Friday night going to bed early because of work tomorrow. Bottle Rocket is on! I take back every bad thing I ever said about peruvian television programming choices. Owen Wilson at his finest, Luke Wilson at his best. I forgive them for every wretched film they went on to make without wes anderson. Eating these chocolate-covered coconut cookies called picaras. It´s scary how much fun I can have by myself.

I´ve never been much of a "friends" fan, but here I usually wind up watching it while I eat lunch. Last night I had these dream that I was with the whole cast and we were on one of these huge, red, double-decker bus that they have here. And they were talking about how they throw birthday parties for each other. And I was like "hey, joey, you guys never throw me birthday parties." And he was like "you need to be more assertive and demand that we throw you a birthday party." And I was all like aw, man, maybe he´s right. I need to be more assertive. I was also having trouble making all my luggage fit together. I kept reorganizing it and trying to make smaller bags fit into bigger bags, so I was the last person to get off the bus when we stopped. What does it mean? I don´t know. Linda?
Tomorrow, I am here for 6 more weeks. I´m thinking about what I want to make of this time. My brother and I are going to the jungle in a few weeks. And I´m thinking of working in an orphanage in Arequipa, a province like ten hours away, for two weeks.
It´s still freezing cold here at night, but usually hot and sunny in the middle of the day.
I´ve been taking taxis recently, because I need to get from one job to another in thirty minutes during rush hour. Every taxi driver has a different route to get to the same place. Peru: just because you´re making a right-hand turn doesn´t mean you need to get in the right lane. No, you can be in the left lane and just turn right in front of the lane on your right. Very interesting.

ayacucho

On Friday Jorge and I got on a bus for Ayacucho. We were in the front seats on the second story of a double-decker bus. So nice, they gave us pillows, blankets, cookies, sandwhiches, tea, and Les Mis in spanish. TEN HOURS LATER we arrived. I am not a morning person. Sometimes I even want to kill people when I wake up too early. Also, traveling makes me irritable. But we took a taxi to his friend´s house and they gave us food. Then we went around to see the town square, cathedrals and stuff and got lucama ice cream with chocolate chips. Lucuma is this really awesome fruit used in desserts. It was so hot and sunny- awesome because up until last week it´s been freezing in Lima. Then we went to this cultural museum. I have a picture with scene-in-a-box thing they have here. They´re so gorgeous. Usually there are nativity scenes inside, but it can be anything- any kind of religious or secular scenes, from an inch tall to one of this size.The coolest one I saw was in a market, a scene of a shop with people making all these crazy masks.

Then we took a nap and woke up to lunch waiting for us. They made pachamanca, which I think I wrote about before. They take all kinds of things, chicken, pork, sweet potatoes, corn, sometimes fish, sometimes platains, these big green beans like soy beans that are really good, then cook them in banana leaves or a big pot, and cook them in steam in a hole in the ground with rocks on top. So delicious.

Then we checked out more of the area. It´s the dry season so a lot of it looks desert-y. It´s a really rural area. You can see mountains all around you, and also big piles of dirt. Then we went back to the town square and got juice. The center looks like the town square in Cusco. I´m going to miss all the juice places here, of every imaginable combination. We got peach and pineapple juice and it was so romantic. Then it got dark and we went outside to the park and it was a holy day for a virgin and they had all these amazing fireworks. We took a video, I´ll put it up later.

The next morning we woke up early and took an hour and a half taxi ride to somewhere else in Ayacucho where the Spanish army surrendered to the Peruvian independence army. It was a group taxi, and we sat with a Canadian nun who has lived here for four years. She went with us to the site of the monument to the generals in the war. A ton of other countries helped peru defeat Spain.


Then some kids who were hanging around asked us if we wanted to take a horseback ride to see waterfalls nearby.
It was fun. I haven´t ridden a horse in so long. We only walked, but it was still fun. Jorge´s horse was way too small for him, which was pretty entertaining.


It was so beautiful! We got off our horses and walked down this steep trail down to the stream, freezing cold from the andes mountains. They had a few mini huts with benches to relax, so we sat down and looked at the mountains and waterfalls.

Then we walked around different artisinal markets and food markets. We ate ceviche and caldo gallina, hen soup. So good. We wanted to try cuy (guinea pig) but it seemed too hot to eat weird fried pets for the first time. Oh yeah, also, this whole time I´m getting sunburned. I haven´t worn sunscreen in like 4 months, and I didn´t think it would be that hot in Ayacucho. I brought face sunscreen, but it wasn´t enough.

Then we went to the house where the Spanish signed surrender papers. This is one of the cannons from the war.

And this is a doorway of a really old church.

