May
16
Weather
The seasons have begun to change here in Lima. It is now fall! When I first arrived, sandals and shorts were the appropriate attire. Now, layers are more efficient. When the sun is out, it’s warm-ish. But there are stretches in the morning and definitely after sunset that are absolutely freezing!! The temperature might be 60, but it feels like 40 or below. And according to some (new!yay!) Peruvian friends and our host family, June will be colder. So…I need to invest in a warmer jacket ( I only packed a light Columbia zip-up jacket) and some more comfortable closed-toe shoes! I don’t want to wear my tennis shoes everyday, and the couple pair of closed-toes I brought give me blisters easily! My boyfriend is coming for a visit (he’ll be here Thursday ahhhh!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) and I’m going to ask him to bring my boots and also take home some sandals and other summerish clothes that I will no longer be needing. I figure I’ll buy a warmer coat here, because I don’t want my peacoat making a trip to Lima. I would hate for something to happen to it! Besides my Lima winter coat can also serve as a souvenir!
As a result of not initially being prepared, I have a bit of a cold. I went to the pharmacy (boticas–they’re literally everywhere) and told them that I had a headache and a stuffy nose. They gave me a pill called “gripadyn” –not an antibiotic, because I asked– but no idea really what it was, although it did work wonders along with 4-5 pocket packs of kleenex! (Funny side story about the kleenex: I went to a corner store to buy some pocket packs, and I knew the word for kleenexes was “pañuelos”. I had bought “pañuelos” in Mexico and had remembered the word from seeing it on the package. However, I never realized I had only just read it and never said it out loud. So when I asked the lady at the counter for the kleenexes she had no idea what I was talking about. I had to resort to the hand motion of blowing my nose :/ This was followed by a well-intentioned Spanish lesson. She actually had me “repeat after me”. She was like– “pan….repita! pan” ….”ñu”…”el”… “o” and I humored her and repeated 🙂 🙂 I kinda still have trouble saying it, and I think next time I will try saying “Kleenex” with a Castellano accent haha it works with things like oreos :))
Some linguistic tips for fall (in addition to the pañuelo lesson):
resfrío (cold)
gripe (literally flu– but I think here it is like a stomach bug? or sickness in general–b/c often they ask if I have gripe after I describe my cold symptoms…ok maybe this one wasn’t actually a tip, but rather something I’m trying to figure out..)
chompa (jacket)
abrígate! (keep warm or bundle up)
Food
I also found that I have a fish allergy. Kind of weird since fish (both fresh and marine) has never made me sick before. Well, remember how I got sick last Thursday and we didn’t end up going to Cajamarca as a result? We ate fish for lunch that day. Well I chalked my sicknesss up to a motion-related one because everyone ate the same food and I was the only one who got sick. However…. this Saturday we also ate fish for lunch. And sure enough, two hours later I got sick in the same exact way (same headache, acid reflux, vomit-type). I feel the fact that I ate fish both days is enough to consider these episodes noncoincidental… I am also allergic to betadine (contains an Iodine compound–I looked up the word Iodine and it’s “yodo” in Spanish.) From what I’ve been reading, marine fish can have a large amount of iodine or a protein similar to it in their muscles. I don’t really know how I can be unallergic to iodized salt and other iodine-containing foods, but I am allergic to the iodine in the fish….. Maybe different forms of iodine.
Perhaps this is something I will learn in medical school. I’ve tried to search out the answer on the internet (google and such), but the answers are exteremely variable–seeing as how anyone can post their opinion on the web! Well–if anyone reading this can enlighten me–I’d love your input! (Especially Lizz if you’re reading–maybe you can ask Dr. Ryals if he knows!) Also, I’m not sure exactly what kind of fish I ate (only that I ate the same kind both times) –my host family calls it “diamante” or diamond fish.
Time after Midterms
Besides the two relatively short bouts of sickness related to the diamond fish, my time since midterms has been thoroughly enjoyable. I have caught up on blogging, reading, scholarship essay writing, working out, and a little sightseeing!
This past Thursday Calin and I went to the Center of Lima for our first time! Cindy and Serena (two other OU students studying at Católica) were nice enough to take us! We now know which combis to take from school and a little of our way around. We walked through Plaza San Martín and the Plaza de Armas, ate lunch, and went up to the Mirador San Cristobal! It was a great trip. We only stayed a few hours because we had to get back for class, but hopefully we’ll go again soon and get to see more!
Calin and I also went into Wong for our first time. I am so so so excited about my first (good) purchase of turkey meat and cheese for sandwiches. ( My first time was at Metro, and I was very disappointed). Calin and I have also tried out two Mexican restaurants: Mi Carcochito (last post) and Sí Señor. We went to Sí Señor today in Miraflores. I think it was my favorite of the two. It had many more choices and almost all were Mexican (where as at Mi Carcochito the majority was Peruvian, but they offered tacos). I ate tacos de carnita cancun or something along those lines. They were great, great, great flour tortillas with meat, pineapple, onions, peach, beans, and guacomole inside. Calin had enchiladas, which she said were really good.
List of restuarantes to try before I leave is now the following:
–>Rocoto Relleno
–>a cevicheria en Miraflores (which might be tricky now with my aversion to fish)
–>Don Rosalina
–>Como Agua Para Chocolate
–>Limeño Tradiciones
–>La Rosa Nautica ( Hopefully I get to check this one off when Jon comes!)
Midterms
I have yet to get all of my midterm grades, but hopefully I will this week. I did get my “Etnicidad, Identidad y Nación” grade back and it was an A! (which I was proud of because it was an essay test in Spanish). I am still waiting on my “Seguridad Internacional” grade–it was also an essay test–, my “Justicia y Organismos Publicos” ensayo–5-7 page essay in English–, and my Quechua exam…..which practically everyone cheated on (not me-gracias to my morals and OU’s strict academic honesty policy). And the teacher is not going to make us retake it! The teacher was not present at the exam–a proctor was, and everyone whipped out their notes claiming they were “like” dictionaries (b/c dictionaries were allowed, but not recommended). It was one of my most bizarre experiences here. I was livid about the whole situation, and from what I could tell it was not as big of a deal to the professor or the students. The profesora lightly scolded everyone the next class period, but that was that.
Oh well, what’s done is done haha–I need not stew about my Quechua test any longer, and I am so excited for this week! I have four days of class, and then Jon will get here late Thursday night. And we will be off to Cuzco and Machu Picchu for the weekend! I hope that all goes smoothly! Wish us luck! And I will surely be returning with beautiful pictures and memories!
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Thank you for the blog. We love following you guys throughout your days. Have fun and be careful!