Vida en Distrito 12

I've talked a lot about the differences in Lima like the culture, the food, and the people but not so much about the differences of lima as a city. When I first spoke to my first host family they said id be living in "San Borja" and I was surprised because I had been assigned to Lima not San Borja. My host sister then explained that Lima has 43 districts within it. This is like how Oakland county in Michigan has several cities within it, Lima being like a county.

 I am currently living in district 12, la molina. That's right Hunger games fans, I'm living in district 12. La molina is kind of far from everything which is a drawback but it is also, very luckily, where all the exchange students have to go to university. I have about a 10 minute walk to the campus everyday which is a lot better than a 2 hour bus ride that some of my friends have to take, especially when classes begin at 7. La molina is known as one of the richer districts and there are a lot of nice apartment buildings here, but we are also nearly in the mountains so it's very hilly.

My first house was in San Borja which was great because it's right in the center of everything. It's also know as the earthy district because there are so many parks there. I went to celegio in Chorrillos which is aaalllllll the way at the bottom of Lima and where there are a lot of military training facilities and buildings. This is like the outskirts of Lima so it's not quite as nice but it's also on the coast and has some really popular and beautiful beaches. My second family was in Surquillo, right below San Borja. That was nice because I already knew the area and I was a 15 minute walk from a mall and a bus stop that could get me anywhere I wanted to go. 

So now I'll tell you a little bit about every district that I know:

Lima- center of the city, plaza de armas, great place to go shopping but also a great place to get robbed, lots of tourists, lots of police, if you visit just go in the daytime and you're good

San Miguel- went there to stay with a friend last weekend and my mom nearly died when I showed her outside the window, very close to Callao, lots of rundown buildings with tin roofs and stray bricks broken off of the walls, friend who lives there calls it the land of stray dogs. (apparently we were in the bad part of it and most of it isn't so bad, we went to a pretty awesome mall to see Divergent and it was actually in a nice part)

Madalena del Mar- little costal district, a place that gets passed through more than visited but it's really a very nice like place, nice people, lots of spanish style buildings, not so typical peruvian

Lince- district where i go to pick up my packages and deal with the incompetent postal service here (the exchange students have so much trouble with the postal service here because they know we are from out of town, expect we can't speak spanish, and if we list items of value in out packages they will make it nearly impossible to track it down so that hopefully we will forget about it and they can sell off our stuff.)

San Borja- beautiful district in the center of everything, lots of parks, the street Aviacion runs right through it (giant monorail train system above this road) mostly residential 

La Molina- out in nearly the mountains, very nice buildings and lots of hills

Surco- very residential district, lots of houses and not so many apartments, borders all the good districts (miraflores, barranco, san borja)

Surquillo- food market district with lots of people in them, everything here is a lot cheaper than in the supermarkets, kind of like organic markets but super cheap, normally the poorer people will go here but rich people will too if thats how they prefer their food (but they often said the maids to do the shopping)

Miraflores-Gringo district, all the foreigners are here, lots of people selling hand crafted objects, pinkberry and starbucks are here, lots of nice hotels for travelers or cheap hostels for backpackers, a park in the center where the cats are like squirrels in Michigan, on the coast but above it on a cliff so there are amazing views

Barranco- party district, super tiny and jammed full of night clubs and bars, this is where the foreigners who are in miraflores all day go at night, considered a very cultural artsy district with museums for during the day and a few decorated pianos around town that literally ask you to play them. 

