Pisco Sour -- a war over a drink

Peru's national drink is the Pisco Sour. It is made from lemon juice, maracuya juice, Pisco (a clear alcohol made from grapes), and egg whites for the foam. It is everywhere. In fact in some restaurants it even  comes free with your meal.

Peruvians are very protective of their Pisco. For hundreds of years, there has been a dispute between Chile and Peru over who invented Pisco. Peru's claim rests in the fact that there is a town named Pisco in Peru. Chile and Peru already have very tense relations that mostly date back to the War of the Pacific while Chile won, resulting Chile taking a chunk of Peruvian territory. So, this "war" over Pisco is just another thing that the two countries fight about. Here are some links about the Pisco War if you are interested: 

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/the-pisco-wars/?_r=0

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/08/26/peru_and_chiles_50year_fight_over_a_drink.html

also disclaimer -- the pictures in my last post were not taken by me (i do not have a camera yet although i am in the process of getting one). 

CATACOMBS

Yesterday a couple of friends and I went downtown to see the Church of San Francisco. The church was built in the 1600's (1673 I think?) and belongs to the Franciscan order of monks. The church is instantly recognizable by the yellow paint job and the hundreds of pigeons that are outside the church. There are even people outside the church selling seeds to feed the pigeons!

the outside facade of the church complete with pigeons

closer view of the front of the church

  It is required to take a guided tour of the church (you can't just wander around by yourself) and you aren't allowed to take pictures. Luckily, some of my friends had cameras and took some sneaky pictures!

The tour started out with the library. It was basically my dream library -- balconies, spiral staircases, everything. There are something like 25,000 books in the library and some of them PREDATE THE SPANISH CONQUEST! There are also books in multiple languages (Latin, English, Spanish, Italian, French etc.)! You could tell the books were super old too...they were like raggedy and faded.

The tour also covered all of the normal church tour stuff - old art of Saint this and Saint that, the chairs where all of the monks sat to do ceremonies (which looked very uncomfortable by the way -- I guess 16th century monks didn't believe in seat cushions).

But, the best part of the tour by far was the CATACOMBS under the church. The catacombs were actually part of the original cemetery system of Lima. There are something like 75,000 bodies buried under the church, most of which are placed in exposed pits arranged in geometric shapes like the ones below:

one of many pits of bones - this one arranged in a creepy geometric circle

another bone pit

There were also rooms off to the side of the path full of bones, as well as shelves full of bones in little rooms off to the side. In one of the shelves I could see the remains of some kind of cloth -- maybe clothing?

The cemetery was in use until 1808 when a new city cemetery was built outside of Lima.

Reflecting the colonial history of racism and exclusion, the bodies in the catacombs were only of Spanish citizens -- indigenous people were not allowed to be buried here.

The tour guide walked through really fast so we decided to stay behind and take more time to explore -- this is how we got to take these pictures! We got a little turned around without the guide but we found our way out eventually.

Then came the funniest part of the day. We went into the sanctuary of the church to look at all of the shrines to various saints and jesus and mary and all those important Bible people. There was some sort of ceremony going on -- a renewal of vows or something like that -- and the priest was doing a monologue when a dog ran in from outside. The owner was chasing after it but it wouldn't come back to her. The dog ran up to the front and started trying to drag the red carpet under the altar away with its teeth. It also ran up and around the priests, who amazingly just kept on speaking as if nothing was happening. It was pretty funny.

Yesterday was also Saint Rose of Lima day (a national holiday). Saint Rose was born in Lima in 1586. She was really extreme in her devotion -- when she was admired for her beauty she apparently cut her hair and smeared pepper on her face to scare off potential suitors because she wanted to devote herself to the Church. She devoted her life to helping the needy in the community. She wanted to become a nun but her father didn't allow it so she instead entered some lower order of the church. She also apparently wore a crown made of silver with spikes on the inside to copy the crown of thorns worn by Jesus. She died when she was 31, and her funeral was attended by all the public authorities in Lima. She was canonized in 1671, making her the first person born in the Americas to become a saint. She is the patron saint of the Americas and of specifically of Lima!

When we left the church we ran into a procession in the main square. There were pall bearers carrying this huge statue of Saint Rose accompanied by a marching band and soldiers on horses! 

procession of people carrying a statue of Saint Rose of Lima

After lunch we went to the weirdest places in Lima - Mini-mundo, a park with tiny replicas of carious places in Lima and the rest of Peru.....yeah it was as weird as it sounds. Some people in our group were really excited about it but honestly....I didn't really get the appeal as much. But it was still very fun and gave us some good ideas about places we wanted to visit! The coolest part was a replica of Machu Picchu, complete with tiny tourists:

tiny plastic tourists in "Machu Picchu"

"Machu Picchu" replica

So that was my day yesterday. Now I have to do all the reading that I should have done yesterday....

