Peru-Argentina-Chile

We have finally finished school and classes! I received GREAT grades and I could not be happier with them and everything that I learned. After a group of my friends from here left it is now only me and Danielle Bartels living here fearlessly until May 8th. We are currently getting ready to leave today at 6pm for Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile :) I am so excited to go and explore with her and her father from Nebraska. This weekend I went with my family to a movie and to their camp grounds :) They belong to a club that is kind of like a forest and there they camp like we do and not on the beach! It was nice to walk around there and have a barbecue and play games. The weather here is amazing right now because it is not hot at all but then it is not cold. It is my favorite type of weather where you can wear shorts and a sweatshirt! But winding down and having this be my last couple days in Lima I am very sad. I can not wait to go home and then I wish I was staying here as well. I am torn but in the end its bittersweet. Also this weekend I got to go with my family to the other zoo that they have here! It was in Huachipa Peru and it was very interesting. It was in an interesting part of Lima because the area around it was full of open side restaurants that had women singing and dancing for entertainment. They were dressed in fluffy skirts with a lot of sparkly decorations! The animals that they have at the zoo are really cool and a ton of them I had never seen before. It is very interesting because they have deer in their zoo as an exhibit. It is weird because we are used to seeing deer everyday and for them it is something interesting and weird to look at. Also they have peacocks in a cage as well while we just have them running and walking around our zoo. Also at the zoo I had my new favorite ice-cream that I am going to miss dearly when I leave Peru. It is called PRINCESA and it tastes like peanut butter which I have missed dearly from being here! But I think this will be my last post until I get back from Chile :) Thanks everyone for reading and I will see you all soon in NEBRASKA!!! :) Chau Chau. 

Adios. Chau Chau.

We are coming to an end :( We are in our last week of school right now and taking finals right now. This was the last weekend we had with everyone in Peru. On Friday we had our goodbye party with our Colegio that we were going to and helping them with English. We went for lunch there because they made a little party for us. They had stands up everyone in a big room and they had prepared every type of Peruvian food that was popular along with drinks and pictures. They also had some of them dressed in typical Peruvian costumes and dance costumes. It was a very good time and the food was very good. I tried everything as usual and at the end we all received thank you cards with a necklace of Mary. Later that night was my FIEsta with my family!! We were throwing a goodbye party for some of my friends here before they left back to the U.S. I had my friends over and then my brother had his friends over as well. I prepared some dips for the potatoes that we had and we also had little turkey sandwiches that we made! I set up on our deck and we had loud music, dancing, and lots to eat and drink. Our party ended at 4:00a.m. and my father here was a champ and stayed the whole time. (He slept in a chair for a little but was still present ha). The next day my whole family woke up very late and we were all zombies. Thalia had to go to a mall for a project that was all anime things like Dragon ball Z and Pokemon and all that. It was a mall only for those things and every level had action figures and collectable items and costumes, etc. There were people walking around that were dressed as the characters because they believed that they were those people. It was

interesting to say the least and I went for support and it really was one of the weirdest places I have ever been in my life. After I had to get ready for the goodbye party of Lukes! His family was throwing a party now to say their goodbyes. We went over and they made us drinks and appetizers and we sat and played games for most of the evening. After me and Danielle decided that it would be a good idea if we went and got Sandwiches, more of my idea but that happened :). Sunday was a great day. I finally got to experience a Peru soccer game!! My brother Jaime asked if I wanted to go with some of their friends so of course YES and then I had Luke, Danielle and Haley come with! We left at 4:30 and arrived at the stadium. We had to walk a little before we got close to the stadium and there they had tons of vendors of THE U team with jerseys, hats, the cloth that they waive around, and more! There were also lots of motor taxis running around everywhere. It was surrounded by a crazy looking gate that looked like it was in a jail, and huge tall gates. When we walked up to get closer to the stadium we had to wait to get our "under the table seats". We payed 7$ for our tickets which was awesome and finally entered. There were men all around just going to the bathroom outside the stadium on fences and just out in the open (very disgusting) because you have to pay to go to the bathroom in the stadium we later found out. We had to pass a line of security/police officers that were waiting, some waiting with police dogs. Guys went to guys and girls went to girls. There was a pile in the middle with pens, bottles, clips, and the biggest item, BELTS. No one was allowed to wear belts and all the men that did not hide it in their pants before, took it off and fastened it to the gate or hid it in the ground to get after the game (not a high possibility you would get it back). Luke was wearing one and he had to leave his belt there, sadly to say he did not get it back when we came out because it had been stolen :( After we got past the security we walked in and the stadium you could already hear the chants. It was ridiculous. It was not all the way filled because of who they were playing but it was loud. They had two sections where they cheered, jumped up and down, and chanted the whole 2- 45minute periods. We saw a little fight in the crowd only to find out that it was because if you stop jumping and cheering people will start hitting you with their shirts and cheering things until you get up and start again. They had police officers with big shields lined up all around the stadium because the crowd sometimes gets to rowdy (this I thought was scary). The game was fun to watch and here everyone get so upset and mad at the other team. They had to carry someone off in a stretcher at one point and also they had a little ceremony where these people threw someones ashes in the air. 

