January 30, 2014

Yesterday. Hmm. 

Yesterday Natasja and I went to the Market around the corner. I was convinced I new how to get to the market and the store. I was wrong. But now I know how!  We went to the market and bought all sorts of things. Natasja doesn't really have clean clothes because she's been wearing the same few outfits since she was in Cuzco and Machu Pichu. Welcome to exchange student travels I guess. We went and bought some more clothes. I got 2 dresses thank goodness. I want to tell you the funniest thing we see and SMELL in the markets. They smell so bad!!!  They have chickens hanging by their feet in the markets.  Not just a couple. Tons. And it's the entire chicken.  From toe to head. It's really quite funny. Chicken is a HUGE part of the diet here.  There are "pollerias" everywhere.  Pollerias are chicken restaurants. KFC is also popular here. Natasja bargained a lot, or attempted to. They were pretty firm on their prices, surprisingly. I heard it wasn't like that.  After the market we were going to go to the store to pull out money and buy Natasja stuff for a shower. We couldn't find the store. Turns out when I found it later we were super super close!!!  But now I know where they both are so from now on I will find it!!  After the Market we came home and ate. Then we went to the beach with the other Denmark girls and Paola's family. It was so gorgeous!!!!  The waves were big. There were surfers EVERYWHERE. I want to learn to surf. So. Bad. So so so so so so bad. I need to know how to surf, ride a motorcycle, and snowboard. Or my life will never be complete. I have never considered myself beautiful. I mean, I know I'm not the ugliest person in the world, and I have confidence in what I am. I know I am who God made me and stuff. I have never had an issue with my self esteem, but still, I've never thought I was beautiful or anything. But here, men treat me like I'm a goddess or something. I guess they see me as a beautiful white person I suppose. If they knew more white people I'm sure that would be different. I literally could not walk down the beach to the bathroom without EVERY SINGLE MALE looking at me, smiling at me, STOPPING WHAT THEY WERE DOING TO WATCH ME, talking to me, calling to me..  It was super weird. I'm not used to attention like that. It was strange. That's all I can say. Super strange. I was so jealous watching those surfers in the water. I also realized I should have brought my wet suit!!!!  I knew I should have!!!  I didn't feel the water, but all the surfers were wearing wet suits!!  That means before I can learn to surf I will have to buy one. That. Freaking. Sucks. After being on the beach we went up a big hill to the Christo. I don't remember the technical name, but for now, I'll call it that. The few of the city was spectacular from that point. Super pretty.  The beach is part of the Miraflores district. That is supposed to be the nicest part of Lima. It is nice I suppose. I could definitely live there forever, but the standard is just different I suppose. Their highest and nicest city still isn't as high as the city's I'm used to I suppose. I developed a huge headache on the way up the mountain. I'm assuming it is from lack of water, lack of food, and because being a girl we have issues. I didn't have any access to more water to fill my empty bottle up with. After the Christus we drove forever to see this horse statue. I guess the statue has some sort of significance that I didn't understand. Then we drove forever to the Rotary meeting. I've always loved big cities and always pictures myself living in one at some point. My traveling will be the extent of that. I will never settle in a city. I can't STAND the traffic. Especially with a headache. I would open the window for some fresh air and was overtaken with exhaust from a bus or something. It was awful. When we finally arrived at the meeting the exchange students were informed we had to speak in front of everyone. It was either practice for our Spanish test or it was 1 part of the 3 part test. It might have been the speaking portion. I'm not sure. My heart was pounding. I did not want a repeat of last weeks speaking experience. This time was better though. I prayed first. Words just came out of my mouth. Thank goodness. I really really really want to go to the university and not La Merced. I'm sure it would be okay at La Merced. But I'd be so old compared to everyone else!!  I have got to do well on that test. I do not know how long the meeting lasted but we finally went home. It took forever. The car ride was miserable again. I felt like I was going to puke and my head would explode. I told Natasja when we got out of the car that I had never been more happy to touch the ground in my life. We were supposed to stay up late eating grapes (which we needed to go buy) and food and watching a scary movie. But we both felt sick and went to bed after eating dinner. I was starving and couldn't even finish my dinner because I felt so natious. It was still a fun day though, despite having a headache. 