Exciting day yesterday!

Pictures are coming.....Luckily someone in our group had a camera yesterday!

Chaos, Classes, and Cinnamon Rolls.

You'd think I would be used to the barely-contained chaos and lateness that seems to define the Peruvian lifestyle. I have seen the chaos that is traffic in Lima. I have ridden on the confusing public transportation system without schedules or maps.  I have been in classes where day after day students routinely walk in an hour into the start of class like nothing is wrong. I have gotten used to starting class 10 minutes after the scheduled start time. I understand that when I say I am meeting a Peruvian friend at 2 it may mean 2:15 or later. BUT, somehow, I had not fully prepared myself for the chaos that was registering for classes at PUCP. I will not go into all the boring details, but suffice it to say that the registration 1) did not happen on time and 2) that the system that they were using to call people in one group at a time completely fell apart and it became a kind of free-for-all chaos. Luckily, I was early enough that all my classes were still open!!!! I WILL NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT REGISTRATION AT UNC EVER AGAIN.

Here is my schedule:

Monday:
8am-10am: History 108: History of Peru: Formation to the 18th Century (in English)
2pm-3pm: Arqueología 107 (in Spanish)

Tuesday:
12pm-2pm: Práctica for Arqueología 107 (kind of like a recitation)
3pm-6pm: Gender and Climate Change (in English)

Wednesday:
8am-10am: History 108: History of Peru: Formation to the 18th Century (in English)
4pm-6pm: Arqueología 107 (in Spanish)

Thursday:
10am-12pm: Ecoturismo (in Spanish)

I am excited for these classes! Luckily I know some people in each class I am taking so I am not totally alone. And for the Ecotourism class we get to go on a 2-day field trip in October to see the impacts of tourism first-hand. So excited!
I figured that since my spanish level is not quite up to par yet, I would take 2 classes in English and 2 in Spanish to allow me time to improve a little more.

And after Arqueoología Ane Kine and I went to a coffee shop on campus and I ate the most delicious cinnamon roll of my life. We were talking about various jobs we had had and I have to share this with you because it is so cool: In the town she is from in Norway, Ane Kine works as a bouncer. A BOUNCER. Mind you, she is shorter than me and not very intimidating. Apparently her town has this policy of hiring women to be bouncers (as well as men) because apparently it cuts down on the number of fights they have. If they see a fight happening, especially between two guys trying to prove their macho-ness, the girls step in between them and this calms the fight down. They will take the arm of one of the guys and be like, lets go for a walk for something. An interesting way to use the notion that men shouldn't hit women....

I SAW THE SUN

Today when I went outside I noticed something odd.....i was squinting. THE SUN WAS OUT!!! This is the first time I have seen the sun since I have been here. Idunn (one of my friends from Norway) told me that in the 7 weeks she has been here this is only the 2nd time this has happened.

On campus everyone was sitting outside enjoying this unexpected weather. I actually TOOK OFF MY COAT AND SWEATER. It was a great day. Because it was so nice a group of us decided to go to Chinatown/downtown Lima. Chinatown was not like the ones we have in the US......I think that historically there were a lot of Chinese people who lived there but now it has become more integrated. While there were still some traditional Chinese stores, mostly there were stores that sold all manner of things - school supplies, scarves, figurines etc. It was still really cool though. The stones that paved the main street had people's names carved into them. We asked a guy at a kiosk what they meant, and he told us that they were done to commemorate the big Chinese migration to Peru.

Since stuff was so cheap I bought the rest of my school supplies there. I got these 2 notebooks that are obviously designed for middle schooler girls -- with flowers and things written on them like "I am different" -- but whatever they were cheap and I can ironically rock them.

We also ate at a Chinese restaurant....I managed to get a tofu dish!!! I have been craving tofu so badly so that was good. 

Afterwards we wandered towards the Plaza Mayor and over to this awesome park that overlooked the mountains behind the city. There is a big one that has a cross on top that is lit up at night -- very striking. Ironically, the mountain that has the cross on it also is home to the slums of Lima. Houses are precariously built up the side of the mountain and look like at any minute they are about to fall down.

In the park we had delicious desserts from vendors there -- these things that were kind of like doughnuts with a sweet honey-like sauce and arroz con leche with cinnamon. DELICIOUS.

