My new life..

Wow! Life has sure taken a drastic change since last time I wrote. I never actually finished my blog about my trip to Peru. I was quite sad about that. Getting back to the states made me pretty busy with life all over again. And I kinda just lost track of everything. So much has gone on since my last entry. I don't want to bore you with all the details. But right now my life really is pretty AMAZING!!! I am so blessed to have such wonderful, loving parents. I'll fill you in on a few things. I started school at Nossi College of Art and studied Commercial Photography for a semester. I realized that Commercial Photography was not the direction I wanted to take. I am more about Photo Journalism and the whole art of photography. I didn't make it back for the following semester. I knew that there were bigger and better things for me Photographywise, that I would never aspire to by living in Nashville. I actually took a trip to New York about 3 months ago and visited my cousin Cesar. Once I got there I knew that this was where I had to move to. I've always had dreams about moving to a big city in the U.S. and I just fell in love with New York right away! I only stayed about 4 days but before I left I already made plans in my head that I was going to come back as soon as I could! Well a few days after I got back to Nashville I made my announcement to my shocked and concerned parents. They weren't very happy about it. I understood their concern but I knew I just had to do this now. Not think too hard about it because then reality would set in and then I would just freak out and really "wonder what am I thinking?" I didn't want that to happen. Too many times I have tried to reason out situations and plans I had where in the end I just gave up on it. I have no job, I have no plan, I have no idea what I am in for. But I am now officially living in New York! Pretty crazy, even for me. I've only been here a very small amount of time and I still feel so excited and anxious about this place. Everything is so big and everywhere is so crowded. I normally hate situations like this but I don't for some reason now. I even boggle my own mind!

I've already had some exciting and interesting things happen to me since I got here. My bestest friend in the world, Carmen, came with me on the road trip to the city. We had such a fun, awesome time! There's no one I would've rather took this journey to my new life with than her! We drove to Virginia and made a stop there and visited my cousin Jo Anny. We spent a day at the beach and just caught up with each others lives.
Chesid, me, Carmen and Charisa
heading to the beach!

We headed out and got kinda lost again. So Carmen bought a GPS to guide our way to the city. The first night in New York me, Carmen, and Cesar went to Times Square and walked around and ate dinner. I actually had injured my foot In California 2 weeks before while bouldering so I was having a hard time with all the walking but the pain wasn't going to ruin my excitement about my new life and home. We took the train home and it was a nice little ride, up until some drunk guy started puking by the exit door! It was pretty loud and disgusting and the smell was horrendous! But I thought it was quite hysterical. I great start to a new beginning, that's just how I looked at it.
eating some dinner
Times Square
laughing and enjoying Times Square!
the real Batman!

The next morning me and Carmen made a little stop at Dunkin Donuts for some coffee. Everyone had been telling me that I can't be as friendly as I always am now that I moved here. It really annoys me because I am NOT going to change. I'll smile at everyone and I really don't care if they acknowledge me or not. Well while sitting there I smiled at a lady at another table. She looked kinda shocked when I did. But when she was leaving she approached me and told me how grateful she was that I smiled at her and that I made her day and to never stop smiling! Ah! I knew it! Even if I only make 1 persons day out of the 100 I smile at, it is totally worth it! Just then there was some guy buying his food and he happend to turn around and I smiled at him too! (I just can't help myself I guess) well after he was done he approached me too! He told me that I made his day for smiling at him and that I had the most beautiful smile and to never stop smiling! See I knew I was right! And I will be smiling at everyone I see whenever I feel like it!

Me and Carmen drove around the city and we found the Seinfeld restaurant and also the Soup Nazi place. It was so funny to see it after watching Seinfeld all our lives. It was a gloomy, rainy day so we didn't get out of the car at all. We were getting back on the interstate when all of a sudden the back door to a Uhaul truck ahead of us flung open and a suitcase came flying out and landed on the road! We were already going pretty fast and couldn't swerve and just ran over it! Carmen looked back and it never came out from under the car! It was stuck under the car!! We could not stop laughing! But we also didn't know what to do. Carmen caught sight of the Uhaul truck so she caught up with them. They all of a sudden stopped in the middle of the interstate and this guy came out, I guess they had realized the door had opened. Well needless to say I got out of the car to show him and the other lady that we had their suitcase stuck under our car. I had to try and lift up my car as high as I could to pull that thing out. I lifted and the lady helped and the the guy pulled on the suitcase while Carmen went slowly in reverse. We were able to pull it out it was pretty entertaining. They were so thankful that we caught up with them and gave them back their suitcase. This was just a day of good deeds.

"No soup for you!!"
The infamous Seinfeld Restaurant

Carmen went back home a day later. I was so sad to see her go. We had quite an adventure getting here. But she did give me a big, shocking surprise. She gave me the GPS!! I was so happy and flabergasted that I started crying. It was the sweetest thing ever! This is something I will definitely use constantly while I am here! Thanks so much!!!

Pimentel Sunset...

