Weekly Report Nov. 11th-18th

Sunday Nov. 11
Sunday is the day to sleep in around here. On Saturday my host mother wants everyone up by nine o'clock. That wouldn't be that bad I guess if I didn't go out of Fridays... but I do... so it sucks. Still Sunday was especiallysweet because on Friday I went out, went to bed at about two o'clock, got up at six o'clock to go to the gym, thendrove around the whole day with the some family yesterday, so I was dead. I didn't go out on Saturday because I wasso tired and ended up going to bed at around eleven. So Sunday it felt really good to get out of bed at a little after ten o'clock. And for all of you sleepers ten o'clock IS sleeping in for me. Then I basically did nothing until around one thirty when we went to lunch at this outdoor restaurant. That was fun, my food was ok. It was like this Chinese rice stuff with crayfish in it. The weird thing was that the crayfish were whole. Literally, shellhead, legs, antennas, everything. It was a little weird seeing my host mom eating almost the entire thing. Justthe head and antennas were left... ew. Rested for a while after that. We ended up going to the mall as a family just to look around. That was nice becauseI had the chance to spend some more time with the whole family. My sister ended up getting a pair of shoes, and mybrother got some speakers for his mp3 player. At the end we got some slushy type things that were really good. Itwas nice to walk around with them and to look at a couple of things that I am interested in. Quiet evening. I was going to buy a converter battery charger at Radioshack, but my host mother said that she hadone that I could use. I'm going to take a picture of it because I want you all to experience the sight of it for yourself. I wanted to laugh, hard, when I saw it.

Monday Nov. 12
Today my family here tried maple candy for the first time. It's hard to believe that something I'm used to havingand used to loving.... they might not like! My host sister was the first to try it. She got a funny look on herface and basically said that she didn't like it at all. She ended up eating the whole head of one of the littemaple people that we were eating, and didn't want any more than that. My host parents then tried it and said thatit was ok. But just ok? For me this candy represents autumn. It is when we go apple-picking as a family where wethrow apples at each other, drink apple cider, and see maple syrup for sale in everywhere that we go. It representsthe leaves changing color, days getting shorter, and weather getting colder. The first frost, first snow, first chill. All these thoughts were going through my head as I ate my little maple figurine. And my host family didn't evenreally like them! My host mother said that their exchange student last year from Oregon brought maple syrup, and they didn't like that either. I'm not entirely sure though if it was real maple syrup or if it was fake maple syrup. If it was fake then they haven't experienced what maple syrup is really like. But I have a feeling that it's justanother one those things that they aren't really accustomed to so they probably wouldn't like it anyway. My chemistry teacher gave me a packet from first unit of the book they use in my class the other day. It has beenreally hard for me in a couple of my classes because I started so late in their school year. I missed a lot of stuffand the stuff that they are doing is difficult. The combination of missing lots of time, covering difficult subjects,and the fact that everything is in Spanish makes the class pretty much impossible. So I asked my teacher about takingthe class after summer again so that one, I would start from the beginning just like any other student, and two so that my Spanish would be better so I wouldn't have to concentrate so much on just understanding the wordsthat she is using but rather would understand the concepts that she is teaching.

Tuesday Nov. 13Bad day. Rotary was going to give me a document that I really need for my Visa, so they made a document that endedup saying nothing that I really needed it to. Stressing about Visa and money. Definately something I've learnedhere in Peru so far.... I hate money. A lot. Not a happy day, stressful. I think that everything will work out in the end, but it's this middle part that's killing me. Since I waited a couple of days to write in this I "already"know what's happening tomorrow" I'll just skip to then to make the story better.

Wednesday Nov. 14 Very good day. First things first. Everything with my Visa is going to work out. There were some major doubts fora bit, but today I finally got a document that I really needed to reapply for my Visa. So tomorrow I'm going withmy host mother in Immigrations and getting it all taken care of. Once that is over a lot of pressure will be taken off of my chest. That would be so nice! And another thing was clarified a bit today. My host parents said that Allycan come visit me! So we are trying to figure out how it would work. We found pretty cheap plane tickets already,and just have to figure out how some things would work out while she is here. Money seems to always be a problem. Once she gets here she shouldn't have to spend much. A taxi here and there, a bus. We might try to do a bit of traveling but with such a tight budget I'm not sure how things will work out. I'll be talking with my host familyand Allison in the next few days and then have a better picture of how things will work out. It would be nice to goto Colca Canyon. That's not too far away and I doubt it would be very expensive. Plus I didn't get to see any condors when I went. This time I'll try harder. Maybe we could stay in Lima for a few days with some family fromhere. Who knows. We'll have to figure everything out within the next few weeks. So until everything is completely said and done with my Visa, I'm still a little antsy because so many things hereseem to take a few turns for the worst before they get better. Hopefully after tomorrow everything with my visa willbe worked out and I won't have to worry about it again. Oh yeah and apparantly there was a tremor today. Some people say that it was really strong and lasted for a fewminutes. I felt nothing... and I'm pissed about it.