I actually ended up speaking a lot of Spanish today so..yay!

OH I ALMOST FORGOT. Before we left to go downtown, I was hanging out with some Peruvian friends and they were like, hey let's go to the shooting range. So we went over and sure enough there was a little shed on the edge of campus with targets and everything. So yeah I learned how to shoot a rifle. It was.....interesting.

Spanglish works

 Today was the FIRST DAY OF CLASSES at PUCP! Since I am an international student, I get to go to a bunch of classes and try them out and after a week decide which of those I am actually going to take.

The classes on my slate for today: History of Peru: formation to the 18^th century (in English) and Arqueología (in Spanish).

I was worried of having flashbacks to my horrible experience with am 8am class at UNC first year, as my History of Peru class began at 8am, but for some reason it wasn’t terrible?? Apparently 8am’s are better abroad……

Anyway, the class itself sounds really interesting. We will be covering a huge chunk of time, from the Neolithic Revolution (thousands of years B.C.) through the Spanish colonial state. I am especially excited to learn about the ancient Andean cultures! The class is in English, and I was honestly expecting it to be just foreign students, but there are a lot of Peruvian students taking the class to improve their English! I really like the professor – he is really funny and clearly really cares about the subject.

My other class was Arqueología. I had thought that it was going to be in English but….SURPRISE it was NOT! However, I could actually understand 99% of what the professor was saying and so I think I will probably stay in the class! In addition to learning the basics of archaeology in general I think we will be doing a unit focusing specifically on the Andes which will be really interesting!

These two girls from Norway who I met on the first day were in my Archaeology class! One is named Edan and the other is Ana Kine. After class we met up with some of their friends – 3 Peruvians, another American, and a Canadian, and went to a VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT right across the street from the university! It had a lot of fake meat which usually isn’t my favorite but it actually wasn’t too bad! We ended up hanging out for several hours, and taking an informal second tour of campus led by the Peruvian students. The most important thing we learned on this tour was how to get photocopies of all our readings made at the copy center on campus. Here the norm is for a teacher to assign readings from a book/books etc. but you are not supposed to buy the book…..you go to a place on campus and they photocopy all your readings for you. Seems dubious on the legality side but…..when in Rome (Lima).

I was talking with Ana Kine about how university works in Norway – IT IS FREE and you only have 2 days of class a week. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT THAT SENTENCEIS THAT THEIR UNIVERSITY IS FREE!!! So jealous! She was scandalized to hear how much college costs in the US haha.. OH ALSO THERE ARE REINDEER IN NORWAY.

Even in Peru if you go to a state university it is only about $2,000 (although apparently the public universities have huge problems with strikes and political unrest). The US needs to get it’s stuff together….

The whole day was spent speaking in Spanglish…..if someone was listening to our conversations it would probably sound so weird!

HISTORY HISTORY HISTORY

My day started at 11am. I went to meet my compañero PUCP, Raquel, and the other student assigned to her, Stephen (another American!) at the main entrance of the university. After we all arrived, we set off on a mini bus towards Raquel’s house so she could pick up some money. When we arrived, she invited us in, which turned out to be a great decision….her mother was home and made us all huge glasses of papaya and banana juice. IT. WAS. DELICIOUS. THEN her mother came out with this bag and said that she had presents for us. She gave me a beautiful handmade wallet from Cuzco and gave Stephen a wall hanging of Machu Picchu. She said that she was just so happy we were visiting Peru and hoped that we were enjoying ourselves and felt welcome. It was so sweet!

After this great stop, we hopped on another bus and headed for Pueblo Libre, a historic neighborhood where the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia e Hisoria is located. This was high on my list of places I wanted to visit so I was very excited! Me and Stephen don’t have our PUCP id’s yet, but we were able to use our US student id’s to get a discount! THANKS UNC! There was some really cool stuff in the museum. Lots of pottery but also really beautiful textiles, artifacts from Incan religious and sacrificial ceremonies, skulls, artifacts from the conquest, and even shrunken heads from the Amazon which were delightfully creepy. Oh and we also saw a beautifully preserved quipu, the knotted, colored cords that the Inca used to keep records. (If you haven’t heard of them go look them up it is really cool!). No mummies unfortunately BUT Raquel told me that there are mummies at a museum in the center of Lima behind the Plaza de Armas so I will have to go check that out!