Then we rode the bus home and took another nap. We woke up a little irritable-my shoulders were burnt to a crisp and Jorge was coming down with the flu. But we agreed that we had a wonderful trip. Then there was a thunder and lightning storm! I didn´t realize how much I´ve missed those. It never even rains in Lima. This one was awesome, and felt so good on my sunburn. Then we packed our stuff, and went back to the juice place. Then took the bus back to the Lima. There was a crying baby on the bus. But he wasn´t too bad. He only cried for like half an hour of the ten hour ride, so we counted our blessings. That´s all I can think of for now. One last picture:

It feels like summer today! I´m wearing a t-shirt. I feel like a completely different person when it´s warm. Is that extremely shallow? My afternoon english classes were cancelled, so I am at Jorge´s university where he is finishing his thesis. We had this awesome fruit salad-icecream sunday awesomeness and I reviewed my lesson plan while he read something for his class. He´s getting a masters in philosophy. I´m kind of jealous. I miss being in school, even it makes me unbelievably stressed. I´m excited about traveling outside Lima this weekend. It almost doesn´t matter where I go. It´s so sunny right now, I love it!

I have the house to myself today, and I´m eating leftover cheese and crackers from a party my roommate had last night. Yesterday I taught two english classes, both individual classes. The first guy has a regular class and we´re supposed to go through this book, but we mostly just talked. I think that after you reach a certain point in learning a language, the best way to improve is just through conversation. I told him I studied philosophy and we talked about Camus and the connection between literature and philosophy. It was so nice! I can´t believe I get paid the same for that class as for babysitting all those bad kids last week. Then I had another similar class in the afternoon. Suddenly, I´m getting offered classes left and right!

I had a three-hour break between the classes, so I went to the mall across the street. I ran into a bunch of friends from church. We went to KFC (people here LOVE kfc. they call it "Kentucky" as in I ´m hungry for Kentucky!) and one of the girls used to work there so they gave us a free huge meal.

I´ve been watching CNN. I started watching this sunday afternoon segment focus on the middle east with this middle east expert. It´s really good. Sometimes the guy just editorializes. Today he had on middle east scholars and journalists. (that is, they study the middle east. they aren´t middle eastern) I like watching interviews where the interviewer knows what she´s talking about and has an opinion. And this guy totally does.
Also, I was watching the news before it. They were talking about Somalia, and how the options people have are living in the city and being bombed and attacked, or going to refugee camps where there is almost no food and terrible disease. Things are so bad there but they´re getting even worse. Half the population is dependent on foreign assistance for food. I don´t think foreign aid workers are allowed in, so the US isn´t sure where their money is going, maybe to the militant group al-shabaab, so they´re suspending millions of dollars of aid until they figure it out. Somalia has had five droughtst in a row, one in five children is severely malnurished, and a million people have been displaced because of their civil war. So, it´s lame that I need to see something on TV to care about it, but now I want to go to Somalia.

Jorge and I are going to Ayacucho this weekend. It´s a province like ten hours away. One of his classmates has a house there. I think it will be warmer there, or at least sunny.

Yesterday I substitute-taught a children´s english class. My boss asked me to do a favor and fill in. I´m spoiled at my other job, I only have one child at a time. More than that sounded scary, but I´m not really in a position to turn down work. So I arrived at 8:30 Saturday morning after maybe two hours of sleep to find find my curriculum supremely unhelpful, requiring props, preparation and a lot of interpretation. I tried not to fall asleep waiting for my kids. At 9:00 parents started arriving with their children. The children couldn´t really speak english, and their parents even less so. I spoke with the parents a little but I couldn´t concentrate because of all the kids arriving. I could tell they were kind of freaked out leaving their children with someone who spoke so little spanish, but it´s a 3 hour break from their child, and there´s a mall and theatre right across the street. So they left anyway. After about five minutes, I realized what this job was going to be. Here are some numbers: 10 (quantity of children), 5 (age of the children) 3 (hours I have them), 1 (teacher), 0 (kids that understand english). I have no clue how the class is supposed to be run. They´re all screaming and dumping out the contents of their backpacks on the table. One kid runs out of the room to go to the bathroom and I freak out- how can I take him to the bathroom when I have a million other kids? Agghhh . . . then I realize there are sort of "hall monitors" outside to help with them. But only two, for like 100 kids. So it´s very possible that a kid could run out and they would both be occupied with other kids. So I realize in five minutes that this is basically a babysitting job, but one where I can´t really communicate with the kids. Some of them kind of understand english, but they´re not used to being spoken to in english. I´m supposed to be teaching them english, so I´m trying to figure out how much I should speak to them in english anyway. Also, I don´t know how to give commands, which is different than just saying something. Except for siéntate! Sit down. So I shouted that a lot. Siéntate! Siéntate muy bien. No tocas! When I wanted them to stop touching each other. At the end of the class this little girl asked me in spanish what "no tocas" means. I was supposed to say no toques. Close enough right? But no. Actually, a lot of the kids understood some english. But if they´re all fighting I had to yell at them in spanish. Parts of the class were great. I taught them stuff, we had little segments of learning. But 3 hours? Come on. Once I realized they liked singing, we did that. We sang the eensy weensy spider like 100 times. They loved it. We sang everything I could think of, including jingle bells and happy birthday. Then I made them one by one stand on a chair in the front of the room so we could practice colors. (What color is his sweater?) Halfway through the class, the hall monitor came in to tell me it was break time. I was like "I´m supposed to supervise 10 kids who don´t listen out of the classroom to the cafeteria?!" I tried to get them to line up, but they´re used to just running out like crazy people. Their parents brought them snacks, which they grabbed and then ran to the tables. The hall monitor people helped the kids open their snacks, so that was nice. After that, I had them play games outside, where they ran around and screamed and the oldest kid there got so wound up that he grabbed this other kid´s head and bit him on the forehead. There was no blood fortunately. I was counting down the minutes til the class was over. It was almost so bad it was good, though. The situation was totally ridiculous.
I´m kind of sick today. My throat hurts and I feel sort of fevery. I just watched Garden State while playing scrabble online and writing this, and I hated it way less than the first time I saw it. I even kind of liked it. I´m softening up in my old age.

