La Iglesia de San Fransico, Matucana, LOVE PERU

This experience will never be long enough...

This weekend was filled with lots of exciting trips and amazing sites! On friday we went to La Iglesia de San Fransico in central Lima. We arrived on the metro busses and it was an experience ill say. They cram as many people into those things that the doors could be hitting you and trying to clamp you in because you have that much room. Personal space, what is that here? It is very interesting how people do not care how close they are to your face and in your "personal bubble". It doesn't bother me but for people that are not use to being that close to someone it would be eye opening! From the bus we walked awhile till we got to the church! It was a beautiful area with a lot of old architecture buildings. We payed 7 soles to have a tour and our tour guide spoke in english and spanish. We were not allowed to take pictures inside but I managed to take one of the outdoor area and the basement of the church where the catacombs were with all of the bones and bodies! Very scary but a very cool thing to experience. The library was my favorite part of the whole church. It reminded me of churches in England that I got to see and it had 2 winding staircases with chandeliers and a lot of old books inside that dated back years and years. I wish I could have gotten a picture but I think Sam snuck one so check on Facebook ! After the amazing tour we went and looked at the little vendors outside the church and then walked to get some lunch! We went to a food court and got some refreshing food (meaning american food ;) ) Subway! After we headed back home and everyone was extremely tired from the walking and we called it a night. The next day woke up and left for Matucana on our own bus at 7am! It was around an hour and a half drive to our destination! Once we arrived it looked just like a hidden paradise. I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and it was so beautiful because we were deep in the middle of the Andes Mountains! The scenery was unforgettable and we started our hike with our tour guide Coco (I think was his name) and our two dog companions that decided to make the walk with us! It was a workout right from the start and we traveled up the mountain on rocky paths that were kind of hard to get up. We went through un bosque de piedras and that was interesting because we decided to take the hardest way possible to get up it. People were jumping from rock to rock dodging cactuses as best they could lol ! We came to a creek and Luke filled his water-bottle with the water because our tour guide explained to us how it is clean and that everything here was natural ! I tried it and it was a nice taste of water with mud particles, very interesting but I guess you have to try everything once! We continued our way till we had to cross a bridge and over to the waterfall we were! We took off our shoes, walked through the water and Sam actually got in the waterfall! It was an amazing experience and to continue it on our way back we decided to cross a log bridge and it was very scary. I moved over it like a snail because I could barely get my feet to move on each log because I was nervous of falling! We all made it though and then went into town to have lunch before driving home. I ordered trucha con papas fritas y arroz! It was amazing and the ride home felt amazing because after 14 miles it was nice to sit down. That night we had a little get together at Sam's house and had some fun with friends and DJ Agua. Homework time is upon me now though but learning is half the fun! We are planning our trip to the Amazon and other places and I hope we get it figured out soon! :) Write again soon!

TASTE OF NEBRASKA ;)

As much as I can say that I love Peru and all of its amazing and interesting foods, it is nice and refreshing to find and see places that I recognize as American! Today for lunch my father asked if I wanted un plátano (banana) and I was very excited and after he gave it to me he handed me maple syrup and motioned me to cut it up and drizzle it on top. I thought it was the weirdest thing I have ever seen but it was amazing...Also today after advance conversation class we decided that we wanted to go eat something as a class and what better 5 star restaurant to go to then MCDONALDS. And like I said as much as I love all of this new cultured food, it was very nice to know and taste a little Nebraska. It was a great way to kick off the weekend, and I am very excited because tomorrow morning we are going with one of my professors to the Iglesia de San Fransico on a metro! I will be needing my rest though because saturday we are hiking our lives away and going to a place called Catarata de Matucana! It will be very fun and I will get to see beautiful mountains and a waterfall :) Could not of asked for a better experience !!

HMK and FUN overload....