Something that I found really interesting was that there was an entire section of history missing from the late 1970’s to the end of the 1990’s. In other words, the period during which the Shining Path movement terrorized Peru. The Shining Path was a leftist Maoist armed guerrilla group that rose up against the Peruvian government, but also was responsible for the deaths of Andean peasants who they supposedly wanted to support. They also carried out several bombings, including some in Lima. I knew that this period was sure to be a controversial subject in Peru, but I was surprised that there was NOTHING in the museum about it. I understand that this history must be painful, but to ignore if completely? I don’t know….

After we were done at the museum we went to find some food. We ended up at a cute little historic restaurant with traditional Peruvian food just across the square from the museum. Yet again, I had to get creative to find vegetarian options….the Peruvians sure like their meat. But we wrangled with the waitress and managed to find 2 things I could eat. and they were DELICIOUS. I had potatoes in a delicious, creamy sauce and a rice/bean patty thing.

At lunch we had a nice conversation. An interesting thing that I learned about Stephen is that he is planning on going to seminary school to become a priest after he graduates. I was amazed to think that he is ready to make such a life-changing decision so young. I don’t even know what I am going to do with my life tomorrow!

All in all, a lovely day!

Now I am back in my room, resting my brain which is tired from speaking Spanish all day!

I am thinking I need to get a notebook to write new words down in. I learned so many today but I forgot most of them.

IT'S FRIDAY

The past 2 days have been pretty quiet. I had my second day of orientation on Thursday. Basically we had to go to a presentation put on by the department ("facultad") of our choosing that would tell us about how to sign up for classes. I chose to stick to the basics and take classes mostly from the "Estudios Generales Letras" (basically the equivalent of Gen Eds at UNC --- basic, entry-level classes in different disciplines). We have a week to try out the classes and then we officially sign up.

Since I have been struggling so much with the language, I decided I am probably not ready to take all of my classes in Spanish. Luckily, the university offers several classes in English: History of Peru, formation to the 18th century, Archaeology (which includes a trip to Pachacamac!!), and Gender and Climate Change (the professor for this gave our security presentation and she was SUPER COOL). I hope that I will get into at least 1 of these, if not more. I also may check out some other anthropology/history/archaeology classes in Spanish to see how hard they look. And I may check out this Ecotourism class where you learn about different historic/cultural sites and the importance of conserving them and you actually get to visit some of them!

I have been struggling to find anywhere to exercise. Turns out people don't just go jogging around the neighborhood here....I tried to go running one day and got stared at A LOT. And I got a little lost and ended up in the neighborhood BEHIND the my house which I discovered is pretty sketchy....
I am trying to figure out what the university offers in terms of exercise...there is a gym BUT you have to be signed up for a class to use it. I am interested in maybe trying to sign up for a spin class that meets 3 times a week. I don't know the protocol for signing up for that kind of stuff though....we shall see.

Tomorrow I am going to be meeting my compañero PUCP for a tour of Lima. Hopefully it won't be too awkward.....I have this constant dilemma with people who I know speak English: my Spanish communication skills are pretty poor at the moment (THANKS TO YEARS OF SPANISH EDUCATION THAT TAUGHT ME HOW TO TALK ABOUT 18TH CENTURY COLONIALISM BUT NOT HOLD A BASIC CONVERSATION) BUT I want to improve so I don't want to speak in English but if I speak Spanish there is a lot of awkward silences and me asking people to repeat themselves about a million times. Maybe we will do a mix of both.

My big victory today: finding a cheaper grocery store than the one I originally went to. I got a lot of stuff for half the price I paid at the other one. #thesmallthings

BRAIN DEAD

Had orientation all day today.....all in Spanish. My brain is so tired right now. Will write more later hopefully but for now I am going to watch tv and do absolutely nothing.

Terrifying bus rides, broken Spanish, and Harry Potter

This afternoon 2 of my housemates (1 German and 1 from Spain) invited me to go with them to "el centro". I agreed, not knowing what or where "el centro" was, and it was a GREAT decision. 

We headed to the main road (Avenida Universitaria) and waited for a bus to arrive that was headed down la Ave. Eventually one came and we hopped on, squeezing ourselves into the tiny seats. Several minutes later, we disembarked and hopped on another bus that we found coming down a side street that was headed to downtown. This ride was much longer, and I had to stand, but we passed through so many areas of Lima that it was worth it! We passed through richer neighborhoods, poor slums, through districts selling only doors or dental products.

Before I go on, let me tell you about the bus system in Lima. Most limeños use the small buses that are privately operated. They would better be described as glorified vans that zip around the city through chaotic traffic and through gaps in the cars/buses that seem WAY to small. The destinations are written on the sides of the buses and are also called out by an employee who spends half his/her time hanging out of the bus trying to attract customers. So there is not a dull moment on the bus.