Standing on the hill overlooking the city and beach. 

On the hill overlooking ocean. 

The amazing statue of the horse that you can barely see in the background. 

Natasja and I

The Christus and Me really small down by that van. 

Just people on the beach. 

January 30, 2014

Yesterday. Hmm. 

Yesterday Natasja and I went to the Market around the corner. I was convinced I new how to get to the market and the store. I was wrong. But now I know how!  We went to the market and bought all sorts of things. Natasja doesn't really have clean clothes because she's been wearing the same few outfits since she was in Cuzco and Machu Pichu. Welcome to exchange student travels I guess. We went and bought some more clothes. I got 2 dresses thank goodness. I want to tell you the funniest thing we see and SMELL in the markets. They smell so bad!!!  They have chickens hanging by their feet in the markets.  Not just a couple. Tons. And it's the entire chicken.  From toe to head. It's really quite funny. Chicken is a HUGE part of the diet here.  There are "pollerias" everywhere.  Pollerias are chicken restaurants. KFC is also popular here. Natasja bargained a lot, or attempted to. They were pretty firm on their prices, surprisingly. I heard it wasn't like that.  After the market we were going to go to the store to pull out money and buy Natasja stuff for a shower. We couldn't find the store. Turns out when I found it later we were super super close!!!  But now I know where they both are so from now on I will find it!!  After the Market we came home and ate. Then we went to the beach with the other Denmark girls and Paola's family. It was so gorgeous!!!!  The waves were big. There were surfers EVERYWHERE. I want to learn to surf. So. Bad. So so so so so so bad. I need to know how to surf, ride a motorcycle, and snowboard. Or my life will never be complete. I have never considered myself beautiful. I mean, I know I'm not the ugliest person in the world, and I have confidence in what I am. I know I am who God made me and stuff. I have never had an issue with my self esteem, but still, I've never thought I was beautiful or anything. But here, men treat me like I'm a goddess or something. I guess they see me as a beautiful white person I suppose. If they knew more white people I'm sure that would be different. I literally could not walk down the beach to the bathroom without EVERY SINGLE MALE looking at me, smiling at me, STOPPING WHAT THEY WERE DOING TO WATCH ME, talking to me, calling to me..  It was super weird. I'm not used to attention like that. It was strange. That's all I can say. Super strange. I was so jealous watching those surfers in the water. I also realized I should have brought my wet suit!!!!  I knew I should have!!!  I didn't feel the water, but all the surfers were wearing wet suits!!  That means before I can learn to surf I will have to buy one. That. Freaking. Sucks. After being on the beach we went up a big hill to the Christo. I don't remember the technical name, but for now, I'll call it that. The few of the city was spectacular from that point. Super pretty.  The beach is part of the Miraflores district. That is supposed to be the nicest part of Lima. It is nice I suppose. I could definitely live there forever, but the standard is just different I suppose. Their highest and nicest city still isn't as high as the city's I'm used to I suppose. I developed a huge headache on the way up the mountain. I'm assuming it is from lack of water, lack of food, and because being a girl we have issues. I didn't have any access to more water to fill my empty bottle up with. After the Christus we drove forever to see this horse statue. I guess the statue has some sort of significance that I didn't understand. Then we drove forever to the Rotary meeting. I've always loved big cities and always pictures myself living in one at some point. My traveling will be the extent of that. I will never settle in a city. I can't STAND the traffic. Especially with a headache. I would open the window for some fresh air and was overtaken with exhaust from a bus or something. It was awful. When we finally arrived at the meeting the exchange students were informed we had to speak in front of everyone. It was either practice for our Spanish test or it was 1 part of the 3 part test. It might have been the speaking portion. I'm not sure. My heart was pounding. I did not want a repeat of last weeks speaking experience. This time was better though. I prayed first. Words just came out of my mouth. Thank goodness. I really really really want to go to the university and not La Merced. I'm sure it would be okay at La Merced. But I'd be so old compared to everyone else!!  I have got to do well on that test. I do not know how long the meeting lasted but we finally went home. It took forever. The car ride was miserable again. I felt like I was going to puke and my head would explode. I told Natasja when we got out of the car that I had never been more happy to touch the ground in my life. We were supposed to stay up late eating grapes (which we needed to go buy) and food and watching a scary movie. But we both felt sick and went to bed after eating dinner. I was starving and couldn't even finish my dinner because I felt so natious. It was still a fun day though, despite having a headache. 

