Week 2, Part 1: Wiracocha Spanish School

On Monday, June 7, Jennie and I woke up bright and early for our first day of classes at the Wiracocha Spanish School.  Senora Marcela prepared fresh juice, café, and cheese sandwiches (with a strange type of white cheese we dubbed "squeaky cheese" because it squeaks when you chew).  After breakfast, we met two of our classmates on the corner of our street and walked down a cobblestoned hill to our school (less than a 5 minute walk away).  We learned very quickly from our fellow Rockhurst travelers that Jennie and I were fortunate to live so closely to the school.  Some students had to take a 20 minute commute by taxi each morning.

Jennie checks out the view from our bedroom window.

Cuesta San Blas: The street we walked to get to school.

My first class of the day was a conversation class with la profesora Erica, where we learned the expectations for the four weeks of class.  Throughout the weeks, that conversation class helped better my Spanish more than I had expected.  Erica did a fantastic job of engaging my small class in conversation, and I felt more free to speak in Spanish than I had ever before.  Erica also made the class interesting by creating discussion over controversial topics, such as gay marriage, capital punishment and euthanasia.  We took field trips to local markets and learned to speak with the locals.  Erica also helped us with our grammar, which served as a very useful refresher.

My Spanish conversation class with Erica, our professor, in the middle.

Abby and I explore the spiral staircase at school.

My second class each day was la historia del Peru with la professora Kendy.  The Peruvian history class turned out to be a lot more complicated than I would have thought.  We plowed our way through information on how the Peruvian natives may have crossed the Bering Strait from Asia, down through North and Central America, and finally settled on the northern west coast of South America.  The history class then delved into the various festivals and feast days of the Peruvian people .  Believe me - there are a lot of festivals in Peru!  There seemed to be celebratory fireworks and music coming through my window every night.  We studied the culture of the indigenous people: their legendary creation story, climates, trades, architecture, agriculture, textiles, and caste system.  The tale of ancient Peruvian history ends with the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors in 1532, who were in search of gold.  

Each day, after the two classes, Jennie and I went home to eat lunch, which usually consisted of soup and vegetables.  Sometimes we would notify Senora Marcela in advance and have lunch at a local pub or café.  There was also a deli two doors down from our school that sold delicious ham sandwiches and pastries.  Oftentimes we would spoil our lunch by stopping by the deli to pick up a giant, chocolate-covered croissant. 

Jennie and I also became accustomed to the everyday functions of life in Cusco.  We had easy access to the laundry mat (called a "lavandaria") across the street, which charged three soles per kilo (about one dollar), and we utilized the internet café down the street.  Internet cafés are typically where the Peruvian youth hang out after school, but if you could often catch a computer before the schools got out for the day.  The internet cafés usually had webcams, so we were able to Skype with our friends and family at home in the United States. 

On the afternoon following classes on our first day of school, we all returned to Wiracocha for a impromptu music lesson.  During the lesson, we learned how to play the pan-pipes, or "zamponas", to the tune of "Hey Jude." 

Practicing on our zamponas.

 That night we had a meal of carrot and cheese tortillas, but after dinner we met up with our friends to go to the McDonalds on the Plaza de Armas to study.  Many people may scoff at travelers going to McDonalds in a foreign country, but it was interesting to see the differences between the McDonalds in Peru and the McDonalds that is so familiar to us at home.  The menu was limited, and the food tasted a little off, but other than that, it was pretty much the same.  Good ol' American capitalism!  

Week 1, Part 3: Cusco, Chaos and El Cathedral

Saturday morning we began the bus ride to Cusco, the town where we were to meet our host families and attend classes.  We made several stops along the way, including La Raya - the highest altitude point we would meet on our trip.  We also stopped at San Pedro, the Sistine Chapel of South America, according to my travel book.

The spitting alpaca at La Raya.

La Iglesia de San Pedro.

Finally, after dark and after getting lost and held up by construction, we made it to Cusco and met up with our host families.  My friend Jennie and I roomed together with la familia de Marcela Yabar on la calle de San Blaz y Carmen Alto.  Senora Marcela has seven children, but all but one of them live in the United States.  That night, Senora showed us around the neighborhood (it was freezing outside) and then Jennie and I walked to the Plaza de Armas (the center of the city) to find an internet cafe.

