Reunion, BIG Change, and my Birthday

          Ever since December, I have been having problems with my last family, and I did not have the guts to say anything until March 13th when we had a reunion. I finally talked up and the directors of AFS Huancayo decided to have me change families immediately. That night I went to my house and packed up all of my stuff and stayed in the directors house (with Sirley and Amparo). I was going to stay there until I found another permanent family. I went to school and did everything normally. I was there until my birthday on Saturday, so I was pretty optimistic of what my birthday could be like. I ended up playing soccer that morning, and then in the afternoon, everyone came over to celebrate. We all talked and ate cake and had a great time. I was able to talk to everyone in my family including my twin brother.
          The cake was chocolate with chocolate icing. It was really great. On your birthday in Peru, the smash your head into the cake which therefore covers your face in icing or whipped cream (whichever you are using), but for my cake, the icing was really thick, and did not come off on my face. After the party, I had to pack up my stuff again because I was going to the other directors house to stay, it turns out that the directors with whom I was staying were headed to Lima and I could not stay alone. This was only for one night, because another family had just called and were going to host me for the remainder of the year.
          When I got to Margarita's house, her ex husband was there with some of his friends because his birthday was the next day. It was pretty cool celebrating there also. We just drank lemonade and different drinks like that. The next day, I ate breakfast, and at 4, I was ready to go to my new house which turns out to be the relatives of Claudi's host family. When I got to the house, I had already known most of them because I was there before to visit. Claudi lives with two old parents, and the sister of his old mom (or grandmother how he calls her) has a sister who with her husband are whom I am living with. My old parents or grandparents, have multiple kids. One daughter lives in the house above us with her husband and son. Her other son lives  in the house next to mine with his wife and daughter. Claudi's grandmother's daughter lives in the other house next to mine with her daughter, and  in the other house next to mine is where Laura, the German girl, and her family live, so I am around a lot of people. My family is really nice, and they even got another cake to celebrate my birthday again. They got a cake, which had the same type of icing as before so it did not come off on my face when they again put my face in the cake. After a long night, I had school in the morning, and the next week started.

School starts

          Well March 4th is when school started, but I went on the 7th as my first day because of issues with Academia. I ended up being in the same room as Claudi which was awesome. They divided the 5th year into 4 rooms, Medecine, Letters, and two for Science. I am in 102 which is a science room. During the week, I have 2 classes of Biology, Economy, Lenguage, Geography, Ecology, Gym, Trigonometry, and Arithmetic. I have 3 classes of Algebra, Geometry, Verbal reasoning, and Math reasoning. I have 4 hours of Physics, and Chemistry, and 1 hour of English, Philosophy, Tutor, and Psychology. I am really enjoying  this year.
          On March 8th, the Thai kids came. Usually each year, 1 or two Thai kids come for the year in March, they stay until January when they return. This is based on the school year in Thailand. There are two kids, a guy and a girl. The girl is in Rosario, and the boy, Mo, is in San Juan Bosco with Claudi and I. He was put in the same room as us also because he does not speak a lot of Spanish, and I need to translate for him until he learns. He is really smart though, especially in the math and science, because those classes are universal.

