Five Senses

What better way to immerse yourself in a new city, community, and job than to use all 5 senses, right? Here’s a little bit of what mine have been up to this week:

See: Concrete, Mountains, Smog, Sun!

On the way to and from work every day, Julie, Zach, and I constantly see tons upon tons of concrete. We take two different freeways to get to work, and the on/off ramps boggle my mind. At some points there are 4 layers of highway stacked on top of each other. Theresa quoted her dad in describing LA as a “concrete jungle,” a phrase he probably used long before Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes made everyone sing it in Empire State of Mind.  It’s crazy because on the freeways, we can see all the surrounding mountains, unless they’re disguised in the horizon by the incredible amount of smog that hangs over the city. But despite the smog, the sun is out every single day!

Hear: Ice Cream Trucks, Helicopters, Neighbors

From our dinner table on Monday night, we could hear the lovely jingle of the ice cream trucks that constantly patrol our neighborhood. I’ve seen many different trucks and heard every typical carnival/ice cream truck song you can imagine – from “Pop Goes the Weasel” to a very aggressive and inquisitive recording of “Hello?” on repeat.  The ice cream trucks roll down the street at a leisurely 5mph and I have yet to see anyone solicit them. We are starting to suspect they might sell more than just ice cream, but we’re not exactly going to try to find out…  We can also sometimes hear loud, low helicopters over the city. Our support people (who brought us dinner on Monday night! Score!) told us that probably meant there was police activity that needed to be monitored from above, in case anything ‘went down.’ Luckily the choppers didn’t sound too close. Finally, the other sound that we are all enjoying waking up to our neighbor on the phone. He paces in his side-yard, which is only feet from our bedroom and bathroom windows, and speaks very loudly about something very nonsensical. His accent sounds Caribbean, and even though we can understand exactly what he’s saying, it makes NO sense. Again, sketchy?

We also had the chance to hear some great stories and wisdom from our newfound friend, Rose. She is a former JV who served in Atlanta. She told us the horror stories from her year – the foundation of her house collapsed, roommates had to be removed for medical reasons, and there were battles over free-range chicken.  Despite it all, she LOVES JVC…so much so that she brought us Thai food and wine to welcome us to LA! The next evening our support people, Krista and Maria, came over to check in on us. They are wonderful!

Touch:  Office Furniture, Glue sticks, Markers

This week at work has been mostly about getting the office ready. It’s a slow process, but it’s looking good! We have made a few furniture and container runs to IKEA. [Sidenote: The escalator at IKEA was, in my mind, SO “So Cal.” It was two stories and completely open air, with a roof for the occasional rainy day. I felt I like I was at an amusement park, riding to the top of a rollercoaster!] Today we took a mildly successful fieldtrip to a warehouse were another agency, ANEW foundation, distributes used office furniture to other nonprofits. We didn’t find much, but it was an interesting model. Their tagline is “Doing what’s right with what’s left.” Cute, right?  Otherwise, the week has been filled with hours of sorting through the massive quantities of crayons, markers, glue sticks, children’s books, games, and stationary as we start to get organized in our new space.

 I also had a chance to meet one of the mom’s when she came in to pick up some school supplies for her kids, which were donated to Urban Compass. She was really appreciative! We took a spin around Nickerson Gardens earlier in the week to drop off some toys to some of the kids who will be returning to the program. I got to see a couple girls who are students. They were adorable but super shy. Their mom practically had to push them out their front door to come up to the van to talk to “Miss G” (Theresa). The Mom only spoke Spanish, but that didn’t stop her from inviting us to her daughter’s birthday party in October!  After meeting this family, I found out that many of the parents translate through their kids, so I asked Theresa if it would be helpful for me to translate the student application to Urban Compass into Spanish as well. She loved the idea, which gave me a great project for the afternoon!  

Smell: Lemons, Candles, Tacos  /  Taste: Avocadoes, Granola Bars, Yogurt

Smells and Tastes naturally go together this week. Planning meals, grocery shopping, and cooking for five people is definitely an interesting project. I’m so used to shopping for 1 at school! We have to keep out meals simple, so we eat a lot of yogurt and granola bars as snacks with our lunches. Deciding what to buy in bulk vs at the regular grocery store has been tough.  We go through food so quickly! It amazed me when we ran out of apples on Wednesday of the week because what we bought on Sunday would have lasted me a week and a half at school.  I am very impressed at how easy it is to put together a grocery list though – no one is super picky about food so whatever is in the fridge will undoubtedly be consumed.

