50 things I miss about the US

I'm starting to get really sad about leaving Peru... it's been my home for the past 4 months! To help I've made a list of things I'm looking forward to when I get home...

1. Diet Coke
2. Sleeping without earplugs in
3. Walking around the house barefoot
4. A kitchen without ants
5. Normal washing machines
6. The sun setting later than 6 pm
7. Chips and salsa
8. Copp's salad bar
9. Being able to watch videos on websites like Fox and Hulu
10. Using dollars
11. Unlimited texting/a plethora of monthly minutes
12. Sandal season
13. Wisconsin beer
14. Outdoor summer games like bean bags
15. Thunderstorms
16. Working at the pool
17. The Union
18. Walking down the street and not getting whistled at
19. Hot tubs
20. Baths
21. Panera
22. Noodles & Co.
23. Lighting the stove without a match
24. Having plenty of dishes to use
25. Liquid dish soap
26. Bike rides
27. Being able to trust the mail service
28. Beer on tap
29. Football games
30. Being tan and very blonde
31. Farmer's Market
32. Qdoba
33. State Street
34. Arboretum
35. The lake
36. General weather fluctuations
37. BRATS
38. Brat fest
39. Not sharing a fridge with 8 people
40. Ice
41. Drinking tap water
42. No honking except in emergencies/excitement of seeing someone you know on the street
43. Ordering at a restaurant and knowing they actually have everything advertised on the menu
44. Being able to walk everywhere (downtown)
45. Understanding the bus system
46. Everyone speaking English
47. DRIVING
48. More radio station options
49. Country music
50. Toilet seats and soap in public bathrooms

Going away party - already?

This weekend we had our going away party for Kusi Wasi - I couldn't believe it! We still have finals left but after those a lot of people are leaving to travel or go home, so this was the last weekend we could have it. We had a theme - everyone rented traditional Peruvian clothing from a costume store and dressed up. It was so fun! Some people from the rainforest, some from the Incan period, some from historic cities around Peru... I was from Cajamarca, a city in the north. 

Mateo and Rebecca - Incans

Kalli and Kris - Sailors

Paul and I - Cajamarca

Keeley (from Cusco) and me

Margarita made everyone tequeños, my favorite!

...and lomo saltado, my favorite Peruvian meal

people from the rainforest

Margarita with all of the guys

all of the ladies

All of Kusi Wasi dressed up :)

I think Kris and I got the "silly picture" memo and nobody else did

The going away party was so fun and made me realize how close I've become with everyone over the semester. I'm really going to miss everyone! Luckily there are a few Sconnies I live with that I'll be seeing regularly when we get back to Madison. But I sure will miss everyone else from all corners of the world... and especially Margarita. She has been the best Peruvian mama I could have asked for! I told her I would come back to Peru someday to visit her and by then she'll hopefully have her dream fulfilled and own her own restaurant.

I officially arrived 4 months ago from today. What a journey it has been! I've learned things about this culture, other people, and myself more than I had imagined. I actually have to study these next few days then I have papers/exams the 4th, 5th, and 6th of July. After that I'm heading to Máncora, a beach town in the north close to the border of Ecuador, to hang out and relax for 10 days before coming home. Then I'm home on July 20th! I know these next 3.5 weeks are going to go by fast...

Last day in Iquitos

For our last day in the rainforest we woke up and had breakfast then went fishing on the canoe. I wasn't very lucky this time and didn't catch anything but it was still fun and I took a lot of pictures! 

Flower outside of our room

Looking at the river from our lodge

Fishing pole, constructed of fishing line and a small branch

Leon fell in the water, oops

Pretty butterfly

After fishing for a while we had an early lunch - alligator! It tasted like chicken but it was a little tougher. I liked it a lot surprisingly! After lunch we packed up all of our stuff (so sad to leave) and took the canoe to a local tribe called the Yaguas. By the time we got there most of the tribe was off doing things but an older woman and a younger girl greeted us and painted our faces. We couldn't really understand them because they were speaking their native language mixed with a tiny bit of Spanish, but hand motions and expressions helped the communication. They dressed us up in traditional Yaguas clothing and even let us use their blow gun! 