Chorillos- where my military school is, there's a villa where all the military families live along with government offices and training facilities, if you go down off the cliff to the coast there are some beaches that were pretty cold when I went with my school friends

Callao- not technically a district of Lima, where the international airport is, detroit-esque, lots of run down buildings and stray dogs

Terremotos y Temblores

 So recently there has been a few tremors and earthquakes going on in and close to Peru. The biggest ones were 8.0's and more in Chile and although we didn't actually feel a thing here in Lima we were still issued a Tsunami warning. I knew with coming to Peru that earthquakes were a major risk and in our first few weeks here all the exchange students had to go to a weekend camp where they taught us all about earthquakes, tsunamis, and any other natural disaster that can occur here. We learned that these things are serious and watched some pretty scary videos that showed us that these things are really dangerous. Apparently there's a giant earthquake coming (according to the experts) but I feel pretty prepared. All the buildings here are built in the most stable way possible to ensure they won't fall in the case of seismic activity, and also there are marked safety zones in every room of public buildings so that if you can't get outside in time, there is a place that you can go where you know it is safe. In addition to the safety zones, a lot of public places like hotels or museums have marked meeting places, so that if you are separated from your family or friends you can find each other easily. Also if you are in an area that you aren't familiar with when an earthquake strikes and you aren't sure if you're in the danger zone of a tsunami, there are signs that will tell you if you are and the direction that you should go to get to a secure area.
All of my time here so far I have felt two earthquakes, one in colegio, and the other in my house. In colegio it was fairly weak and I only felt it because i was leaning on the wall on the second floor, and I immediately thought to the training we received and how we should get outside as soon as possible but everyone else decided it wasn't strong enough to make a big deal out of. While I was wondering why people weren't moving towards the door everyone else just was sitting there shouting "temblor" (tremor) so that everyone was aware. After they were all laughing at me a little bit because this is totally normal to them all and they were surprised when i said it was my first time feeling an earthquake. I told them that in Michigan we don't know anything about earthquakes but we are exerts at tornados, which also seemed to surprise them.
The second time was pretty soon after; I was in my room and I had been sitting on my bed but I stood up and was walking to go get something when it struck. I felt it at first and heard my host mom shout temblor like they did in colegio. This time I took a breath and was like "ok Hannah, just stay calm and it's gonna be fine" but then something scared me this time. I could hear all the windows beginning to rattle and shake in their frames. It made me pretty nervous so I started to go look for my host mom who had disappeared from her room and then I headed to the door. I found my mom freaking out with the empleada and telling us to go outside. She was more scared than me!! Anyway, I think the strangest part was that I definitely felt these two earthquakes but the other exchange students all who lived pretty close to me didn't feel them, and actually felt others. We were super close geographically but we all felt different ones. That just kind of surprised me a little. Soooo the point of all this is mom, don't freak out, im gonna come home alive. The people and the buildings here are built to withstand earthquakes, even if this supposed "big one" is coming I think we'll all be ok.

