(no subject)
ok soo geez where do i start. i guess i´ll start with peru. i might not get to chile in this update cause i´m gonna go out to dinner with someone soon. but anyway...
so i met clarisse at the airport, but when i first arrived she wasnt there yet. so i had to use a payphone to call. i asked someone at kiosk how much it costs to call on the payphone and they say un sol. i´m standing there dumbfounded for about 5 seconds thinking what the fuck? un sol? a sun? and then i remembered. oh yeah. thats the currency of peru. clarisse had mentioned that to me before. aren´t i the enlightened traveler going somewhere and not knowing the currency. honestly i just figured i´d rely on her to take me around so i didnt bother with lonely planet and stuff. and when i´m in a new country i always feel like a child in the beginning. like i have to look at each bill to see how much its worth and it takes me about 2x longer than someone who is accustomed to the currency...which is why chile is nice. i already know it. anyway finally she came and we went to her house. ummm it was huge. and they have a staff of 3. which was hard for me to get used to. i don´t really need to have someone bring me orange juice in bed and call me senorita camila...especially when the girl is 16. it was just bizarre. i dont mind making my own breakfast and getting my own beverages. and then at one point i spilled some milk and went to clean it with a napkin and clarissas mom was like ¨dont clean that. i´ll get claudia to do it....claudia!!!¨ yeah so it was totally like something out of a novel...at least with the life i´m accostomed to.
also there was the whole racist issue that i´ve encountered in south america more than once...not that i dont encounter it in the US either. her brother made some dumb ass comment. and its just a strange position to be in because i´m living in your house and you´re being really nice and accomodating but i also want to have a major debate with you and tell you that you´re wrong, and of course, i´m right. i mean in this case. if we´re simplifying things in terms of wrong and right i´m comfortable saying that i´m totally right and you´re totally wrong. if only this were always true :o)
clarisse´s father on the other hand was really incredible. he gave me a very detailed and informative low down on the history of peru. along with some music education. now i have songs about peru stuck in my head too, because her mom love kareoke and we sang all these peru songs and other stuff. it was entertaining, but i can only take so much kareoke. i like people who are enthusiastic about a topic and love to tell others about it. this was the case with clarisse´s father.
more about kareoke....some of the kareoke videos were downright suggestive. they´ll have the lyrics of a song on the bottom of the screen, but theres always some girl walking around in a bathing suit, swimming, or laying out. one girl, i swear got in the pool with her bathing suit and once it got wet i could see her nipples. she looked like she was 16 too so that was friggin creepy. and no one else seemed to notice that while we were singing kareoke we were watching what looked like the beginning of a soft porn movie.
so the city of the peru itself was nice. it wasn´t my favorite city though. to be honest i was someone depressed about the state of things. they have so many great historical building and churches, but dont have the means to preserve everything. so there are some amazing places and buildings but they´re all somewhat worn out and its sad to think that they´ll just continue to deteriorate.
omg i almost forgot. when i was on the conde (a little bus that goes around the city) there was two guys fighting and one of them threw the other against the bus head first. yeah. i haven´t been in the middle of something like that since anna loren and i were leaving henrietta hudsons and there was a huge fight at west 4th with bottles being thrown and everything. at least this time i wasnt really in the middle of it all. of course after witnessing that violence i experienced violence as entertainment via kill bill 1 and 2. my first time seeing them both.
my stomach hurts now though. i wasnt eating the healthiest fare at clarisses. but today i finally returned to a diet where i eat more than half a serving of vegetables a day. depite all that i managed to lose 3.5 lbs in the past 2 weeks. and if one more person tells me i shouldnt lose weight i´m gonna kill them. you dont know what i look like naked and it´s more about toning than losing weight anyway...or at least that´s what i´m telling myself today.
ok after that little rant...i´m off to dinner. ciao ciao.
oh and i have to start writing this lj in spanish. i dont even think i´m going to do a filter. the majority of you speak spanish or know enough to figure it out. and i need to get over feeling self conscious. so ummm my resolution...start writing in spanish within the week....ok maybe i might filter...we shall see.
