Goodbye

So, my acne has gotten pretty bad here. A few days ago we went to the doctor. She's got me on some pills and a cream now that prohibit me from consuming the following items:
Fatty Cheeses
Butter
Garlic
Cake
Condiments (in excess)
Chizitos (no idea what they are)
Embutidos (again... don't know... host brother says ham is included)
Tuna
Sausage
Visceras (no idea)
Fish
Pork
Seafood in general
All alcoholic beverages

This is what went through my head as I heard this:

Me: QUECOSAESTOESUNAMIEEEEERDALAGRANPUTAMAAAADRECARAJOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I um, don't have time to translate....

Holy Week

So the past few days I haven't had class because of Holy Week. Last night I went to a procession called the Procession of Sepulcro. I went to the center with my uncle and his friend to see it. We watched, all in total silence, as several displays were carried by. A clear casket holding Jesus after he had been taken off of the cross and several other figures. It was kind of surreal because usually the streets are so busy and loud and there are so many cars and busy people, but for a couple hours there were no cars, no noise, just everyone standing on the sidewalks in silence watching the procession. When the procession reached the actual center, lights came up on the Cathedral and there and there was a chorus singing several songs specific to the Procession. It was nice.
Thursday and Friday we weren't allowed to eat meat. Disappointing. I was hoping that today we would have a nice meaty dish but I guess we are just going to have soup. .. :-/
Less than two months till Ally comes!

-J

Pics Posted

www.myspace.com/murphs_pub
Sorry to peeps who don't have myspace... saves me hours putting up photos.

And here we go again....

So! It's been awhile. Almost three months since my last post. And what a three months it was. First off, two months at the beach....? heavenWhat?? Get up late, eat, go to the beach, play ping pong, eat, sleep some more, go out... every. single. day. More than two months I was living the life of a king. Especially the week when my family went back to the city. I, quite unwillingly, stayed at the beach apartment alllll byyy myyyseeelllff. What a pity... stuck at the beach with and apartment to myself, with cable television, Playstation 2, and a maid to do all my cooking and cleaning. Man, lemme tell ya, it was rough... almost didn't make it through the week.
But now back to reality. Class started last week at the University. I am currently attending the Universidad La Catolica de Santa Maria. It's a nice little university about 15 minutes in bus from my house. One of my favorite parts about it is that I am attending the University as a free student, meaning I can take whichever class I want from any major I want from any year that I want. That works out well because I have a few classes with friends from last semester and I have started a few classes from the first year. I wanted to start a few classes from the beginning because I would actually like to learn something this time around. Last semester I started about two months before the end of the year and really wasn't able to absorb much. Hopefully this semester will be more productive. I have some friends from the beach that are in the same university. I see them sometimes but most of the time I'm with friends from last semester.
Anywho. Things in general have improved a lot since I first arrived here in Peru. Now I've got a bunch of friends, my Spanish is pretty good, and I'm busy enough not to have so much downtime being bored. And about friends, I haven't only found that I now have a decent number of friends, but I've found that I am beginning to see which ones are really friends, the type that I would come back in a few years to see. It doesn't take much to become a friend, but it takes a lot to become a true friend. I'm interested to see with whom I keep in contact after I leave this place. It's surprising who you keep in contact with. I see it now that it has been some time after graduating high school. Some people that you think you'd be friends for life with... contact is sorta lost after a while, and some people that you you think you'll never talk to again end up being the people that you talk to everyday. I'm anxious to see who I'll stay friends with from here.
What else? Oh, holidays. I found that the hardest holiday for me was St. Patrick's Day. The other holidays were tough too but not as tough as St. Patty's Day. I think it's because I was in contact much more with everyone from home during all of the other holidays. The whole summer I barely talked with anyone... so towards the end of the summer I started to get more and more homesick. St. Patty's Day I called and talked to everyone and it made me so happy and excited to talk to them again. It was like a little reminder that yes, I will go back and get to see those people again! And there isn't much time left now. Much more than half of my exchange is over. The summer has passed, my birthday, birthdays of friends and family, holidays, all sorts of stuff has already passed by. And I'm sure that Time isn't going to take a break and slow down. It seems like I just got back from the beach, but in reality it's been almost three weeks. It's been almost three weeks since I got back from the beach, three weeks is almost a month, and just three and a half of those are left. Since my first day here in the city time has slowly but surely sped up from a crawl, to a walk, a run, exponentially increasing, quickening, exploding with each passing day.