Thursday Nov. 15
Everything is FINALLY worked out with my Visa. It was a long and stressful process that neither my host mother nor I enjoyed at all. We went to Immigration with all of my papers. Two copies of everything, passport, school papers,Rotary papers, etc. The said that the paper that we had from my school also needed to say that I was going to be there until July 2008. I had another paper there from Rotary that said I was going to be there until July 2008 butboth of them had to say it. So my host mother and I drove to the school, back to Immigration, and handed the woman the paper. Then she said, "Oh, and sorry I forgot to tell you, you also need a photo copy of my host father's IDthat is notarized" So we drove to where my dad works and got the notarized photo copy of his ID and drove back to Immigration. So finally, after about three hours of driving around that should have taken one, I finally had myVisa in hand. No more worrying about that, thank goodness. Oh, I forgot a part of the story. So the second time that we were at Immigrations the woman that was serving us stamped my Immigration Card with the wrong date. It said until June 31, and I needed it to say until July 31. So,guess what she does? Yeah, she pulls out the white-out and corrects the JUN by whiting out the N and writing with a pen of the same color as the ink L. That first. THEN, she was stamping my passport. I need my passport to have a stamp that says "STUDENT" on it. So guess what she puts.... TOURIST. As we would say here, "QUE SONSA" (What an idiot). So guess what she does again... YEP! She pulls out that white-out and whites out "TURISTA" and writes "ESTUDIANTE" with blue ink..... QQUUUEEE SOOONNSSAAAA... So now I have white out in my freaking passport. So everything with my Visa could be finally over. As long as the whole white out thing goes over well, I shouldn'thave any more problems with it. Now I will have more time to kind of spread out and try more things instead of worrying about that. I'm going to try now to set up a schedule at the place I was volunteering. I could only gothat one time because of all this crap with my Visa. The place that I went is called the "Hogar de Cristo". I'm hoping to be able to go about three times a week for now. Probably Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Some other good news is that I am excited for the Inca trail in a few days. I am leaving Sunday, and will be gonefor ten days. So after this report I won't be doing one for a week, I'll just do one big one the following week. So I thought today was just going to end like a normal day, but no! Usually I just go on the computer, check mail, talk to a few people. I was amidst the checking of the e-mail, when the buzzer rang notifying me that someone wasat the door. My maid had left a few minutes earlier to go home, and I figured it was one of my parents or something.But no, it was Maria, the maid. I went downstairs and let her in. I asked if she had forgotten something, and shesaid no with a smile but didn't say anything else. When we got inside she asked if there was a cell phone and I saidthat she could use mine. (I have and old one from the family that I pay for) Usually when you call my host mothershe won't answer, then she'll call from whereever she is to the house or to your cell phone, that way it costs her money and not me. So Maria called my host mom and my host mom called the house. Maria was describing what had happened, and I had just happened to stay in the kitchen. She said that she had been robbed and she had keys to the house in her purse. She described to me after she got off the phone, tearfully, of how it happened. Apparantly she was just walking and a few cars went by her, and someone just stuck their hand out of the taxi and boom, theregoes her purse. It's a little unnerving because I've walked exactly where she was at night even later. I was definatelybeing cautious and everything. But still, it just makes it more real now that it has actually happened so someonethat I know. Whenever something bad happens to someone that you know personally it always brings things to a wholenew level of realization. ANYWHO, don't really need to bore you with much more. Nighty night.

Friday Nov. 16
Normal morning. Classes, gym, home for lunch. At 3:30 went to a friends house. I didn't know it but he lives reallyclose to me. Just down the road a tiny bit. I went there just to hang out and to play video games for couple hours. It ended up being really fun. We played for a bit and then started betting ten cents on each game. That's ten Peruvian cents, so just over three cents American. I wasn't that good but I won a few games. After I lost fifty cents I stopped betting, because even though fifty Peruvian cents isn't much I really don't have fifty Peruvian cents to lose. With the Rotary trips coming up I really don't have room to spend any money. Every once in a whileI remind myself that I have to also just LIVE here, so I'll go out with friends or spend a dollar here and there. I was trying to call the Rotary president and a few other people because I knew that we had a meeting that night, but Rotary said that they would contact us and give the information for where and when it was going to take place. That, in Rotary code, mean text everyone and call 20 people to try to find out where it is because there is no chancein hell that Rotary will actually tell you. So, I started calling around four or five o'clock because the officialssaid that the meeting would be around six or seven. No one was answering at the presidents house, so I texted some friends only to find that no one knew where or when we were supposed to be anywhere. I got home at about quarter to seven after playing video games. I called the president's house to see if anyone had arrived that knew, and finallygot ahold of the president. Keep in mind that it usually takes me an average of ten minutes to get anywhere from my house. Commentary:

Prez: Oh, Jack! The meeting is at seven o'clock at the church "Del Senor de la Cana"
Me: At seven? Do I have to wear a suit?
Prez: Yes.
Me: well, in that case I am going to be late.
Prez: Why?
Me: Because no one told me where or when the meeting was until now, now meaning I have 15 minutes to wash up, dressup, call a taxi, and get to the church (I have no idea where it is).
Prez: Well I have to dress up too... What does it take you half an hour to put on a suit?
Me: ..... I'll get there as soon as I can, but I'm going to be late.
Prez: Ok, just get there as fast as you can.
Me: Ok, thanks, bye.
Prez: By-Oh wait Jack! Can you call all of the other exchange students because I didn't have time to tell them.
Me: ........

I ended up getting to the Church about 25 minutes late, and that being without washing up at all. We had the massat the Church, it was the eleventh anniversary of Rotary Yanahuara so we had a ceremony, and then we walked to theRotary office. I was the only exchange student there at the service, one because some of the others were still comingon short notice and didn't get there in time for the ceremony, and two because some of the other exchange students that go to a different school went to the beach for the day. As we were walking out the doors of the church one ofthe other exchangers was just arriving in a taxi. So we walked to the Rotary office, about a ten minute walk away. We got up to the 8th floor and went into Rotary's office. Once in the room the rotary president asked if I would goto the bottom of the building to call the other exchange students because she had no money for the phone in the room. Commentary:

Me: .........

As I was walking out the bottom of the building I met another exchange student that had got the message late too. We went to the the building next door and used to phone to call a couple of people. As we arrived once again to the 8th floor and walked into the Rotary office, another Rotary official asked if I wouldgo to the bottom of the building with him to help carry our food.

Me: .........

So after bringing myself and our food up to the 8th floor one more time, I was finally allowed to sit down, pour myself a glass of soda and grab a miniature egg role, and relax. A few more exchange students arrived, probably around six, and we ended up having a nice dinner with music and conversation. At 10:30 I went home, took off allof my dress clothes, put on some nice comfortable sleepwear, and ate my jello. Ended up going to bed at about 11:15.

Saturday Nov. 17 Gym at 7:30 to about 9:15. I'm excited for Cuzco tomorrow, and I'm excited for the change in my lifting pattern when I get back. I have been doing a lot of repetitions without much weight for a few weeks now, and when I get back we are going to start adding more weight and doing fewer repetitions. That should cut down a little bit of timeat the gym. I really don't mind how much time I spend at the gym though. Until I can set up a schedule for volunteering I still don't have much to do in the afternoon. After I get back from Cuzco I'll hopefully set up aschedule right away. At the moment I am making a list of things to bring to Cuzco. It's exciting! I'll be startingmy hike to Machu Picchu in about 5 days. :D

Sunday Nov. 18
Leaving for Cuzco today!! Can't wait to get there. All of my stuff is packed. Most of it was packed yesterday but I still had a few things to squeeze into my backpack. With such a big camera and now a tripod (thanks to my family who is letting me borrow theirs) room in my backpack is pretty limited. I've got just enough clothes to get by, and by just enough to get by that means I have two shirts for the four day hike to Macchu Picchu and three shirts for the other five or six days that we have.
By the time I get back I wouldn't be surprised if both of the memory cards in my cameras were completely filled. The Rotarians say that there will be plenty of places that I can go to put my photos on discs so I won't have to worry too much about filling them. I would hate to run out of space for photos because Cuzco is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in Peru and Machu Picchu is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm not sure if I will have time to write tonight, so this'll have to do for this weeks report.

Overall this week was a stressful one, but also a very productive one. I finally have my Visa in hand, along with a bit of white-out thanks to the seriouly skilled stamper at the Immigrations Office, and feel like now I can worry less about paper work and more about experiencing what this country and its people have to offer. I also think that I'll have time to show this country and its people more of what I have to offer. I hope that everyone is doing well back home. I miss you all, especially as some of my favorite times of the year with family come and go with the passing of the holiday season. I'll be thinking of you and all of the past turkey days, Yankee Peddlars, and corn beef, cabbage, and guiness as I'm experiencing things for the first and most likely last time here in Peru.
Love,
Jack