

just tried a Cherimola for the first time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_cherimola it tastes like gold is worth.(well before the value of gold went down.)

couldn't find a picture of locuma.. plus i haven't had the fruit by itself, only in yogurt, juice drinks and ice cream, but it's suuuuuuuuper yummy...

language confusion

2008-12-04T04:36:00.001-08:00

the other day i tried to say "ahn yong ha seh yo" to someone.. it was very bizarre... i'm getting my languages mixed up and I'm forgetting how to say stuff in korean :( ...but then like the other day i'm randomly trying to speak korean.. i think it was because the lady looked asian (there are some asian looking peruvians).. and my instinctive response was: other language, asian looking: DO Korean!!

strange...

School,math,learning

2008-11-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

Math is taught differently here, which makes teaching it that much more difficult...

like the plus and minus sign for addition and subtraction is placed on the other side..
division is done differently and it took me a bit to figure it out... for example: 8593 divided by 23 is written like this:

for thousands and millions.. there are periods rather than comas.. for example.. 1 million is 1.000.000 not 1,000,000
and decimals are written as commas.. for example $12.50 would be $12,50... this took some time for me to get used to as well...

common denominator is also done differently....
letter are written slightly differently.. like a 1 has a weird line at the front of it.. but i've seen similar writing of people from european countries...

also, kids don't have books, they have notebooks, where they paste (with glue) in a paper copy of the book assignment... books are too expensive here i'm guessing...

peruvian kids seem to be obsessed with writing in different colors of pens... they seem to be taught from a young age to use a couple colors (red/black) when doing assignments... when they're missing one of the colors and you try and tell them just to use the one and it doesn't matter for the class if it's in all black or all red... they refuse and insist on borrowing from their friend and taking twice/3x as long to do the assignment...

Holidays

2008-11-28T20:16:00.000-08:00

So thanksgiving came and went and it didn't overtly feel like I missed much... (however this week has been, again, a homesick-feeling week for me)... one of my housemates mentioned that she was also somewhat lacking that holiday feel.. another housemate mentioned she started seeing some christmas stuff and was very surprised, even though in the states, it usually starts around october..

the conclusion we came to was that it is because it feels like summer here (well because we're entering summer right now).. like today, it was SUPER-sunny and probably about 85 degrees outside, if not more... and it's only going to get hotter (i think we're still just right at the end of spring)... so it physically does not feel like there should be any holidays other than summer vacation :)

great for surfing :)

The gym and my first hamburger :)

2008-11-28T18:27:00.000-08:00

So i've been going regularly to the gym... shadow boxing and baile (dance).. i've already mentioned this.. but did i mention the GUAPO shadow boxing teacher? .. theres two of them, but one is really good looking.. actually looks like a coworker i had once... hehe..

anyway, on my way back from the 2 hours of strenuous working out, i stopped by a stand to have my first peruvian hamburger.. it had the meat patty, egg, cabbage slivers, potato crisp things and of course aji.. very tasty..

OH NO.. i take that back.. this past saturday we went out dancing till 6am and went for burgers afterwards and i had a half a burger then.. but that doesn't count :)

anyway, just baked a banana chocolate cake for tomorrow's big thanksgiving dinner :)

tomorrow i'm making some candied sweet potatoes...

yum!!

:)

My shopping list

2008-11-27T14:33:00.001-08:00

So, this is mainly for my own record keeping, since this is pretty much what I've been regularly buying, and rather than having to think of the list every time, I just have to refer to here....
.....but if you're curious about what happens to be on my shopping list..

Tottus (supermarket):
Aji salsa (spicy stuff)
Cream cheese
Juice
Soy milk
Potato chips (my splurge)
Quinoa oatmeal
Cracker snacks
Tuna (when i really need some protein)
Cut veggies (when i'm feeling lazy)
Won't need for a while: jasmine tea, honey, quinoa, butter, olive oil, chocolate ice cream (my other splurge), vegetable broth cubes, aji pepper

Hermalinda (huge local market, where veggies,fruits,etc, are super cheap.. it's a pretty amazing place, like there are isles devoted to one thing.. one isle you'll see 20 diff types of bananas, and literally thousands of them..probably more than thousands; isles like 15 feet high and a block long).. and then in another isle thousands of onions... in another isle, thousands of potatoes)....
Tomatoes
Brocholi
Banana
Eggs
Pasta
Mandarines

Lady outside the house:
Bread

Other store near house:
Water

Happy thanksgiving!!

2008-11-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

Bunch of folks are gonna have a huge thanksgiving dinner here on Saturday.. (since thanksgiving isn't celebrated here, thus no days off and we work today and tomorrow.... well we work saturday too, but just till noon)... so thanksgiving saturday!!

This will be my first without my mom and family i think...

HAPPY Thanksgiving!

After re-reading A's emails...

2008-11-27T13:17:00.001-08:00

Just finished re-reading some saved emails that A had when she went traveling (Chile, Mexico, other countries)... I had read them all before.. but they are back from 2000 and for the most part I couldn't really relate to alot of the stories, until now!... so here are some thoughts that sparked up from reading her emails and similarities here...