Catch Up and Tumbes

          Well, I know this is the most late any of my posts have been, but a lot has happened during February and March. During February I continued playing tennis until I got a call on the 25th to go to Tumbes which is a city in the far north of Peru that is scorching hot. There was a trip to the north for any AFS student who wanted to visit the north, but had to pay a lot to go for 14 days to places like Trujillo, Chiclayo, and Tumbes. The few students who did not want to pay for this trip were able to go for the last 2 days in Tumbes for free. AFS paid for everything. It was a really awesome trip, and the greatest part was that I was able to see the 60 some kids in all of Peru. There were some from Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Thailand, and many others.
          The other students from Huancayo were already on the trip to the north, so Claudius and I were the only ones going for just Tumbes. We first took a bus to Lima and then stayed the night in Lima. When we arrived in Lima, a girl from Belgium, who was living in Puno, was there. She could speak French, Flemish, English, and Spanish. I was so jealous. We walked around all of the center of Lima and went to this famous big water and light show that was awesome. Afterwards we went to eat chicken and then went back to the hostal. The three of us stayed in this giant room with 6 beds, which was pretty nice, but if you know how Lima is during this season, the temperature was a little uncomfortable to sleep in. Around 3 in the morning, a dude from Virginia came in. He had just returned from Cuzco and missed his flight, so he had to stay the night. He had lived in China for 2 years, and could speak perfect Mandarin. That was pretty cool. On the other hand, his Spanish was horrid. The next morning, the three of us, minus the Virginian, got up and ate our breakfast, that consisted of bread, eggs, and a glass of orange juice, and I mean precisely one glass of orange juice. Believe me, I asked! After playing ping pong with Claudi, we all went to the bus station. The Belgian was going with another bus company, so Claudi and I went to Oltursa where we met a French girl, a German girl, German dude and a Belgian dude, who were all from Iquitos.
          The bus ride to Tumbes from Lima is 23 hours, and luckily we did not have any problems on the road. The food on the bus was nice, but it was not a lot, so I was starving when we all arrived. The 6 of us were the last ones to arrive in Tumbes, and we had to rush to get to the hostal and then eat lunch. The hostal was awesome because there were about 30 gringos in one building. The strangest part is that because the Americans are not part of the opening reunion in Peru, I did not know anybody else who was there, and nobody else knew me. I did know Madeleine, Laura, and Ayana, who kindly greeted me when I arrived. Sam and Kate got kicked out of the program for breaking the drugs rule. Claudi and I went up to our room who we were sharing with two other Germans, which is really upsetting because the three of them talk in German the whole time, but they are really cool, which is great. We went down stairs and walked across the street to the restaurant where everyone eats every day. The food is good some days, but not a lot. The rice and lemonade are great though. After eating, we all got into like 4 combis and went to our first reunion. It is kind of interesting being stuffed in a combis with about 20 other students in a 18 passenger combis.
          At the first reunion, we all talked and socialized while the volunteers were getting ready. Before the reunion, we all had the choice to send in photos of our experiences and write a paper about one of the 6 given topics. Sadly, out of the 65 kids, only 6 wrote an essay and only 4 sent in pictures (out of which Laura, Madeleine, and I did the both). Out of the people that wrote the essays, we were all put in groups that pertained to each essay topic, then the rest of the students could write their names on one of the papers according to what topic they wanted to be part of. I was part of the transportation group, seeing as I wrote an essay about the transportation.
          In our groups we all discussed issues about our topic and presented it on a big sheet of paper in front of everyone. Laura and I ended up presenting as we were the two willing americans in our group. After the reunion, we all went back to the hostal and hung out the rest of the night. We played wolverine later on which was really fun. I ended up going to bed around 11 which was pretty good for me.
          The next day we had another reunion early after breakfast. This time we had to put on a skit about our topic, and our topic was so fun and easy to put together a skit about. We started with a combis and acted out all of our funny experiences, and then did the same with a taxi. It was quite hilarious and we got many compliments afterwards.

          After the reunion, we all piled into combis again and went to the beach. This was the first time that I would be swimming in Peru, so I was pumped. The beach was beautiful, and only about 30 minutes away. At the beach we all swam around and then played beach soccer with a bunch of the Germans and Belgian dudes, which was awesome. Out of the 65 students, 29 are from Germany, 18 are from Belgium, and the rest are minorities less than 5 each. Also, about 45 are girls and the rest are boys. After the beach we all took a group photo and then after eating about 3 snow cones, we all went back to the hostal and hung out for the rest of the afternoon.