so i met clarisse at the airport, but when i first arrived she wasnt there yet. so i had to use a payphone to call. i asked someone at kiosk how much it costs to call on the payphone and they say un sol. i´m standing there dumbfounded for about 5 seconds thinking what the fuck? un sol? a sun? and then i remembered. oh yeah. thats the currency of peru. clarisse had mentioned that to me before. aren´t i the enlightened traveler going somewhere and not knowing the currency. honestly i just figured i´d rely on her to take me around so i didnt bother with lonely planet and stuff. and when i´m in a new country i always feel like a child in the beginning. like i have to look at each bill to see how much its worth and it takes me about 2x longer than someone who is accustomed to the currency...which is why chile is nice. i already know it. anyway finally she came and we went to her house. ummm it was huge. and they have a staff of 3. which was hard for me to get used to. i don´t really need to have someone bring me orange juice in bed and call me senorita camila...especially when the girl is 16. it was just bizarre. i dont mind making my own breakfast and getting my own beverages. and then at one point i spilled some milk and went to clean it with a napkin and clarissas mom was like ¨dont clean that. i´ll get claudia to do it....claudia!!!¨ yeah so it was totally like something out of a novel...at least with the life i´m accostomed to.
also there was the whole racist issue that i´ve encountered in south america more than once...not that i dont encounter it in the US either. her brother made some dumb ass comment. and its just a strange position to be in because i´m living in your house and you´re being really nice and accomodating but i also want to have a major debate with you and tell you that you´re wrong, and of course, i´m right. i mean in this case. if we´re simplifying things in terms of wrong and right i´m comfortable saying that i´m totally right and you´re totally wrong. if only this were always true :o)
clarisse´s father on the other hand was really incredible. he gave me a very detailed and informative low down on the history of peru. along with some music education. now i have songs about peru stuck in my head too, because her mom love kareoke and we sang all these peru songs and other stuff. it was entertaining, but i can only take so much kareoke. i like people who are enthusiastic about a topic and love to tell others about it. this was the case with clarisse´s father.
more about kareoke....some of the kareoke videos were downright suggestive. they´ll have the lyrics of a song on the bottom of the screen, but theres always some girl walking around in a bathing suit, swimming, or laying out. one girl, i swear got in the pool with her bathing suit and once it got wet i could see her nipples. she looked like she was 16 too so that was friggin creepy. and no one else seemed to notice that while we were singing kareoke we were watching what looked like the beginning of a soft porn movie.
so the city of the peru itself was nice. it wasn´t my favorite city though. to be honest i was someone depressed about the state of things. they have so many great historical building and churches, but dont have the means to preserve everything. so there are some amazing places and buildings but they´re all somewhat worn out and its sad to think that they´ll just continue to deteriorate.
omg i almost forgot. when i was on the conde (a little bus that goes around the city) there was two guys fighting and one of them threw the other against the bus head first. yeah. i haven´t been in the middle of something like that since anna loren and i were leaving henrietta hudsons and there was a huge fight at west 4th with bottles being thrown and everything. at least this time i wasnt really in the middle of it all. of course after witnessing that violence i experienced violence as entertainment via kill bill 1 and 2. my first time seeing them both.
my stomach hurts now though. i wasnt eating the healthiest fare at clarisses. but today i finally returned to a diet where i eat more than half a serving of vegetables a day. depite all that i managed to lose 3.5 lbs in the past 2 weeks. and if one more person tells me i shouldnt lose weight i´m gonna kill them. you dont know what i look like naked and it´s more about toning than losing weight anyway...or at least that´s what i´m telling myself today.
ok after that little rant...i´m off to dinner. ciao ciao.
oh and i have to start writing this lj in spanish. i dont even think i´m going to do a filter. the majority of you speak spanish or know enough to figure it out. and i need to get over feeling self conscious. so ummm my resolution...start writing in spanish within the week....ok maybe i might filter...we shall see.