Advertising here is very interesting... I've already seen strange displays in stores with full human size examples of the products dancing around outside/inside the store.. and I'm not sure if these are advertisements or something else, but there are taxis that drive around with P.A. systems on top of their car blaring something (have i already mentioned them?)... there are large mural size advertisements on concrete walls... (including huge murals of who the mayor of town is..and how).... I already mentioned the huge spring festival parade where pretty much each float was an advertisement of the product (which, i guess, is similar to parades in the US, except in the US, it's a bit more subtle I think...maybe not, can't remember) and how street signs have beer, supermarket, or other random advertisements on them)....

the lock situation.. so our front door to the house has 5 mechanisms to lock... like, the key turns/locks 3 times (in fact you're only supposed to turn it 2 times during the day because if you do it 3 times it can't be opened from the other side (this goes both ways and is a problem if someone forgets or doesn't know and turns it 3 times and then the people inside or outside are totally locked out/in)... and then there are 2 slot things and the a chain thing.. and then this switch (like a safety on a gun).. and you can't pull the door thing if the safety is on.. most doors seem to be like this (meaning, it's not excessive)... and then there is another door waiting for you outside the house... but at least we didn't have to do two keys at one time (A had to do this)

everything is sold in plastic sacks... I've seen a little of this in the states, where some packaging is sold in plastic bags instead of large boxes.. but it's pretty much the norm here.. milk, soy milk, cereal, mayonaise, yogurt.. etc.. all in sacks.. something I was definintely not used to (but my europe housemates say it's like this there)... is how dairy products (milk, eggs, etc) are not refridgerated... this feels very weird to me, but i guess its ok unfridgerated...

black boogers

2008-11-26T08:37:00.000-08:00

So, every day i come back home from work with black boogers... this is because the town i work in, el porvenir, has dirt roads and lots and lots of sand... i usually wear my sandles, so i come home with black soles on my feet as well... (otherwise i'd come home with tennis shoes filled with sand and dirty socks)... so anyway, when the wind blows, which is often, my hair, face, and nose are filled with dust.... just walking from the SKIP office to the school (indoamericana) is like walking through the desert...

i'm very fortunate that this is not where i live.. and im fortunate to have other options.... i dont sleep in a dirt house with dirt floors, that are uninhabitable when it rains... i have adequate (running) water and electricity.... I can sweep dirt out of my room... I can study my spanish with adequate lighting and furniture to sit on.... i had the option of NOT working when i was 6 years old... life is very different for these folks...

Maria...

2008-11-24T18:21:00.000-08:00

did i already mention the "ghost" living in the house??

I really don't believe in ghosts... everything i believe, in theory, doesn't go along with the existance of ghosts... however during the 5 minutes, in the middle of the night, when i have to run to the bathroom is a different story... any other time of the day, or if the lights are all on, I'm not afraid :) strange how my mind works sometimes...

anyway, supposedly (according to neighbors)... some girl committed suicide in our kitchen, and she still lingers around the house... but supposedly she's a "good ghost" and watches over the house... supposedly past volunteers have "seen" her....

anyway, like i said, none of this creeps me out, unless i'm running through the dark to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but i should clarify that during that time, i'm just about freaked out about everything till i'm back in my warm bed.. hehe...

Mangos no more :(

2008-11-21T04:40:00.001-08:00

So there are some awesome prices on fruits and veggies here... such as 1kg of mangos for S./1 (which is just about 3-4 mangos for $0.30)... a beautiful humungous heads of broccoli for about $0.30 as well..

anyway, it's hard to pass up a deal for mangos... but apparently I'm still allergic to them.. i was quite allergic to them a few years ago when i had this weird allergy spell to almost everything i ate.. then i started avoiding all foods that i'm allergic to and started the immunotherapy in hopes that it'll get my body to tolerate some food i really like (such as corn)... when i came to Peru I started eating mangos again (in addition to corn, cuz it's almost impossible to avoid corn here)... but as it looks now, I think I will not be able to keep eating my precious mangos... my lips are getting progressively worse with rash every time i eat one and my body become unhappy and bloated (and i end up feelng restless) for a couple days after... it probably has something to do with the amount of corn i eat here too... and the amount of MSG they have in the dishes...

oh well.. well i have about 5 mangos left... question is.. do i keep eating them (because they're oooooh so good... like honey! and taste so good on toasted bread, or just as a snack) or give them to housemates

not an easy decisions.. because i am getting quite rashed up.....

SURFING!!!! (mucho mejor que sábado!!!)