          That night, because it was the last night of the trip, everyone was partying and smoking and drinking on the roof. There was only about 20 of us not on the roof or smoking, and only about 10 of us not drinking. In those 10 included Laura, Madeleine and I, three of us from the US which just shows that we Americans are awesome. Most of the kids then went to a disco, but the 20 of us who were downstairs stayed, even though about 10 were sleeping at this point. The rest of us were all in one room talking, playing chess, telling stories, and different things like this. Then around two in the morning, the kids got back from the disco and everyone started scattering off to their own rooms except about 8 of us who stayed back and ended up sleeping on the same room. It was really uncomfortable for me, basically because I was sleeping dead on the cold hard floor without any type of blanket or pillow, but it was really fun.

          The next morning we woke up late and there was a small reunion on the roof at which they gave out the rewards for the photo competition, which because there was only 4 of us, was a gift to each person. I got a box of mini King Kongs, which is a little cookie type thing with chocolate and manjar blanco. Some of the kids were scheduled to return home at 12:30, some at around 3, and some at 7 that night. I was scheduled for 3, with mostly everyone else. After saying bye to everyone, like the 30 of us went to the bus terminal where we all got on the bus to go back to Lima. I was lucky and was able to sit on the first floor which had a bigger TV, colder air, and had better seats. There was only about 6 of us on the first floor, so it was really cool. This trip back was not such a success in terms of speed. We ended up having 2 long stops which brought the trip up to 26 hours. and this only included two meals, so we were all starving by the time we arrived.
         When we arrived in Lima, some of the kids left, but 10 of us stayed at the same hostal as before. We all went out to Hockey's, which is a giant mall. At this mall, we kind of got separated, and Gilfi, Calvin, and I were walking around alone which was cool because we did not have to be with the girls and go in every store, but was bad because none of us had any of the cell numbers of the others and could not find them in the whole store after walking around for two hours. We did find a Subway, which was amazing, but was definitely not the same quality as those in the US. Later we went back to the hostal, which was a little difficult because we did not have the address, but after finding an AFS card in my wallet found a neat little way of getting home.
          The next day, the kids going to Huancayo left at 7 in the morning, and again we were on the first floor which was awesome. I was able to sleep more and we finally arrived in Huancayo which was a beautiful change in weather. This was the 2nd of March, and school started the 4th which was really upsetting that vacation was coming to a close.

