Warm Welcomes

23:42 29 de marzo 2009
My house in Lima

Another fantastic day. I met with 3 other Multisas and their host moms to catch a bus to Miraflores, the upscale barrio, for our first ISA Intercambio. If I thought the bus system was crazy in Buenos Aires, it is nothing compared to here. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to figure out how to guide myself through the city with them, because I don’t have my handy Guia T booklet with all the bus routes (our bus guide in Buenos Aires). Instead, the streets the buses travel along are apparently written on the side of the bus, so I guess you have to know the route you are traveling fairly well. We stood at a bus stop while many different buses, most barely larger than vans, came barreling past with an attendant shouting at us, I suppose to convince us to get on their bus and not another. Well, our host moms figured it out for us, and we were off in the tiny van-bus which could probably fit a max of 10 seating and maybe 10 more standing.

Our final destination was this beautiful park/boardwalk area called Larco Mar that had a bunch of nice stores and restaurants nearby. There we met up with the rest of our Multisa group, the ISA staff, and about fifteen Peruvian students our age for an intercambio (exchange). We all got ice cream, which was delicious even though I have no idea what I got – with 30 people trying to get the ice cream at the same time, I just pointed. I did try tuna ice cream though. And no, it’s not what you’re thinking…tuna is actually the name for a unique green fruit here in Peru (AN: I later discovered tuna is prickly pear fruit from cactus)

I had a fantastic time talking with the Peruvians, I’m really happy with how much Spanish I’ve been speaking here already, although it’s a little difficult to stop using the vos form and the Argentine accent. At times I feel like a complete idiot because something that I would say with no hesitation in Argentina (“Querés ir a la playa?) has me stuttering like a fool trying to remember how to pronounce things without the shhha. So it comes out “Querés – qui…qui..er..es ir a la pla..pla…plaaaa…ya. The Peruvians always laughed and made a comment about it’s obvious we came from Argentina when we pronounced certain things or used lunfardo (Argentine slang), but I didn’t mind. It will just take some time to transition.

After crunching down on our rapidly melting ice cream cones, we moved en masse to go to a salsa class. That was a lot of fun, even though we just stuck to basic moves and didn’t dance with partners since the girls obviously outnumbered the guys. We then walked to a café/bar that was broadcasting the Chile vs Peru fútbol game, which is an intense rivalry. They were telling us how the game takes on big political connotations. Chile was up by one goal when we left, but I hope Peru pulled through. We then had to say goodbye to our new friends, but they all seemed really excited to hang out again. I’m so happy we are meeting such great people already on our second day. I’m also really excited by our group’s improvement, we definitely couldn’t have held such in-depth conversations with our peers two months ago.

Our final destination of the night was dinner at Junius! Wow, I can’t believe what a nice restaurant it was! The décor was very upscale, and was served in buffet fashion. All the food was typical Peruvian food, and while I don’t know most of what I had, I do know that I loved absolutely everything. I definitely ate crema de espárragos (creamed asparagus soup), arroz con leche (rice pudding), arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), a raw fish thing (AN: it's called cebiche, and is raw fish marinated with lime and other flavors - so delicious).

I was excited when a band started playing, but it got even better. Apparently, it was a dinner show showcasing all different Peruvian dances. First we had the Inca lord and his “collas,” or virgin women dedicated to the sun; the Zamacueca, a dance between a man and a women using a handkerchief with origins in the black slave communities; two versions of the Marinera, one of a couple courting each other and the other with a guy dancing with a plastic horse strapped around his waist; an upbeat festejo dance; the “fantasia arequipena" with a dancer dressed as a large condor; and negrillos, a dance in which black slaves would satirically imitate Spanish soldiers. The Scissors dance was awesome – two men hold two loose scissor shears that clang together while they compete to be the best dancer as each player takes the previous dancer’s moves and creates new ones. The Diablada Puneña was another festival sort of dance with dancers wearing large dragon-like heads. The favorite was probably the finale dance though. The Son de los Diablos had dancers with impish looking devil masks that came through the crowd and scared patrons or messed with their cameras and climbed poles. The highlight was when Ashley from our group was selected unknowingly to marry the king of the diablos (devils). At the end, we got to take pictures with the performers, and the drummer from the band even grabbed me and sat me down with his drum for a bit! Another crazy and crowded bus ride later, and we were home.

Looking forward to tomorrow! Coli