Standing on the hill overlooking the city and beach. 

On the hill overlooking ocean. 

The amazing statue of the horse that you can barely see in the background. 

Natasja and I

The Christus and Me really small down by that van. 

Just people on the beach. 

January 29, 2014

Yesterday we went and bought 3 movies from the market down the street. Movies here are only 2 soles!!!!!  That's less then a dollar!!!!!  To BUY a movie. Not just rent it. We bought Frozen, so I was glad I got to finish it. I love Disney movies. I wish we owned them all. Last night we went and picked up another exchange student from Paola and Sergio's house. She is one of the girls who came last week to go to Machu Pichu. She will stay with us for a week, and then she will fly back to Chile. I am glad to have some company now. We speak English to eachother though. So that isn't good at all. I realized I won't be alone for a long time now. By the time Natajsa, the exchange student, leaves here Yanela will be home. We came home last night and I was just starving. I had eaten right before we went to pick her up, but I could just eat and eat and eat here and be hungry in like 10 minutes!!  We came home and had ice cream and jello. They love their Jello here!!  Natajsa is from Denmark. She said she had never seen jello until she went to chile. It's just popular here in South America. But it is cold. So I am fine with it being popular. It is hot here. If my hair was just a tad bit longer it would be helpful. It is starting to go up in a ponytail kind of. But it won't stay up very long before part of it falls out. After we are ice cream and jello Natajsa was super tired so we just went to bed. The room she is staying in is right across the hallway from mine. We ended up standing in the hallway and talking for a long time after we said we were going to bed haha. Papa Elvis walked by and told us that we could just go sit in one another's rooms, but we really were trying to go to bed haha. I like Natasja a lot. I'm sure I'll have pictures with her eventually. 

January 28, 2014

Yesterday was good. After the most amazing lunch ever Sergio came to pick me up on his bike. We met Paola, Lucia, and Veronica back at Sergio's house. Then we went to Aaron's house to pick up him and his girlfriend, Claudia. Aaron's actually lives in a neighborhood in a house, not an apartment type building like me, Sergio, and Paola do. He had a pet monkey, turtles, rabbits, fish, cats, and a dog. It was really cool. We then went from Aaron's house to explore the city in bike. We went up a huge hill. Everyone was scared to drive down the other side. We did it anyways. It was so fun.  The view from the top of the hill was incredible though.  We went into the "richest part of Lima". It was really nice. A lot more touristy and I saw more white people. I suppose the white business men who work in big banks and with big companies live in that area too.  I have never ridin a bike so far!!!  It was literally so far away!!!!  It was nice though (:  You aren't allowed to drive here until you are 18, and even then I don't think it is common to have a car, so they are used to always riding bikes everywhere. We went back to Aaron's house after exploring the city. We watched part of "Frozen" before we had to go home because it was getting late. Frozen was so cute. I wanted to finish it, but my beloved Netflix stopped working, so I will have to finish it later. It was fun riding the bikes at night. I was riding Yanela's bike which had a light on it. The streets are pretty well lit at night too, so that is helpful. By the time I got home I was dead tired and starving. It had been a long day. Super fun, though.  Sergio and Veronica both drove me home. I still don't know my way around this city. I don't know if I ever will!!!  But once Yanela comes home she can help me more. There are 2 thoughts I would like to mention that I have discovered since I came here. 

