en peru

Updating a travel blog has been harder than I thought. The last week had been a constant go-go, and I had absolutely no time to update whatesoever (is not an excuse). Anyway, Peru is an amazing country, not to say the least- the streets are busy with unruly drivers, fruit carts, and people, people, people. When Vi and I arrived in Lima, we met up with my roommate jenny's college mate- diego. Diego graciously showed us around Lima, especially the churches and local landmarks. He lives in a neighborhood called "miraflores" and it's one of the nicest neighborhoods in Lima.

Catholicism has been completely localized here. The halo of virgin mary consists of stars and the sun, for the locals in peru needed to convert an abstract idea of a halo to something they can relate to; something that is part of their lives.

After spending some wonderful time in Lima with other travelers smoking hookah at a middle eastern bar, vi and i headed to trujillo on an overnight bus. it's amazing how mega hightech these buses are! the recliner seats were seriously major pluses.

Arriving in trujillo gave us a different feeling. This was a country side, unlike Lima, where people are friendlier and neighborhoods much less chaotic. first day, we had some amazing caviche (raw sea food drenched in lime juice), and walked around plaza de armes, pretty much a town square. vi and i did lots of sitting around, observing the neighborhoods and the people. i wrote a lot in my ACTUAL diary. trying to do this thing where I'm using less technology. it's actually pretty refreshing. :)

SKIP started today. i had amazing time helping out lizette (the nursery teacher) for 4 hours in the morning. the kids definitely had trouble focusing, but who cares! they're 3! 4! Kids that age should just play and be integrated with arts & craft, and have fun. children here lack significant amount of toys that stimulate their brain, so they seem to enjoy the time where they could pick their own toys. I learned bunch of spanish! preschool is good for me.

Anyway, I'll keep this short, but here is my half ass update. bah! I don't have my own computer, and the internet connection is much slower.

more to come, more to come. so far two things are for sure:

1. i need to learn spanish, to a semi- fluent level
2. i'm coming back to south america

i've been having an amazing time. people here live so simply; they're also very, very, very sweet.
amazing.