Lima Alphabet Book

Hello everyone!


So it turns out that my computer is broken - when I took it to an Apple Specialist store, they said there was something wrong with the hardware and that it would take 20 days to fix. Since I was leaving Lima soon, I decided it would be easier to wait until I'm back in the States to get it fixed, and at the urging of my communication-deprived parents, I've bought a tiny tablet that has internet. The guy in the store was very helpful despite my disastrous lack of Spanish technology vocabulary, and by the end of the purchase he had proposed to me several times, saying that I clearly needed a Peruvian husband to help me organize my life.


So here I am, with my tablet, writing this blog. I'm actually already in Ayacucho, the mountain city where I'll be spending the next 3 weeks of my trip, and I have lots and lots to say about that, but first I want to go back and share some of the interesting things I learned/experienced in Lima. Because I couldn't post more entries while I was there, this entry is going to take a different format from my last few (and will be really long, sorry! There's so much that I've been wanting to share but couldn't without a computer).


So, without further ado, Megasita Lowey Publications Proudly Presents:


THE LIMA ALPHABET BOOK


A is for Archaeology - As I had mentioned in my last post, a few weeks ago we visited an archaeological site called Pachacamac, which was the sacred site for 4 separate civilizations (the Lima, the Wari, the Ychma, and the Inca). It was amazing to see the temples, some of which still had paint on them from the Inca period around the 1400s. One of the Belgian girls I live with, Tatiana, works at Pachacamac as an archaeologist, and the other day her team found a burial site of over 70 bodies, some of which were preserved so well that you could still see the tattoos they had on their skin!


B is for Barranco - Lima is enormous, and is divided into many districts, or municipalidades. Barranco is the name of the district where I lived, and was about an hour taxi ride from la Católica, in the District of San Miguel.


C is for Churros - Almost every single day since arriving in Lima, our group has gone to a churrería (churro shop) called Monolo to get dessert. The workers there recognize us now. It's embarrassing.


D is for Danza de Tijeras - One night, our professors took us to a dinner show so we could see some traditional Peruvian dances. The coolest one was called the Danza de Tijeras, or Scissor Dance. The dancers literally have a pair of scissors (with the two parts separated), which they clack in time with the music while they do all sorts of tricks. It was incredible... one guy stood on his head, and the other guy did the worm!


E is for English - I would estimate that about 40% of the stores and restaurants in Lima have English names, like "Pardo's Chicken" and "Scrub and Scrub Lavandería". It seems like a strange custom, but my professor Eduardo explained to us that in Peru, anglo names denote a certain amount of success and "cool-ness". That's the case even with people - Eduardo has an English last name, Hopkins, and apparently people have talked to him about how lucky he is and how many many opportunities that must bring him.


F is for Food - Ceviche (raw fish that's "cooked" with the acid of lime juice), Anticuchos (cow heart), Chifa (Peruvian-Chinese fusion food), Picarones (Peruvian donuts made with corn meal and sweet potato), Choclo (giant corn kernels), and rice and potatoes with every meal. Peruvian cuisine is a huge source of national pride. In fact, our professor told us that the Peruvian obsession with food is turning into a method of escaping poverty... lots of people in the poor sections of Lima set up food stalls by construction sites and newly-developed apartments and cook for the workers/residents. These businesses are very lucrative and apparently a decent portion of the street vendors save up to attend culinary school and open restaurants.


G is for Grey Sky - Here's one thing that they don't tell you about winter in Lima: the sky is literally always grey. Between May and September (or so), cold currents come up the coast from the Antarctic, while warm currents come down from the Equator. The collision of these currents produces a phenomenon called "El Niño", which you probably learned about in 6th grade Social Studies class. It causes a lot of tropical storms and such, but it's effect is calmer in Lima... because the city is in a desert valley, a cloud-cover forms extremely low over the city. If you drive 3 kilometers out of Lima and into the hills, it's gone!


H is for Huaca - A huaca is any sort of sacred site from the early days of Lima. One of the coolest things about this city is that you can turn a corner and run straight into an ancient temple, preserved by the city as a huaca but surrounded by modern buildings. Our tour guide, Carlos, who is also an archaeologist, works in a huaca right next to our university.


I is for I've been trying to come up with something for "I", but I kept skipping over this letter and now I can't think of anything that I haven't already covered


J is for Jaja - That's how Spanish speakers spell "haha".


K is for Kola - As I've mentioned before, Inca Kola, the fluorescent yellow bubble-gum drink, is Peru's most popular soda. Other options include Chicha, a drink made of purple corn, and of course Pisco Sours, the national alcoholic beverage. Our Peruvian friend Ivan taught us how to make this drink (the legal drinking age here is 18): one part Pisco (a grape brandy) mixed with cane sugar, lime juice, and an egg-white, which gets all frothy and rises to the top.


