November has arrived and it is time to get down to business. Which is why I'm sitting here writing a blog post. As far as procrastination goes, I'd say this is fairly productive. Regardless, I've been doing some pretty fabulous traveling during the last two weeks of October in preparation for my November homework hibernation. The highlights of my trips are as follows...

Ica

• We hit up a bodega (wine and pisco brewery), did some tasting, and bought our weight in alcohol. We're legal here after all!
• I visited a museum with a large collection of mummies, deformed heads, and various other non-appetizing images, after which...
• My roommate Katie found a worm in her food. Yum. The waitress simply said, "Oh don't worry. It's from the lettuce," and picked it off the plate.

Huacachina

• The only activity we took place in during this excursion was sandboarding, which was more than enough. It breaks down like this: hop on dune buggy, race over gigantic mountains of sand, grab a snowboard, and ride it down standing up or lying down. It was awesome, and I even stood up once or twice!

Paracas

• This touristy town is really just a gateway to other activities, but we did meet a friendly artesano and his loyal Peruvian hairless dog.
• The Islas Ballestas are a 30 minute boat ride from town and are packed with every type of marine wildlife: birds, sea lions, penguins, everything.

Arequipa

• The White City had all the brilliant sun and gorgeous architecture Lima is missing. The locals were friendly, the number of catcalls was significantly lower, and the food was something else.
• The first day here we spent wandering and seeing the beautiful colonial homes, churches, and monasteries.
• At Museo Santuario, I had the chance to see the frozen remains of Juanita, an Incan human sacrifice on the top of a mountain near Arequipa.

Colca Canyon

• So much fun. We had a great, but exhausting trek down the canyon to an oasis. Everything was included in a surprisingly low price and we made some American friends that were put in the group as us.

Selvamanos!

I wanted to do more of a photo journal for my past weekend's visit to Oxapampa. Oxapampa is a small town located in Peru's central rain forest, and this weekend it was the host of Selvamanos, a music festival. A quick synopsis of events: arrive in La Merced after a 10 hour, over-night bus ride, take a taxi to Oxapampa making a side trip at a small indigenous village and a waterfall, eat a hugely satisfying meal, wander about town, sleep, chill out, drink a wee bit too much, eat a delicious papa rellena, attend the concerts, sleep, take taxi back to La Merced, realize we as a group are completely broke, take return bus to Lima, sleeeeeeepppppppp. It was a fun weekend, but I'm getting a little tired just thinking about it. Enjoy the pics!

Livin' the Lima Loca

To start your day off on a bright note...

Don't feed the deer!!! These little guys run around our gated campus and are the least skittish "wild" animals I've ever seen. They're a truly unique part of La Catolica's (the vernacular for PUCP- my university) campus.

Oh, and something else about PUCP: classes. Were I to summarize them, I would say challenging. tons of group work, and unstructured. The whole concept of a syllabus is looser here, and readings are given each week during class. After being informed that a article or chapter is due, students go to a photocopier for the academic department their class is in and have it printed. The main challenge is obviously language, however others do exist. The workload is high, even for a native Spanish speaker. Group work and interactive classes are a norm here, and I have many group projects due throughout the semester.

Now, the interesting part: the cool things I've been doing in Lima due to my class work. Ecology and Society (my most bleh class) has a group exposition on rights to natural resources mid-way through October. Organizational Communication likewise has a large final project, however this one deals with investigating the corporate culture and functions of a major business in Lima. We previously had to observe non-verbal language in a movie scene, for which my group chose "The Notebook"- Noah and Allie 4evah!

Okay, so those were not the coolest. My Intercultural Communications class may be. Today, I went to the Museo de la Nacion and went to the Shining Path exhibit. It chronicles the 20 year civil war in Peru that ended with tens of thousands of fatalities. My assignment is to take a photo from the exhibit and analyze it in the light of several articles we read recently.

Also a top contender, Activity in Anthropology. This class is basically one long field research project. Our task is to interview a specific artisan in Lima who produces traditional crafts for festival and other purposes. My group is investigating the work of Jose Luis, a bordado maker. His work is fascinating and is located in Central Lima directly behind the Congress building with a number of other artisans.

 

 This weekend for my Anthropology class I will be visiting the patron saint festival of a small village in the Andes. All I can say is, "be prepared!" (courtesy of Scar- a little Lion King action and you never saw it coming). Anyway, there is definitely one monster-sized blog coming up.

