Huacachina

Well instead of studying and doing homework we decided to jump town for another weekend to soak up some more sun. It was a last minute trip but it was definitely a great idea. I went with my friends Jonathan, Jordan and Claire. We left early Friday morning for Ica and it took about 5 hours on a bus. This was my first public bus ride and it was quite interesting. Thank goodness I am able to fall asleep anywhere and at any time. Once we arrived in Ica, one could still see the damage that was left from the earthquake in 2007. The city still has a lot of life but many of the buildings have not been fixed and need repaired. I talked to my host mother about it and she said the government tried to help but then the big businesses just bought everyone out to rebuild and everything else was left the way it was. We stopped at the supermarket to save money on food and then took a taxi for the 5 km ride to Huacachina.

Huacachina is a beautiful place. There is an oasis in the middle of town and then it is surrounded by sand dunes. Our hostel was nice and it was so great just to chill and hang out by the pool. Friday night there was a BBQ at our hostel so we ate a TON of food and then danced all night. Saturday we walked around town and then set up our time to go sand boarding. Jordan and Claire had already been there before so it was just Jonathan and I that needed to go. It was amazing. The dune buggy drivers were crazy, but in a fun crazy way. I tried taking videos but that didn’t really work out. The sand dunes were HUGE. I only went down on my stomach because I was too scared to go down on my feet but everyone else in my group tried it. I had never seen so much sand in my life, and I am pretty sure I still have a lot of it in my clothes and shoes. It was fun and I am really glad I went.

Sunday we spent the day by the pool trying to get some more sun before returning to Lima. The bus ride back seemed like it took forever but finally we were back to our cloudy city. This next weekend some of us are headed to Arequipa, it should be a great time. I’ll let you know how it goes when I get back.

<3 aj

Midterms and Lunahuaná

Midterms were last week and besides not having any of my notes, which I will explain in a moment, I think I did pretty well. The reason I didn't have any notes is because my bag was stolen while I was studying with friends at a Starbucks. No worries, I am ok it was just quite an experience. Thank goodness I had friends with me when it happened because I forgot how to speak in Spanish and I was a mess. Anyway, we have insurance through my study abroad program so everything will get replaced, it was just the studying for my midterms part that really wasn’t fun. Luckily, I have friends in all of my classes so I was able to get copies of their notes and now all is well.

After midterm week, my program went on a two day trip. We went to a town called Lunahuaná. It is a small town about 3 hours south of Lima. We went river rafting, wine and honey tasting, trekking, rode horses, and got to soak up some sun. I had never been rafting before and it was really fun! We were only on a level one river, but that was totally fine with me. The picture on this post is from the winery. It was pretty sweet and I actually liked one of the samples they gave us. On Sunday, we woke up and went trekking. At the end of our trek there was a mummy. A real one. It was wicked and kind of gross. The rest of the day we didn’t want to do anything except for lay by the pool because it was very sunny and this is something we aren’t used to being in Lima because of the clouds. Speaking of sun, I got real sun burnt. And yes Dad I put sun block on, don’t ask me what happened.

This week it’s back to classes and homework. A few of us might be headed out of town this weekend but I am not for sure yet, if so I'll be sure to take some good pictures.

Hasta luego,
<3 aj

Halfway There

Well this last Monday marked my halfway point in my program. As of tomorrow, I will have been here for 11 weeks and I have 9 weeks left. I am not really sure how I feel about time flying by so fast. Also, midterms are this week, and I’m not ready for those either. So, needless to say, there is a lot of uncertainty in my life.

We went to a cultural event last week called La Dama Juana. It is a restaurant where you eat a dinner buffet and then there is a showcase of the traditional dances of Peru. It was fun and interesting to see all the dances instead of watching them on youtube vidoes, and some of the people from my program even got pulled up to dance on stage. Last weekend were the elections for governors of districts and the provinces. Explanation: Peru is divided into departments, which are then divided into provinces and those then are divided into districts. So the house I live in is in the district of Miraflores, in the province of Lima, in the department of Lima, in the country Peru. Took me awhile to figure that all out but I think I finally got it. So anyway, elections were last Sunday and because of the elections there is a dry law. No one is allowed to sell or buy alcohol for 3 days. It was pretty crazy to witness, a lot of places shut down for the weekend because it cost more to stay open. Anyway, I was just happy the sports bar stayed open so that I could watch the Iowa Homecoming game. I met some fellow Hawkeyes at the bar and it was nice to have other people there to support the Hawks. I really wasn’t expecting anyone else, outside of my program anyway, from Iowa to be in Peru, it really is a small world.

On Friday, a bunch of us went to an international friendly soccer game between Peru and Costa Rica. It was a lot more fun than the last game and definitely not as scary. I got to see my first goal ever and Peru won 2-0. I think I might actually be starting to enjoy soccer. Oh and I signed up for We Run Lima 10k. It should be interesting and a bunch of people from my program are doing it so I thought I would too. Not sure if I can run the whole thing but I think it'll still be fun. The rest of my weekend has been full of resting and studying. Speaking of studying, I should get back to it. I have midterms on Tuesday and Thursday, and then we are headed to Lunahuaná on Saturday morning for a weekend excursion.

Hasta pronto,
<3 aj