2008-11-20T12:21:00.000-08:00

Thursday:
i did soooooooo much better today with surfing.. conditions were perfect and the ratio of standing and falling was the opposite!!!!

i fell maybe 2-3 times.. and stood up and rode the wave like 10 times or something... soooo much fun today.. gonna try and surf like 2 times a week.. :)

MORE NOTES from the Saturday after Thursday, above:

Went again today!! so 3 times so far.. started learning to paddle (before, the teacher had been pushing us to catch the wave)... it's funny because before last saturday, i really didn't like going to the beach much.. i dont like how sandy it is (hehe) and the water is so salty, wet, (who knew!!) and sticky... and the idea of surfing seemed like such a hassle.. dealing with the wetsuit, and the board.... but now none of that phases me... i want to go as many times as it fits in my schedule.. i was even, for a split second, contemplating how I could move to Huanchaco (the closest beach, 15 mins away)... but alas.. no.. i'm happy where i'm living.. and i'm happy going twice a week (one lesson on my own or with housemates and one lesson with the SKIP kids)... and perhaps a lesson on a free saturday... I would go more often, but money does not grow on trees... (however, it is significantly more affordable than in the states)

I still don't like too much sun (soon i will be one large freckle)... but i can tolerate it for the surfing....

Dulces sueños

2008-11-20T06:21:00.001-08:00

Had a dream last night that I came home for the holidays... saw all my friends/family... and took care of stuff that was unsettled since getting here.. (one of my CC hasn't been working properly, left a few books at home that i want here.. etc...took care of all of this)

then i woke up...

oh well...

This is the first thanksgiving and christmas that I'm not spending with my family (I think)...

:)

looking forward to seeing Brentt in January!!

Tentative return date....

2008-11-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

So there's a conference I have really been wanting to go to, pretty much since I've started planning this whole thing...

http://www.soga-del-alma.org/

It's the 5th Annual Amazonian Shamanism Conference... In past years, they've had talks on everything from shamanism to plant medicines...With speakers such as Dennis McKenna, curanderos, psychologists, psychiatrists...

This year it's from July 11- 18... so I'm hoping to go there, then head down to Lima... go to Isla Ballestas... then go home.. So, tentatively I'll be home around July 25th more or less :)

Home for my bday.. and enough time to prepare for end of August camping trip.... (and work a few months before jetting off for part two of my travels)..

Yay!! Looking forward to seeing everyone again in July!! :)

....
on another note.. will have pictures up soon of my trip to Chicama (where the LONGEST waves in the world are...) and random other pictures... including the surfing...

ANOTHER PACKAGE!!!

2008-11-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

Got another package, this time from my mom!!!! will post picture later, but got kimchee, tofu and chocolate... I'm hiding the chocolate, because i've seen chocolate disappear in 2 seconds here in this house.. and this is Godiva!! So it stays in my room... may possibly consider locking it away hehe... :)

Thanks mom!!

Oh.. a story.. so the kimchee packages were totally swollen so I went outside to pop them (and not to get the smell in the house), but the wind was blowing.. straight into the house and now it smells in here.. for me, it's a yummy smell.. but for someone unknowing.. kimchee is a bit of a ... surprising smell...

:)

oh well.. housemates will have to get used to it.. hehe :)

More on terremoto and chupe... and surfing....

2008-11-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Finally got to try some chupe de langostinos (chupe de camarones is way more expensive and langostinos and camarones are pretty much the same, right?...prawns and shrimp..)... soooooo yummy :) i love chupe anything...

turns out the terremoto is a prediction based on a baby that was born with some disfigurement..... (from what i heard today)...
so we'll see come martes)

went surfing today for the first time in my life... i'm not sure that i've really even touched a surf board before today, which is really strange considering i live in los angeles... and before that in rancho palos verdes where my high school had a surf team... so there really isn't an excuse as to why i've never even tried surfing...

How did it go? well the swells were huge, and the current was incredibly rapid and strong... but despite this, I was able to get up a few times.. 'surfing' during the sunset... in Huanchaco... with an awesome teacher... it was great!... I had many tumbles and swallowed alot of water that is probably going to get me sick... however I will try again when the water is more tranquil... possibly thursday when another housemates wnats to go... :)

there may be some video i can upload.. just need to get it from the instructor.. :)

yay!

terremoto and gringos...

2008-11-14T19:40:00.000-08:00

apparently, there is a predicted earthquake for tuesday at night.... california is sort of known by many to have earthquakes (even some folks here in peru had heard about earthquakes in california and thought they happened all the time)... anyway, so even in california we don't have any sort of predictions that i'm aware of...

seems to be one here however and people seem to think i'm weird for not understanding how this can be predicted so precisely...

so.. we'll see.. earthquake tuesday night....

on another topic.. apparently there are other folks who are also getting a bit annoyed with the 'automatic assumption' thing.. the automatic assumption that all asians are chinitos and all white people are gringos... the term gringo is pretty much for folks from the U.S... my understanding is that it had something to do with the U.S. army outfit and i think it started in Mexico, where they would yell out "green go (home)!"... anyway, my non-US friends seem to get as annoyed about being called a gringo as i do about being called chinita....

Off the cart...

2008-11-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

So there's some things you're not supposed to do.. that even some of the locals don't do.. one example is eating off the cart.. on the side of the road.. (some countries it's fine, but in Perú, you're not really supposed to... but we did it today!!