Ode to Peruvian cuisine

Last night my roommates and I went into the Parque Excursion to stuff ourselves with absolutely delicious Peruvian fare at the Mistura food festival. Just getting in to event was difficult as we did not buy our entry tickets ahead of time. After we succeeded in entering, the problem was deciding what to eat because there were so many options.

While my friends were munching down on empanadas, I was scoping out the scene and decided to try a tacu tacu. Its appearance was of a soft, almost sponge-like roll covered in green sauce with a sprinkling of fried chicken on the top. The chicken provided a great salty crunch on top of the savory tacu tacu and the sweet salsa on top. It was so good that I ate the entire thing before remembering that I wanted to take a picture of it. After the fact, I discovered that the base ingredient is beans and rice and it is fusion African-Peruvian dish. However, there is a ton of variety on how to prepare it and it can come with any variety of toppings.

Well, I was playing catch up to the other girls who already had consumed two dishes, so I followed them on to dessert- Toblerone cheesecake. Best invention ever. The servings were small (from an American frame of reference), but it was incredibly rich. The "cheese" part of it was barely noticeable and the texture was much thicker than traditional cheesecake.


Unfortunately, the evening took a little downward turn when the friend of my roommate was robbed of her wallet and passport while she was waiting in line. She left to report the incident, but the rest of us remained for several more hours, carefully watching our belongings.


My final dish was actually quite the steal. I was talking with the cashier, trying to find out the ingredients of the different dishes offered, and he immediately asked what my home country was. Apparently he had spent several years in Texas and loves the United States. Thus, when he discovered that I only had half the money required for the food he took it quickly and put the order through. For once, the "gringa" price was a good thing! It was a chicken, rice and beans meal: incredibly filling, with a nice spicy kick.

On a final gastronomic note, I've included a picture of the delicious coconut balls that are sold at the bodega (a corner store) next to our apartment building. These will be the reason I gain weight in Peru. They have a cake-y center, connected with a caramel filling, and coated in a baked coconut mixture. Que rico!

Marcahuasi and Back Again: A Hiker's Tail by Caitlin Zandiego

Imagine that you are surrounded by a humid, chilly breeze and looking up at a gray sky. The air feels heavy and a myriad of smells, from savory food to motor oil, are upon you always. You are in Lima. Now imagine you take a crickety old combi (a small bus) through winding roads that hug the cliffs of the Andes Mountains. You arrive at the town of San Pedro, where the air is thin because of the high altitude, the sun is shining, and everything is covered in a layer of dust.

Peru is definitely a country with variety. Lima is surrounded by desert which progressively become mountains. The borders of Peru to the south and east are the beginnings of the Amazon while the north is filled with beaches. The radical differences are experienced without any of the conveniences we are used to such as heaters or air conditioners. As I experienced this weekend, sometimes all you can do is put on a few more layers of clothing.

My roommates and I all signed up to go to Marcahuasi with several Peruvians for camping and hiking, though at the time we definitely were ignorant of all that would entail. Marcahuasi is a mesita, a volcanic rock formation, on which ancient peoples built various posts for religious ceremonies. It also had the advantage of having several small lakes which captured the water and made brief habitation possible. It truly wouldn't be feasible to live up there without the support from the people of San Pedro, many of whom make a living from this popular tourist attraction.

We began our trip on Friday evening, arriving in a town 2 hours outside Lima. A majority of us slept under the stars, rising early with the sun. The following day we spent nearly 3 hours on the rented combi, twisting our way through the mountains. When we arrived in San Pedro, our backpacks and sleeping bags were loaded onto burros while we ate a very tasty lunch of chaufa, a rice and chicken dish that had a very unusual (for me) combination of spices. We began our trek up the mountain. The climb was difficult but mostly due to the elevation- higher than the climb to Machu Pichu apparently. After 3 hours of huffing and puffing our way up the mountain, we arrived at the Antiteatro: a flat surface surrounding by rocks to shelter us from the winds. At this point it was already 6 in the evening, so we had to set up our tents quickly and put on our night gear. I think my roommate Emma won the contest, having 6 layers of pants and shirts on to stay warm. Even with our growing resemblance to the Michelin Man, most of us were cold and went to bed very early. Not, however, before our food arrived via burro. That's right, mountain side delivery all the way from San Pedro. After we devoured our soup, we were off to bed in some incredibly tiny tents.