1) It is possible to have a clean room, because mine is always sparkly clean. So when it was dirty at home it was obviously Rachel's fault. 

2) It is possible to have a clean bottle of toothpaste without toothpaste everywhere. I never knew that was even possible. Welcome to growing up I'm a family with 7 children. 

Hahaha❤️

Me feeding the monkey. 

Veronica feeding the turtle. 

Cute puppy

City view from the top of the hill. The beach is right beyond those buildings. We drove down into the city from that point. Veronica has better pictures on her phone. Once I get them I will put them on this post and take this one off. 

January 26, 2014

I just realized I've been putting the wrong year on all these post. Yesterday was great. We went site seeing and to "La parque de la Reserva". It was awesome. I had so much fun. The whole day was just fun. Here are pictures. Enjoy. 

This is equivalent to the White House. The president lives here. 

Today was stake conference. I liked church. It's the exact same as at home.  Nice peace there. People are nice. 

January 23, 2013

Yesterday was fun. We went to the Zoo. I was just going to be me and Nora.  I didn't think that sounded like it would be fun at all. I asked to bring Dayana with us. I would have asked for Jasmine, too, but she's crazy and I knew the zoo was really far. I didn't know if I wanted to try to handle her haha. Dayana came with us. We had a good time.  We bought ice cream from a vender who stuck their hands through a the holes in a the chain link fence surrounding the park haha. I forgot to tell y'all that Lima is the worlds ugliest city. Ever. No wonder I don't see any tourist.  It. Is. Ugly. But it is huge and exciting still. Every inch that is possible is covered in spray paint. Everywhere. It is crazy. Okay, back to the zoo. The animales were so alive and active.  I have never seen anything like that in Texas. I think Texas is just too got for the animals.  These animales here were interacting like crazy with the people!!!!!  It was so cool!! I was feeding this one goat at one point. It had big horns.  And. It. Was. Mean. It was scary haha. After the Zoo we came home and played games.  We play tons of games with Dayana.  She loves games.  We play them everytime she is here. I'm not complaining though. I always have fun. Then later I went to the Rotary meeting. I had been practicing a speech all day about what I was to say in the meeting. I basically just had to introduce myself and tell where I was from and stuff.  I have never been afraid to speak in front of people in my life. I guess I should have prayed first because it was a disaster.  I got up there and was so nervous and didn't remember to say anything. I just froze. It was crazy.  I was so sad to make such a horrible first impression on everyone. Luckily one of the exchange students just started clapping so everyone in the room did. Then I could sit back down. It was a disaster. I was so sad.  Then the meeting ended and I was glad to get to eat dinner in hopes to make myself feel better haha. BUT. THE DINNER WAS HORRIBLE. Food in Perú is always good. Not this time. Luckily my host mom gave me a big hug and said it was okay. We laughed about it.  She also ate my nasty dinner and didn't make me eat it. She said it had too much lemon in it.  She said she will make it sometime at our house the right way. Diana and Sergio were there too. And their parents. I love being with them. I get along very well with Sergio even though it is hard to communicate.  I also met all the other exchange students. I was glad to speak English with them. I like them.  They are all very nice. The rotary meeting is so far from my house. Some of the kids wanted to hang out after the meeting but I knew it would be so hard to get home that late, and so far away. They wanted to go to a bar anyways.  So I wouldn't have gone anyways.  Jasmine just came into the house. She always gives me big hugs and throws her arms around me and says "te quiero mucho, rebekah!!"  I gotta go because she is starting to talk my ear off. Hahaha.  

Me and Jasmine

Dayana feeding the mean goat. 

Me and Dayana

They had a ball pit like I haven't seen since I was a little kid. 

Here is just a river. There are some of those poor houses I spoke about in my last entree up on the hill. Jasmine is going crazy teaching me Spanish so I gotta go. Bye.