This week’s dinner menu was simple because we were treated to dinner on Sunday and Monday. I must say, though, that Taco Tuesday was the highlight! I found avocados for a fraction of the price we pay at home and made a very simple (and very delicious) guacamole using lemons from our very own lemon tree! How cool is that?!  We also made a yummy pasta salad on Wednesday and hot sandwiches that we took with us to the beach tonight for another community night under the stars (but the alliteration just isn’t as cool as Taco Tuesday).

Oh, and the candle smell? That’s from spirituality night on Tuesday. We talked a little more about what brought us all to JVC and past experiences with service and spirituality. It was a great evening!

One last thing: below is a picture from our party last weekend. These are all the fine LA JVs this year, gathered on our front porch!

That’s all for now…Thanks so much to those of you who are following along! Apologies for such long entries. Thanks for sticking with me! Much love <3

Jacked & Tan

So, while getting “jacked and tan” may not sound like ambitions aligned with JVC’s core values, we in Casa DK have certainly been enjoying trying anyway! (And don’t worry, we’re not neglecting our covenant!) Since orientation, it has been our house joke (well, maybe it’s not a joke!) that by the time Re-Orientation, our January JVC regional retreat, rolls around we will be so jacked and so tan that no one will recognize us. Our first casa picture was of all of us doing pushups, so we already have our “before” shot!

This weekend, we made great first strides in accomplishing our goals.

On Friday, John, Zach, and another John from Casa Jean Donavan took the key to Loyola High School’s gym that was left for us in our house. With the help of some very nice security guards and a golf cart, we found the gym. Let me say this: for the girl who always avoided the “man” section of BC’s Plex (ruby girls, you might have known this as the sausage-fest), I felt like I was encroaching on sacred male bonding territory as I entered this all-boys school gym, in the company of all boys. The gym is enormous as far as high school gyms go, with dozens of machines and weight benches. While the boys worked on getting jacked together, I biked and lifted on my own. We went back as a casa this afternoon, which was even more fun. Loyola High School is a sharp contrast to Verbum Dei. Both are Jesuit schools but nothing much else about them seems to be the same. The Verb has a suffering football team while Loyola’s is one of the best in the region. The Loyola campus rivals that of any small college or university, and is equipped with an outdoor pool, turf field, and football stadium. The discrepancy in resources is also pretty stark and definitely noticeable from the moment you walk on campus.

Later Friday night, my Casa-mates threw me a little birthday party, since I got to celebrate by flying across the country and then meeting almost 90 strangers on the first day of Orientation. They made me a delicious cake (picture below!) and we invited the other LA houses over. It was great! We took a big JVC- LA group shot and even played some reggeton (you can imagine, I was in heaven!)

On Saturday, we started working towards goal #2: Get Tan. We ventured to Venice Beach in the early afternoon. Venice is a very eclectic beach town. Besides a beautiful beach with brightly colored lifeguard shacks, there is a skate park, outdoor market, and the famous muscle beach.

We spent the day enjoying the sunshine, and even saw a few people be baptized in the ocean. There was a huge evangelical-type soul festival going on in the park with live music, food, and dancing…it was so fun! There was a path from the festival with signs for “Baptism…Disciples on the Move” from the festival to the shoreline. One very hippie-looking woman was going around to different people on the beach asking people if they’d like her to pray with them. Right next to this soul-fest were a bunch of little shops that sold medical marijuana cards. You can imagine the diversity in the crowds!

Today the cultural explorations continued as we tried to find a local mass to go to. In our neighborhood, it’s going to be a challenge to find masses in English that aren’t super early in the morning, or super long. The local mid morning masses are either in Spanish or Korean, or are 2-hour long hip-hop masses. I’d love to try all these out, especially the Spanish ones, but not all my mass-going roomies will be able to understand.

The rest of our Sunday is pretty lazy – we planned our menu for the week and took care of food shopping at our local Food4Less, which is awesome and right down the street. Tonight though, an FJV in the area is bringing us dinner…can’t pass up a free meal! Until next time, peace!

More pictures of my casa, roommates, and adventures coming soon :)

First Week in Watts

The first week of work is almost done! It’s been a pretty quiet week at work because the public school doesn’t start until September 13th. So far I’ve been running errands for my boss, Theresa, and exploring the neighborhood with her. I get in nice and early because my housemates have to report to the Verb (Verbum Dei, that is) bright and early. Zach works with the corporate work study program, so the boys at the school have to check in with him before they can take off for their placements. The Verb is part of the Cristo Rey network of schools, which means that the boys work one day a week for corporations that then sponsor part of their tuition.