Cusco is quite a bit smaller than Lima and is primarily run by tourist-spending, since Cusco is the closest major city to Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the world.  Cusco was the former capital of the Incan empire, but when the Spaniards took over they made Lima the capital because of its easy access to the Pacific Ocean for transportation and resources.

That night Jennie and I settled down into our new living space.

On Sunday, we went to Mass with Marcela at 9 a.m. at the Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas.  The mass was absolute chaos, with children and stray dogs running around and everyone talking over the priest.  The cathedral itself was beautiful with tons and tons of flowers, golden shrines, a pewter alter, and elaborate murals on the ceiling and walls.  Tourists were walking around during the mass and many people were crowded and standing in front of the pews.

For breakfast, Marcela made ham sandwiches with fresh papaya juice, coffee, and large corn kernels called "maito" that Peruvian eat like nuts.

That night a group of us gathered to purchase "Claro" cell phones with add-on minutes so we could all contact each other throughout the trip in order to meet up and in case of emergencies.  Those cheap little cell phones turned out to be extremely invaluable throughout the trip!  After that, we all went to Paddy's Pub on the Plaza de Armas for Cusquenas, fried food, and garlic bread.

Week 1, Part 2: Llamas, Alpacas and Cuy -- Oh My!

On the Wednesday of our first week in Peru, the group packed up and headed to the Lima airport to fly to Juliaca.  The Juliaca airport was tiny.  We had to climb down a mobile passenger ramp to get off the plane and walk into the airport where we took an hour bus ride to Puno, a small mountain town on the shores of Lake Titicaca (yes, we giggled at that name many times).

Standing in front of Puno, with Lake Titicaca in the distance.

The altitude in Puno was 12,500 ft., more than the sea-level altitude we had been used to in Lima.  Almost instantly our group started to drop like flies, experiencing common symptoms of altitude sickness: nausea, light-headedness, headaches, and passing out.  That night we were instructed to eat light so our stomaches would have time to adjust to the high altitude, but we ignored the warning for the most part and feasted on potatoes, guinea pig (called "cuy" in Peru) and chocolate con leche (hot chocolate).  It was a rather uncomfortable night for many people following the large meal.

Yummy yummy "cuy."

On Thursday we took a boat ride on Lake Titicaca to visit the Uro people, a group of Peruvian natives who live on rafts made of reeds and mud, called the "floating islands."  The Uro people make a living on tourism and giving tourists rides on their reed boats.

After the floating islands, we boated to the island of Tequile, where we ate a delicious lunch of Quinua (Incan barley soup), fish, and coca tea.  After lunch we took a 45 minute hike through the mountains on the island, then boated back to land for an evening of pizza and discoing.

Lake Titicaca from the Tequile Islands.

Our lunch of fish, rice, potatoes, bread, and Quinua.

Coca tea, which is said to cure altitude sickness.

The snow-capped mountains of Bolivia on the horizon.

The sun setting at the end of a beautiful day.

On Friday we drove outside of Puno to see the Umayo lagoon and the tombs of Sillustani, built by the the Incans and destroyed by gold-diggers.  

On our way back to Puno, we stopped by a small family farm that raises cuy.  Little did those poor little guys know they would meet judgement day in the near future during Inti Raymi, the Incan winter solstice, and when cuy are traditionally served for dinner.

You can tell he's a llama because he has shorter fur than his cousin, the alpaca.

Baby cuy!

It was that day that we heard about Natalee Holloway's murderer being caught in Chile after he murdered a 23 year-old Peruvian woman just five minutes away from our hotel in Lima on the Tuesday we were there.  Yikes!

Week 1, Part 1: Sippin' on Pisco Sours, Inca Cola and Coca Tea

Today I'm starting the first installation of my Peru study abroad series, so check it out!

The view as we departed from Miami.

