lunes, martes, etc

Wow, i'm terrible at fucking updating. Actually, I'm really awful at making records of my experiences! I've gotten so lazy. Vi's blog has seriously been updated daily with transcriptions of the events that have happened to us. I should be very, very ashamed. but alas, you are all here, and i'm here; thank god for that.

So I have been living in trujillo for about 2 weeks now. i'm leaving today. Few big things

• Ever= the uber hot peruvian 17 yr old boy(As vivian calls it, 'fucking hot, and as jasmine says, 'it makes me happy just by looking at him')
• Carjamarca
• SKIP
• SKIP House

Ok, so Vi and I go to a random Chinese restaurant earlier last week, since i was craving some non peruvian food. We got a good recommendation from the house, and headed our way to the local Chifa (they call the Chinese restaurant restaurant "Chifa), called Chifa Nuevo? Anyway,
we go in and order some food. The owners are obviously stoked to see Vivian because she looks very chinese- apparently they couldn't tell what I was. They assumed Japanese (popular assumption due to some appearance of mine? don't know). Anyway, they were talking and I saw some waiter bringnig us lemonade, and at this point, i'm faced to the wall and can't see my sides. Vivian suddently points out, "dude, the waiter is kinda cute." and i'm like, ok, whatev. So i turn around incredulously (the men in peru aren't the most attractive folks) and just like freeze. This waiter seriously looked like he came out of a fucking advertisement. Super beautiful eyes, long eye lashes, and well built body. Anyway, i give it a good girly giggle, cuz well- i'm good at that, but whatever- i'm not interested, but still very curious.

Vivian asks the chinese lady about this boy, and the owner said he gets uber girls chase after him (VERY VERY OBVIOUS. I will post pictures. muy muy lindo. muy). Anway, we then asked the chinese lady his age, and this lady calls him over, and talks to him for a bit. he giggles for a little bit, and freakin WRITES DOWN HIS AGE. Guess how old he is. FUCKING 17!!!!! Were we drooling over a high school boy?!?!?

his name is Ever, which is ever so dreamy. Come on! Ever?!?! with long eye lashes and beautiful eyes, and perfect smile?! with the name like that, possibilites are endless! (i don't REALLY know what i mean here, but i leave it upto your imagination). Anyway, Ever came and talked to us for good 3 hours and we learned quite about him.

- he's a jungle boy: born and raised in the jungle
- he's taking a gap yr kinda thing and he wants to go to a university and study finances
- he does not like peru and would like to go to other countries

Anyway, we departed and promised to come back and hang out.

Carjamarca

What freakin amazing city! the SKIP school had easter break, so the SKIP family decided to do a lil travel and head our way to Carjamarca! long story short, we visited a bathhouse, kinda like a hot spring, but made it into private bath houses. Vivian and i thought it was quite strange. Oh, oh, the markets there are just simply amazing. They're vibrant, busy, colorful, and the mountain people wear these traditional outfits that are just vivid in every single color possible. The hills are lush green; the region is moist and wet most of the days; and the trip was just amazing. Nothing TOO interesting happened, but we went out Saturday night, which was tons of fun- lots of dancing, and here I learned a song a quien le importa, which is this famous spanish song from the sassy woman singer "alaska." Fran, vero, and i had so much fun dancing around an empty bar in carjamarca. Awesome.

Back to Trujillo:

SKIP school is going amazingly. The kids are interesteing, but very rough- and tough too. Lizette has been a fearless leader in organizing the program, and Vero has been an amazing help/ psychologist for the entire school. i worked for 2 weeks, and my feeling is basically- man, i wish i can stay longer and make ACTUAL contributions rather than simply having this very superficial level experience. however, i have some things i miss in seattle, so it'd be tough for me to spend a year or so working at SKIP.

Ok, I must get off the goddamn computer. Part II coming soon- ish.
:)

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.

What. Travel? Shut up.

What? Travel? Shut up. 

Believe it or not, I'm finally getting out of the country(omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg). After 5-6 grueling years of feeling stranded in the united states of america, I embark on a journey to peru on april 1st with my buddy vivian. This is vivian below. You all know what I look like- let's hope.

We are volunteering with this organization called SKIP (www.skipperu.org), in the La Libertad region, a city called Trujillo. Despite, we plan on doing tons of travelling as well as getting to know the locals there. My Spanish is non existent, so i'll be relying pretty heavily on vi, but hopefully- I pick up some here and there.

This blog will loosely follow my adventure + volunteering experience and won't be updated TOO often (or too extensively), as I don't plan on attaching myself to the dangerous world of electronics over there. I already do that way too much at home (i.e like NOW)

March 30

Home in the bay. What we are up to now is religiously looking up news from mexico city. Our flight from SFO-Lima involves a full day of layover in mexico city and we are a bit concerned about the drug trafficking violence that is terrorizing everyone in mexico. 

Right now, it seems to be the worst in juarez, and mexico city seems to be relatively safe. We also have an overnight layover on our flight back, which might worry some- but we may spend the night at the airport and try not to go out. Here are some related news articles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7961530.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7963448.stm

Friend from Seattle Mike made some excellent suggestions on packing (in fact, one of the most extensive list). One thing i completely forgot (did not even cross my mind) was getting gifts for the locals. Did some shopping, picked up some fun goodies here and there in Seattle before leaving for the bay.

Bittersweet day indeed, some things I'll miss back home but excited for what's ahead nonetheless. 

cheers!