On Tuesday, Theresa took me around Watts in the Urban Compass van. We drove through the housing projects, Nickerson Gardens, where my students live. We also drove through other parts of the district, and even saw Watts’ landmark – the Watts Towers. These are structures built completely from trash and recycled materials – they’re pretty cool! However, they’re not exactly in a prime location, so we didn’t get out and walk around. Theresa gave me the run-down of the gang presence in the neighborhood, but also assured me that the gangs very much respect the high school campus. Most of the families in the neighborhood have heard of Urban Compass or recognize her and her van, so she feels safe when she drives it.

As for our own neighborhood, we figured out yesterday that the technical name for it is “Adams – Normandie,” but also learned that the name doesn’t really matter. We’re in South Central, close to USC, and near the 110 – that’s all anyone seems to need to know! If you’re curious, you can see the streetview of my house here!(Thanks Google!) We have the bottom floor and our landlord lives above us.

As part of the JVC program, our Casa will be having once Spirituality Night and one Community Night each week. On Tuesday, we had our first Spirituality Night, and it went really well. (For any BC folks, it was kind of like a CURA group for roommates!) Last night, we celebrated our first community night at a free concert on the beach in Santa Monica. It was so cool! We met up with another JVC house in LA and mostly chatted and people watched. It was quite an assortment of people – hippies, hipsters, students, homeless people, and your stereotypical SoCal guys and girls. It was definitely amusing, even though we could hardly hear the music.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m looking forward to hopefully exploring a little more of the city this weekend!

Welcome & Orientation

Welcome! Thanks so much for checking out my blog. I will be writing periodically about my experience in Los Angeles as a Jesuit Volunteer. Keeping a blog was a great way to tell family and friends (mostly you, MomMom & Hubba!) about what I was up to in Quito, so I thought I'd give it a shot again. I'll try to add pictures of people/places once I get settled!

I arrived in California (for the first time ever) last week for JVC orientation in Aptos, CA. All the volunteers serving in Arizona and California gathered for 5 days to meet one another and prepare for the year. A bunch of really dynamic FJVs (Former/Forever Jesuit Voulunteers) came to speak to us about the four values that we have all pledged to live by over the course of the next year: community, spirituality, social justice, and simple living. After Orientation, we rented cars and drove from San Jose to our home in LA!

After arriving in LA, I took off for LAX and flew home for Kelly's wedding (Congrats!!). I was back here Monday evening just in time for dinner with my community and to start work on Tuesday.

A few fun facts and links...

My "Casa" is named Dorothy Kazel, named for one of the churchwomen murdered in El Salvador in 1980. All the LA houses are named for the four women killed - Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, and Jean Donavon are the other houses. Casa DK is now home to five new JVs - myself, Julie, Cara, Zach, and John.

We all have different jobs in LA. My position is with Urban Compass , a nonprofit that runs an afterschool program for students at 112th St. Elementary School. We are located on the campus of Verbum Dei High School, an all boys, Jesuit, Cristo Rey school.

At JVC Southwest Orientation last week, there were 13 BC grads! Impressive, huh?! We were the biggest contingent there. Go Eagles! [Sidenote: When I stepped of the plane wearing by BC Maroon & Gold rugby shirt, I realized I would easily be mistaken for a USC Trojan...not cool! My house is about a mile from USC.]

Wrap Up

It’s hard to believe, but the semester is already over! I got home last week after a busy month. A lot happened between Peru and Home, so here’s a quick update to wrap this up...

Presidential Elections
Sunday, April 26th was Election Day in Ecuador. The President, Rafael Correa, was reelected, as was expected. The week leading up to elections was crazy – there were somewhere between 12-15 candidates for the presidency alone, and each party had their propaganda all over the city. Every day, on the traffic circle outside my window, there was a different “team,” with their brightly colored flags, posters, flyers, late-night concerts (I’m talking LOUD music til 1 or 2 am – I think that candidate lost the votes of everyone in my building!), marching bands, parades of cars honking and trailing balloons (see below for the 20 minute parade that went by my window), and more. Besides Correa, there did not seem to be one candidate who was especially strong. The way I perceived it, people either voted for or against Correa, not for another candidate.

