An Adventure in Peru: You know you stick out like a sore thumb when...

Being a white, American girl with mediocre Spanish is bound to make me stick out. First, I’ll start with the basics; walking to school. It’s been a hard habit to break but in Nebraska when you pass someone on the street you definitely make eye contact and you usually smile or nod your head. Here, if you do so much as make eye contact it’s like it must mean something. The person will stop and stare. One time I accidentally made eye contact with this man and he literally turned around and watched me walk by. Also, I’ve learned to ignore the honks, whistles, and kisses. Just yesterday while a friend and I were walking, a taxi pulled up to us and in broken English said, “Hey babies, loooovvveee me” If that man thought that was going to make us get into his taxi he was crazy!!!

Speaking English has also drawn a lot of attention. We have met sooo many people from the US or other English speaking countries simply because they overhear our language. Last week a friend of mine and I were studying in the Starbucks on campus when a man came up to our table and told us he overheard us speaking English and wanted to know where we were from. He was from Idaho and was here visiting a friend. Yesterday, a group of us were in a restaurant when an older couple came to our table and asked where we were from. They live here 6 months out of the year as a retirement get away.

Lastly, the most epic stick out of all was yesterday. All 18 of us had a class field trip in Miraflores. As you can imagine we drew a lot of attention. Eighteen, white, out of place Americans walking around like a herd of cattle. We were all sitting on these steps in El Parque de Amor when all of a sudden this woman comes running up to us and sits in the group with us. Then, we look up and see that her husband is taking pictures of her with all of us like we were a freak show! I asked my professor if he knew them and he told me, “No, I think they are tourists from Columbia” It was soo funny!

You know you stick out like a sore thumb when… random people are more excited to snap a photo of you than the famous park they are standing in.

This weekend, just like the rest, has been a blast. On Friday, I had three friends come to my apartment and we went swimming and did some homework like nerds. Saturday, we had our class field trip in the morning. It was for our Peruvian Literature class and we went to Miraflores and took a tour of all the important parks and learned a lot about the history of those places. We also went to some ruins that are in Miraflores and took a tour. It was fascinating because a lot of the things they told us there overlap with the material we have been covering in our Indigenous Cultures class. That night Raul and Oscar, two of the guys we met at UPC, took us to Parque de Aguas. It was soo much fun! It’s a park filled with different fountains. When the water shuts off you try to run to the middle before it turns back on. Needless to say, we all failed and were drenched! After walking the whole park we returned to our houses, showered and met at 10:30 to head to some discos. They were great! Oscar, Raul, and Andre tried to teach us to salsa. (When you read that sentence put a lot of emphasis on the TRIED) Salsa is so different from the line dancing we do in Nebraska, they actually move their bodies; especially the hips! So hard!!! However, my goal is to be able to salsa by the end of this trip!