L is for Literature - We've read some really interesting and beautiful things in class over the past few weeks. In case you're interested in searching for some short stories, I recommend Una mujer no hace un verano by Guillermo Niño de Guzmán, and Con Jimmy, en Paracas by Alfredo Bryce Echenique.


M is for Microbus - When my group wasn't in a hurry, we would take the Microbus instead of a taxi. These look pretty much like American busses, but there have twice the number of people squished inside! It's definitely an experience to ride them, especially since driving any sort of vehicle in Lima is mildly terrifying... they don't have traffic laws here, just suggestions.


N is for Naufragios - A couple of the girls and I went to see a show called Naufragios, or Shipwrecks, at a tiny storefront theatre in Barranco called Teatro Racional. We went in, and there were chairs facing in all directions in the middle of the room. Throughout the show, you could change your seat to see the women who performed in 3 different corners. Between this set-up and the experimental, physical nature of the show, the style was very "Chicago theatre", so I felt right at home!


O is for Ocean - One afternoon, my friends and I walked down the cliffs of Barranco (Barranco means cliff, actually, so it's appropriate) to the Pacific Ocean. The beach is all rocks, and when the waves subside you can hear the water draining from the rocks - it's one of the coolest sounds I've ever heard!


P is for Parque Kennedy - This was one of our favorite meeting/hang-out places. A beautiful and rather touristy area in the district of Miraflores, the park is full of restaurants, artesian shops, and hundreds and hundreds of stray cats. Apparently someone abandoned a couple there at one point, and they just multiplied like rabbits. Or cats, I guess.


Q is for Quechua - Our tour guide Carlos (I know I've mentioned him a lot. All the girls in our group are in love with him) is from Cuzco, which has a much higher Quechua-speaking population than Lima. He taught us a couple of words, and one of the most interesting is waxchakay, which means both "poverty" and "orphan". Family was, and still is, an extremely important part of Peruvian culture. When you get married, your spouse's family becomes a part of your family, and apparently even today families will get together to build a house for the newlyweds. The more family you have, the faster the work gets done, and the "richer" you are for having so many helping hands.


R is for Ruidoso - This means "noisy", like a street in Lima. I have never heard so many car alarms in my life.


S is for Salsa Dancing - On our last night in Lima, we went to a Salsa club, where our American friend Kerry (who goes to UVM) and our Peruvian friend Ivan gave us a lesson in salsa dancing! It was super fun, even if we weren't very good, and very interesting to see the contrast between this club and the discotecas we had gone to previously. The Salsa club had a live band, and the culture was much more dance oriented (as opposed to pick-up-girls oriented). We stayed there until 1am, then got on the bus to the airport 2 hours later! I can sleep when I'm dead... or at least when I'm somewhere less exciting.


T is for Toilet Paper -  Don't put it in the toilet, ever. The plumbing in Peru can NOT handle it.


U is for Universitario vs. Alianza - Our last Saturday, we went with our awesome Peruvian friend Ivan to a fútbol (soccer) game in the Estadio National. It was between Peru's 2 most famous teams, and the atmosphere was wild! Here's an idea of what it looked like.


V is for Venados - Those venados (deer) at the University literally have no fear. You can go right up to them and feed them a flower. I can't get over it.


W is for Whistling - As the encounter with my fiancee, Tablet Store Guy, exemplifies, the culture between men and women here is veeery different from the US, especially if you're a young foreign woman. My friends and I have received a great deal of attention, especially when we go out to discotecas with our Peruvian friends. Being blond in a discoteca is kind of like being a single flake of goldfish food in a sea of piranhas. Well-meaning latino piranhas who can shake their hips better than anyone I know.


X is for Xylophone - I'm sure someone, somewhere in Peru, has a xylophone.


Y is for Ychma -  One of Peru's ancient civilizations. The Ychma were around at the same time as the Inca, and eventually joined their empire. As rulers go, the Inca were actually not a bad bunch - whenever they discovered a new area that they wanted to conquer, they would send a messenger to the people and say "Hey. Either you can join our empire, keep all of your own gods and culture, and get protection in exchange for a couple of llamas every year, or we can send our warriors in to beat the crap out of you, and then you can join our empire". The Ychma thought that the whole llama thing was a pretty good deal, so into the Incan empire they went, and remained there until Francisco Pizarro's conquistador buddies came and attacked Pachacamac in the 1530s.


Z is for Zanahoria - "Carrot" in Spanish. One of our host mom's cooks gave us all a cooking lesson one night. We made SUCH yummy food, and now I have some recipes to bring home and make for all y'all!




Tada! That's Lima from A-Z. Congratulations for making it all the way to the end!


I can't wait to write about Ayacucho; it is SO BEAUTIFUL here in the Andes! But now I have to go do readings for the first day of class tomorrow... chao amigos!