The voting system is very interesting, and different, from ours. First, the entire country is under “ley seca” (dry laws) starting 48 hours before the elections and going through the day after. For a country that drinks with everything they do, it was strange to not be able to buy or sell alcohol for an entire weekend! Many restaurants and bars were closed on Friday and Saturday night because no one could go out. Also, voting is obligatory for citizens age 18 and up and optional starting at age 16. No one is excused from voting, and there are serious consequences if you don’t. You can be fined, prohibited from leaving the country, etc.

Canoa
The following weekend, a few friends and I joined what seemed like the rest of the country on a trip to the coast. Everyone in Ecuador has off on May 1 for El Día del trabajo (a labor day of sorts), so they all naturally head to the beach. We went to a small town called Canoa, a mildly touristy beach with surfing, nightlife, and cheap hostels. The clouds and little bit of rain couldn’t keep us off the beach. Our first night, we stayed at a friend’s house in a neighboring town, Bahia. We went out to dinner to celebrate Hallie’s birthday and came back to the house to find that a block away; all the locals in the town were gathered to celebrate the reelection of the mayor. We crashed the party, danced in the pouring rain, and were definitely the only non-townies there. It was so much fun!

Pre-Prac
The last week on April, I had my last day of pre-prac at Colegio Menor. The teachers were so nice – they got a cake, pizza, and gave me two books to read! It was the nicest goodbye I’ve gotten at a pre-prac so far, which is funny because I feel like I contributed less than I have in other schools. Cultural differences, I guess! I enjoyed observing the Spanish Literature department and getting to see 4 different teachers’ styles, though I was obviously under qualified to teach many lessons, as I am learning more or less the same things in my own courses!

Finals
Obviously the best part of the semester was the last week…finals! Or not. The exams and papers I had to write were certainly stressful but went smoothly. Some papers were actually fun – for my children’s lit class, I worked with a partner to write our own children’s story. We had to write the story and then a 10 page analysis of it, which was time consuming, but interesting! Exams went well, and though I was glad the semester is academically over, I learned a lot after reading so much in Spanish!

Last days in Quito
During the few days after exams, I packed up my room and got ready to move out of Maqui’s house. We enjoyed the last few nights in the city with the BC group, complete with a discochiva and all! The chiva was essentially a party on wheels – a truck with a dance floor on the back and a DJ that took us around the city for two hours. On Saturday, I spent my last day with Maqui and the girls. Unfortunately, Maqui’s brother-in-law’s father passed away, so we went to the vigil, mass, and burial. All three ceremonies took place on the same day he passed, only 5 hours later. Everything moved quickly. The vigil was very different from vigils at home because there was no formal or organized system to pay respects to the family. Instead, everyone was gathered in the room together, just being present. The mass was in the same room, and then the burial was in the catacombs of a church in Quito.

Zippilli’s in Quito!
Saturday night, my family arrived in Quito. We spent Sunday introducing them to my families here – Amanda and Bony hosted up for breakfast and then Maqui’s mom hosted us at her farm in Guayabamba for lunch. It was strange having them all together, but I’m so glad that my real family got to meet the people who had been taking care of me for five months. I was also grateful that Amanda & Bony and Maqui’s family speak English - it was the only time all week I didn’t have to translate! The next day, we went to Otavalo and Cotocachi, two towns I visited earlier in the semester. We did some shopping at the markets and took advantage of the opportunity to buy gifts (and grad presents for Em’s friends!). On Tuesday, we went to Mindo for some ziplineing and a great lunch. On the way home, we stopped at the classic tourist site – Mitad del Mundo. This monument marking the equator is just north of Quito and home to museums, shops, restaurants, and sundials. Though it’s not exactly on the equator, it was determined without super advanced technology and is only 800km off. Our driver, Fabrizio, knew a lot about the site, the history, and the science, so it was great to learn from him. This was actually my first time at Mitad del Mundo also, but then again, it’s something you only need to do once in Quito. On Wednesday morning, we went to the center of Quito and did the historical bit. In the afternoon, we hung at the hotel, relaxing after a few very busy days. The next morning, we checked out and headed for TeleferiQo, a cable car that goes to one tops of one of the mountains o the west side of the city. After climbing 1000m in 8 minutes, you can see much of the city. It was beautiful…and huge! The contrast between the city and the mountains is fascinating. Dad and I climbed to the top, which was 13,000+ feet above sea level! That afternoon, we went to the Guyasamin museum and then hung at a café until it was time to head to the airport. All in all, I’m sure my family had a great trip and enjoyed seeing the city and meeting my family. I was ready to come home, but enjoyed a fantastic semester and unforgettable experience in Quito!

