an abercrombie in peru?... lame.

today, i went to the mall. it was exactly like the united states. in fact, the majority of the stores were even north american stores (abercrombie and fitch but called something extremely stupid like "all the places in the world", roxy, calvin klien, nautica, etc.). the music they played was north american (i heard coldplay and dido), and i even ran into one of my fellow sst mates, melissa, who of course is north american. the only thing different were a bunch of (well off)peruvians walking around, speaking spanish at too rapid of a pace for me to even attempt to keep up.

but now i must start with the beginning of the day...

first, i live with a pastor and his wife, and basically their granddaughter who is three. they have a daughter or son (i still cant quite figure this one out) studying in san antonia, texas at a seminary. they also have another daughter, who i mentioned, who is 25, works at a botox office, has fake boobs and nose job, and as the parents explained to me (or at least what i think they were saying to me) was something of, "our child in texas is good. our child here is out of control. daniela is her baby. and there is no father." then they shook their heads and went on eating. i just said, "oh." and this daughter works a lot. and i think i live in her room, which i feel a bit bad for, but in peru it is customary for them to kick children out of their own rooms for guests, so there is nothing you can do about it. the child, daniela, who is three, loves me and calls me "mia" which i believe is a combination of "mi" and "tia" which here would mean my aunt. but she just smooshes it together and calls me "mia." she is spoiled to death and gets her way about everything. her grandparents love her so much, and since she isnt their actual child i think they treat her differently then they would their own, and since the girls mother is never around and she has no father, she basically is just extremely babied and can do whatever she wants. for instance, she loves to burst into my room at unexpected times and steal things such as my clock, flashlight, photos, medicine... basically anything. in fact, my flashlight is already broken because she dropped it and ill have to go buy a new one.

but anyway, i am getting really far off track. what i meant to begin with was, my father here is a pastor and therefore we went to church today. its quite interesting because i believe my family is well off. they have a very spacious apartment and live in a very nice neighborhood. they go out to eat a lot and have a tv, internet, hot water in the shower (sometimes), and even a washing machiene... although i have seen the daughter wash by hand so i dont know if the washing machiene is used or not. but anyway, my father is a pastor of an evangelical church in one of the lima shanty towns, which is actually pretty cool because i dont think i would be able to see much of the shanty towns if this werent the case. it takes about 45 min to an hour to get to the church. and then you must walk up a mountain a bit. apparently he started the church 3 years ago and it´s absolutely full of young people, which is awesome for me.

so anyway, im in this crazy evangelical church where they sing north american praise songs in spanish, and its in a shanty town, and this woman comes up to me and starts speaking to me in english! i almost peed my pants i was so excited. her name is gisela and she is a 2nd grade school teacher, therefore she is off from school for the summer. she is 23 and studied english for 3 years at the university of lima. she isnt quite fluent but we definitely made due, especially with the spanish/english dictionary at hand. anyway, after the long service, all the young people gathered around me and started firing questions. it was quite overwhelming, but she was able to translate a lot. and then of course all the young men came up to me and, as customary, kissed me on the cheek, and then as not customary, began to exclaim how "bonita" i am. (this is a side note, but if anyone needs a self-esteem booster, just come to peru. the men are actually very tame on the streets, in fact i dont hear much at all, as opposed to what i hear they are like in the domincan republic, but when you meet people they tell you how pretty you are about 40 times. and they actually refer to me as "the pretty gringa." and everyday i wake up and my family tells me that i am "muy guapa" and "muy bonita." it fact, today at breakfast my mother told me she had a gift for me, and brought out 2 necklaces and 2 braclets, and told me they matched my dress and i should pick my favorites and wear them. they look old, as if they were hers once, but i thought it wouldn't be appropriate for me to object. so i wore them!). but anyway, gisela asked me if i wanted to go to her friend carol's house for lunch (carol was there at church, too) and so i agreed because i would never pass up an opportunity to hang out in the shanty towns a bit longer. so anyway, we go to her house for lunch! and it was very fun. except there was a boy, i completely forget his name, but he sat outside at the window the entire time we were eating inside, and spoke to me in spanish and tried to get me to go on a walk with him. the girls i was with kept telling him to go away and that i didn't like him, etc. i thought it was all very funny. they said he was like that with all girls, peruvian or not, and that i should just ignore him. which i attempted to do, but it was kind of hard, and he kept asking me if i liked all these american bands, so i wanted to respond since i actually understand what he was saying to me, even though it was in spanish. but anyway, these girls, gisela and carol (who is 20 and can't speak english, but loved to ask me english words), asked me if i wanted to go shopping, which i of course did not turn town. and it turns out we went to the mall i mentioned above, which was just an experience all in one. i bought a tweezers (pinzas) because i left mine at home, but that was it.

and then we came back home. and for the first time, i actually kind of understand the whole bus system and knew where my apartment was (which i will need to explain the transportation in a different entry for this one is getting cluttered with far too much information). we came back to the apartment, went and bought pepsi at a our store on our block (every block has a general store), and then we sat in the apartment and i showed them photos of my friends and family. they are very funny. and they were all "good girls" because they were sitting in the pastors house, which i thought was hilarious. like they whispered they liked beer to me and then told me not to say it outloud in spanish because the pastor would understand. and i said, in spanish, "you are crazy church girls" and they were like, "shhshhshh! dont say that in the pastors home!" quite humorous.

but anyway, yesterday. i woke up and they told me at breakfast that today was my day to study and tomorrow we would go out. then about a half hour later they told me we were going out at 12:30, so i was very confused. and basically all i knew was we were going to a party and it had something to do with church. it turned out we went to a shanty house up in the mountains of lima, and it was a birthday party for one of the women in the church, and they kept saying sisters and i couldn't figure out if they were real sisters with my mother, or church sisters. but whatever. i do know i had the best food i have eaten so far, which is quite amazing because peru has GREAT food, and quite a variety, too! i believe the food was civeche? but i forget, and i cant find my mom to ask right now. so maybe ill have to inform you that later...

the birthday party was pretty overwhelming. and too much spanish. but it was great seeing a shanty town house (little did i know i would see them every sunday), and i enjoyed it greatly. we came home then, and i did a bit of studying. then my mother, daniela (3 year old), and i watched beethoven! my mother thought it was hilarious, and would laugh and laugh, and then attempt to explain to me what was going on. i hadn't seen it since i was probably 7, so her explanations were actually helpful. and i kind of enjoyed watching an american movie in spanish. then my mother and i ate bread and drank coffee (which is the best coffee i have ever tasted in my life). i don't know if that's a usual thing to do at 9:30 pm or not, but we did it.

anyway, i told them i would eat in 30 min. and i feel like im taking over their internet, so i should stop writing. i don't know how much they pay for this, but i would feel bad if i was costing them a lot of money. on a side note though, i had a tour of lima on friday as well as my first beach visit. lima is huge, over 8 million people, and its extremely overwhelming. but ill get used to it. on another side note, the church girls told me they would hang out with me so that should be fun. and i told them to take me to the beach if they ever go. and they said on sunday we will go to the beach... but aparently in peru people tell you they'll do something and then they definitely won't do it. it's not because they're rude, it's just party of the culture. so i'm not going assume we will go to the beach, but if we don't go i will find some sst'ers who will want to go. it's only a 15 min. ride for me to get there! and tambo goshen (our home base where our leaders live) is only a walk away from the beach, so i will have plenty of opporutnities!

anyway, must go. until next time... ciao!!

ps. i cant spell check here. so im sorry for all the mistakes.