Tour of Lima

Really weird, I thought I posted this the other day.. but it never posted I guess, and not all of it saved.. so I have to try to think what it said! :(



Yesterday (well now that was on Wednesday) we went on a ¨tour¨of Lima.. well more like just a few places that we stopped at. They were all really neat places. Oh well first after class I ate at Pizza Hut in the food court of this shopping center. The pizza tasted about the same as the US, and I dont remember what their bread sticks taste like at home (I usually get cheese sticks but they just had bread sticks here) and then the sauce for the bread sticks was way different, but it was still good. We left at 230 and first went to a museum. It was neater than other museums, it was a lot of pottery and then had a lot of jewelry that the warriors used to wear.. so it was big cool jewlery and nose ornaments and stuff.. and then there was an ¨erotic museum¨ and apparently the Inkas and all those people were pretty perverted. They had all sorts of pottery with people having sex, etc.. haha. So then we went to a church called the ¨convento de San Francisco¨ and it is my favorite church by far. They had catacombs underneath the church so we got to see the bones and all that stuff.. and while we were there, the Latinamerican Amazing Race came through. They had like a checkpoint there and 2 different groups came through and there was like a camera man running after them, it was pretty cool! After the church we went to the main plaza in Lima and it was really pretty, it was just getting dark so all the lights were on, there was a really big pretty church and then a huge mansion that the mayor lives in. Then we walked to eat dinner. Then we went to these fountains, i dont know the name of them, but they are fairly new and are in the guiness book of world records for biggest fountain complex in a public park. so that was neat , there are like 13 fountains I think, one of them is a tunnel so the water goes up and over you, and then one is like coming out of the ground so when the water stops coming out you try to run to the middle of the fountain without getting wet but you never know when the water is going to come out. Then there was a sound and lights and video show at one of the bigger fountains and the fountains went along to the music, it was really neat. So then that was the end of the day.

Then on Thursday.. lets see. Class, then we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch and got the menu of the day for 9.90 soles which is like $3.30. It was potatoes, then chicken potatoes and rice, then dessert. and it was really good. Then we went to this big grocery store called Wong, and got tickets to the Peru vs Ecuador soccer game on Sunday!! After that we did homework and went to the internet then ate dinner, then went to our friends apartment and watched the Changling. (i think thats how you spell it, with Angelina Jolie). It was good. Then we went home and went to bed. Oh I forgot to mention how the sun came out on Thursday, so it was the first time I had seen the sun since I have been in Lima! It was a beautiful afternoon.

Yesterday we went to Starbucks in between classes to get drinks and then in our second class, Kay (the professor) spent 50 minutes talking to us about going to the soccer game this weekend and about our trip to Nazca next week, so we had 25 minutes of class. So a good Friday! After that Kathryn and I went to our apt and had PB&Js, with chips and salsa!!! It is hard to find chips and salsa here, and I eat those like every day at home. I finally found some old el paso brand salsa and some tortilla chips so I was so excited when I did. Then we relaxed and read and watched tv, then went running. We ran down by the beach. The beaches here dont have sand, its just like rocks.. so they arent that pretty, plus it is so foggy you can hardly see far out in the ocean. and the ocean is dirty. But people still surf.. so after we ran we showered and ate dinner. Elizabeth served us soup and then we had a popular poor Peruvian dish, which is a fried egg, fried bananas, and rice. It was an odd combination, but it was good. And of course a mandarin orange for dessert. The bananas were called island bananas or something, they are a melon color once you peel them, and they have a slightly different taste, but they are good.

After dinner we met up with friends and went to another friends house via taxi. Did I mention how the taxi system works here? You do have to be careful because they arent safe, but really you just dont do stupid stuff like a girl take a taxi alone. But anyone can be a taxi driver, so they are everywhere, and if you are walking on the side of the road, they will honk and slow down by you, as to ask¨do you need a taxi?¨ and then you have to tell them no.. so you have to do this like 20 times when you walk somewhere. But when you do need a taxi, you tell them where to go and then they dont have meters, so they give you a price, and you can bargain with them! its funny. so you can turn them down if the price is too high. So anyways, we went to our friends house, which is like a mansion haha. It kind of seemed like a beach house.. and it had like a patio/outside area in the middle of the house, so thats where we hung out. A bunch of girls came over, and apparently what people do here is you can order alcohol and they deliver it to your house. So we ordered some rum and coke and they delivered it in like 10 minutes.. haha funny. We just hung out there for the night and went home.

Today we got up and ran again, and then Pilar fixed us lunch. Well I think that Elizabeth cooked it yesterday and she heated it up today, but regardless it was good. It was rice and then some mixture of meat with potatoes and some vegetable that they have here.. its green I dont know what its called but it was good. Then we went to the market area which isnt too far away and we bought some stuff of course. Then we went to this place called Dove Vai, which I went to before, but they have amazing gelato! Yummm.. so we got gelato now we are here, soon we will go home for dinner. Then we are going to hang out with Lizzie, who is my friend Lisa´s old roommate from NCState. She lives here in Peru so we are going over to her apartment. Then tomorrow is the soccer game!!! I cant wait.. its going to be so fun and crazy. Most of our group is going. It will be an experience. I am pretty sure that there arent assigned seats, because like all the Peru fans sit on the North side then all the Ecuador fans sit on the south.. so its crazy. We were told to sit in the middle though.. to stay out of any of the crazy fans way.

Mr. Silver, I´m happy that you are sharing my stories! I guess that means that some of them are good :) I really think that Pilar might have the first stages of alzhiemers! but she remembers our names now!! I´m relieved. Its weird to think that you are still in school.

Mom, I hope we take salsa lessons too! I want to really bad. Jose, our bellman, found another place that teaches the lessons.

Jimmy, I dont know what happened to the Koeze candy.. she gave some to Elizabeth but I dont know about the rest. I need to find it though!

Aunt Dana, have fun in Europe! You are going to Spain right? I didnt hear about them closing Machu Picchu. I think it is closed for a month each year, that might be for the same reason, just for restorations. Im so glad that I got to go and to have that experience!

Aunt Katie, what do you mean you are impressed, didnt you think I could do it? haha. I have never heard about your dog Chico, he must not have been a good dog because I have heard countless stories about Pepper, but never Chico. I hope I learn to salsa and then maybe I will teach it, I think Uncle John will be the best! Did we decide on a date to come? Im excited about it!

Tab and Lindsey, if you read this post, I got you both some pretty shot glasses at the market today! It took me a while to find them, I have been looking this whole trip!

I also forgot to talk about Pilar. We like her more each day. She said that in the past, the students dont talk much and we talk much better than they did, which seems odd to me. I guess they didnt try much. She also said that she always had to repeat what she said like 3 times, once in spanish, once in english, then once again in spanish, for them to understand. But that is odd because she speaks slow enough and clear enough that we pretty much understand her all the time. But she is getting better each time about giving us opportunities to talk. But she still likes to blab about random things.. but its getting better! I will survive :)

Wow my hands hurt from typing. I am going to call and see what mom and Jimmy and Grandpa are up to, they are in DC right now!