Thursday, March 29, 2012

Arequipa, tests, high schools, and a dinner I won't forget!

Last weekend a group of 13 students from UNK went on a trip to Arequipa together. After class on Thursday I went to Emily's house, we picked up her bags, and came to my house for the night because our plane was to leave at 5 a.m. which meant we would have to leave Surco at 2 a.m. We did this because we thought this way we would actually get some sleep. Welll next thing you know, its midnight. I was putting the last few things in my bag and I asked Emily if she remembered to bring her immigration card. She looked at me with wide eyes and was like "I didn't even bring my passport, let alone my immigration card!!!" Sooo we put some shoes on and headed to her house. We got back to my house at like 12:30, I showered and we laid down at about 1:30 to catch some shut eye. In just 30 minutes I heard the buzzer of my apartment go off and Emily and I were still laying in bed. I figured surely that couldn't be the taxi driver Nela had called for us because he was to arrive at 2:15 a.m. and we are in Peru where absolutely no one is early!!! But then Fabricio called my name from his room so we both jumped up, grabbed our bags, and headed out the door. We then directed the taxi driver to my friends Mary and Laura's houses and headed to the airport. We were all chillaxed until we realized we didn't recognize any of the roads we were on and we didn't think he was taking the correct route to the airport. He took a weird turn and we were on an empty road, near the beach, and it was 2 am. Panic struck in for us all! I asked the man where we were going and he said we were headed to the airport but this was a better way to go because it was faster. Then being paranoid we started noticing every little thing. The driver put his hand up to his mirror and right after he did that we noticed that another taxi had pulled up behind us. This taxi then happened to flash his lights. "They're communicating!!!!!!!" Buttt....luckily the other taxi passed us and we were alone on the road again. I started to look around some more and I realized we were entering the district that we had passed through to get to the zoo in January. I then remembered that our friends had told us that the airport was near this district. After about 5 more minutes, Laura had spotted a sign that said Airport and we all took a sigh of relief!!!

Once we landed in Arequipa we were soooo tired (imagine that! After just 30 minutes of sleep and a little on the plane!) so right when we got to the hostel we all took about a 2 hour snoozer. There were still 2 ladies in our 8 person room so there was obviously a shortage of beds. To solve this problem many of us paired up and Mary, Laura, and I tripled up to a single bed. It was quite cozy if I do say so myself! As soon as we woke up we headed to La Plaza de Armas and found some grub. Then, a lady approached us and offered us a 4 hour tour of the whole city in a double decker bus for just 15 soles a piece which is like $6. What a deal!!! It was so awesome! We got to see the city, the outskirts of the city, ride horses, and try queso helado. After the tour we went to some tour companies and set up the rest of our weekend. 

On Saturday we got up and the hostel served us some amazing pancakes that were filled with bananas and had drizzle on top! Can you believe we got pancakes for breakfast, hot water, comfy beds, and computers with internet for just $9 a night!!! I can't either! And the best/ most surprising part was it wasn't even sketch! It was a nice part of town, I didn't feel like I would get a freaky disease from the bed sheets, and there weren't any goons lurking outside!! Anyways....after breakfast we put on our suits and headed to the tour company where  a bus took us all to the Chile River to go white water rafting. On the way there we stopped at this little place and put on wet suits, water shorts, rain jacket, a huge life jacket, and a helmet! At this point I knew it would be legit! Once we got to the river we split up into groups for the rafts and they began to explain the commands to us. One was like "Get inside the boat!!!!!" Another was "Everyone to the left/right side of the raft!!" I've been rafting before but have never had to do anything like this. Now I really knew it would be legit!!! We all got in the water and the adventure began. There were sooo many huge boulders and we kept getting stuck and our raft would almost tip! At one point I looked back and one of the rafts had hit a boulder and completely flipped! Not too long after we were going down this part where it was really narrow with huge rapids and before I could even think about what was going on, I looked up and woop! there goes Emily! seconds later, there goes Derek! They were floppin in the water and both of them managed to hold on to the side of the raft so we were able to pull them back in. Once we got to the bottom of this part we stopped to let the other rafts catch up to us and all of a sudden I heard Mary yell, "look! that raft only has 3 Nebraskanssss!!!!! Where's the other!?!?!?" We looked back to the narrow passage way and Andrei was just sitting on a huge rock because he had also fallen out of his raft. All 3 guides got out of the rafts and threw him a rope to pull him to shore. Later we were going through another area of the river like this but there were huge trees and we had to put our heads on our knees so that the branches would just smack our helmets and not rip our faces up. Once we got to the end of the rafting trip where it was calm they let us out of the raft and we were able to swim a little. It was soo much fun! That night we ate at a Peruvian restaurant and I ordered Arroz con Pollo which is just green rice with some chicken. But, the girl I was sitting next to had guinea pig so I decided to try a bite sized piece the size of my thumb nail. It took me about 3 minutes to get the courage to do it. I'm sooo sorry Norma!!!!! (my old pet guinea pig) We then went back to the hostal and got some sleep because a bus would pick us up at 2 a.m. for our tour of Colca Canyon.

Boy did 2 a.m. come fast!  At 6 a.m. we arrived to a little town where we were able to eat some breakfast and then we drove up to Colca Canyon where our guide let us walk around a little and we were able to take it all in. It was soo pretty! Once our tour of Colca was over we headed to some hot springs and swam for about 45 minutes. After that we headed back to Arequipa, ate some dinner, walked around the city some more, and went to sleep. The next morning we flew out at 7:30 a.m. and I walked in the door of my house at 11:30 a.m. 

This week has been sooo busy! On Monday I had a quiz for my Indigenous Cultures class, on Wednesday I had an oral exam for my Conversation class, and on Thursday I had an exam in my grammar class. I feel like all my exams went well! I hate to say it but I actually enjoyed one of them! I enjoy taking my Conversation oral exams because we go in and read an article about a random topic then talk one on one with our professor about the article and we usually get off on another topic. This time he asked me all about religions and politics in Nebraska so it was kind of an interesting conversation! However, I'm just really hating my Grammar class! It is so dry and boring like grammar is in any language! Also, there are so many verb forms that don't exist in English! Come on Spanish!!!...English functions just fine without all of these verbs! Also, on Wednesday I went with a group to a high school to help them with their English. It was a lot of fun! We just sat in groups and had conversations with the students. They prepared questions for us and we talked and told them stories. 

And now about the dinner that I will never forget! On Tuesday night when Fabricio got home he asked me if I was hungry and he was glad to hear that I was because he said he was dying of starvation. So he put some pjs on and said we were going to cook. I was sooo excited because the last time he cooked it was absolutely delicious!! He got out some noodles and started to boil them! Woooo!!!!! pasta!!! But then he got out a can of sardines and I was thinking....ooooo noooo!!!! It was literally the whole fish bodies, silver scales, and the heads were chopped off. He then pounded them so they were just slime balls and put them in a mixture of like ketchup, oil, and some other seasonings. Soooo for dinner that night I had a mixture of fish guts with ketchup over noodles. MMMMM!!!!! While I was eating I could see the stringy guts and the silver scales sticking to my noodles. I told him I liked it and all but somehow he has learned my true food feelings I think! He was like "nooo I know you Nicki!" hahahaha soooo luckily I only had to finish about half of my bowl and I was able to throw the rest out!
On our bus tour in Arequipa

La Plaza de Armas of Arequipa

Horse back riding in Arequipa!

Colca Canyon!

Colca Canyon!

sharing the bed for a little snooze on the first day

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