Lima

      
          On the 22nd, I went to the Notario in order to legalize the copy of my passport in oder to travel to Lima. We payed one sol for this request, but it took 40 minutes just to stamp and sign my paper which I do not understand why, but it is what it is. After this, we went to the house of my AFS director, Shirley, who needed to talk to me to figure out my plans in case I wanted to travel. Coincidentally, I was leaving the next day to go to Lima, so it was very good timing for this meeting. She basically told me about different things I should be worring about and things I need to do, like to stay in communication, while I am over there. One of the problems with going to Lima is that I would miss tennis which I did not really want to do since I was paying for the classes, but the coach said that I could make them up the next week. I also wanted to look for my calculator which had a better chance of being imported to Lima than Huancayo. So, After buying some food the next morning and sitting on a bus ride for 8 hours which fortunately I did not throw up which on the contrary was not the same luck that Lucia had.
          We arrived in Lima at 9 at night and waited for Charleys, Lucia's older brother. Forunately, Angela and Kris stayed in Huancayo which definitly helped when it came to staying in a confined room with her. Charleys finished his job and we all went up to his apartment and then walked down the street to eat something. I ended up eating pápa rellena which is a food item that I really enjoy. It is basically taking mashed potatoes without the butter and milk, just potatoes mashed and then forming them into the form of a potatoe again while filling them with meat and veggies. Then you put them in egg and flour and then fry them in a skillet to crisp up the outside. They are served with raw onions that were soaked in lemon juice making the meal even better. After eating we went back to his apartment to sleep. Another reason we went to Lima is because it was Charleys' birthday on the 24th, so we went to celebrate. The apartment is small, but it is nice, if you think sleeping on the floor in 95 degree weather with only one small fan and without air condicioning is nice, then yes, it is nice. There is one queen size bed that Lucia and mamá slept on and I slept on a two inch thick piece of really not firm foam while Charleys slept on a mattress on the other side.
          Now I do not know what you guys think about sleeping in your underwear in front of others of the opposite sex, but that is what I did. I slept on top of the foam and a blanket and with nothing on but my underwear which still does not satisfy your urge to move and sit in front of the fan that is ironically placed on the other side of the bed where, because I am on the floor lower than the bed, does not blow air onto me. Luckily I am tall and my feet were able to get some air which surprisingly can cool you down quite nicely.
          Another cool thing about his apartment is that he has cable with after living for 4 months with only 20 channels, really does make the heat seem to go away. Now I am not saying that living in Huancayo is like the slums. In fact it is quite the oposite. My peruvian dad and brother both work at a bank and we have a car and two computers (which often do not have internet) and running water that can sometimes be hot. This is a lot to be thankful for since I could be in a worse position. Also, about the cable, in the US I do not have cable. I have about 20 channels, the same (well the stations are different, but the same number of channels).
          On cable, there was AXN, FOX, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, WARNER, and ANIMAL PLANET. There are others, but those are the main ones that I watched. AXN is basically all crime shows like CSI, Criminal Minds, and CSI Miami. On FOX, there was Glee, The Middle, Modern Family, and others that I had not seen for 4 months. Discovery Channel and Animal Planet you know, but WARNER was my favorite. I got to see the BIG BANG THEORY, which is by far my favorite show.
          Thursday, the 24th, in the morning, mamá prepared the egg whites and wine to eat for Charleys' birthday. We ate this and then Charleys left for work at 8. We spent the whole day at home sweating in the 97 degree weather, and then when Charleys arrived home from his job for his lunch break we all ate Cuy which mamá had brought along on the bus. Due to the heat and humidity, taking more than one shower a day is very popular. Charleys takes a shower in the morning, a shower when her returns for his lunch break and then just washes up at night. Even food in the freezer does not freeze solid. Ice Cream is like pudding and not much colder. Charleys returns to work at 4 and then gets home at around 8 or 9. Thursday night, Charleys and his coworkers went to play soccer. I went too, with the hope of being able to play, but I ended up just sitting down and watching the whole time which was fine with me because those men fight like little girls. "No you touched it last", "That is a foul", and such. That night Charleys went out to drink for his birthday and did not get back until 6 in the morning. He was definitely drunk.
          On the 25th, Charleys got home for lunch at 12 and we went to the zoo which is actually really big. Another thing that is really awesome about Lima is that I got to wear the shorts that I brought to Peru. At the zoo, there were tons of animals, and we even were able to see a seal show. After the zoo, Charleys took us out to lunch which I ate Chicharron de Pollo which is basically chicken fingers but a lot lot lot lot lot better. After this we returned home and waited until the next day of activities. Another thing about Lima is that we drink a ton basically it is all Aquarius and Yogurt which I am perfectly fine with.
          The 26th, which was a Saturday, Charleys finished his job at 1 like all of the Saturdays and we left to go to the center of Lima. I could not take pics on the way because of people that will break your car window to steal something while you are at a stop light. Basically the center of Lima seems like another country because there are a whole lot of white people, basically all tourists. We took a tour bus to drive around the whole city and then walked up and down different streets looking for my Calculator, but again no luck. After we finished all this, we got ice cream and took lots of pics around the gov. building. Then we drove to San Borja to pick up Rocio, Charleys' girlfriend, and went to this shopping center where you can see the beach. It was late at night, so we could not see much of the water, but it was still refreshing smelling the water. Then we returned home and slept another sweaty night.
          The 27th, was a Sunday, and like all Sundays, Charleys does not work, so we were able to have a fun day, the whole day. In the morning one of his friends showed up to spend the day with us. We went to a big shopping center that had a small amusemnet park called Coney Island which was a real crappy Coney Island as it was not even an island to begin with. We walked around the all shopping center and I ended up buying a gift for Kristhel who everytime when she calls us asks me to bring her a gift. Then the others bought a snowcone, but I found a STARBUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Say hello to Frapucinno. It tasted so amazing after not having any for so long. They are expensive, but it was by far worth it. Then we went and bought Chinese food and China Wok and watched Barca play against some weird team that starts with an O. When we left around the 70th minute, Barca was up 5 to 1 and Messi had scored 4 of the goals, one from a penalty kick. I was pretty pumped for that and also, the chinese food was amazing. We were planning on going back to Huancayo that night, but the path was closed from rain, so we had to stay another day and I had to miss another day of tennis, but I still was not upset. I really enjoy Lima.
          The 28th, we went to the house of one of mamá's brothers who was not at home, but his wife and youngest daughter were, so we ended up walking around town with them and then we went out for more chinese food which is really awesome. The one thing is that they do not serve a lot of spicy food. It is salty or sweet. Whichever you want. I usually go with the salty as I do not like pineapple and peach mixed with my chicken and rice. Then later we went to the movies at the mall and saw Hansel and Gretel, the Witch Slayers. It was not subtitled or anything, and it was purely in spanish, but I enjoyed it just the same and I understood everything. I am getting pretty pumped with my language skills. We bought a super giant popcorn which definitely holds up to its name as it was the largest popcorn I had ever seen. At around 9 we left to go to the bus terminal and I got onto Charleys' cell phone and found my house and my school on Google Earth. I was pretty pumped.
          After 8 and a half hours in a bus we arrived in Huancayo at 6:30 and we ate breakfast and I got ready for tennis for the first time in about a week. Tennis today was not the greatest day as I was a bit rusty after relaxing and not sleeping much the night before, but it was nice to get back to my routine.