I didn´t realize how accustomed I had grown to using my roommate´s laptop. I have it during the day when she´s at work, she has it when she´s home at night. But these past few weeks she´s been taking it to work with her. Who does she think she is? But today I have it. And Jorge reminded me that my last blog was bitter and negative. Which doesn´t even sound like me. But I am happier with the world today so I will write something. Jorge and I are back together, but casually. Not casual because we´re seeing other people or anything, but because I´m leaving in two months and even if I was staying it probably wouldn´t work out long term. I told him he has to be on the look-out for a girlfriend to replace me in December, and he said that I occupied such a big space in his heart that he´d have to find two girlfriends to replace me. Sweet, right? Maybe you had to be there.

I´ve been teaching this english conversation class on tuesday and thursday nights. I don´t really love teaching english, but this class is really cool. I don´t need to teach grammar, or push them through boring textbooks. I can do whatever I want. Last night we played scrabble. I might have had more fun than they did, but that´s what I get paid for. It´s actually really fun. They speak english extremely well- they´ve graduated from all the classes at euroidiomas (the institute) and this is just practice for them. There´s so much material on-line to teach classes like this that I usually don´t even prepare, just print out lessons that come with interesting, recent articles and practice exercises. There´s only 5 people in the class and sometimes only 4. I give them exercises where they have to work in pairs, so if only 4 people come then I don´t have to participate. But I also really enjoy talking to them. Two people are I think early thirties, professionals, really nice, smart, good-looking. A girl and a guy, I think they should get together. And a 21 yr old guy and a 13 yr old girl. But they are pretty mature and we have interesting discussions. And there´s one other young professional guy. It should be a class where I tell them about the US, but more often the conversation turns to Peru and I´m learning a lot from them. I think they´re learning things from each other as well, because of the big age gap- for instance, the 13 yr old tells them what school is like now, and they tell her what to expect from university and adult life. We had one discussion about the prevalence of nicknames here, like chino for someone who looks chinese, or gordito for someone who is fat or something. The 13 yr old said the nicknames are so common that even teachers use them to refer to their students, which surprised the adults in the class. I would be so thrilled to be able to speak spanish as well as they speak english. If I could speak spanish that well, I sure wouldn´t be taking a class.
I am still planning on traveling, but I think on the weekends. I have three day weekends so that is enough time to go to most places in Peru.
A few people have asked me to give them english classes, which would be cool. It´s still chilly here. I made maracuya juice, which is the best juice ever. It kind of reminds me of the fruit we had in our back yard in grenada, but the fruit is bigger. It´s so easy to make, I don´t know why I didn´t make it before. Inside are these seeds and pulp and you just put it in the blender, add water and sugar. I also bought fig jam yesterday and finished it today. So good.
I´ve been reading Tolstoy´s short stories, The death of Ivan Ilvych and three others. I haven´t read Anna Karenina in maybe five years, and I don´t remember it that well. But I think I prefer these stories. They´re all pretty depressing, as you must expect when reading a russian author. Even the "positive" story, Master and Man, ends with the main character´s death. Even translated, though, the way he expresses the human experience is so apt, his characters so bizarre and yet recognizable.
On a completely different note, I saw The Hangover, which for some reason they decided to translate for spanish distribution as ¿Qué Pasó Ayer? (What happened yesterday?) I didn´t appreciate some of it, for example the conventional premise that people (especially men) should celebrate finding a life partner by having sex with or at least seeing other naked women before they get married (hence, going to vegas). But that was an extremely small part of the movie, only hinted at through a photo reel at the end of the film. And there was an antagonist introduced halfway through the film that was not funny at all. He was the the way I feared the entire movie would be, a cardboard character comprised of cheap laughs and juvenile sensibility. But the movie as a whole was actually really funny, with compelling characters and plot.