viaje al norte

So i just got back from another one of our trips that we take with all of the Rotary students and this time we went north!we started by flying to a city called Trujillo and we stayed in a hotel that was across the street from the beach. I never went to this beach because after being warned for month about the sun i was in full on skin protection mode; hats, sunscreen every five seconds, the works. It was probably better anyway because the people that came back said there were jellyfish, sea urchins, rocks, and huge waves. There was a pool at the hotel and I just hung out there with a few other blancas. While we were in this city we saw the malecon which is just like a boardwalk and the plaza de armas. We also stopped at an old archaeological site, one of them the tallest in south america with 7 stories. After that we travelled to a city called Chiclayo and had a FULL day of archaeological tours. We saw the ruins of an ancient culture called the Moche and the mummy of a man called the Señor de Sipan which was actually super cool. First we went to his final resting place and we saw all of these tombs that were restaged but still awesome and along with his "body" we also saw the "bodies" of a sacerdote, which I believe is like the medicine/gods man, and an older hierarchal figure as well.  We walked through all of these tombs and then inside to a museum where some of the actual artifacts were kept so they would be safer and could be preserved longer. Here we only saw things like vases and things that were of little importance to the Señor of Sipan because these are all kept in a museum with tighter security and closer to civilization so that people can see it more easily. After we finished at the smaller museum we travelled into the city to see the actual bodies and artifacts. Unfortunately we got there kind of late so we were rushed through before they closed but we got to see all of the recovered ceremonial items that the men were buried with along with their actual bodies. The bones of the Señor de Sipan were completely crushed because the roof of his tomb caved in and his tomb was also very humid. He had a ton of jewelry buried with him but apparently grave robbers have taken almost all of it and the things that we saw only made up about 6% of all that there was originally. While we were in Chiclayo we also saw the city and their plaza de armas before going on to Tumbes. We travelled all night in bus with a sick passenger who threw up at like 2 am two rows behind me and when we arrived we headed straight off to Puerto Pizarro which is a port that connects the amazon river (I think) to the ocean. Theres a few islands here with beautiful wildlife and we stopped at Crocodile Island where we saw all the life stages of a crocodile and passed by another that has a ridiculous amount of birds. All that afternoon we got to swim at the beach on one of the islands and the water was so warm!!!! I hadn't brought my bathing suit but I couldn't resist going in so I ended up swimming in my dress! Thankfully that insane sunlight dried it pretty quick. :) That night we were in the bus again all night to Guayaquil, a city in..... Ecuador!!!! We spent the morning seeing the boardwalk and some Galapagos Tortoises  and in the night we got to explore the city. We ended up going to eat pizza and then found an amazing ice cream place that we ended up going to again the next day. That day we spent the morning on a mirabus to tour the city and we saw the second largest shopping mall in South America. Then we travelled of to Las Salinas which has a gorgeous beach and some cool shops along the coast. After one night there we made our way back to Tumbes. After picking up some stuff we had left in a hotel, we went to Zorritos, to the best part of the whole trip. We were in a hotel that literally was on the beach and we just got to enjoy it for 2 days. It was such a nice end to our trip and a good way to say goodbye to my "sister" here. I had spent almost half of my time in Peru living with a girl from Taiwan named Irene and at the end of this trip her family in Taiwan needed her to end her exchange and come home early. It was so hard to say goodbye to her but we had a bonfire on the beach and we all gave her a little peruvian thing like candy or a handmade little trinket and we all said something about her. It was a sad but nice end to our trip.

Peruvian Carneval

Happy February!! Here in Peru this whole month is carneval which is basically a big game that is played all throughout the country. Since this month is the hottest because it is he middle of summer the people here are always looking for ways to keep cool and normally that means ice cream or the beach, but during this month it means playing carneval! It's a nationwide game of water balloons! Although it's less common here in Lima, you still have to be on the lookout while walking down the street because when you least expect it you can get hit with flying balloons by complete strangers! If you're super lucky maybe the balloon will even be full of flour or paint instead, yay!!! I haven't gotten to participate yet because I've been stuck in bed sick but I've already got a few people I plan on playing carneval with :P

Navidad y Año Nuevo

Christmas eve here began with everyone prepping the living room at around 7 at night by putting the grifts under the trees and finishing up cooking the christmas feast. We had lots of family staying with us, about 30 people in all. After everyone was dressed and ready to celebrate we took a ton of pictures and then champagne was given to everyone age 9 and up. After a toast, we all sat down to eat dinner around 11 at night. We had a baked turkey and then a few different types of rice and a pasta salad that I looooved. Right before midnight the kids (one kid from each family) took the family Jesus figurine and we had little parade to the front yard to place the Jesuses in the manger. When I asked my mom why we needed 4 Jesuses she said that just because you're not in your own home for christmas doesn't mean you can abandon your family's Jesus doll. So the whole night fireworks had been going off and at midnight the explosions became more frequent. We all headed outside and the sky was literally full of glittering thunderous fireworks. We even set off a few of our own! It was so cool to see all of this celebration from so many people for this one holiday. After the fireworks were done we all headed inside for the kids to open up presents and then it was bedtime, welcomed by everyone!!!   In the morning on christmas day is probably a tradition I will bring home with me, Peruvian hot chocolate and pannettone for breakfast. Mmmmmmm soooo delicious. Besides this however, christmas day isn't really celebrated at all here.
New Year's Eve all of the exchange students headed over to one of our houses for a party with almost all of us together and we had a blast!!!!  We got there and after hanging out for a bit we all ate turkey and rice (pretty similar to christmas) that the mom of the house had made just for us! So after we had all finished eating we turned up the music and started dancing and getting everything ready for midnight. When the time came we all headed up to the roof of the house with glasses of champagne, ready to ring in the new year. Again, as it came closer to midnight more and more fireworks were set off and we had an amazing view from up so high. We had our own little iPhone countdown to midnight and set off our own fireworks while yelling feliz año nuevo!!!!!  It was such a great celebration and even though it was so hard to be away from my family for the holidays I feel like it made me grow up a little bit. It also made me realize I will NEVER be missing another family christmas if I can help it!!! I missed our traditions soooo much and i never want to go another year without them or my amazing family.