Just 2 and 1/2 weeks after classes got out for the summer, our group of Rockhurst travelers departed from the Kansas City airport and flew all day to Peru, making stops in Fort Wayne and Miami along the way.  I love flying on planes, so the trip there wasn't as bad as I thought it might be - especially because I was so excited to finally get to Peru.  As we flew through South America after nightfall, the tiny orange lights of the cities below would create intricate, almost intentional, designs in the pitch black countryside.

We arrived in Lima late at night and were greeted by Earnesto, our Lima travel guide.  Our big group of Americans caused quite a spectacle, but we eventually managed to retrieve all our luggage and drive to our hotel (in the biggest tour bus I've ever seen) in Miraflores, a district of Lima.

Monday morning we were up bright and early to dine on a continental breakfast of pineapple (wonderful!) and papaya (not so good).  As we began our first tour with Earnesto, the bus stopped at el Parque del Amor, or the park of love, which was decorated with elaborate sculptures and colorful mosaics.

Convento de San Francisco (there was a movie being filmed on the front stairs).

We also stopped by the Convento de San Francisco, a monastery with an ancient biblioteca (library) and a maze of catacombs full of thousands of human remains.  Delightful.

In the Museo Catedral de Lima we learned about Francisco Pizzaro, the Spanish conquistador who colonized Peru in the time of the Incans.

Once we returned to the hotel after our tour, we had out first taste of pisco sours - the beverage Peru is most famous for.  I cannot even tell you how many times we received free pisco sours as a sign of hospitality throughout our visit!  Pisco is a sort of brandy made from grapes, and to make a pisco sour you must mix the pisco with egg whites and bitters.  It takes a little getting used to.

Our oh-so-free pisco sours.

Speaking of Peruvian drinks, at lunch that day we all tried Inca Cola, a popular Peruvian soda that's electric yellow and tastes like bubble gum.  Late on we also drank quite a bit of coca tea, which originates from the coca leaf that is used in, yes, cocaine, but also Coca-Cola.  Coca tea is used to treat altitude sickness and upset stomachs in Peru.

Monday night we went to a dinner and theater where we ate traditional Peruvian cuisine (potatoes) and watched scissor dancing.  That's right.  Dancing with actual (sharp) scissors!

On Tuesday we went to two very opposite areas of Lima.  In the morning we stopped by Barranco, Lima's wealthy district, and crossed the wishing bridge.  Lima-lore has it that if you hold your breath while crossing the bridge and make a wish, your wish will come true.  Then in the afternoon we visited the poverty-stricken hills encircling Lima.  The hills were covered with hundreds of miles of shacks without electricity and running water.  Outside the hills was the Incan Temple del Sol, or sun temple.  We climbed to the top of the temple and had a stunning view of the hills of poverty and the Pacific Ocean.  It was at the temple of the sun that we saw our first Peruvian alpaca.

During lunch that day, Earnesto took our group to a little neighborhood restaurant with live music, but while we were there, the purse - which included a camera, $200 cash and a passport - of one of our group member's was stolen.  Our Rockhurst faculty member, Rocio, spent all day calling around to the Lima police and the American embassy, trying to find the purse and figure out what to do since the passport was missing.  In the end, her purse and passport were turned into a travel office, but her camera and cash were gone forever.

After that little catastrophe, we went to dinner that night in downtown Lima at a shipping mall with all the modern amenities an American could dream of: Starbucks, Chili's, Radio Shack, and more.

More to come later!

My sorority sisters and me at the Plaza de Armas in Lima, Peru.

Past Adventures

As the weather starts to warm in KC (hopefully for good, after all - didn't Phil the groundhog predict an early spring?), I can't help but compare the too-chilly-for-short-sleeves-but-too-warm-for-a-winter-coat feeling to my experience with weather in Peru this past summer.  Then it occurs to me: I have completely neglected to share with my blog readership one of the top-most educational experiences during my Rockhurst career!  Studying abroad!  Well, my friends, dishing the details of my five week adventure would simply take too long for just one post, so I will spare you the lengthy details today and break my experience into five posts many posts, covering a week each post.