I.. along with a french volunteer/housemate, marion, and irish volunteer/housemate, libby... decided to dare this..

on the way back from the gym we always see this cart with the side street packed with people.. and they even have a table and chair setup (i'm guessing because this particular stand is so good)... so we decided to stop after the gym and eat there... they had fried chicken.. aji de gallina (hen and some sort of cream sauce).. papa rellenos.. papas fritas... rice.. and salad (books advise not to eat salad, but i've been doign that anyway, cuz at this point, if there's anythign in the water that they wash vegetables in, i've already been immune to it, cuz i dont get sick from washing vegetables in the water)... and some desserts......

anyway, so i had some rice, papas fritas, aji de gallina and salad... AND decided to get some rice pudding (with chicha morada sauce on it)... all for S/3 (which is just about $1)....... it was delicious!!!

stay tuned for a post on "bicicleta" aka montezuma's revenge... :)

Coreanita (o estadounidense coreanita)

2008-11-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

ok.. so i've decided.. when it's not absolutely necessary to know that i am from the U.S... i'm just going to tell people that i am from "corea"...

it skips the annoying step of.. their confusion of why i said i'm from "estados unidos" (since I'm clearly a 'chinita') and then them telling me they thought i was a "chinita" and then explaining i was born in the states but my parents are from Korea...

so .. i'm going to go straight to.. "I"m from korea".. and they'll stop from there... hopefully...

-------------

EDIT: so i'm just gonna play it by ear... cuz i figure maybe it's not a bad thing to explain all this out.. and letting people know the US isn't just full of gringos.. and not all the asians they see are chinitas or japones .. and they could possibly be from the land of the blondies...

Engrish.......

2008-11-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

but not from asia this time...

had to post this funny translation for some "arroz arabe: pilaf" heres the english translation on the box:

and the ingredients:

I wonder what is the "small stick" that is inside this rice... either way, i'm glad it has "extra rice," cuz just a normal amount is not enough...

acabo de mandar una tarjeta de correo (postal)...

2008-11-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

I sent a card to mom, A and brentt on Oct 31st.. looks like it got to my mom today... brentt received his two days ago... A, I dont know yet...

And.. Pilsen Trujillo.. the beer of Trujillo, Peru

2008-11-07T21:17:00.000-08:00

Inka Cola! the drink of Peru

2008-11-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

no estoy seguro porque hay tanto gringos en el video...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freckles

2008-11-06T19:39:00.001-08:00

Argh! The peruvian sun is darkening my freckles!!!

dare i talk politics...

2008-11-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

WARNING: very opinionated blog post ahead......

i generally don't talk politics or religion, when i can help it, for reasons i don't feel like explaining right now.. but...

--so glad we voted in Obama.. but what's with Orange county voting for Mccain?? Guess i shouldn't be surprised??? but hellllloooooo Ohio voted Obama... OC is way behind in their thinking...
--High speed rail eh?? don't we already have a system to go from LA to San Fran? do we need to spend a sh*tload more for another one, when there are other things we could be spending our money on and our economy is sh*t right now??
--No on prop 4.. THANK YOU!! Glad we agree on 2 things...
--.. OK the big one.. Prop 8... WHAT UP HOMOPHOBES IN CALIFORNIA????? I dont understand this at all.. ugh, why do people think they're better than others (or deserve anything more) just because of their sexual orientation... WTF seriously.. WHAT THE FUCK?? ... UGH... maybe you're all the ones who voted for Bush 4 years ago??? THANKS a big one! *sigh*

(More stats: there are filters on the link below, showing who voted for bush in 2004.. turns out IT *IS* ALL YOU GUYS who are opposed to gay marriage who are BUSH fans..)... see a pattern here?? very LAME.... Sorry, but i think you're all *ssh*les...

More stats: looks like more counties with less than 10% with bachelors degrees voted YES on prop 8
more counties with more than 15% with bachelors degrees voted NO on prop 8

.....says something......

results found here for california:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-2008election-california-results,0,1293859.htmlstory
Here is state by state:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/uselections2008

sorry to be so negative on that last one.. I am very excited/happy to have Obama.. but equally frustrated and disappointed about prop 8...

More Pictures!!

2008-11-03T19:53:00.000-08:00

Posted some pictures from a trip to Chan Chan, Huacas de la luna y del sol, Chiclayo, some Criolle festival on Oct 31st, and some other random photos... here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157608638605731/

Enjoy :)

Don't forget to click on video clips for the peruvian dog and other youtube links in picture descriptions...

Heres a small preview...

I've got mail!

2008-11-03T11:31:00.001-08:00

OMG!!! the mailman arrived with my notice to pick up my package from Julienne!! Hurray!

