Reminds me of something I’d see in Asia. Peru has some goofy looking vehicles that’s for sure.

Asked my boss for a raise and he said he doesn’t give raises, but he’d be happy to give me more hours. Which kind of defeats my point, a raise allows me to earn more working the same hours, not filling up my schedule with more classes. 6 more months and I’m about to skadoodle on over to China to make some real money. And yes I’m aware that ‘skadoodle’ isn’t a real word. 

Leaving Wednesday for Colca Canyon, the world’s deepest canyon. My life…

‘Chuleta frita’ which is fried pork with rice and potatoes. Whodathunkit? 

Although this is a somewhat big piece of meat, anywhere besides a menu, meat is rather expensive. I sure do miss American grocery stores with their endless types of meats at affordable prices. I also miss grills. We had a ghetto charcoal grill for the 4th of July, but I would even settle for a good 'ol George Foreman at this point. Ah the luxuries of a 1st world country. 

Nothing like Hot Dong followed with a hot cup of Gafe. Oh Arequipa…

The first picture is a guy making wicked cool pictures using only spray paint. Unreal watching it come together. Oh and the pink stuff is cotton candy. 

I miss having an oven. Not saying I utilized the one back in the states on a daily basis, but it’s nice being able to have that option. I’m running out of recipes that call for ‘pan frying’ my chicken. Speaking of food, I have eaten rice everyday for the past 7 months in one way or another. Potatoes come in a close second. Peruvians sure do love their carbs. 

Not only have I not seen a Jeep here in Peru, American beer is nowhere to be found. And on this sunny afternoon, I see a Miller Genuine Draft Jeep parked across the street from my house. This country never ceases to amaze me. 

More pictures from the parade. Cute little kid in front of me, so of course I creepily took a picture while her mom wasn’t looking. Peruvian kids are adorable, but I think 10 is the cutoff between cute and obnoxious. 

Captain America in Peru

Captain America is in Perú! Weird seeing that costume in an Arequipan pride parade.

More from the Corso. First is a giant snack cart that has popcorn, chips, and other assorted things that I can’t pronounce. The picture with people huddled around a small grill is quite common. I probably saw 30 of these within 2 blocks. These grills have mini shish kabobs with either chicken or beef, topped with a tiny grilled potato. They cost S/. 1, or about 40 cents. 

Came across a portable flat top grill with some weird looking meat mixture, so of course I asked what it was. Turns out it was grilled chicken gizzard and local corn grilled together with spices and served on a plastic plate. For S/. 3, it was scrumptious. 

El Corso was awesome. Biggest parade I have ever seen in my life. Wore a soccer jersey of a local team today and got compliments from more than 1 old lady, which was a bit weird. Ate some of the best street food I’ve ever tried, although discerning between ‘carne’ and 'perro’ isn’t something I thought I would ever have to do. Stranger things have happened I’m sure. 

It’s crazy here in Arequipa. It’s Arequipa Day and the city is shut down because everyone is watching “El Corso” which is a huge parade throughout the city. Every city / town in Peru and bordering countries comes to Arequipa and performs their traditional dance in the parade, accompanied of course with traditional costumes. It’s pretty wild. More to follow later

Peru: FAIL

As if the humility of not winning any Olympic medals wasn’t enough. This site will give you a better understanding of the typical things one sees while walking down a street in Peru

‘Hella’ cool 'thing’ I saw on a car. Not sure what it does, but seeing as how we use this word in the Northwest, I thought it was a rather interesting name for a brand. 

Give it like 10 seconds. Every other song played on the radio is this. Saying it’s popular here in Peru would be an understatement

‘Salpicón de pollo’ is delicious. It’s basically like chicken salad accompanied with rice (of course) but it’s got quite an interesting spice to it, along with carrots, peas, and onions. 

Told my students I had bought Nutella the other day and one of them told me that before 2010, Peru didn’t sell it. So during a trip to Canada, he bought 10 containers of Nutella and sold them in peru for about $40 a piece. What an entrepreneur. 

Dutty Love - Don Omar Ft. Natty Natasha

When it comes to Reggaeton, Don Omar is the man. Just ignore the annoying guy in the beginning. It’s pretty common for Spanish DJ’s to cut into the song. 

Oh Peru...

2 big things I’ve noticed while here in Peru. 

1. People stare. A lot. And i’m not talking about a “Why does he have so many freckles?” sort of glance, it’s a full on stare. It’s usually the men, more around my age and I get mean mugged in a, “Who invited you to our country?” sort of way. Sometimes I’ll wave at them or say something to them in English; I’ve found that embracing it makes it less awkward. At least they don’t yell at me like in El Salvador. I never got used to that.  

2. I’ve never seen so many pregnant women / women with newborn babies as much as I have here. Walking from my house to the gym, I’ll easily pass 8-10 women either with a baby or about to have one. Babies are literally everywhere, usually crying or swaddled up in a bright colored shawl wrapped around an indigenous women’s back. It’s something I wouldn’t have expected, but after being here for 6 months, I’m accustomed to it. 

And apparently my Tumblr is from England because when I type “realize’ or ‘colored’, it kindly suggests I change them to 'realise’ and 'coloured’. 

And this is where you can buy lottery tickets. Not sure if they are privatized or what because inside pharmacies, they have their own little booth and personal employees. Regardless it seems like a super boring job to sit there all day. Speaking of which, I love Peruvian pharmacies. No need for a doctor, just walk into a pharmacy, describe your symptoms and they’ll hook you up with exactly what you need. Pills are around 50 cents to $1, depending on the quality and so far, the pharmacists have been spot on. 

En serio?

Student in class had a shirt on that said, “I’m the first one”. Questioned her about being ‘the first to do what’ until she realized the saying didn’t make too much sense. Who is selling these ridiculous shirts?

Learned today that Nigeria should quit basketball and perhaps focus on running instead, or any other sport for that matter. 156-73, really? 

Blah blah blah...

Talked about the Olympics in class today (a sore topic for Peru) and tried to figure out the origins of swimming. One student made a good point by saying, “If someone pushes you into the ocean, wouldn’t that be swimming?” To which I said, "Well I suppose if you don’t drown, then yeah, you’ve got a point.“ 

Went to the grocery store today and bought 5 different types of local powdered roots and grains because they are "Bueno para la salud!” Mixed them together with hot chocolate powder and now have quite an interesting drink when combined with water. 

Highlight of my day: Splurging on an overpriced can of Nutella because it’s just so goddamn tasty

New restaurant I found that’s not too shabby. Read an article that 4 badminton teams were disqualified for throwing games. I know it’s the Olympics, but who takes the sport that seriously? Also didn’t know that ‘handball’ was an Olympic sport until I realized that the entire Swedish handball team was good looking. Speaking of which, we get like 3 channels of the Olympics, but each channel is designated for a different country here in South America. Even the commercials will say, “Designed for Colombia”, and the Colombian accent isn’t too much of a challenge. On the other hand, the Argentinian announcers are impossible to understand. Living in Peru, I suppose I’m biased.