Bueno, it's time for me to get to bed. Tomorrow and Friday I don't have class because of Holy Week... not sure what I'll be doing. We'll see.
Love,
Jack

BEACH

Yeah so um... I'm going to the beach tomorrow at 7:00 am... I'll be there for New Years... and then for January... and then for February... then in March I'll come back......





















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Love,
Jack

Weekly Report Dec 20-23

Weekly Report Dec 20-23

Thursday December 20

Lazy day because of all the traveling the previous days. Ended up going out at night with some friends. Good time.

Friday December 21

Ally's birthday! Called her at around lunch time but wasn't there. Called later and got a hold of her. In the evening I went to see a play with Lizzie, her boyfriend and a friend of theirs. We went to see Cinderella because one of her friends from highschool was in it. It was... interesting. The girl that was Cinderella had the same expression on her face the entire play, one girl was mouthing the lines of the other characters the whole time, and at the end they accidentally did one scene twice.
After the play we went to this place called "Los Jugos", The Juices, for a smoothie and to grab a bight to eat because I didn't have a chance to eat earlier. This place is pretty cool, they have tons and tons of types of fruit to pick from so you just pick anything and they make a smoothie out of it. Other than that I had a little sandwich with chicken and avacado. I'm starting to like avacado a lot. I'm also trying to get used to fruits cause I was never much of a fruit eater but here they have lots of nice fresh fruit. The have this one that I like, you peal it open and on the inside there is this weird looking mass of seeds that seems to be held together but... well... it
looks like mucus :) you just throw the whole mucusy mass thing in your mouth and swallow. It's very good.
Then we went and watched a movie. Relatively early night, a one-o'clocker.

Saturday December 22

Did absolutely nothing today. I bought a couple of calling cards to call the States tomorrow to talk to the whole fam. But other than that... nothing. Tonight I might go out or something but as of now I have no plans.

Sunday December 23

Merry Christmas Eve! That is of course because my family is celebrating the annual part a day early this year. I called at 8:30 to talk to everyone and to wish them a Merry Christmas. It was nice to talk to them all, but it was also kind of hard listening to all the sounds of people and singing and fun that I so enjoy every year. My Christmas will be much more mellow this year. Most likely no presents, different family speaking in a language that is still hard to understand sometimes, different traditions, and a little fake Christmas tree that doesn't shed even but a tiny scent of Christmasy goodness. We will have family arriving at around 9 o'clock tonight and between then and 12 midnight we will have dinner. Then right at 12 we will open presents. After that I don't think that we do anything. I'll be going to a lunch with Lizzie's family the day of Christmas but other than that my host mother said that we don't do anything. It's gonna be a very weird Christmas and New Years this year.
Earlier in the day I went to the center with the family to see the Cathedral and eat Bunuelos. They are like these donut/fried dough things that we put something like molassas on. They are good. The Cathedral was nice, but there were Christmas Carols being sung and it made me think of home, that at the very moment my family was probably singing the exact same song in English.

I'm actually glad that the weather is the way it is, because for the most part my mind doesn't dwell on thoughts of the family for too long. Tonight when we are "celebrating" it might be a little harder but well just have to see.
I hope that everyone had a nice early Christmas Eve party, has a very Merry Christmas, and has a wonderful New Year.

-Jack

P.S. Photos will now be posted on Myspace.com . I save hours putting up photos there instead of on here.

woops!

Haha sorry Mike I wrote this past report at the end of the week and accidentally put your bday on the 10th. Sorry! Did you end up going out to Chinese food?