El fin.

PERU

[caution: long post ahead. feel free to skim.]

One of my group members could not have been more right when she said that our week in Peru shouldn’t be called our spring break trip, but rather our spring break expedition. 8 days of traveling, hiking, exploring new cultures, and touring cities was certainly both an adventure and a nice treat as the semester winds down!

Day 1: Bienvenidos a Peru!
We met bright and early at the airport in Quito to embark on our 6 or so hour journey to Cusco, Peru, via Lima. A bus met us at the Cusco airport to take us to our hostel, where we sat down to a cup of mate de coca, which is a typical Peruvian tea made with coca leaves (yes, the same leaves that cocaine is extracted from). We found the tea everywhere we went for the rest of the trip, and it was delicious! (No crazy side effects, if you’re wondering.) Coco leaves are used to help adjust to the altitude and are chewed by indigenous workers who want to take away their hunger and thirst during the day while they’re out in the field. We had the afternoon to explore Cusco on our own and eat dinner. I tried a typical dish called aji de gallina, which is chicken in a yellow cream sauce made of potatoes and cheese (delicious!). One of the tricks we learned early in the week was to ask for the “menú" at restaurants. For 12-18 soles (approximately $4-6), you get soup and/or an appetizer, a main dish, and coffee or tea!

Day 2: Felices Pascuas en el Valle Sagrado
On Easter Sunday, we woke up early to start our day tour of el Valle Sagrado, the region around Cusco.

View of the Valle Sagrado
We visited a llama farm in the morning where tourists get to walk through the llama pens and feed the animals before arriving to the demonstration of how llama wool is dyed and woven into all sorts of artisan products. Llama wool products were EVERYWHERE in Peru: hats, gloves, socks, sweater, slippers, bags, headbands, table cloths, belts.



Later, we went on a short and relatively easy hike around some Incan ruins in the valley. Our guide, Bobby, a native Cusceño, showed us all kind of cool things, like Incan cemeteries in the sides of mountains and how the terraces built into the mountains were used to cultivate plants.

Ancient and modern civilizations are neighbors!
For lunch, I tried two foods that I loved and ordered all over Peru: Quinoa soup and Trucha! (Quinoa is a very typical, high protein grain and truch is trout.) On one of the bus rides to an archeological site, we stopped at a little house marked with a red plastic bag over a lamppost. This sign means that chicha, a traditional corn beer, is made here. We learned how the beer (which is very very low in alcohol content and very very high in corn flavor) is made and got to try some. I wasn’t a huge fan, but it was interesting to say the least. After visiting the last site of the day, we visited a local family’s home to see what it was like to live there. The most surprising thing was definitely the plethora of cuys (guinea pigs) that they keep right in their home! If you remember, cuy is a delicacy in South America!

And you thought guinea pigs belongs in cages…
At night, we boarded a train to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Pichu that welcomes all the tourists and hikers to the most famous of the Incan ruins.

Day 3: Ready, Set, HIKE.
After a 2 hour hike from the hostel to the entrance to the Inka trail at Km 104 (in Peru Inca was always spelled with a k and Cuzco was always spelled with an s, so I’m going to stick to the authentic spellings!), we began climbing. We climbed about 700 meters over the course of a few hours, and hiked a few kilometers on the original Inka trail to Machu Pichu. On the way, we passed a few other Inka sites, and had a picnic lunch on the terraces of one called Wiñaywayna.

Wiñaywayna from a distance, to give you an idea of how far we hiked!

Wiñaywayna

We arrived at la Puerta del Sol after the last stretch of uphill climbing and enjoyed an absolutely beautiful view of Machu Pichu from a distance.

Zoomed in view of MP from la puerta del sol

After taking it in and catching our breath, we continued on the trail to the entrance to Machu Pichu. I was absolutely stunned by what we saw: the Inkan people were simply brilliant architects and must have been strong as mules to move so many rocks through the mountains! The pictures I took hardly do justice to what I saw. After about 8 hours of hiking, we were grateful to finally reach the end, but we were nowhere near done. We still had to climb down the 700 meters we had reached. Also, the park was closing for the day so we couldn’t walk around and take pictures.

The group overlooking Machu Pichu and looking pretty happy after 8 hours of hiking

Machu Pichu!
Thus began the descent, and let’s just say that my knees were not very happy with 2 hours of very steep downhill stairs! By the time we made it back to the city, my legs were jelly and my heart and lungs were ready for a break.

