Arequipa day is coming!

This weekend I moved into my new place. It´s just an upstairs room in a family´s house, but it´s nice and the family is soooo friendly. They even invited me to have Sunday lunch with their whole family that was in town. They had fish soup, fried fish, Civeche (a traditional Peruvian dish that is just raw fish cooked by mixing it with lemon juice and onions- really good!), corn and sweet potatoes. I think I´m going to learn a lot of Spanish in this house. Especially because Giovanna (in the middle in the picture with the kids) is actually one of my students and loves to hang out and use her English and teach me Spanish, and everyone else in the house only speaks Spanish with a few words of English for fun.

August is a big celebration month here in Arequipa because the 15th is the anniversary of the city, Arequipa day. So starting last weekend they have all kinds of different celebrations and parties leading up to Arequipa day.

When Giovanna went with me to the center of the city to buy a few things we were walking past the Plaza de Armas (the very center of the city) and they were having a parade where groups from all around Arequipa come and do their traditional dance. Giovanna is from Puno, the city next to the famous Lake Titicaca which is a glacial lake up in the Andies and on the Peruvian border with Bolivia, and so she pointed out the traditional costumes and dance from Puno.

And also can you believe that this is winter here in Arequipa? 75 and sunny, everyday!

Then we went to the market. You can see it´s really different than the Chinese markets, but still stacked full of different fruits. And Peru has so many kinds of potatoes, so there´s Giovanna showing me all the potatoes. 

Peru

Arequipa, Peru

I feel like I´m living in a dream world right now. Somehow, all along I´ve been planning this trip to Peru but it hasn´t sunk in that I would really be leaving China and teaching in South America, teaching in Peru, teaching in Arequipa- someplace I´d never heard of before. I applied to this school, and had an interview and accepted the job and bought my plane ticket and all the other things necessary to get here, and I even did it months ago, but still managed to not believe it. So here I am, already, walking around the city feeling like I´m looking at pictures online, meeting my students dreaming of what my students will be like, teaching my classes wondering how my classes will go and eating the food hoping I´ll like it.

I couldn´t wait for this change from China (not that I don´t love China, but I needed a break from it). I wanted a place with blue skies, small cities, friendly people and REAL hiking. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and feels tiny, compared to China, there aren´t any sky scrapers, the center of the city is filled with old stone churches, cobbled streets and thousands of miniature taxis inching along.

My flight got into Lima Tuesday night at 10 and my flight to Arequipa was at 5:30 Wednesday morning. I was supposed to sleep in the airport but couldn´t, so on my flight to Arequipa there wasn´t anyone sitting next to me, I passed out before the plane was even in the air and woke up with the seat belt buckle imprinted on my forehead when the plane landed an hour later. When I finally stumbled off the plane this is what I woke up to.

Amanda, a new assistant director at Extreme English, picked me up from the airport, took me to the TEFL house until I find my own place, showed me to the school, treated me to lunch and helped me get some essentials. I feel so fortunate to have her because I know what it´s like to show up in a new place and have to figure out everything for myself, and she´s new so I´m the first one who got this ´treatment´ because they´re trying to make things easier on the new teachers.
I´m living next to the Yanahuara plaza and so my walk to school everyday is through this promenade with a view of El Misti. Also in the plaza is this beautiful, although not unique here, stone church.

I didn´t have classes the first day, thank g-d, so I had some time to wander around the city. I was in search of some notebooks for class and casually looking for dinner around 5pm. I didn´t find the notebooks because I refused to pay $5 for a small 100 page spiral book, I just figured I´d go to the central market the next day. So by 7 I realized a lot of places were closing and wanted to get some food, but I felt too scared to go into these small restaurant/bars on the street because they were packed with sweaty men watching TV and I couldn´t see if there was a menu. So I passed those and then only found cake or bread shops. By 9 I was so hungry and willing to eat anywhere but now absolutely everything was closed and so I did find some man´s small corner shop open and I bought just this bread, avocado, tomato and bananas for less than a dollar. And this dinner was perfect for me, I should have started with that option. Tomorrow I know better :)

Chicago for Alissa's wedding

July is the month for weddings! Alissa, Micah's sister got married on July 28. So I went to Chicago a few days early and got to see all the preparations before the wedding. Kinda fun to see all the differences between her and Christine's wedding and that they were both really beautiful.

I went with Micah and Jacob, his brother, to try on and pick up their tuxes. Lookin' good with the converses Alissa had everyone wear for her wedding!









 At the Friday night dinner before the wedding. All the groomsmen got thank you knives.
And I really like this picture of the 4 of us, me, Micah, Lauren and Jacob, at the dinner.














The Wedding
Alissa and Ben were so brave to plan an outdoor wedding in Chicago in the summer. But they were really lucky and it turned out to be a beautiful day. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the ceremony, but it doesn't matter because that way we were just able to enjoy it without worrying about pics.
But here was the chupa and katuvah setup where they got married. You can see what a beautiful day it was.
The wedding was really unique and turned out really well. Alissa's friend played the violin before the ceremony and while the wedding party walked down the aisle. And they combined all the Jewish traditions for Alissa with all the Irish traditions for Ben, like him wearing a kilt and them tying ropes around their wrists to bind them in marriage.
Another thing was that the site was right next to the train tracks and the trains went by every 15 mins and blew their horns.