First of all, I happened upon the chance to go to Peru just like every other Rockhurst student: I saw a flier.  After a few long conversations with my parents, my Spanish advisor, and the bank, I was locked and loaded for the experience of a lifetime.  In the end, there were a total of 28 students and 1 faculty member from Rockhurst who made the trek to Lima, Peru at the end of May 2010.

To be continued!

Snowmageddon 2011

This past week Kansas City experienced what many of my fellow students have coined "The Snowpocalypse of 2011," resulting in two additional snow days.  Talk about a stroke of luck in this last semester of my senior year! Three snow days for the first time since high school?  I think that's my cue to bow out of college life in the near future and be done with with school nonsense.  But wait.  What's that you say?  I still have a full semester of classes?  25-page papers?  Eventy billion group projects and presentations?  Midterms?  Finals?  Ugh.  Looks like my little snow-vacation has zapped the drive right out of me.

The snow-covered Quad.

Sedgwick looking majestic and historic as ever, even in the snow.

Before the Snowpocalypse officially hit, however, I had the opportunity to take some time to reflect on my spiritual life during the CLC retreat on January 29.  CLC stands for Christian Life Community, which is comprised of a community of small prayer groups organized by the Rockhurst University campus ministry.  I've been in the same CLC group since my freshman year at Rockhurst, and now I'm seeing it through to the end of my senior year with the same group of ladies I started with.  CLC gives me the opportunity to sit down with my group once a week, step out of my busy day-to-day life, and take a deep breath.  Each week we share our highest point of the week, our lowest, and our moment closest to God.  Then we typically conclude with some prayer, reflection and the Ignatian Examen.  The CLC retreat allowed all of the CLC groups to come together to discuss social justice and service, and enjoy some fantastic Mexican food from Teocali.  Overall, it's been an extremely relaxing week, but now it's time to get down to business!

All of the wonderful ladies of my CLC during the CLC Olympics my sophomore year.

Back In the Swing of Things

The Butterbeer cupcakes I made for Jennie's birthday.

Last week was the best week ever!  Just when I was mentally preparing myself for the new semester, Kansas City was dumped with 8 inches of snow and classes at Rockhurst were canceled for the first time since 2003!  That tricky little snowstorm prolonged my Christmas break by four whole days, which was perfectly fine with me!  It gave me the time to spend time with my roommates as we held a surprise celebration for my roommate's 22nd birthday.  I also had the opportunity to spend valuable time with my sorority sisters and cherish our new additions, as recruitment concluded last week.

My roommates and I at an all-sorority bowling event.

My whole chapter, following recruitment.

Celebrating the new girls!

But now that classes are in full swing, I find myself relishing the structure of my schedule.  Even though I am only taking 12 hours in this final semester of my college career, I am going to be extremely busy with my final capstone research project, my internship, my part-time job, and my post-grad job search.  Just thinking about all that business already makes me look forward to spring break in March!

My siblings and I on Christmas Eve.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

So it's the week before finals and I am in denial.  Denial that the semester is coming to an end, that I have tests to study for and papers to write, and that soon everyone will be packing up and moving back to Saint Louis or Omaha or goodness knows wherever.  So logically, based upon my denial, I devoted an entire evening to getting in the Christmas spirit with my roommates.

Last night we donned Christmas sweaters, baked holiday cookies, and decorated the tree.  Call us cheesy, but this sure makes up for missing out on Christmas decorating at home in Omaha.  It's important to come up with your own Christmas traditions in college, especially if you won't be home for all of Christmas break, like I won't be.

Everyone with their ornaments, around the tree.

Happy Finals!

Goodness/Gracious

Just when I'm thinking that Halloween is my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving always comes along and throws me a curve-ball.  No classes?  A chance to go home?  Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and creamy corn and fresh rolls and cranberries and pumpkin pie?  Yes, please!  Forget what I said before - Thanksgiving is totally my favorite holiday.  Plus, Thanksgiving is only the beginning of the Christmas season; meaning that once Thanksgiving is over, there's still so much celebrating to be done!

Waiting in line for the SAB turkey dinner.