So, heres what happens.. got the notice for package.. went to post office (hours of pick up 8-12, 2-4).. got to post office.. need to show two photocopies of my passport.. so i ran around a bit looking for a copy place..

finally they let me inside the small room... one person ahead of me.. couldn't quite understand what the postal employee was saying, but she was clearly annoyed with the previous customer when she got to me..

they were really nice.. had to sign some more documents.. but they got my package... OPENED it up.. (note: don't send me anything risque!) poked around through everything.. then gave it back to me and sent me on my way...

on the mail notice, it looks like for every day they hold it, you have to pay a certain amount.. couldn't figure out what the other fees were, but sometimes they make you pay to pick up express packages or something...?? anyway, i didn't ahve to pay anything more than the s/.20 for 2 copies...

THANKS JULIENNE!!!!

I pass as someone half my age...

2008-10-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

Today on the way to Huanchaco... on the bus... i was only charged the amount for a high school kid.. which is about half price..

awesome =)

a southern hemisphere day...

2008-10-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

actually i'm very close to the equator... but anyway...

if you're curious.. heres how my typical week/day looks

Mondays/Lunes
715am wake up.. breakfast (usually consists of toasted bread w/ cream cheese and tomato or cereal with soymilk and banana/mango/orange)
745 catch a taxi for s/4 (usually with another volunteer so it's only s/2) to el porvenira
8 - 1230 teach english classes
1 -3 lunch (siesta if i'm lucky) the volunteers eat at one of SKIPS volunteer's homes... usually includes rice, beans, and/or potatoes, some sort of meat... and yummy aji (spicy stuff).. oh and jugo (juice)...
3 - 6 afianzamiento (extra classes to help kids, tutoring/homework).. helps me work on my spanish alot
6pm catch a taxi/combi back home
7-9 Shadow boxing and baile class @ gym
10 shower and then anything from dinner (which usually is some sort of broccoli pasta thing i make), to studying spanish, to hanging out with house mates, to watching a movie in spanish, to talking with brentt/a/britta/michael/mom...

Tuedays/Martes
same as monday pretty much.. except no 7-9 gym...

Wednesdays/Miercoles
715am wake up.. breakfast
745 catch a taxi to el porvenir
8 - 10 teach english classes
1015 take a combi back home s/1
1030 - 3pm running errands, eat lunch
3-7pm work on summer camp stuff (I'm THE coordinator of the summer camp for kids 6-11, theres 350 kids in this age group)
7-9 Shadow boxing and baile class @ gym
10 shower and then anything from dinner (which usually is some sort of broccoli pasta thing i make), to studying spanish, to hanging out with house mates, to watching a movie in spanish, to talking with brentt/a/britta/michael/mom...

Thursdays/Jueves
8 - 130 wake up and surf class
130 - 330 combi to spanish class (1 hr) and back home
330-7pm work at home all day.. summer camp stuff, translating stuff into english (or proofreading english), studying spanish, etc.
7pm - 10 anything from dinner, to studying spanish, to hanging out with house mates, to watching a movie in spanish, to talking with brentt/a/britta/michael/mom... and exercise

Friday/Viernes
8am spanish homework
1030 -1 leave for SKIP... 1130 meeting
130-3 lunch
3 - 6 afianzamiento (extra classes to help kids, tutoring/homework).. helps me work on my spanish alot
6pm catch a taxi/combi back home
7-9 Shadow boxing and baile class @ gym
10 shower and then anything from dinner (which usually is some sort of broccoli pasta thing i make), to studying spanish, to hanging out with house mates, to watching a movie in spanish, to talking with brentt/a/britta/michael/mom...

Saturdays
715am wake up.. breakfast
745 catch a taxi
8 - 1230 teach english classes
1 free to wander peru

Sundays
free to wander peru

wandering peru: thus far.. been to chan chan, huacas (sol y luna), huanchaco, various really cool/amazing marketplaces, malls, and going to chiclayo this weekend...

besos

2008-10-27T18:56:00.001-07:00

so.. something we dont do in the states is this greeting thing with kisses... i think it's great and i love that you do it when you meet people, and every time you see your friends, and it sort of breaks the ice of this physical space/wall that it seems us USA'ers have...

i would say that in an average day i get/give like 50 kisses... (this includes all the kids from classes, takes forever to say hello and goodbye!!)... no wonder about this "peruvian time' stuff...everyones too busy kissing each other to keep on time...

Change.... (and getting personal again)....

2008-10-27T18:44:00.000-07:00

What a huge contrast it is of how I was feeling the first week I got here and how I am feeling now... I think I may actually have had a moment of bliss, even, today....

The first week i was here, I was in quite a bit of shock, fear and sadness... I had this feeling of "why didn't i just stay home??" and "what the hell am i doing this far away from family and friends" and feeling lost and lonely, a bit hopeless, and just feeling like I was doing something totally not me and almost in a state of panic that I had done something wrong... i constantly reminded myself of all the reasons I had wanted to do this traveling, but really nothing consoled me other than to talk to my mom and other folks.. but then that also made me homesick...

well.. 1 month later... just only a month (I really had not expected it to be this soon)... I am feeling really good about where I am and what i'm doing... I love the organization i'm volunteering for and the people who are apart of it...the volunteers, the families, the kids... I am loving that I'm discovering things about the culture and learning a new language.. living a different way... and it's almost like a game trying to communicate (though i'm not winning, yet, at this point at the language game!)...

don't get me wrong.. i still get very homesick.. and the spanish is still a struggle... and i still see myself as someone who would rather have stability over spontaneity (who knows, that may change by the 9 month mark?? or not..)... but i'm feeling really good about where i am and how things are going... and i'm surprised (and relieved) that it only took a month.. maybe actually a week ago i started feeling like this...

aji no moto and dancing and more on taxi/combi/micro drivers...