The road you can see here is for the buses; we hiked more or less straight down to the river!
Like so many trips this semester, the hike was breathless is both ways: high altitude = hard to breathe, but with the most rewarding vistas! We worked hard and certainly earned our dinner after 10 hours of hard hiking!!

Day 4: Machu Pichu, up close and personal
After a much easier ascent to the Inkan city via bus, Bobby led us on a guided tour of Machu Pichu. He told us all about the various legends, buildings, and leaders of the ancient city. I found the history of the Inkas so much more interesting while learning about them in person than I did when I learned about them from a textbook. Being there and seeing even just a glimpse of how they lived and rules was mind boggling and very humbling. They were such a smart and advanced people in so many ways! After our tour with Bobby and lunch, we had free time to explore the park, which was my favorite part.


Clouds moving in!
A few of us hiked around rooms and paths that the tour didn’t cover and listened in to some other tour guides explanations of the different parts of the city.

We got to walk right up to llamas who call Machu Pichu home (one even trapped poor Mariana in a room!) and crawl around the rocks at our own pace.

In the evening, after some free time to relax (and finish some reading for school – a novel that, appropriately, takes place in Peru, called La Ciudad y los perros) we hit the hot springs that Aguas Calientes is named for. The baths were really nice, and not too hot, which was nice. Even in the rain, it was relaxing! The it’s-a-small-world moment of this trip was meeting some people from the south of Bolivia who we ran into the next night in Cusco!



After an early morning train and bus ride back to Cusco and some free time to eat and explore the artisan market, we took a city tour of Cusco with a new guide, Nieves, who was quite animated and loved calling us “jovenes.” (Many of the people we encountered thought we were all much younger that we are, which surprised me! It’s probably because we were so dressed down the whole time). On our tour of the city, we were all dragging because it was such an early morning. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to visit the Catherdral, which was to be one of the big stops on the tour, because the local tour guides and students of tourism were holding a “huelga” (strike) on the steps and were prohibiting tourists from entering. It was a little unclear what they were striking against, but it had something to do with rights of the tourist industry. (There was also a railroad strike when we were in Aguas Calientes which was an equally unclear protest against privatization of water?)

4 walls, each from a different time period/style of architecture
We did learn, among other things, that Cusco, the Inkan capital, was built in the shape of a Puma and about the different types of walls in various Inkan buildings.

Streets of Cusco
At the end of the day, we drove up to one last archeological site of Inkan ruins, pronounced “sexey woman” (but not spelled that way…I would butcher it!). From here, we watched the sun set over Cusco and took some nice group pictures.

View of quito from “sexy woman” ruins
Everyone seemed to catch their second wind for a oldies singalong on the busride back to the hostal and a nice dinner out to celebrate Amanda’s last night with us. Thanks to her hard work with the Quito program, BC treated her to the trip. Even after sending her students to Peru every semester for the past 14 years, she herself had never seen Machu Pichu! It was so nice to have her along for the experience! We enjoyed a nice group dinner together in her honor. I tried another very typical dish, Alpaca, for dinner. When I said llamas are all over Peru, I mean it in every way. Alpaca is a type of llama, and the meat was delicious. I know, I know, What do you mean you ate LLAMA, Carolyn? They’re so cute!! But hey, when in Rome…or Peru…. After dinner, a few of us went to a salsa club where we practiced our steps and then watched a very interesting transition from salsa to a latin version of the electric slide, danced by some local men who were very into the moves. It was hilarious!

Day 6: Puno


Some pictures from our pit-stop on the bus ride…lots of mountains and llama products for sale!!
One 6 hour bus ride later, we arrived in Puno, a city on Lake Titicaca in the southeast part of Peru. Lake Titicaca is the highest freshwater lake in the world and the largest in South America. It is simply beautiful! Though Puno was not the most beautiful city, it has a great location on the lake! Also, something that I was surprised to learn is that Titicaca does not mean anything it sounds like. It actually means “large gray puma” in Quechwa, the native language of the Andes. In Puno, we met our new local guide, Bertha, who took us to Sillustari, an Inkan burial ground. We watched the sun set over the lake and stopped at a local family’s home to see what the living conditions were like and learn about some of the vegetables and grains that they harvest. The home was very different from those we have seen in remote parts of Ecuador, and was very unique to the region. Though they had no electricity or running water, the family was very happy and healthy! Before we boarded the bus back to the city, we took a few moments to star gaze. I don’t think I have ever, or will ever, see so many stars in one night. The Milky Way was very bright and we saw 5 or 6 shooting stars in just 15 minutes. I can’t imagine going to sleep under that sky every night!