Trabajo de Rotary para la Navidad

The last two weekends Ive been doing work with my Rotary club here helping to give presents to underprivileged children in Peru. About an hour outside of the city of Lima up in the mountains is a very poor part of Peru so we travelled up there in bus and began doing Santa's work! We worked from the kids' school and all of the kids came there while we spent the day entertaining them, feeding them, and keeping them out of trouble. Entertaining involved singing to them and me personally dressing up as a princess haha and feeding them involved a traditional fruitcake called panettone which I guess is popular in some parts of South America and Europe. Panettone is insanely popular here and you can find in in nearly every peruvians house during christmas time here. Theres four in my house right now, but thats another story! So, after the children were entertained by us, an actual company comes in and puts on a real show for them and the kids play games and win prizes and its a great time for them, and us because we can get a little break! It gets so hot up in the mountains and especially now that summer is beginning, the heat was killer! Once the show ends we corral all the little kids into different classrooms and watched over them until they got called out to go and finally receive their gifts, which is what these kids are really looking forward to. As we were waiting in the classroom the kids were telling me what they asked santa for and one kid told me that he had no toys in his house so he just asked for anything to play with, which broke my heart but I was happy because we were there to help him and now he would have a toy for christmas. After all the kids had been given their gifts and sent back home we helped clean up everything and when we finally got back on the bus we were all sleeping because we were so tired!  This was the first weekend and we worked with about 800 kids, the second weekend we had 1500 kids! It actually turned out easier the second weekend because they were all kept in bleachers watching some form of entertainment instead of running around us going crazy like the first time. It was nice to do some volunteer work during christmas time and i was really glad i got to help out and make some christmases better for these kids.

Fiesta de la Promocion

Wednesday night was my prom here!!!!  So lets start with what i wore, I was going to wear a really pretty blue prom dress sent to me from home but the package never got here!!! So, i had to improvise with a dress i already had here and borrow shoes, buy jewelry and all of that fun stuff. It ended up urning out alright though :)  I got ready with another girl from the states and we had a great time. I met with my prom date and his best friend and we headed off to the prom location. Here in Peru the boy gives the girl a corsage but the girl normally does not give one to the boy, so I have one with a fake flower which apparently is more popular here than real flowers. Anyway, we get there and there is a professional photographer out front and he takes a picture of everyone with their date and alone and then when we get inside its super pretty so we took a few more pictures ourselves before going in. The actual prom was held under like a giant tent with a dance floor and tables around it  on the grass, which was difficult because our chairs kept sinking into the dirt all night!  So when we for there at like 9 people just kind of socialized and took pictures and that fun stuff and then dinner was served around 11:30 or so -I was dying- and it was some really weird food that i didn't even really eat. After that the dancing began and there was an open bar which shocked me but hey, alright Peru. So from that point on into the wee hours of the morning we just kept dancing and talking and it was a great last night to be with all of my peruvian friends together. Prom here ends at 6 in the morning! That was actually hard for me because around 2 i was about done for the night. But I pushed on, and made it all the way to the end!! When it ended the majority of people took buses back to the villas, which is a place thats like a gated military community where most of the students of my school live, but a few just called taxis to come and get them. I went back in the bus to the villa with all of the exchange students and from there we separated and went back home.  I got home at like 8 and after some breakfast and changing out of my dress I slept and slept and slept. My goodness was I exhausted! But i really did have an amazing time even if everything didn't go according to plan :)  Too bad in peru you only get to go as a senior!!!