I have no idea where time has gone but every time I look at the date, it is flying by! I have done so much here in my time that I constantly feel busy! School is going very well, lots of spanish and my brain hurts everyday from trying to listen and learn and speak Spanish! We have had all of our planning classes with Marta and we have finally decided that we are going to the AMAZON-JUNGLE! I have never been so excited before. We also decided on going to Arequipa and a bunch of other little trips with our class. This weekend we are going to The Andes mountains to hike around and see a waterfall! We also are going to eat this Thursday at a restaurant tht is on the ocean! We have many trips planned and being planned, and I can not wait to experience everything! The food is still amazing here and I wish we had more of it everyday in the U.S. This past weekend was a fun time because I finally learned how to surf! Me and my sister had both never been before and it only cost 25$ for the wet suit, shoes, a teacher, and a surf board! It was well worth it and a great experience. Before you can get on the board they make you stretch, watch them demonstrate, have you demonstrate what you learned and when to jump up on your board, and then run you into the ocean. Going into the ocean and getting out of the ocean were the scariest parts for me. When going in they make you hold on to their arm and run down the rock beach because you have to enter with your board as the waves are going out. Coming in is a whole different story that I did not catch up on because when I came into the shore I crashed into all the rocks because a wave took me in and I didn't jump off my board! It was very scary and very funny after I jumped up from my crash. Everyone was asking if I was okay but I have no regrets and I only ended up with a bruise on my leg! The next day we had a BBQ at one of the Clubs my family belongs to, and we had chorriso and my first hamburger here! Everything seems to be going well, the nightlife is really fun for me because everyone here likes to dance! I learned some new salsa moves and met a lot of new people! Conversing is hard but if you just try it most of the time they understand what you are saying :) Also this weekend I got a chance to see the wonderful Colored Fountains!! I cant quite remember the name but we went there with our new Peruvian friends from school :) It was a fun time and after we saw the water show we went and ate at a Chinese restaurant! I have enjoyed my time here so far and slowly getting better at spanish I think. I can understand it more and more everyday and I swear I learn 50,000 new words everyday, but in reality they are just synonyms for other words I already know...weird. Off to do more of my enjoyable homework, write again soon!

11 days--> feels like Months!!

Time flies when your having fun ;)

Even though I have only been here for 11 days it feels like months!! I have been enjoying all of the interesting food iv been eating and spending time at the beach. The beach is my favorite place to go and it is so beautiful. I got in the first time on sunday and it was freezing but my brother and sister made me go under! The sand was SCORCHING hot and to get to the water we had to run and use our pareo's to walk on. On Saturday me and Danielle went with my sister with some of her friends to a party and we got emerged into fast speaking spanish. It was crazy and I felt like my brain was going to explode. When we were on our way home we ended up getting pulled over but for no reason. It is different here and when they pull people over it is more for getting money out of them. To figure out where they wanted us to pull over, my sisters friend in the front rolled down her window and asked, "Donde?" and they communicated while driving? I can honestly say it was one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had with the police! 
So far school has been really fun but very busy and I am constantly thinking in spanish and trying to work on homework and explore this beautiful place! We are going on our first field trip with my grammar teacher and our class this Saturday!! Leaving at 6 am and heading out to the Andes Mountains :) I am so excited and I can not wait for this weekend. Also friday morning I will be learning how to surf!! I am so nervous but I think it will be a good experience!

UPC!! My New School :)

