Last week and leaving Lima

It’s amazing how fast this time has gone. Monday I had class as normal in the morning and in the afternoon we went on a field trip to see a place where they export products from Peru to other parts of the world. We’ve been talking a lot about this subject in my international negotiations class.
On Tuesday my Spanish class went to out professor’s house for a cooking class. I bought chocolate chip cookie dough mix and prepared it and then was ready to put the pan in the oven and the oven would start. So, for the first time in my life I made chocolate chip cookies in a microwave. They weren’t great, but they got the job done.
Tuesday night the group of students went to an American bar to watch the elections. I didn’t go because I was sick (boo! I still didn’t feel good from the boat ride!) and Austry ordered pizza for us as my going away dinner and then I made her milkshakes American-style. They turned out well if I do say so myself. We were watching the election results when the phone rang and it was Austry’s brother from California telling us that Obama won. I thought, “Impossible, it’s only 10 and California hasn’t even counted their votes.” Just as I said my thoughts out loud there it appeared on the TV: Obama 290 and McCain 139. I’m very happy with the results of the elections.
Wednesday was our last day of classes.
Thursday I went to the artisan market with a few friends and then we went to Larcomar, a shopping center that looks over the ocean, to eat. I indulged in a chocolate brownie special which includes: warm brownie, scoop of vanilla ice cream, fudge, crushed Oreo, and whipped cream. Yummy.
At night we had our going away party that included a buffet of Peruvian food and a dance show with dances from all over Peru. It was all ok, it wasn’t spectacular, but it was ok.


This is my first pleasure chest picture of the trip.

After the dinner my night turned very strange.



First after dinner we wanted to get a picture with the cute waiter and we were trying to figure which way was the best way to ask him if we could take a picture with him. Then, a girl in my group said, “Disculpa, Guapo, toma una foto?” (Excuse me handsome, will you take a photo.) In this picture he didn’t look very happy.

Teryn, Mary Beth (from Minnesota), and I went to get ice cream and then we sat on a bench in the park and then this guy game up to us and said, “Hello, my name is Erik and I’m a singer.” I didn’t quite know what to say. How do you follow that? He gave us his business card (a small piece of paper that had his name and e-mail address) and said that he plays at parties and wanted to know if we wanted to go. We told him that we were, unfortunately, leaving the next day and would not be able to attend his shows. He asked us for our e-mails and we declined to give them to him. We also offered to give him back his business card so he didn’t waste them. He declined our offer and said that one day he will visit the United States and he can play a show where we live.
After Erik left people kept driving by and making kissy noises and whistling and people walked by and stared. Well, I was sick of it and one guy who walked by I decided to stare back. This was a bad idea. The guy smiled and crossed the street. He stood by a car and looked at us. He lit a cigarette. He moved one car to the right, still staring. He got out his iPod and started listening to it, still staring. He moved another car to the right, still staring. Then, he moved half-way across the street and stared. Finally he came all the way back over and chatted with us. He was surprised that he had never seen us around before and wanted to know hwy we were in Peru and how long we were going to be there. He asked us for our e-mails and we denied him, too.
After that we decided to go. Mary Beth went in first because Teryn and I share a taxi. So, Teryn and I stood there for a while on the side of the street and talked. In the mean time this older guy with a limp came up to us and asked us for money for his breakfast. We told him no and then he looked at me and asked me to give him my heart. Weird. I told him no, too. After old guy left, a couple of guys got out of a taxi and one of them said, “Hello, how are you?” to me. In a different place or time, I might have talked to him. Teryn and I then got in a taxi and we dropped Teryn off first and then the taxi driver started talking to me. He asked me all sorts of questions like why I was in Lima, how long I was staying, why I knew Spanish, if I liked Peruvian men, if I’d like to live in Lima, if I had a boyfriend (I said yes to divert from any conversation that would bring), and which hotel I was staying in….and it got weird. Luckily by the time it got weird we arrived at my stop, which was 2 blocks from my house. I was happy to get out of that taxi.
On Friday morning Austry and I went to Larcomar to drink coffee, eat a muffin, and talk. We had a really good time. I’m sorry I didn’t have more time to spend with her. I was only in Lima 36 days. I was gone for eleven of those days. She has mornings off and works at nights. I was in school in the morning and off during the nights. I really enjoyed living with her.


I have chuckled at this the whole time I’ve lived here. This is the watchman’s post. I find this funny because a watchman couldn’t even get in there. Austry told me that the watchman went on vacation…5 weeks ago.


This was taken right before we got on the bus: Me, Austry, Vicki (Jessie’s host mom), and Jessie. We were neighbors.

I spent the afternoon packing and getting ready to leave. It was exhausting because I decided to only bring one suitcase to Buenos Aires. This meant I had to carefully choose what I was going to bring and leave behind. It all turned out fine. My suitcase ended up weighing 24 kilos.
We met at 7 p.m. to go to the airport and people were late and so we left late, and got to the airport late. The airline had overbooked the flight and since we were the last ones to check in 5 girls in my group didn’t have seats. Some people gave up their seats for them, but it was a stressful situation.
We went through security and then we had to go through the process to leave the country. We had to wait in this long line for them to “check us out” of the country. By this time it’s pretty late and we’re already passed our boarding time. We run to our gate and it’s been changed. We run to the new gate and there are tons of people and it’s a disorganized mess. We eventually got on the plane and then waited. We were supposed to leave Lima at 9:40 and we didn’t leave until almost 10:40. The flight was four hours with a three-hour time difference. We literally lost our whole night. We arrived, very tired, in Buenos Aires and were received by ISA staff!