2008-10-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

there is ALOT of MSG used here.. it's called aji no moto.. not sure why... and the spanish word for monosodium glutamate is something like glutamate monosodium or something, gms.. anyway, i love all sorts of fish, soups.. pretty much all the food here, but unfortunately, i'm often very sleepy and sometimes have a slight headache after eating... oh well.. what can ya do??

rave dances... the 'rave' dances have been a hit here! like the shopping cart.. picking mushrooms/apples, washing clothes, etc etc etc.... i introduced it this past weekend and everyone loved it,, hehe =)

here's a dance that i've learned...
tra tra tra!!!

its my new favorite song!

more on taxi/combi/micros... so something that can get a little annoying at times is how all the micros/taxi/combis always slow down and honk or yell at you to get on them when you don't need to... i'm really not understanding this, because if i needed either of those methods of transportation, i would be standing on the curb with my hand out, waving, making eye contact with the driver... but when i'm not even remotely looking at the street, i am baffled as to why they like to slow down and honk and act confused as to why you don't need a ride at that time..

Updates from past posts... and commenting on comments

2008-10-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Bug bites has decreased... or my body has gotten used to them...

For those who dont read the comments for posts.. according to my sis,
"It costs $38 for a flat rat box to send. Chocolate and rosemary are covered! ;) "

Thanks so much sis!!!!! Can't wait to possibly get it or not!! hehe

Spanish is improving.. i can say some more things and have a better conversation in spanish, but i still have quite a headache at 6pm and can no longer do complex brain activities after 6pm..

I am not sure if you can just go into a farmacia and ask for vicoden... I do know that there are tons of coca tea in all stores everywhere.. so as far as that, it's totally available.. there doesn't *seem* to be such a huge drug/alcohol/prescription problem here, but then i haven't been here long enough to really find out.. so I'm not sure how the farmacia system affects the society...

So Brentt's visiting and for those who are curious about cost and such.. we found a ticket through flycheapabroad.com/ for $615 round trip, however it's nonrefundable, so no date changes or anything without a hefty fee... ive been looking for tickets back to the states and someone turned me on to http://www.spiritair.com/Default.aspx.. where i found one-way tickets for $500... for a few days there i had been freaking out a little because all i could find were one way tickets for $1200... and then i was looking at refundable round trip tickets which looked like around $8-900, but i'm guessing i could refund the return ticket.. but now that i know of spiritair.. i think i'm feelng ok about the return flight home and not being broke when i get home =)

THANKS JULIENNE FOR ALL THE COMMENTS!! =)
And to others for reading my blog hehe...

And now for your viewing pleasure.. Obama vs. McCain dance off:

Aerobics class!

2008-10-23T19:28:00.001-07:00

As things start to get routine, I hope i still have some interesting cultural observations to share... but until then, here's something..

Just came from an aerobics class.. oh, did i already comment about how there seems to be a particular dance with each sort of song that comes out on the radio?... like for one dance it's double steps to right and left, hands up, shake booty, hands out shake booty, hands on shoulders, then a hip thrust.. and then this running thing... i've seen it at other places, including from my dance teacher when i was in the language immersion course. but pretty much every other song i hear, i see people doing a particular dance to it... the aerobics class was a lot of fun.. i took two in a row and it really seems like the instructors are alot more passionate about the music they choose for their class than i've seen in the states.. in the two classes (taught by two different instructors)... they played some cheesy, yet hard, gabber that i remember hearing at parties during the late 90s (tho in the dance room that i tended to avoid)... and then they played some cumbia.. gotta love the cumbia... there seems to be a plethora of 'cheesy' pop music here... guess we have that in the states too heh...

at the same time I do enjoy some good salsa music and dancing...

the cumbia is sort of growing on me too.. sort of how George Michael has a place in my heart, it's sort of has the same kind of cheesiness that i could dance to (though wouldn't listen at home, heh)....

So for the gym admission for the day it was S/10.. which is about $3.33... theres a membership for S/85 per month, which comes out to just under $30.... not really that much less than in teh states, hrmph..

No me molesta....

2008-10-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

So.. another interesting language thing that has come up is the verb molestar.... I've been using it quite often in the english classes with the kids and initially it was quite odd to keep saying 'no le molesta!' to kids that were bothering each other... i don't think i really need to spell out why..

Work and play

2008-10-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

Oh! I realized I dont think I've actually blogged anything about the SKIP work yet... (which is one of the main reasons why I am here)...