Before Thanksgiving break even began at Rockhurst (we had a whole week off of classes!), SAB sponsored a free turkey dinner for all Rockhurst students.  You have to get there early because the line gets pretty long, so my roommate and I camped out for 45 minutes before the doors opened.  SAB offered all of the traditional Thanksgiving feast favorites and played gentle piano music in the background.  That free dinner definitely got me in the Thanksgiving spirit!

During Thanksgiving break I was fortunate enough to be able to go home for five whole days.  Once I got off work on Sunday, I dashed home, threw everything in my car, said goodbye to KC's bizarre 75 degree weather, and prepared for bundle up for the low 30s in Omaha.  Brrrrr.  It certainly is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  Once home, my mom and I took a little over-night trip to visit my grandparents in Norfolk, Nebraska, then we hurried back to Omaha for the main event.  Thanksgiving dinner.  Yum.

By Kent Bellows

Even though I had to go back to KC in order to work on Black Friday, I managed to cram in a little bit more family time on Friday morning.  We all woke up bright an early to take advantage of - no, not the Black Friday shopping deals - free admission to Omaha's Joselyn Art Museum.  Let's just say that the crowds at the art museum where much easier to handle than at Best Buy or Wal-Mart or SAB's free turkey dinner.

You might be thinking right now that I must be some sort of art museum junkie, since I just made a post about the scavenger hunt I had at KC's Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, but this frequent museum-going is entirely a fluke.  My dad really wanted to see an art exhibit by Kent Bellows, an Omaha artist who made pencil, graphite, and charcoal drawings that capture the "reality" of the observed world.  The exhibit was absolutely breathtaking; even up close, so many of his realist drawings looked like photographs.  

Before we left the museum, my family took the time to look at the steel sculpture of blown glass located in the Joselyn's main entry/atrium.  My little nine-year-old sister, Monica, was so interested in the twirling tendrils of colorful blown glass. It was the perfect end to a perfect Thanksgiving break.

Chihuly: Inside & Out, , glass and steel

Monica was amazed by all the colors.

By the end of all that fun, Andrea and I were pretty worn out.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Tall Tales

With finals right around the corner, it's difficult to not constantly think about school and the projects I have to do before the end of the semester.

The smallest and tallest men in the world.

In my Principles of Economics class, for example, I recently gave a presentation on the height tax.  It is statistically proven that tall people (above the national height average) make more money than short people (below the national height average), as tall people are more likely to have developed to their full cognitive potential.  Essentially, tall people were more likely to be well nourished and educated as children, which allowed them to 1.) grow tall and strong, and 2.) develop a high IQ.  The height tax suggests the government tax tall people more than their shorter peers because tall people can't help that they innately make more money.  Their income is based on an involuntary condition - being tall - so a height tax would defer our system away from heavily taxing people who work extraordinarily hard for their high income.

As a tall person myself - six inches above the national female average - I had fun debating the pros and cons of such a proposition.  First of all, it does seem very alarming that with the height tax, I would be taxed more than my shorter coworkers who make the same income as me.  It seems a little unfair that I would be singled out for being tall, but then again the government already taxes according to other demographics such as personal disabilities, number of children, charitable contributions, and, of course, level of income.  Through the height tax, perhaps being short will become a personal disability?

That being said, I think it is much more important to consider why it is that tall people have such an economic advantage.  That's easy: their parents were able to provide them with proper nutrition and a good education.  The way to solve the height advantage is to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to become a "tall person" by having access to healthy and intellectually stimulating conditions.  Until that happens, the height tax may always be a possibility.

Secondly, I've been working on a research proposal for my Mass Media Seminar course.  I have been investigating the effect of lying behavior portrayed on prime-time television on the behavior of children.  Children already develop with a healthy capability to lie, but watching television programs that feature characters being dishonest in order to get what they want may disrupt the honesty and lying guilt that children form as they grow into adults.

So that's little look at what's on my plate right now.  The great thing is that I had the chance to choose my own topic for each of these projects, so the research and work isn't so hard when I'm working on something I'm interested in.  I encourage you to use that opportunity to your full advantage in college.  Your work will never be dull and you'll learn so much along the way!