In downtown, we got off and headed for La Plaza de San Martin. In the center of the plaza is a huge statue and memorial to San Martin and Bolivar for the independence of Peru. Surrounding it are colonial-era buildings that are VERY impressive. In the plaza, there were so many things to see people-wise -- kids selling candy and offering to shine your shoes, tourists, locals, and PIGEONS PIGEONS PIGEONS. There were also these groups of people crowded around speakers who were talking about something but I couldn't hear what was being said....they seemed pretty excited though judging from all the clapping...


Then we walked around in the shops around the Plaza looking for boots for Ana -- she is very tall, maybe 6 feet, and therefore is having a hard time finding shoes big enough in Lima where most people are very short.

From there we went to La Plaza de Armas, where the Cathedral and government palace are located. It was just after sunset when we arrived and the square was all lit up and illuminating the old buildings. It was very beautiful. I hope to come back soon to explore the buildings more....I have heard that there are really impressive crypts in the cathedrals of Lima so I will have to check out the one in La Plaza de Armas.

FINALLY it was time for dinner -- being vegetarian is actually REALLY hard in Lima. Everywhere you look, on every corner, there are chicken restaurants. Every restaurant pretty much serves different variations of meat. But we managed to find a place with 2 vegetarian options....french fries (papas fritas) and yuquitas (some delicious combination of potato and cheese in a ball). We also had Inca Cola which is good but weirdly tastes like bubblegum...?

The hardest thing so far has been the language, which is to be expected. However, hanging out with Ana and Clara today really has helped me warm up a little. I still am having a lot of trouble SPEAKING but I am getting better at understanding. Ana and Clara have been really great bout understanding that I am not fluent and that I don't understand everything. We have had some funny moments -- Clara thought that I was from "California del Norte" instead of "Carolina del Norte"; I tried to say gloves but didn't know the word and called them "calcetines para los manos" (socks for your hands) and we had a good laugh about that. Also Ana is really into Harry Potter and The Hunger Games....hopefully she will still be here in Lima when the new Hunger Games movie comes out in November!! I have learned that Harry Potter can literally unite people across the world -- if you both have read it you can talk about it and bam conversation is happening.

Anyway gotta go to sleep....I have orientation at la Universidad Catolica tomorrow at 9 am! Super nervous but also excited! 

I HAVE A TOWEL

Made it to the grocery store ok without getting lost or run over in the insane traffic. I HAVE A TOWEL NOW NO MORE USING MY EXTRA BED SHEET! 

My housemates just invited me to go to “el centro” at 4! I have no idea what/where that is but I will find out….

First morning

The couple who owns the house I am staying in took me out to breakfast at a typical Peruvian cafe —- LOTS OF MEAT. I had to explain in very broken spanish that I don't eat meat and am vegetarian. And no vegetarian doesn't mean I eat chicken. But the restaurant made me a sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce with sweet potatoes on the side! I also had hot chocolate and papaya juice! Then they drove me around the surrounding area to see what there is around the house — I understood about 40% of what they were saying (they speak in very rapid spanish) BUT from what I gathered we passed through several neighborhoods. My favorite was Pueblo Libre where most of the houses are the original ones from the 1700’s! They were painted all these bright beautiful colors and had really cool carved wooden doors. We also drive by a huaca (ancient worship site) that was just sitting in the middle of a neighborhood. It was really impressive — kind of like terraced pyramids? Hope to explore it more later. We also drove through the parking lot of a mall near the house.

The other students living in the house are all girls — 2 from Spain and one from Germany. They are all older (23-ish) and speak REALLY good Spanish (I mean the ones from Spain are obviously going to but even the girl from Germany speaks fluently….). 

My room is GREAT except for one thing…..the window doesn’t close all the way. Basically there are these small cutouts around where it opens that are not filled with anything so air is constantly coming through….and the house is not heated from what I can tell. Gotta invest in some warm fuzzy socks and sweatpants. 

THERE ARE SO MANY KEYS TO GET INTO THE HOUSE. And anyone who knows me knows how much I struggle with keys. There is an outer gate that goes around the house with spikes and barbed wire and broken bottles sunk into the concrete top. Then there is a iron gate in front of the door. Then the door is locked. Then my room is locked. I am grateful for all the security but.....struggle.

I need to go find a supermercado and do some serious shopping…..but I don’t know how to get there. It will be an adventure I guess. If I never blog again you’ll know what happened to me.