Day 7: Life on Lake Titicaca
On our last full day of exploration, we left our hotel very early in the funniest taxis I’ve ever taken. We sat two by two in these little carts pushed by men on bikes…quite environmentally friendly for such a big city! After a short boat ride, we disembarked on las Islas Uros, which are a group of small, manmade islands in the middle of the lake. The islands are built on the roots of tortora plants, which grow in the water. The islands float in the water and are home to 7-8 families each. On the island, we learned how the islands are constructed, toured the homes, and got to try on some of the local people’s attire.


After dancing and singing in the traditional clothing, the women showed us their handmade products. One thing I noticed while in Peru is that everyone is a salesperson, from the 3 year old girl carrying bracelets on the mountainside for 1 sol to the 85 year old women showing off their goods. Artisanship is definitely one of the biggest sources of income for the indigenous people, and for good reason…all their products are beautiful! After another boat ride, we lunched on another island and learned about the local typical clothing, one piece of which is partially made with women’s hair!

In the afternoon and evening, we hiked to the top of the island Amantani, where we watched and helped our guide perform a local ritual offering to the Pachamama, the goddess of mother earth. Over the course of the trip, we had learned a lot from our guides about the traditional Andean religions and local customs and influences from the Catholic. The ceremony was very powerful and very uplifiting. After building a fire, we built an offering that represented luck, love, harmony, peace, happiness, and other happy things. We were each given something to add to the pile (I got raisins, which represent “dulcera”, sweetness) and then burned the pile, along with candles for people we know who are sick.

Our offering
We said a very simple prayer as a group and hugged everyone else present (S&L, think hugs of peace!) and poured confetti on each other. It was a very powerful and happy ceremony, and I felt very privileged to be a part of it. Afterwards, we climbed to the temple of the Pachamama and watched an incredible sunset over the lake again.



When it was dark, we hiked down to the bottom of the mountain and were greeted by local families who would be our hosts for the night. I stayed with a lovely young woman named Olga along with Jenny and Hallie After eating an absolutely delicious, natural, and typical dinner of rice and locally grown vegetables with Olga, her parents, her daughter and niece, and our guide Bertha, we were surprised with yet another set of traditional outfits to put on. Olga and her husband Zacharias helped us get dressed in the skirt (which would have been scandalously short on me had I not had jeans on underneath…the locals are much smaller than us!), top, and scarf, they led us to a gathering where we met up with the rest of our group and their host families. A local group of musicians came to play for us, so we all danced both inside and outside around a fire. We had so much fun and looked beautiful in the traditional clothing.


Needless to say, I slept very well back at Olga’s house after such a long day! The house was ready for guests; there were extra beds that were very comfortable and warm and plenty of food for all of us! It was obvious that they were prepared for tourists, but it was still nice to eat and talk with a local family. One of the most interesting parts of the evening was when the three of us were in the kitchen with the grandmother, who didn’t speak Spanish. While we all acknowledged that we couldn’t understand each other, we talked to each other anyway, and all laughed to acknowledge that no one really knew what was being said. Though the younger people on the island learn Spanish in schools, the older generations only speak Quechwa! The younger adults and children are all bilingual out of necessity, which is SO amazing to me! It was very interesting to be communicating in my second language with other people who learned Spanish as a second language!

Amaranti in the daylight

Saying goodbye to Olga!

Day 8: Harvest to Home
After waking up with the sun, we hit the fields early in the morning with Zacharais to learn how potatoes are harvested. Our timing was great because April is the month of the harvest! We helped dig up some small veggies that the family would dry out to eat for the rest of the year. They were delicious! Our journey home began at 8:30 with a 3 hour boat ride back to Puno, a bus to Juliaca, a flight to Lima, a 7 hour lay over, and then another flight back home to Quito. We arrived around 3:30 am, which was oddly reminiscent of the first time I landed in Quito and went through migration in the middle of the night…

All in all, the trip was an perfect blend of cultural and touristy activities. Our guide, Javier, who was with us the whole time, did a great job of planning the trip and organizing our travels, guides, and tours. We worked hard and were all exhausted by the time we got home, but I am very well aware that this was probably a once in a life time opportunity, and I am SO grateful that it was part of my study abroad experience! Big time thank you if you made it all the way to the end!

This Week in Quito...