 

tennis, tennis, and more TENNIS!!!!

          Starting on the 8th of January, I joined the tennis club to play tennis. I have got to say, playing tennis really picked up my spirit after the holidays without my US family.  I ended up joining every day of the work week which is minus the weekend for an hour every day. During the tennis time, I did not do much other stuff with it also being the summer break. I have been studying Precalc and have been looking for a calculator, but finding a Texas Instruments Calculator in Peru is more difficult than you think and I had not look.
          On the 10th and 11th I went to play tennis like usual and ended up putting a new grip and new strings on my racket. I do not know if any of you know, but a can of three tennis balls is like 7 dollars here, which I think is pretty expensive, but importations can be. On Saturday, the 12th and that weekend, we went out to visit more of Huancayo, which is enjoyable, but can get a little annoying stuffed in the back of the car with Lucia, Angela, and most of all, Kristhel who has this idea that I love to sit in the car hugging her the whole time, and by the whole time, I mean literally the whole time.
          The next week, I had more tennis and I really think I am improving fast. There are two other kids in my group, and the both of them do not really know how to play tennis very well, so the class is a bit boring when I am playing with them, but when I play against them, it is fun. I also enjoy playing one on one iwht the coach is really great, and I improve a lot faster when I am plying with or against those who are much better than me because it provides me with a challenge. On the 16th, I stayed after to play this game that is sort of like tennis and racquet ball combined. You play on a wall and hit a really flat racquet ball against it using a wooden paddle that is smaller than the racquet used for racquet ball. I had never played before, but within five minutes of learning the rules and practicing, I was better than most of the kids I was playing with. I defintiely can say that I am a fast learner. After tennis on the 16th, Lucia and I went to get cake. We ate a cake called tres leches which is really good. It is basically a white cake that they poor milk over and then ice with whipped cream icing. It comes in chocolate, strawberry, mocha, and vainilla, but I have only tried it in vainilla. I really do enjoy it.
          That weekend, the 19th and 20th, we started out by going to the new arcade games in hope of playing dance dance revolution, but it was not working that day, so we ended up going shopping for the weekly food, and then we played air hockey and basketball. I set a new record on both of the basketball games. I am definitely pretty good at that, or everyone else who has played it is not. Then we went out and Papá treated us all to Pollo a la Brasa, which is great every time I try it, but I enjoy trying it in different places. The main difference is the french fries, that are really different in the each restaurant. I like the crunchy ones, but sometimes the restaurants serve you really big and mushy french fries which I do not like.
          Monday and Tuesday I continued playing tennis until Wednesday which I will tell you about in my next blog.

