June 25: First trip to Lima and hats made of fireworks

Saturday morning Jeff, Kelsey, Jon, Faith and I waited for the bus at the gas station near our house. The language teachers told us to be there just before 8 so naturally the bus got there around 8:30. Anyway, we went to the Plaza de Armas first. It’s one of the older parts of Lima and its where the president’s palace and the main cathedral are located. At the plaza we broke into our language groups and were given various tasks to do while walking around the area. There are a lot of tourists at the plaza so we stood out less. Or at least I thought we did until my friend Zack and his group got surrounded by little Peruvian girls. I’m pretty sure he was signing autographs by the end :-P After the plaza we went to Miraflores, another main part of the city. There was actually a dance competition going on in the park so we stopped to watch for a little while. It was a collection of schools that came to show off the traditional dances of Peru. Needless to say, I could’ve stayed all day.

Our classes ended around lunch time so the language instructors took us to a mall type place right on the ocean. It was a little touristy, but it had lots of food options and a great view of the Pacific. This was actually the first time a few people in our group had ever seen the Pacific Ocean, pretty cool. I am slightly ashamed to say that we actually ate at the Chili’s for lunch. Only a little though, because we had a good time AND I got ranch dressing with my french fries! Oh yeah! On top of that, there was a Starbucks. So I got myself a grand, non-fat latte for the ride home. Not going to tell you how much I paid for it though :-P Speaking of the ride home….that was a bit of an adventure. We caught the bus to some other part of town, where we had to talk a collectivo driver into getting all of us back to Chosica. The conversation took a while, but it ended up working out well. The four of us that live near each other talked a guy into driving us all the way back to the gas station by our house. The ride took a while; the traffic in Lima is absurd.

Saturday night we all went to a bar owned by the host family of Nick, one of the other PCTs. Pretty much everyone was there and we had a blast just dancing and generally acting crazy. I did conclusively prove that my Spanish is even worse in bars though. Between the music and all the people, I might as well not even know Spanish. Oh well. Once I got home I was getting ready for bed, but I kept hearing fireworks going off like crazy. Naturally I opened my window to watch. Instead of a normal show though, I saw a guy dancing up and down the opposite bank of the river wearing a hat with fireworks shooting out of it. It was a fireworks display with legs, drunken legs :-P I actually hung out my window for a good 15 minutes just staring. And yes, in case you’re wondering, the fireworks did continue all night. They party for whole weekends around here.