The reception was then inside. Great picture of the new happy couple. Congrats Alissa and Ben!


Also of Micah sitting with Jacob at the wedding party table.
And I was sat at the fun table with their cousins and other family.






Then when the night was all over and everyone was all danced out we watched the happy couple run off on their get-away-train. Cute!

NP tour back to Chicago

Coming out of Olympic NP and on our way down to Oregon we saw Saint Helen's and so we stopped off the highway to watch the video in the visitor's center (something Micah has to do in every park ;) We continued down I-5 past Portland to Salem to visit Barbara and Stuart for a night. I still can't believe it's been 6 yrs since my last trip to see them - time flies. And I didn't take a pic but I got to see their cute new puppy, Sundae.



So, starting back east in Oregon we took I-84 to Hells Canyon, supposedly the deepest canyon in America.

Then from there we caught back up with I-90 to see Devil's Tower. The Native American's story for this butte says that it was formed when some children who were running away from a giant bear prayed to the gods for help. They jumped on to a rock that then grew so high that the bear couldn´t reach them, but when the argry bear tried to climb up the rock he only scratched the sides of the rock. And that´s where Devils Tower comes from.

Our last stop was at Mt. Rushmore.

Drive home/ NP tour - stop 1

Olympic NP, WA

Our first stop on out national park hop was Olympic NP, WA for 3 days, and oh how we wish we had planned more time there! It has so much there and every place is incredible for its own things.
Even just in the mountains we saw the glaciers up on Mt. Olympus, the prairies on the sides of the mountains, the fresh (freezing) rivers cutting through the rivers and old growth forests with trees over 200 ft tall. And if this isn't paradise then just continue on!

The park also protects much of Washington's coastline. So we hiked though more old growth forests until we magically stumbled out onto their pristine beaches covered in those huge trees that fell and were pushed out to sea by the rivers and now collect on the beaches in huge piles of drift wood.

 Swimming in the runoff from the snow melt. Refreshing--ah.

Ok, still asking for more?

South-east of the Olympics are the Hoh and Quinalut rain forests. This is like real life Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Giant trees and giant ferns and moss taller than me hanging down from the tree branches.


Some of the giant trees were like this Sitka Spruce that are over 230 ft tall and grow so tall because the area gets more than 150 in of rain fall a year. The other giant trees are the Western Hemlock, and the Douglas Fir.

End the last day with this sunset on the beach just as the fog is rolling in.

Christine's wedding in Seattle

The weather in Seattle turned out to be amazing! I don't know what these people are talking about all the rain, I'd love to live there!! (J/K) But it was beautiful!

We went downtown to the famous fish market in Central market. I have to admit that after being in China and seeing Chinese markets with fish that I was pretty disappointed at the size of this little corner market selling about a dozen different FROZEN fish. This is America after all and I guess (we) Americans don't like choosing out a fish flopping around in a bucket and then watching it get its head beat in.

But the vegetable stands did look nice and colorful!

Since Micah and I got to Seattle on Wednesday, July 4th for fireworks and a get-together with Christine and then her wedding wasn't until Saturday, we had some time to go down to Portland to visit some of Micah's family. Marc, Micah's uncle treated us to a Ben Harper concert, and even though I didn't know too much of his music before, the concert was fun (not to mention we were in VIP-hehe).

And then the what we drove all the way out there for--- Christine's beautiful wedding. Can you believe she got married on top of a library?! Who knew it could be so nice with such a great view overlooking the Sound.
 
And at the end of the night we went out to toast the new couple with real drinks :)
Congratulations Christine and Nick!

I finished classes in Fuyang Jiangnan High School on June 21 and left China on June 25. Now I only have 5 weeks before I leave for Peru. My roommate, Christine, got married on July 7th in Seattle and so instead of flying I drove with Micah there.

The Badlands, SD

We basically took I-90 from Chicago all the way across. After 13 hours of driving the first day we stopped in the Badlands, South Dakota and camped under the stars (because we had a miscommunication as to who was supposed to bring their tent and so we ended up with none) which was really nice because of the dry weather and clear skies.

We passed a prairie dog town, which evidently they have the PLAGUE!!! Watch out for those guys.

Got to see some really nice sunsets from the road.

National Bison Range, MT

Our next stop was Helena, Montana and to the National Bison Range. They keep a steady 350 bison there because of how much land they have and at different times of the year they move them around from one range to another for grazing. It was such a beautiful wildlife sanctuary, we saw the bison (of course), a mama black bear and her cub, antelope, deer, mule deer and other different rodents and birds.

Crossing the Columbia River on the Washington-Idaho border. 

Then on the 4th day of driving (5th for me since I started in Washington DC), the 4th of July we finally made it to Seattle.

This is the view from Edmonds, WA looking across the Puget Sound and at the Olympic Mountains on the peninsula.