New Years

          Okay, first of all, yes, this blog is almost a month late, but since I have not had internet in my house since the 1st, I have a reason to back up my tardiness. I have also not gotten to talk with my parents or friends until today, and I was a bit upset about missing out on my blogs for January, but I am going to try to basically remember everything I did this past month and write it in a few blogs.

          On Sunday, the 30th, Lucía and I went out to pick up the ingredients to bake cookies and guess what? They put a STARBUCKS in the mall. I was so psyched that I ended up buying a drink for Lucía and I because she had never had a Frappuccino.
          On Monday the 31st, we basically finished decorating the house for New Years. We just stayed in the house and hung out until around 2 when we murdered the family chicken to prepare for New Years. We then prepared that chicken, and a turkey and pig that we had bought to take to a place where they would cook them. Unfortunately the place that could roast the turkey and chicken could not roast the pig because of the grease and stuff. Then we went back to the house and I put on my lucky yellow underwear which is a tradition for New Years and my skinny jeans which were my gift for New Years and then we waited until around 10 when we went out to get the meat that had finished roasting. At around 11, the family of Papá’s brother arrived and we began to dance with the new stereo system that my dad had bought. At 11:30 we began to plate the grapes which are a tradition in Peru. When the clock tolls midnight, everyone eats 12 grapes as fast as they can. Unfortunately these grapes have seeds in them making them hard to eat fast unless you want to just chew the seeds and all. Then the family of one of Mamá’s brothers arrived and we continued dancing and handing out yellow eyeglasses that say 2013 and whistles and gadgets to make noise. We also went outside to pay with fireworks and stuff and everyone got wine (my favorite) to drink. Also at around 12 midnight, everyone drinks champagne to celebrate. I do not exactly like Champagne too much, but it is fine. I still think red wine is my favorite. At 11:50 we all got into a circle and started talking about what we want to do for the new year and then with 10 seconds left we all started counting down and then when 12 rang we all cheered and started eating grapes which is not that easy when you are also giving out hugs and have a glass of champagne in your hand, but it was fun. After 12:00 we all just laughed and talked and we served the pig, filling, pineapple sauce, and the usual potatoes. At 2 the other kids and I began to watch Spider Man and then they left at around 3. I continued watching the movie until around 4 when I fell asleep.
          The rest of the week I had more late nights with watching movies and such. It is not because I want to go to sleep late it is because I am bored and do not know what to do. I will definitely say that I do enjoy the school schedule more, but I do not enjoy school more. 
          On Saturday we went out to drive around Huancayo. We ended up driving completely around Huancayo in a hail storm. The weather was not too pretty, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Sunday, again we went out around town and then we planned to go to the movies the next day, but more rain prevented that. I ended up just studying my Precalc book that I have to learn before I return.
          Monday, the 7th, my sister Angela went out to check out the country club to see if there are groups that I can play with. It turns out that there are, but I wanted to see how good they were before I paid money to play, so on Tuesday I went to the club with Lucía and found out that the group was formed by beginners, and I did not really want to play tennis with kids that were just starting to learn to play. The coach actually said I could come back in the afternoon to play with him and he would see my skill level and figure something out. I was so pumped that I would get to play tennis down here, but unfortunately my skill level might not have been so great as I have not played in like 6 months since school the last year.