Sunday was the most challenging day for the entire group. Quite a few people were suffering from the altitude and couldn't join us on a hike to La Forteleza. This was a point about 1 hour away that had ancient tombs and a fort built on top of one of the highest rocks on Marcahuasi. The hike was exhausting for me, especially because we got lost on the way back to camp. After we finally returned and ate massive amounts of food, we started down the mountain. My major complaint about our guides comes from this last trek. They decided that it would be shorter and easier to go a different path down the mountain than we did ascending it. Not true. We ended up clinging to the sides of cliffs, trying to find solid rocks when the dirt beneath us gave way, and picking our way through fields of cacti attempting to find a path. After we finally made it to San Pedro, I was beyond exhausted but we still had a long combi ride to our camp for the night. Those were probably the most terrifying hours of my life. We were flying down the sides of the mountains in the absolute black of night down one-way gravel roads on cliffs that were hundreds of feet high. I was alternately saying prayers, trying breathing exercises, and thinking how much my mom would be freaking out were she in the bus. Once, there was a build up of cars because we met a bus coming from the opposite direction. Neither bus wanted to move, and only the appearance of several cars behind us made the bus from the other direction back up. We ended that night in a campground in which we spent a few nice hours lounging in the pool the following day.

Although I probably will not be taking a bus through the Andes anytime soon, I look forward now to exploring Peru more than ever. There are so many areas I want to experience, but maybe next time I'll try the beach. I think I deserve that.

A first glance at Lima

Well, well, well. Lima. What is there to say about it? A whole lot. How much of what I say would be depressing at this point? Most of that. I'll give you the Sparknotes version and end with my hope for improvement. In general, my first impressions has been one of danger. It's more than a paranoia; it's a constant threat hanging over my head every time I'm out of one of my "safe zones" like the apartment or the university campus. My first time being a minority has been much more intimidating than I ever would have anticipated. Each interaction makes me feel more nervous. The helpful ones caution us and tell us to keep our things close, speak only in Spanish, and be aware. The hostile ones push us and whisper about the gringas. I don't understand this unmotivated hatred anymore than I understand the way traffic works here. One thing is for certain though- my empathy for minority groups in any place is increasing. It is so difficult to know you are trying your utmost and that it doesn't count for anything in their eyes.

There are areas of Lima that feel more familiar and safe. The wealthier places in particular are comfortable, but they pose a serious challenge to me. If I spend much of my time there, am I really exposing myself to Peruvian life? To intentionally deprive myself of this insecurity I'm feeling now would be to miss the point entirely of traveling to a developing country. In the same way I am pulled to improve my own situation here and shelter myself, I am drawn to find a way to make life better for the people here. Even in the first week I can see how much their quality of life could improve if the water were potable, if transportation were centralized, and if there were a larger police presence in all areas. Mind you, this is only Lima of which I am speaking. Rural areas, I am told, suffer from much greater poverty than Lima and have even worse conditions.

This week has been eye-opening. My fight or flight impulse has been called into play, and I intend to fight my way through the language barriers, the security issues, and all other obstacles. Hopefully, by the end of my first month I will be better at coping and will have found my place here. For now, I'm taking it in day by day.

3 continents, 3 days (ish)

What a whirlwind this week has been, and it's not over yet! In T minus 5 hours I will be leaving the land of Ibsen and Munch for the exotic land of Rochester, Minnesota. 6 weeks was hardly enough to experience everything Oslo had to offer, and the thought of leaving is very hard to face. Most of my goodbyes have been said, and I will miss the incredible people I have met here. Each day was an exploration of new perspectives and an exercise in bonding with people who have very diverse backgrounds. Coming to the International Summer School was probably one of the best decisions of my (albeit fairly short) life thus far. The highlights of my trip have been...

• Weekend rafting trip in Jutenheimen National Park- probably the best pair of days I have ever experienced
• My much lauded bicycle tour through Copenhagen
• Coordinating the kitchens for the International Cultural Evening and later being complimented by the ever skeptical house father who had been giving me preliminary talking to's because he expected the kitchens would be a disaster
• Finishing a 10 page paper about gender equality policies in the Nordic countries in 3 days
• Exploring Oslo every day
• Running into my professor around midnight downtown on a Thursday night and having him call me out on it during class the next day... woops!

The next days will be hectic but I'm really looking forward to seeing people at home. Unfortunately, I will miss some of the people I most want to talk to, but I am going to try to fit in as much time with my siblings as possible.

Saturday is the big departure day for me- Peru. Arriving on Sunday will allow me a few days to become comfortable with my surroundings. However, four months is a long time. It will be scary and I have my fair share of doubts, but I looking forward to my time there. My next post will be coming from South America. Wish me luck!!!