We had a tour at 10:00 am to get a feel of the campus and meet some of our instructors. 
They showed us everything on campus and the gym is a whole different buildning and we had to walk out of UPC to get to it.They have a big workout area and big courts where you could play soccer, basketball, dance, whatever you want! After we had the tour we were free to do whatever we wanted until class at 2:00. I went home to eat lunch with my family and we had pollo de la reina for lunch and then back to school I went. Our first class on Monday was with Marta so the class was in english which was nice. After class we walked around and went with our class to JOCKEY mall. We had to take 2 combis to get there, which were little clown busses...danielle body slammed me and it was packed and impossible to hold on but a very funny experience. When you are in there you are very close to everyone so its kind of awkward but something you have to get used to. Once we got to the mall it took FOREVER to get a phone...it was a very different experience to get one and we had to go and walk three different places once we had purchased one. The place where we agreed to get one, a different place to pay for one, and then finally receiving the phone at a different place! Once we figured everything out I got my first little phone and we traveled back to UPC and  from there I walked home. At night time it was kind of scary to walk alone but nevertheless I made it!  After i got home i talked with my family and we had a tamale and a piece of cake ! The next day was my class of Gramaticas....and it was very intimidating. I was so nervous but I made it through. We received a big book of our homework and worked on assignment and played different games in class. We are not to speak any English so it is really hard if we do not understand. I am going to try and study every night a little bit at a time so that I will get better at it! My sister also said that she would help me with my homework if I needed it ! I let my family look at my travel guide books and my mom went and brought me a little beanie hat so that I could wear it when we go to Cusco! Its a very Peruvian hat and it is knitted with the word PERU on it and also llamas ! :) Cant wait to go on all of our class field trips !

Beach Time ;)

BEacH FUn !!

My father set an alarm on my tv so that i could get up at 930am becuase they think I have been sleeping to long and I need to seize the day!! I appriciated it because every minute I am here I am excited to wake up and see what ill be doing! I went to the breakfast table and had mango juice and an egg with salt. After we ate I showerd and got ready for we were all going to the beach!! We went with mom, dad, sister, Andres, no Jaime, Abuela, and my cousin Jose. Got there at 11ish and this place.. was huge. We drove in the hills because it was a Club and only club members can get in, very strict. We arrived and went to a little part of it--kind of like mahoney state park...this first part we went to was a mini waterpark!! It was very fun and we went on waterslides and layed out and ate new things and tried Inca Cola (which is like Coca Cola but yellow and tastes like bubblegum)!! After mi hermana took a video of me going down a waterslide that drops you into a bowl and spits you out,  we got in the car and went "downstairs" to the beach!! They also have a cool big pool down there with a camping area and cabins and people tent out on the beach, have fire pits and even a paintball area! Tennis courts, volleyball courts, basketball courts, EVERYTHING, and restaurants. We went and ate at one restaurant there and I tried 3 different coursed meals that are all very favorite Peruvian Plates! 1 being Arroz de Mariscos. After eating we walked around and looked at everything , swam some more and had little chocolates and candies. After that we drove home and by that time it was 8:00! My sister made delicious noodles with Tari and other things and I tried yogart with little chocolate covered cereals inside. Reaallyyyy good ! I am sunburnt but idk how because my dad made me lather up every hour !! Just to be safe :) ! Waking up at 8:15 for my first day of school tomorrow ! Cant wait! 

Mi Cumpleaños :)

JANUARY 5TH.

Today is my brithday!!!! Woke up and had breakfast around 10! I had Fresca which is mashed up and strained strawberries....it was amazing. After that we got ready and I went with my mom and dad and Andres to go and pick out my cake. We went to a place called Dolce. Here I chose between an oreo cheescake and the brownie moose which I choose in the end! After we picked up my sister Tahlia and her friend Natalie, us three girls went shopping at Polo ( it is a strip mall with lots of little stores). We stopped in the market so they could buy me some candles por mi torta and then went to different stores. I bought my first purchase, a shirt for 30$ :) Natalie and Talia helped me pick it out. Then we stopped to get a snack before we walked home. I got a Sublime icecream stick and I tried their icecream as well ! Very different but good. Lots of fruit in their foods and icrecreams. Once we got home we hung out upstairs outside on the patio and talked and then we walked to get Danielle Bartels :) and she came over and we watched a movie! LOL. was the name of it, with Miley Cyrus. After the movie we all went downstairs and had Rum and Cokes to celebrate with bread and eggsalad and TARI...my new favorite sauce. It is a sauce that is un poco picante! All their sauces come in squeeze bags, its really interesting but its better then getting silverware dirty. And so we ate and drank and then had my cake and they sang me happy bday both in spanish and english :). Talked and then we drove to take Danilele home and after we dropped her off we went to see a long street of XMAS lights. It was amazing how many lights they have up still and they say they keep them up until jan. 15th. We then came home and got ready for bed! It was a very different birthday then what Im used to but I enjoyed it more then ever!! 

