Answer: At least two.
To start off with: Crazy Tuesday nights. After another movie showing for class, Danielle, Ahnika and I decided to not go home and watch more netflix. We headed to Miraflores to a book store then planned to hang out at a coffee shop...until our plans started to change. Bum bum bummm. After the little book store that, understandably, had mostly books in Spanish, we headed across the street to Pizza Hut. Realizing we did not know where a coffee shop was, we decided to haul our backpacks to Parque Kennedy to hang out with the cats. After a while of being surrounded by the hundreds of cats, we decided to head home. Until we heard it: it was hard to miss. The traffic was loud and bustling, but with strained ears we caught a glimpse into our soon-to-be-future. Karaoke!! We walked with a purpose down Pizza Street until we found the place. All three of us had been longing to Karaoke for a while now. We sang a few songs, sober and obnoxiously. But with only 3 drunk girls in there, we didn't care too much. After a while we started to pay our tab when those same girls invited us to go to a discotec with them! Why not?? So with our backpacks and unfinished homework in tow, we headed to the discotec and danced the night away with our new friends. We also ran into our professor Josue at the club, which was hilarious!
Thursday was my 22nd birthday and it was a great beginning of the weekend for me!! Instead of our Thursday's class, our group had a "tour" of the United States Embassy. So I am happy to report I got to spend a little of my birthday on American soil with all of you :)
The tour actually ended up us sitting in a room and having someone talk to us for an hour or so. But it was amazing. I was, as Ahnika put it, "geeking out" hardcore. The lady who spoke with us was named Belinda and she had been working for the US State Dept since the early 2000's, so she had lived all over the world working in embassies by then. She told us her job, what different departments are located in the embassy and what an embassy actually does. I had a stupid grin on my face the entire time she was speaking because I was just so in awe and excited about what she was talking to us about.
Oh please tell me more
I am now determined to look into jobs in the state department because there is way more to do than I ever realized! Did you know they have teachers located around the world to help with English?? And her job is to improve the view of America to those in Peru: here we have a 70% acceptance rate, the other 30% are made up of upper-class housewives (who don't like America because "it's just not posh right now") and obviously the gangs and hooligans and what not. This tour was a great way to spend my birthday for sure!! Abby also bought me a white chocolate Reese's as a gift because they don't have Reese's outside of the embassy, much to my dismay. Also since phones were not allowed, I also did not get any pictures of this... for security reasons.
Later that evening most of us went out to celebrate me successfully making it another year in the life of Shelby. My restaurant of choice was the Burrito Bar in Barranco because, as I know I mentioned a few posts ago, they have the most beautiful tacos I have ever laid eyes on- oh and they taste out of this world, as well. So I savored the chips and salsa that I never get anymore and a few margaritas on the side and was extremely satisfied with my choice. Afterwards we proceeded to El Gringo Bar (the other Barranco site for us) apparently for a few drinks. Normally I would've been all for going out on my birthday, but we had a bus to catch the next morning at 7am sharp, and most of us still needed to pack (ehem, yes that included me- procrastination does not seem to be something I grew out of after 21). But we all enjoyed a few drinks (and shots for the birthday girl, of course, thanks to Claire for the tequila) and meandered home to pack. Somehow we all got up by 5:30 in order to pack and head to the bus station for yet another trip to the beach- although this one was considered a "field trip" which means free!!*
*Other than food at the 5-star restaurant :(
Tequila and Sunrises
Thanks to all these lovely ladies for making my day unforgettable
Paracas!!
The school booked us all at a 5-star hotel that was amazing. I just happened to get my own room, where I struggled to take up the whole king sized bed and balcony overlooking the pool and the beach. This weekend was more relaxing than our spring break because I just sat around all weekend. Enjoying the sounds, the views and the company was all I really needed. The pool was huge and beautiful, and although we couldn't swim in the ocean because of the stingray problem, the time spent in the sand and in the pool was a complete dream. Eating at a 5-star restaurant guaranteed some delicious food, too. But the best part of all: the air conditioning. You don't quite know how long it takes to get used to not having air but I'm not sure I've reached that point yet. Especially since I don't have a fan in my room so I've been sleeping in short spurts throughout the night for the last few weeks. Thus making my stay in an air conditioned room all the more heavenly (and really cold). The actual "educational" part of the weekend was visiting Islas de Ballestas. This was a really cool sight!! I saw so many sea lions, birds, TWO penguins, and dolphins (that I got a little too excited about, but that's expected). That took up about half of a day and the rest was spent back at the pool. We did not do many things in Paracas because it was very touristy and expensive, so we figured why not just have a weekend of doing absolutely nothing? In the bar downstairs we found a Monopoly game, which we stole for the evening and played on my larger-than-life bed. It turned out to be a Peru Monopoly game!! It was a ton of fun because all the normal properties were different places around the country that we had fun picking out the ones we had been to and those we are going to! The rest of the game was pretty normal except the money was in millions, so the math took a little longer, and the Chance and Community Chest cards were in Spanish, so we had to decipher those together as well. I also got a chance to ride a catamaran and go paddle boarding thanks to the awesome hotel, which were both a lot of fun!!
What's better than slippers and ocean views from the balcony?
Free mimosas with breakfast? If you say so
Only one of the amazing meals I had: Salmon with gnocchi and mushrooms in a parmesan sauce
Islas de Ballestas
Do you see the sea lions?? More to come
Tunnels are cool
Two of penguins decided to grace us with their presence and I was so glad
All those little brown things? Those are sea lions...and there were many more spots like this!
Hammocks
They make for a great time
Coolest Monopoly game
This was the best birthday weekend I've had yet! Not only did I get to celebrate, but I also got to enjoy the beach, great food, air conditioning, a king sized bed and some pretty fun people. And to make it even better my host family got me this beautiful cheesecake to celebrate! :)
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