Congratulations, Ruthie! and Happy Birthday, Auntie Lorraine!

This past Saturday we Youth Development volunteers gathered early at our training center in preparation for our first trip to Lima. While we waited for the buses to arrive we chatted about all sorts of things: the wild rager I knew my Aunt Lorraine was preparing for at that very moment, the Starbucks in Lima we had heard so much about, and the pitiful six soles (cerca $2) they gave us for our trip into the city.

Well somehow we got to dogbites and I started talking about my friend from high school who had been bit in the face by a dog not once but twice! The dog bit right through her lip the one time, I said, but to this day she still loves dogs. ¨Pretty unbelievable,¨ I said before slowly realizing, ¨Actually, she´s getting married today.¨

It made me cry to think of Ruthie´s wedding day. (Ruth, if you´re reading this, Congratulations! I love you so much and am so so thrilled for you and Sean.) To imagine her waking up early to begin a day full of nail and hair appointments, rituals, and toasts and tears. I cried mostly because I always cry at weddings and I was just so thrilled for her to finally be marrying Sean. But I cried too because, for a second, I realized everything that´s going on back at home that I´m missing.

Things here are so busy. We have hours of language class, followed by hours of training workshops followed by hours devoted to following the crazy lives of my host family. After an episode of Glee enjoyed in the comfort of my bed and layers and layers of clothing, I´m exhausted! It´s a total blessing that we´re so busy because there´s hardly time to imagine everything that´s happening at home...Ruthie´s wedding, Aunt Lorrainie´s bash, even just late-night chips and queso after Molly´s inevitably belated arrival to the Cape.

There´s so much to miss! But so much to enjoy here too. Today, a day off for the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, I woke up early, snuck out of my house and went hiking with a whole bunch of great volunteers. After sweating it out, we reached a spot way up high from which you could see below a design carved right into the ground that looked like a snake. A design supposedly made by the Incas however many thousands of years ago.

After apples and water we climbed back down, hopped on a combi, and made it back home safe and sound. The second I walked into the door of my Peruvian home, ready to lay down and take a nap, I could tell my family had an entirely different idea. ¨Vamos, Liz!¨ they said. We were off to Chosica, who knows why. So I quickly showered, and I use that term loosely, changed into the only skirt I brought to Peru, and all six of us slammed into the family´s little Volkswagen Bug.

Packed in the back with the three little brothers I never had, I watched as we passed dry rocky mountains, a bridge they call Los Angeles and a town they call California on our way to Chosica. There we found a two story restaurant selling Pollo a la Brasa aka heaven on earth- Peru´s answer to Whole Food´s rotisserie chicken. For just about $20, we shared an entire rotisserie chicken, an enormous bottle of Inca Cola (yes, it´s called Inca Cola), two salads, a huge basket of amazingly greasy french fries and, don´t forget, four pieces of cake.

If there is anything we will have to do when you all come to visit me here in Peru it is most definitely eat Pollo a la Brasa. I know that seems a ways off but before you know it, we´ll all be together again! And I´ll have so much more than just chicken to share with you all.

So much love everyone! Congratulations, Ruth! Happy Birthday, Aunt Lorraine! And Congratulations Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Anthony!

Enjoy the cape kiddies...enjoy an extra jar of queso for me and don´t go to bed until your teeth are purple! XOXOXO

Ceviche, Pollo, and Cereal, Oh my!

Sunday I had my first plate of ceviche! (Told ya so, Mom!) My host parents, Susan and Cesar, drove me in their little Volkswagon Bug to Chosica, one of the biggest towns in the area. There we met Susana's father, two younger sisters, brother-in-law, and nephew. Together we made our way through a market packed with people selling everything from cheap plastic flip flops, to cell phones to every kind of vegetable and fruit you have ever sen and many you have not.

After a short walk we came to a small restuarant (I don't think I would have known it was a restaurant on my own) set up more like a bar with stolls full of people eating what I called lunch and Susana called breakfast because it was so early (11:30am). After Cesar ordered us seven plates of ceviche and seven glasses of chica morada, we went up a small staircase to an arrow dining room lined with stools. Seated together in a row on the side of the restuarant overlooking the market, we could see through the gaps in the tin roofs below, below moving busily from one shop to the next.

The ceviche was delicious although I was a bit concerned about how my stomach would take it considering the million reminders we've received that we can and will get sick at some point during our time in Peru. The chicha morada was also pretty good- a drink made with choclo morado, a kind of corn with big purple kernels. A mix between gingerale and grape soda, it eased the sting when I accidentally ate a tin piece of super hot pepper. "Se pica," they say of anything spicy.

After lunch, we went to Plaza Veia which is something like a Kmart selling clothes, shoes, electronics, and food of all kinds. Sunday must be a big shopping day in Peru...like payday at the Walmart in Gallop, New Mexico. "Un mar de gente," they say - a sea of people. There was standing room only in this mega-grocery store, not to mention (Lu, I knew you would appreciate this!) a line of maybe 50 people waiting for pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. It seems that some things are the same worldwide. Yum.

I myself did a little shopping hoping to supplement my current diet full of bologna sandwiches for breakfast and potatoes and more potatoes for lunch and dinner. I bought some fruit, some veggies, a few yogurt drinks, and yes, cereal!! Keep in mind that cereal here costs about as much as it does in the US which, in comparison to the prices of every other food here, is completely unheard of! Ceviche for all seven of us cost about $20 so a $5 box of cereal is a bit excessive. Everyone teased me that I must have tons of money to buy a box of cereal but it'll be worth it if I don' t gain 20 pounds like I did in Chile...and South Africa. haha.

Anyways, I'm off to bed. I have hours of Spanish class and tons of potatoes awaiting me tomorrow. But I hope everyone's enjoying my little blog! I'll try to keep it interesting!

I miss you all sooo sooo much and hope to talk to you soon. Dad, Happy Father's Day again! Hope you had a great day.

So much love!

Landing in Peru

Just one week ago, my family and I piled into the car with two giant suitcases and a carry-on and headed to Arlington, Virginia. After many tears and big hugs, I said goodbye to Mom, Dad, Megs, and Laur and went to the bathroom to change into the business attire they told us we´d need. In a large conference room at a Holiday Inn, I found myself with 55 complete strangers with whom I proceeded to eat dinner, drink a couple of beers and, early the next morning, leave for Peru.

I landed in Peru somewhere around 1 o’clock the following morning feeling completely exhausted and entirely wrapped up in the most unreal of circumstances. Since then, joining the Peace Corps has been a whirlwind. In seven days I have managed to move to a new country, begin speaking another language full time, and become a part of an amazing Peruvian family.

Which brings me to the very reason I have begun this blog: my own family, the one that headed home from the Holiday Inn while I set out on this wild adventure. Mom, Dad, Megs, and Laur –I miss you all already!!!!!! And love you so so much! I know without certainty that I could not possibly be here without you. But while I am here without you, friends and family alike, I’m hoping this blog might give you all a tiny peek at all that I am seeing here.

You’ve probably had it with talk of the Peace Corps—applying, interviewing, packing—it’s taken forever to get here! But I have to say that while it’s hard, day-to-day, to wrap my head around the many reasons I wanted to be here, I am so happy to have finally arrived. I have so much to tell you already and will start filling you in as fast as I can! But I wanted to get this first entry in because, for me at least, that’s always the hardest one to write.

I miss you all so much and love you even more. I so look forward to hearing from you and to sharing some of this Peace Corps craziness. Much more to come…

Liz