La Fiesta de la canción
At preprac last Wednesday, the entire school, grades K-12, gathered in the auditorium for a talent show meets battle of the bands in the middle of the day. The assembly was a series of 12 musical performances (both vocal and instrumental) by groups of students from all grades. The students were competing for spots to perform in a show/competition among many high schools in Quito. I was again astounded by the talent of the students – and even more surprised when all the songs they performed were in English. There were groups who covered everything from Somewhere Over the Rainbow to Audio Slave to Eric Clapton. Quite impressive!

La Chulla Vida
On Thursday night of last week, Eddie played another show at the cute little café that I went to with Amanda and Boni a few weeks ago. It is located in La Ronda, a famous neighborhood in the historical district of Quito. Our whole group, together with Amanda and Boni, went to support him and enjoy some chocolate caliente (hot chocolate) and vine hervido (hot wine…very interesting). Eddie did great!

Me and Amanda at the cafe!

It’s a Small World
When I was out with my friends on Friday night, I had had not one but TWO it’s-a-small-world moments. First, I ran into a girl I who I had gone to school with since Bret Harte! We graduated from East together and she goes to Brandies in Boston. She is part of a program that landed her in Quito for a few months this semester as well. I think we both did double takes when we passed each other on the street! Later that night, I was talking to a guy who from NJ…I thought this alone was crazy. After talking a while about what we were doing in Quito, I found out that he graduated from BC last May! Again, I couldn’t believe it!

Cotopaxi
On Saturday, Maqui, Melissa, Karina and I hit the road early for a day at Cotopaxi, the volcano south of Quito that can be seen from miles and miles away. Before getting there, we stopped at a cute little restaurant called La café de la vaca for breakfast. It’s a good thing we ate a big breakfast because we needed it for the hike! We then drove into the national park that surrounds the mountain and drove up as high as cars are aloud to go (4000m above sea level). From there, Melissa and I trekked up the refugio, a small building at a VERY steep 4800m where hikers and campers can stop for a bite to eat and to catch there breath (which is easier said than done at that altitude!) Even though we were more or less climbing through clouds and the air was freezing cold, Melissa led the way up to the snow! I didn’t think I would be walking through snow until November in Boston, but alas, we made it! The snow on the mountain has been getting higher and higher each year, thanks to changing weather patterns and temperature increases. We met a professional guide who was making his way down, and he told us all about the conditions needed to climb to the summit and how they go about making that trek. To climb all the way to the top, groups usually start in the middle of the night to begin the 5-6 hour straight-uphill-hike to the top. The walk up was very tough – let’s just say I could tell that I’ve fallen out of my regular running routine! – and the descent was very slippery. I had Melissa laughing the whole way down as I fell after every 8 or so steps! When we got back down to the car, we drove with Maqui and Karina to a lake and had a little picnic lunch. It was a wonderful day with the family, even though we were all so exhausted afterwards that we hardly moved on Sunday!

El teatro
On Tuesday night, Maqui and her friend took me to the Teatro Nacional Sucre in the historical center to see a cello recital. There were all kinds of special music and theatrical performances this week for Semana Santa, so it was really nice to see one! The cellist was playing music from the Baroque period, and was accompanied by a contemporary dancer. The combination was unique and very well done!

Viernes Santo
This week was super quick – only three days of classes because Spring Break started yesterday! We had off for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and then all next week. Today, a bunch of us went into the historical district to see the traditional procession for Good Friday, called Procesión de Jesús del Gran Poder. It was absolutely beautiful, in a very intense way. Though the environment was not incredibly somber around where we were standing (there were people walking up and down the street selling food and mementos and members of the press taking pictures and videos), the procession itself was extremely impressive. The procession is organized by the Franciscans and starts and ends in the Plaza de San Francisco. Though the events go on all day, the procession started around noon and went by the biggest churches in the center, which takes about 4 hours. Hundreds of men and women don Cucuruchos, traditional purple robes and masks seen in the pictures below. Some men dress like Jesus, in white robes and crowns of thorns, to carry enormous wooden crosses. The image of Jesus that is reflected in the garb, sculptures, and signs carried by the people in the procession is one from the 17th century in which He has long hair, a crown of thorns, and blood running down his face. The degree to which this was mirrored was quite impacting. Below are a few of the better pictures I got. Experiencing this traditional procession was definitely an incredible opportunity, and very moving.





Tomorrow morning we take off for our group trip to Peru! More in a week or so when I get home! HAPPY EASTER!