Randomness: English, Food, Laundry, Family

Not a lot has happened since I last posted because I was so late with my last one so I will just write about some things in general! First, "yes Fabricio, I understand English!" In January during one of my first weeks here I was sitting in my room while Fabricio was in his and he called me in. He was watching a t.v. show that was in English with Spanish subtitles and he was like "Entiendes?" (Do you understand?) I was like "Yes!" and I thought this was just the weirdest thing! During the next few months he kept doing that alllll the time...to TV shows, movies, radio, anything with English! When we went to Trujillo this last time we were sitting on the bus and the movie they were playing happened to be in Spanish with English subtitles so I asked him if he understood and at first he had the weirdest look on his face like "what in the heck?!" but then it clicked and he started laughing. Now this is just a joke and every time the TV is in English he always asks me if I can understand what it is saying!

The 6 Empanadas and juice

I still amaze myself at some of the things I have been able to eat here without completely vomiting and I think this story may just take the cake as one of the grossest. On Sunday I went with Fabricio to this new Empanada (like a runza) place in Miraflores for lunch. We got 6 Empanadas to share and some Maricuya juice. Each Empanada was a different kind like chicken, beef, lomo saltado, etc. Welll I was eating this one and it was a deep red, blackish, brownish color of goo with rice, and carrots and maybe beef I'm really not sure. And Fabio was like "It tastes weird huh?" And I said "yea, what is it" then he was like "first, you should eat it." UHOH. you know its bad news bears when someone won't tell you what you are eating till after its in the irretrievable zone! Soo I was like ooo gosh! But when I had about one bite left he was like "como se dice sangre en ingles?" (How do you say "sangre" in English) SANGRE=BLOOD!!! I couldn't believe it!! I was eating some freaking curdled blood mixed with rice in some bread. MMMMMMM. I still had about a bite left so I just smothered that thing in sauce and gulped it down while thinking about rainbows and butterflies.

Hmmm this blog really is just going to be a bunch of randomness! But, next on the list is laundry! I'm not sure I have ever blogged about my laundry yet. I have quite the process to get my clothes cleaned! However, I don't have it the worst...one of my friends has to do her laundry by hand! Anywhoo, we have a machine but its like one side is a big empty vat with a little motor on the bottom and the other side is a little container with holes on it that spins. Below are the steps I must follow:
1. Fill side 1 of machine with water, clothes, and soap then let the clothes churn for 15 minutes.
2. Take clothes out, drain water, and repeat step #1.
3. Take clothes out, drain water, fill water, put clothes back in and let churn in just water to rinse them for 10 minutes.
4. Take clothes out, drain water, refill water and put this liquidy soap stuff in and let clothes soak for 5 min.
5. Drain water and put clothes in side 2 of machine and let them spin for 2-3 cycles of 5 minutes
6. Hang clothes all over my room (On my closet doors, on hangers, on my drawers, etc.) and open my window and let my clothes dry.

I don't really have any other basic things to talk about so I guess I will just end with saying that I am soo happy I got placed with the family I did! Before I came here I sent Fabricio an e-mail and he had a picture of himself on his google account and so I was able to see what he looked like and while I shouldn't have judged by looks I really thought he looked like quite the creeper so I was a tad worried! Come to find out, it was just an "artsy" photo of him and for the record he really does NOT look like a creeper in real life! Anyway, as I'm sure I've mentioned before I live with Fabio (25) and Nela (25) and they are both just friends and they are both AWESOME! Nela is probably one of the funniest girls I have ever met! She knows absolutely no English but even when I couldn't communicate very well with my Spanish we were havin' a blast. Recently she has been asking me to teach her little phrases in English and we currently have a sticky note on the kitchen door that says "What do you want to eat?" She also acts like my little mom sometimes. When I travel she will call me like 4 times to make sure I'm okay, and one time after an earthquake she thought I was home alone so not even 20 seconds after it finished my phone was ringing. Fabricio is also awesome! He has been the one who has really helped me with my Spanish. When I'm talking and I say a verb wrong or a word isn't right or whatever he just says it to correct me and its awesome because he doesn't do it soo much or so over the top that I lose my train of thought. He also knows a little English which was really helpful in January and is nice now because if I don't know a word I usually say it in English to see if he knows it or not and sometimes he does! Its always nice when I can get the easy way out and not have to describe it! Also, he is really into showing me the ropes on this whole living in Peru thing. He always makes sure I try new foods (not every time is disgusting!) and is always informing me on the history and stuff like that. Overall he's pretty chillax. And I'd have to say I think I truly lucked out on my family because they are awesome!

Nela and Fabricio