So.. most of you know I'm a social worker.. but with my spanish how it is... i've started teaching english this week. I'll also be involved with coordinating the summer camp program... and i'm involved with translating stuff in english (website, newsletters, etc.) ...

So, I teach Monday Tuesday and Wednesday mornings... on afternoons I either tutor mathmatics or other random subjects... (actually the other day i assisted with a vocabulary/analogy assignment!! and the two girls came up to me today and said they got a really good grade on it! hah... thank goodness for my trusty translator!!)... it's been interesting trying to remember how to find common denominators and do word problems when i'm still just learning spanish... AND THEN try to explain it in spanish so they understand... UF!!

On Saturdays... well, so, on saturday (this is as far as i understand, so i may be wrong).. there are volunteer teachers (or interns? from universities)... so they sometimes are there for classes, sometimes not... (also some of the "paid" teachers are not paid for months, sometimes years, at a time, or paid very little amounts (like s/20 for the month which comes out to like $7), so they also are sometimes not there)... so on saturdays, the SKIP volunteers fill in whereever is needed... from 8-12...

On Thursdays and some weekday afternoons, I do administrative stuff at home...proofreading/translating stuff into english (newsletters, letters, website, etc)...

Fridays.. not quite sure yet.. I'll probably be at the SKIP office/school doing whatever needs to be done..

-------------AND PLAY----------------------

So, I haven't had much time for going out at all.. since any free time i have, i need to be studying spanish.. but we went out to one club the other night... there was reggaeton (sp?), cumbia, salsa, some 90s remixes from the US... not really my sort of choice for dance music.. though I did find out that they have electronica music at one club that another volunteer and i are going to check out... hoping theres good electronica music there (cuz i'm picky in that area too...)

Brentt's coming over (MY FIRST VISITOR!!! and YAY it's BRENTT!) sometime at the end of January, so we'll get to go do some fun stuff, cuz i'll be taking some time off work... =)

Another successful afternoon (and it's still only 2pm!)

2008-10-21T12:16:00.001-07:00

So... I had a successful shopping trip.... I flagged down my first 2 taxis (ida y vuelta... aka 'round trip' from home to downtown... hrm.. and i should probably reiterate here that there is an art to this because in guide books they tell you not to do this at all.. the reality is that you can, but you just have to be careful about which cab you choose)... found markets and supermarkets in a country where there are hardly any street signs (yeah i've mentioned the few street signs that have beer endorsements on them, but majority of the streets have NO signs)... and some of the time people tell you the wrong direction...

got some meds I needed to get from a farmacy... the farmacy was interesting... oh heh, just realized i spelled pharmacy wrong.. anyway, you may notice grammar and spelling worsen as i learn more spanish and start possibly using spanglish heh... i digress.....

so.. when i went to pay with my credit card, she told me i need to show id.. and i didn't have it so she wouldn't let me purchase the meds.. so i went to the atm (which also involved asking several people where to go) and got money and when i came back she kept saying something that sounded like flowdeh... "hay mucho flowdeh"...but i smiled and nodded...when i got home i figured out she was saying 'fraude'.... "there is alot of fraud"... heh.. nice... meds are super cheap here.. got brand name medication that would normally have costed me $35 (or 25??) for 3 mo supply with good insurance... here its just about that much without having insurance for the same brand name.. plus you really don't need to have a prescription to get meds here.. you just go to the farmacia.. tell them what you need.. and they give it to you.. very easy...

i talked down some stretchy pants from 10 soles to 9...

had two tasks i didn't accomplish downtown
1. socks - found some i wanted to use for poi.. but i went to search a little more and when i came back the lady was at the bathroom or something and wasn't there.. so i just left.. oh well
2. post office - i have a couple post cards i want to send (it's pretty expensive, so i think the whole time i'm here, i'm only sending 3... to my mom, to a, and to brentt (which has mesgs for others)... sorry to everyone else!! I dont have income, so you'll have to understand! ----Anyway, at this point i was mentally exhausted and was ready to just get going home...there are some businesses that have these siesta times when they're closed (ugh forgot what the word for this is, cuz it's not siesta).. and i didn't want to take the risk of walking all the way there and it not beign open..

not sure if all of this stuff sounds really basic or what... but in a different language, in a country where it's not really so easy to figure out...(and theres the safety issue as far as transportation) i'm really quite proud of myself heh... =) baby steps =)

i have yet to take the combi or micro on my own! As boring as that may be, i may blog about it heh...

I feel good today.. probably also because i did yoga last night... =)

Pronunciation

2008-10-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

So it's probably obvious that it's easier to understand some people than others... when people have either a very bass-y, mumbly (is that a word??), rapid or slurred speech... it's hard for me to understand their spanish.. (english too sometimes!)

what was interesting to me (and I figured I'd blog --and ?brag?-- about...) is that apparently i'm one of the english speakers that the peruvians understand better than others... =) apparently my english is articulated... =) (i think i generally talk slow as well..)