Alligator lunch

The dog that lived at the lodge - Flaca

Traditional Yaguas house

Attempting to use the blow gun...

I actually made it in the target once!

Me and Keeley being Yaguas women

My favorite picture of David as a Yaguas warrior

After visiting the Amazonian tribe we walked across a small island to the Amazon River and loaded up our stuff... it was a 2 hour boat ride back to Iquitos.

It was sad to say goodbye to Leon but I'm sure we'll keep in touch with him in the future. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel we were staying at on Sunday night before going out for dinner and visiting the Plaza de Armas of Iquitos, including the end of a mass at a church.

Fountains in the Plaza de Armas

Church in Iquitos

We were going to go out at night since Iquitos is known for it's "party scene" but we were soo tired after a long weekend in the rainforest that we just went to sleep early! I got home yesterday after the hour and a half flight and was still exhausted but refreshed from such an adventurous weekend away from Lima. I will definitely be returning to the Amazon again in the future :)

Selva day 3

On Saturday we woke up and took a boat ride to another lodge area after breakfast. We started on our way with a packed lunch, a paddle, and 4 homemade fishing poles. The normal "25 minute walk" (according to Leon) took over 2 hours! The water was really high and flooding a lot of places so we kept having to cross these "bridges" of rotting/rolling logs, sometimes with a log hand railing (that of course didn't continue the whole way) with sporadic rusty nails sticking out. We ended up getting wet up until about mid-thigh, depending on if you fell in or not. Some of the "bridges" were really slippery and difficult and I kept feeling like I was on a game show or something. We eventually made it to this big lake in the middle of the jungle where there was finally an open area almost free of mosquitoes. I took my boots off for just a bit to ring out my socks and check on all of my bug bites. Leon laid out four "plates" - big palm leaves that we had picked up along the way, and dished out the lunch he had brought with in his backpack. Rice, plantain, and duck! The duck was actually good... I had never tried it before.

On the way to the long hike

This tree looks like something from a Dr. Suess book

Snail eggs on a tree

Bromeliads!

About to cross a "bridge"

Struggling but still having fun!

Don't step on this one.

A "walking palm"

Me in front of a Ceiba

palm leaf plates

Leon serving lunch

Yum!

We didn't even bring utensils

We had walked all the way to that lake/lagoon through the swamps and swarms of mosquitoes to go on a canoe and go fishing, but there was no canoe there! It was fine, though - after resting and eating lunch with our fingers off of the leaves we journeyed back to the original lodge we got dropped off at. This time the walk only took around 50 minutes! David fell into one of lagoons with his camera... we haven't tried to turn it on yet but I hope it still works. I was SO relieved to finally take my boots and socks off for good. 

After re-applying bug spray for the 100th time we realized we had a good half hour before a boat would come to pick us up so we went fishing. I don't think I've been fishing since I was like 8 - it was fun to do it again and especially to fish in the Amazon! I caught a tiny fish but kind of freaked out and ended up throwing it into the boat. It flopped underneath the slats of wood (where there's a bit of water) and I couldn't find it again. Oh well. Leon said it was a baby pirana but we'll never know for sure. I tried again and after a while got another fish - a little Mojara that I threw back in after taking a few pictures. 

Fishing 

Quite a catch...

After getting back to our lodge and changing our of our wet clothes we fished a little more then hung out in the hammocks until dinner. Keeley and I walked down to the edge of the walkway of the lodge and watched monkeys play for a while in the trees. We also found a tarantula underneath the walkway that we had to take a picture of! 

Coming back into our lodge

Tarantula (underneath my bare foot)

Lizard we found on the curtains in our room