(Not quite sure if we caught that right, but pretty sure). They play soccer pretty violently and ruthlessly and for that it was even more exciting to watch! People carry around huge bags of popcorn and sandwiches as well just like at a baseball game. A lot of people bought things next to us, due to the amount of how much they were smoking (the type of smoking caused this ;) ....on that note everything is just legal here I have came to think). They feel like soccer as we feel about football. They are fanatics. I loved it and it was an amazing experience and I am so happy that I got the chance to go. This week are my last 4 days at the University. It is very sad to think about but at the same time I am excited to be done with school. On wednesday we are going to go to a Chifa for a goodbye lunch with our class. Thursday another goodbye party but from our school after our last final. And then a week from today, I will be in B.A and Chile :) Cant wait!!  ADIOS. CHAU CHAU. 

Donde está el tiempo!!

These last few days in Lima have been stressful and as always packed with fun. This last weekend we went out to celebrate with some of our new friends for their birthdays and it was a very fun time. We danced all night and took great pictures! On sunday I went to church with my mom and dad and then later that night went out to a movie with my family. We went to G.I Joe 2 and it was a very good movie! After we came home and had lunch and it was Papa Johns, very refreshing to taste Nebraska sometimes. This week has been extremely difficult due to my computer crashing, having all of my assignments for finals. FAIL. Yesterday I had the longest day because we got up and went to our Colegio Pio X11 to help and talk to the high-school students (which all look like they are five but in reality are 17 and 18) and help them with their english! It went from 10 until around 1:00. We helped them create a Peru and Nebraska commercial and it was all in English which was also fun. After we took a snack that they gave us and we had empanadas and Inca Cola. From there we got taken back to the school and had to go to a final in 30 min. that was at 1:45. Took the final and I did not get out of it until 3:45. We had a 3 hour conversation class at 4:00 until 7:00 so I went to that class following the final. My brain was gone and when I got home I finally got to eat lunch at 7:15. Days are always packed here with things to do and homework that needs to be done or volunteering that we have. We have so much going on the time went too fast for me! While I am still awaiting my computer to arrive let me explain that process. I had no idea how much I would appreciate the states and their ways of doing things because I love Peru, I do, but sometimes there ways of doing things takes to long...Went to their apple store that was at a mall. Arrived and they were supposed to open at 11:00 but they did not get open until 11:45 because they were painting inside. Once they opened and we went inside I asked for someone who knew English and no one did but they understood me enough to take me to the back. Waited in a line for around 30 minutes because the men that were supposed to be helping us were messing around in the storage room. While waiting we were all getting high from the paint fumes and sweating because their air conditioning was not working. Finally when I got up to the counter all I wanted was to be angry and talk in English and at that point I am glad I couldn't. I simply explained very calmly what was wrong and eventually we figured it out. For all of this I dragged my poor friend Danielle with me and she waited with me and helped me. Love her for that. And as we sum up these last few weeks I have started getting very sad. It is sad to think that I may never see these people, families, and friends ever again. I want to make a point to keep in touch with everyone because to me they are my second family. And I have grown to love these places :) GOING TO MISS IT !!