These are the Things I Have Done

Well. My last few weekends have been filled with ADVENTURE. And SPORTS. The stuff in between has been mostly classes, which are quite the same. I try to concentrate for the first hour and then end up making to-do lists for the second half. I don't know why Peru insists on 2 and 3 hour classes. My spanish listening attention span is not that long.

Anyways, back to the the adventure sports. There is a lot so I will list them in chronological order for you.

SURFING

Last Saturday I had my first experience surfing! It was super fun and super hard. Right from the beginning when I put on my wet suit backwards and had to take it off and put it on again. Those things are hard to maneuver in and out of! Then, Katie and I had our lesson which consisted of us constantly swimming to our instructor, him pushing us in to a wave, and a struggle to stand before crashing into the water. I managed to get up a little bit, but always at the end. It is a lot more fun than it sounds. And after we rewarded ourselves with french fries.

ROLLERBLADING

On Sunday, Lima closes one of their busy streets and opens it up to rollerbladers and bikers. So we rented some roller blades and formed a super cool gang. I wore my capsack, wrist guards, and knee pads. No one told me how cool I looked until later. Later, we rewarded ourselves with frozen yogurt.

Always lookin' sharp

ROCK CLIMBING

Erin and I have completed our last in gym lesson. That means are next one will be on REAL rock. We are not prepared. Our last lesson consisted of us learning "the bicycle" and continuously failing to master it while 3 boys stood around watching us, later easily demonstrating what we should be doing. That was a nice confidence boost.

TAXI RIDES

You may not think this is an adventure sport, but taxi's can be quite dangerous here. Not only is driving crazy, I've heard they have a reputation for robbing people. So every time I get in a taxi, my heartbeat increases and I have a momentary panic attack. Luckily, this weekend we had very nice old men who told us traffic jokes and showed us pictures of grandchildren.

EARTHQUAKE

I felt my first really big earthquake! I thought it was maybe a truck passing by, but that was not true. Also, it lasted too long for that. We were on the third floor of our hotel when everything started shaking. I tried to remember safety rules but couldn't. So mostly we stood around and waited. But it was a great free adventure!

CANOPY

Mari, Erin, Nico and I went to Lunahuana this weekend. After the relatively short bus ride, we arrived and decided to do a zip line. I was a little scared, as you can clearly see in my eyes in all of the pictures. But it was very fun, and besides a bunch of bug bites I wasn't injured!

I chose this because you can't see how scared I was

RAFTING

The next day we decided to go rafting, called canotaje here. We woke up at 5, and commenced our 3 hour long ride. We all got soaked, stuck on rocks a few times, and were on the verge of falling out. For security, all you do is stick one foot in a hole. That is supposed to prevent you from falling. I don't think it is the best system. For breakfast, our guide brought us 7up, cookies, and chocolate so we were really prepared for hard work. 

After the breakfast of champions, ready for more.

Rafting was the peak of my adventure sport weekends. Non-sport things I did (because I am a wild card) include:

-Touring two vineyards, where we learned how to tell a fine Pisco (it's all in the tornado), and that Peruvian wine is incredibly sweet no matter what.

-Going to an art museum, where only two rooms were open.

-Eating ceviche with fresh-water shrimp, and some soup thing that is supposedly traditional at a nice restaurant

-Meeting and having lunch with Katie's sweet and wonderful parents

-Touring a Monastery and its catacombs, which I didn't handle very well. They ARRANGED the skulls and femurs. in a 10 meter deep pit! And there were HUMAN skulls stuck into cracks. I am not o.k. with that.

-Creating a morning news show with Mari: Real Talk in the Morning with Kati and Mari (#andthatsreal!)

- Also, a related event where we discovered we are a lot like Troy and Abed from Community

The Coolest Kids, touring a vineyard.

Those are all the important events, November is going to include one more trip (a train to Huancayo!) and a llllooootttt of homework. All of my classes put all their work in this last month. So expect less from me.

Sending huge hug vibes and lots of LOVE LOVE LOVE to my family and friends, who I miss quite terribly.