Three days worth of blogging.

I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been super busy. Not really, I actually just didn’t feel like it. Plus, I was concerned that I had appendicitis. Again, not really. But I had a sharp pain in my side for two days so naturally, I Web MDed my symptoms. None of the alternatives sounded very appealing, so I stuck with the self-diagnosis. The goods news is that I feel fine now (I was sort of hoping that I had already acquired the parasite that Sally informed me about, or as I like to call it, the “love bug”). I treated my ailment with lack of sleep and profuse drinking and it worked wonders.

Now I have to write about the last three days. Sorry this is really boring, but as I am using this as my travel journal (aka 25% of my grade) it’s sort of imperative that I do this.

Wednesday, June 2

We went to the centro and toured the Inquisition Museum and the Congress building. I didn’t really dig the Inquisition Museum too much because it showed all of these examples of torture and I don’t handle violence all that well. The Congress building was neat, and we saw Peru’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Fatty sidenote: After the bus dropped us off at the university, I prepared myself for our long walk home. I’ve come to dread this walk. This was coupled with the fact that we were all starving. As we were crossing the street, I smelt something delicious, reminiscent of the Great State Fair of Oklahoma. What could be the source the sweet smell of funnel cake thousands of miles away from Oklahoma in Lima, Peru? Buñuelos! Yes, Ryan, it’s true. They weren’t as good as the ones by our old hostel in Valencia, and they called them something different, but I was still super excited. My roommates followed my lead and got some too (I am such a trendsetter). Now if I could only find a suitable doner…

yummmm....

That night, I had plans to meet Bobbi and Calin in Larco Mar for a drink. As always, I can’t go anywhere without an entourage, so our whole group came – even the boys (all two of them)! I inundated Bobbi and Kayla with questions about their study abroad experience and we compared stories of how awesome/frustrating things can be while studying abroad.

Thursday, June 3

I felt like such a local today on campus; a legitimate PUCP student. When walking into campus, I saw Bobbi. Then on our way to get coffee near our classroom, I saw our guide (aka my homeboy), Luis, and then we saw the exchange student administrator! Granted, those are the only three people I know in Lima outside of our group, but it was still cool.

Today was actually really intense so unfortunately the jokes are going to be kept at a minimum (so basically none at all). This is my fifth time in Peru, and I’ve always been aware that Peru has experienced terrorism, but I had never once heard of the Shining Path (Peru’s major terrorist group) before this class. It just blows my mind how oblivious I can be sometimes. Without going into too much detail, The Shining Path was a Maoist group started in 1980 dedicated to a new order achieved through violence. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s there was massive killings on both sides – the Shining Path and the military. We watched a documentary on the rise and fall of the Shining Path in the morning

That afternoon, we went to talk with someone from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (a commission formed to investigate the human rights abuses during the time of the Shining Path). We all asked questions about everything from the origins of the Shining Path to the government’s response to the likelihood of resurgence.

Then we went to a monument dedicated to all of those who were killed as a result of the Shining Path called “el ojo que llora” or the crying eye. It commemorates the 45,000 people who were killed. It struck me as odd because it was obscure monument, at the side of a park, and it was sort of unimpressive. On the other hand, the Oklahoma City National Memorial commemorates 168 people and is very grand and beautiful. By chance, we ended up arriving right before a ceremony that involved placing rocks with the names of the deceased in the memorial (the names were once painted on the rocks and they are now in the process of engraving the names). We were fortunate enough to be able to participate and we eached placed a rock in the monument. It was so sad, lots of crying. There were people there who had family members who had died and they had their loved ones’ pictures pinned to their jackets. My rock had the name “Carlos Gamez Gomez” and he died when he was only 14 years old.

Kathryn came over to our house today after class to use my computer. She ate dinner over here, so we had quite a group: Kathryn, Revae, Ashley, Ann, the two UVA girls, and me. Our own little dinner party. After dinner, the five of use piled into a cab to go to Miraflores to celebrate Whitley’s 21^st birthday! We hit up two discotecas and had a lot of fun. We were causing such a scene: 15 American girls dancing like straight up gringas. Things really heated up when Whitley received multiple lap dances on the dance floor from some Colombians! I’m cursing my luck that I have already had my birthday in March. Initially, I was dead set on finding a Peruvian husband, but who am I to discriminate? A Colombian will work just fine.

We had some fun conversations with our taxi drivers that night. We like to break the ice by asking him the name of his first pet and the name of the street he lives on. We then inform him that this is his stripper name. I think they find it amusing, but it’s hard to tell.

Oh, and most importantly, Luis said he liked my hat today. Yes, I will be wearing it everyday for the rest of the trip now.

Friday, June 4

This morning started with a bang, literally, when Kathryn opened her water bottle (con gas) in class, and it sprayed everywhere soaking everything in a four foot radius. That girl just cannot catch a break.

We visited the headquarters of the two most prominent political parties of Peru – APRA and PPC. I did not dig on APRA very much. This is the party that is currently in power. They were founded by a man named Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre. They are obsessed with him. The entire time we were there, all they did was name drop people that Haya de la Torre hung out with like 60 years ago, as if to legitimize their party. We asked what they were doing about poverty in Peru, they were like oh hey, did you see this picture of Haya de la Torre with Albert Einstein? Sweet. At the very end, they made us do this salute and chant that they perform. They were taking pictures of it, and I just know this is going to come back to haunt me when I run for mayor of Nichols Hills. I hear those campaigns can get nasty and the last thing I need is to be accused of being an “aprista.”

PPC (Partido Popular Cristiano) was a party that I could get on board with. The representative seemed to answer our questions directly and thoroughly. Although, I suppose it’s easy to say what you would do to improve the current situation in Peru when you’re not in power and to criticize APRA. Whatevs, they gave us Inca Kola so of course they have my support.

We didn’t go out tonight, but just hung out at the house, which is completely fine because I’m exhausted.