Recipe for a good day:

2008-10-20T21:17:00.001-07:00

1. Great english classes (first day of teaching english---doing this until my spanish improves, then i move on to doing social work stuff)... i teach 4 classes/day with another volunteer)
2. Not being sick!! No pain today.. totally healthy
3. Afterglow of a strenuous yoga class
4. Chatting/skype-talking with Mom, Brentt and A.

Parades

2008-10-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

There are these random parades around town... already twice where i live, i've heard some band playing and i look out the window and there's a band of adults (drums.. horns, etc...) walking down the middle of the street, with taxis tailing behind them... and then the a couple weeks back i saw a parade of kids in sports uniforms (soccer??) and they were parading in what looked like teams... and then in the center (el centro), well you can just look at the picture:

Gut wrenching sick

2008-10-18T11:48:00.001-07:00

Alright, all that cockiness of not being sick yet has caught up to me... it's the end of week 3 and I'm officially ill... it started yesterday morning ... not sure exactly when, and it could have been a couple things... either it was the plate that i didn't dry off properly (had sink water on it).. or it was the tomato I didn't wipe off properly... or it was the cookie dough someone had made (though other volunteers had said they ate the dough too and were just fine).. whatever it was... (and its likely that it involved sink water)... has left me gut wrenchingly exhausted.. I wont get into details, but fortunately everythign was only going one way, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it *really* felt like someone was running a knife through my stomach AND intestines... it was not pretty.. and my whole body is quite exhausted at this point. Fortunately one of the other volunteers had exactly what i needed and i'm doing alot better at this point.. but i missed work today and it's only now that i'm really waking up (1:51pm)

the spanish is difficult enough as it is.. but try to understand spanish while you're feeling knifes run through your body heh...

anyway hopefully i'll be better soon.

Peruvian time!

2008-10-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

So.. generally I'm very punctual... sometimes i like to get places early so that i don't feel rushed and i can relax a bit before i actually have to be somewhere... tho with my current boyfriend =) I've gotten a bit lax in the past year.... so its prepared me for peruvian time... seems that it's just about 30-60 minutes later than what it says at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=131

but that's ok =) cuz i have more time to relax... and generally it doesn't bother me if people are late.. i just sort of am glad that i'm not the one who is late...

more later.. 6pm meeting starting now! (6:36)

Finally a picture!!!!!!

2008-10-17T07:32:00.001-07:00

I've uploaded pictures:
My last week in the states: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157608119866791/
My first week in Lima and Trujillo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157608107311942/
My second week in Trujillo, various events in Lima: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157608012855355/

I'm not likely to take a whole bunch of more pictures now... so enjoy these =)

****Don't forget to look for links to youtube video clips on some of the picture descriptions****

Soy de estados unidos....

2008-10-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

So.. everyone here thinks i'm a 'china' (pronounced cheena)... which is interesting to see the expressions on peoples faces when they ask what country i'm from and i say 'estados unidos'.. and they give me a ... 'but you're not tall and blond' sort of look... and then further when they ask if my parents are from the states and i explain they're from korea, they're again shocked because they thought i was, again, from china....

interestingly though... people here (more than in the states!) seem to know the difference between north and south korea... despite their automatic assumption that all asians are chinese... they don't ask the common gringo asked question 'are you from the north or south?'...

anyway, i do see it interesting that their automatic assumption of an asian is chinese considering they had a japanese president... though there are mostly chinese asians here... so i guess their assumption is usually accurate...

Things I want

2008-10-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

Whoever is the next one to come visit me.. here is my running list of things I want:

1. Hat - Brentt has this hat and knows which one i want
2. Verb book - my mom has this, so she can mail it to you unless you can swing by Torrance..
3. Extra phone - Hey brentt... what was your phone brand/model again? is it a quad-band or whatever? the used phone i bought is shitty and i'd rather use your extra one.. (oh.. that's another thing folks.. so i bought a shitty used phone because everyone has been telling me that i should never use the one i have in public... I have a Tmobile Shadow.. not really flashy.. but I guess with where i work and live, i need a shitty phone)
4. Books - my books on taoism
5. Korean food... soon-du-bu....
6. My fire stuff - poi primarily... thought it would be nice to have my little fire sticks so i dont forget how to eat fire...
7. .....more added later

. Brentt's Sweater - Its one i stole from him on new years so that we could have our first 'date' after that...----may not be good for summer... so nevermind on this one...
. CHOCOLATE!!! - its buttloads expensive here.. and the one peruvian chocolate i tried tastes moldy (and wasn't expired..).. so please send to me...----I'm good on this one for now...
. Sprig of rosemary - I loooooove rosemary.. haven't seen it here at all.. and it would make me feel like home =) -----found rosemary here!!

BTW.. i could give you my address... apparently some people have received care packages.. some haven't.. some receive it in a week, some in 3 months... but i'm here for 9 months. so if you're willing to spend the money to send something.. and not care if it gets to me or not... then feel free to send it to me.. email me if you need my address....