La Comida está Muy Rica !!

My first real day in Peru! I was given breakfast and a spot at the table. I thought it was cool how they have certain places where everyone knows where to sit! For breakfast I had bread with no crust- awesome, a coffee that was just water, coco, and some milk...really good, and then I had bread with butter and marmalade. I ate really late because everyone else was already done with breakfast by the time I woke up and they were eating other things. They have a maid and I met her and her name is Paulina. She comes every M W F. and on the weekends. We were having my grandma come over today and my cousin. so she was preparing lunch for us all. Once they came over we sat and talked and talked and I showed them my family back home and we ate lots of food. 

Also I went to go exchange money for the first time and that was fun and yet very confusing! After lunch and talking we went to go to Larco Mar which is a big shopping center that overlooks the beach and sea. You chould see poeple surfing and hanging out and everything was outside even the restaurants most of them. We eat at different times and that day ate at 4-8. a snack at a cafe! I only had "ChiCha"  which was made out of sweet corn and other things and it was tasty, tasted like bubble gum and thunder-punch!! like in Kearney! After we looked at stores and ate we came home and the mom prepared dinner but I was still full from lunch. Our lunch was a bean/cheese salad which was a typical peruvian plate, with an entree of pescado with yellow rice and beans, lemon juice, y an onion sauce.  Afterwards we had Sublime! Their best icecream brand that they always top with Fudge dressing!. We stayed up and talked all night and then decided to go to bed for tomorrow was my birthday!!----Also met my second

brother today! Jaime. Things are going well :)

My first footsteps in PERU

Finally arrived here in peru! Leaving Omaha was a challenge saying goodbye to sister and family!! The plane ride to Houston texas was freezing...I had to sit in 1A front of the plane that was soooo tiny and it was freezing up by the opening and pilots area. I tried to sleep a little but my feet froze off. After we arrived in Houston we went to find our gate on our ticket for the Peru flight! Once we saw it we realized that we were starving...so we decided to get Subway before we went to our gate. Then we looked at the flights and our gate was changed to an E gate and that required us to take the little train outside another time because we were on the total opposite side. We get there and it is a mob of people and they were saying dirrecions in spanish and english. We had to get out our passports and get ready for our 6 hour flight :) Once we got on the plane it was HUGE...first class was like a bedroom for each person. Our seats were really nice and we recieved---pillows, blankets, a touch screen info/music/MOVIES/tv shows TV screen in front of us. We also got pretzels for snacks and a beef dinner. Once we got close me and Dani were looking out the window ..it was dark but we could see tons and tons of lights with sand mountains in beteween them! Scared. Once off the plane we had to go through customs and have our paperwork with us for entering Peru. We had our paperwork and our passports and went through a long line. We had to get these shopping cart things to carry our luggage in and then had to go through another long line of customs to have our baggage go through secruity to get out into the airport to find our familys. Once through there we went through doors and into HUGE crowds of poeple with signs held up everywhere....we were both searching for our names on the signs and finally i heard LANISA!! I saw my new mama, papa, y one of my brothers, Andres! Also Marta our professor. She gave me her phone number and I went to find my family through the crowd. They gave me hugs and kisses and spanish was spoken from then on! It was crazy and we walked outside and the father put my bags in the car (stick shift) and we arrived home. Home was an appt. but looked like a big condo. I have my own room and closet with a little T.V and everything. After I settled in I got a quick tour of the house! It was amazing and the upstairs/out doors was cool and it has a grill and party room ! I was so tired but we had champagne with cheese and bread. After we went to bed and I slept till noon! It was a great first day :)