My cousin Mary, Julio's mom, had a birthday today! I had decided that I wanted to make it special for her so I cooked some Sancocho which is this Colombian soup that is delicious! I woke up super early to go to the market and get all the ingredients I needed to cook. The market in Chiclayo is so cute. It's alot smaller than the ones in Lima and it was just down the street from my aunts house. I didn't feel unsafe at all. I even bargained a little when buying some plantains! I've never been really good at that. So I started cooking everything and we had actually planned on going to the beach before lunch but with the cooking and the time and having people come over it really didn't give us enough time. Lunch ended up being fabulous, I have to admit!

eating lunch




Claudia and Raquel

After we ate I took a little nap. I was exhausted from all the cooking and serving and just everything. Later on that evening I realized it would be a perfect day to go to Pimentel and just watch the sunset. So me, Mary and Julio decided to go to the beach. First we ent downtown to get a cremolada! Ah I just love those things! After that we hopped on a combi headed to Pimentel. Well all these kids ended up getting and they were so loud and annoying and singing and augh! I just wanted to get out of there. We finally got there and walked around on the beach. There is this long pier that goes really far into the ocean. The wood is pretty old and kinda cracked and scary looking. I just tried not to think about it and not look down to often. We walked and walked and then we got to a point where the worker people wouldn't let us pass. Apparently they were unloading fishing boats so people can't be down there all in there way. I was bummed but we were still pretty far into the ocean. I took alot of pictures and we just enjoyed the beauty of it all. We were freezing but it was still awesome. I'm going to miss these sunsets!


eating delicious cremoladas!


the pier we walked upon


cute little old lady standing on the pier


Pimentel


where our journey ended on the pier




we had a blast


bringing in a load of fish


bringing in another load


the rickety wood




there is nothing more peaceful than to feel the wind in your hair while watching the sunset




Pimentel sunset

When we got back from the beach we realized it was already almost 7 pm and Nalva had already left to go to the bus station because she was leaving to go back to Brazil today and we took too long to get back! We left in such a hurry. We stood on the side of the street for sooo long trying to find a colectivo. We gave up and just got in a taxi. Well we weren't sure where the bus station was exactly so we ended up getting lost! We literally had to run down a long street to get to the place. The taxi driver got so annoyed with us because we didn't know exactly where we were going. Ah! well we made it! the bus was actually late on leaving so they were all still sitting around. it was so sad to say good bye. Nalva is such a sweet girl. My cousin Mary left before me and Julio because she had some meeting. So me and Julio just walked from there to down town. It wasn't too far but it was a pretty long walk. It was nice though. I love walking everywhere. We ended up seeing that hippie guy Miguel on the street selling some jewelry. We ended up just hanging out with him for a while. He showed me ho to make some bracelets but it just seemed so complicated. I hope i can buy some of the leather sandals he makes before I leave!


waiting for a colectivo


saying bye to Nalva. me, Nalva, mary and Julio




I love to shop!


I love these sandals!


me, Julio, and Miguel

When we got back to the house there were some people over and waiting for us to sing Happy Birthday to Mary. They had bought her 2 cakes! One was a 3 leches cake and the other one was some Brazilian cake..They were both really good!

Church in Tuman...

Julio pastors at a church in a little town called Tuman. He's been there for almost a year I think. I really wanted to hear one of his sermons so I decided to go to church with him. The town is pretty far away from Chiclayo, maybe about an hour or so, but riding in a combi it takes about 2. So we had to leave around 7 am to get there by 9. We took a colectivo from the house to another location where all the little buses and combis pile up and take people to other little towns including Tuman. It was really hectic! There were people all over with all these huge potato sack type bags with vegetables and fruit. They come into town to buy mass amounts of stuff to go and sell back there. So in order to get a seat you really have to just jump in and try to beat everyone to it. Luckily there were 2 combis going to Tuman, so while everyone was all running to get into one of them another came by and we got on really quick. It got packed fast though! The ride was uncomfortable, bumpy, and stinky. That many people just shouldn't be crammed together in one little van type car. The worst was when we would pick up women and they would get on wearing soo much strong, heavy smelling perfume. I thought I would pass out at any minute!Well we finally got there and we still had to walk a little ways to get to the church property. We had to walk down this long dirt road. Kinda sketchy. There weren't people around or anything. We got to the church and my cousin actually lives there so since it didn't start for another hour I just took a nap until it was time.

The church is really small. But I liked it. The children got up and sang. There was this little girl that was just too cute. She was albino. She just had the prettiest face and she was really sweet. Julio preached so well. I was shocked not that it was good but just to see him up there. He is just usually really shy and quiet. He did a really good job though! After church I played with these 2 little kids they were so cute and they just wanted me to take pictures of them. They were adorable.







Julio preaching

Lambayeque...

Today Julio took me to the museum "Tumbas Reales", which means Royal Tombs. It is the museum for "El Señor Sipan". He was this leader of the Moche people. Here is a little excerpt that kinda explains it:

"The Lord of Sipán (El Señor de Sipán) is a mummy found in Sipán by Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva in 1987. The tomb is in Sipán's Huaca Rajada, an area in Chiclayo.

The Lord of Sipán tomb is a Moche culture site in Peru. Some archaeologists hold it to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in this region of the world in the last 30 years, because the main tomb was found intact and untouched by thieves.

Sipán is located in the northern part of Peru, close to the coast, in the middle of Lambayeque Valley, 35 km east of Chiclayo. Four tombs have been found in Sipán's Huaca Rajada, the huaca is a mausoleum built by the Moche culture that ruled the northern coast of Peru from around 1 AD to 700 AD, centuries prior to the Incas."

Museum:

"Royal Tombs Museum of Sipán houses most of the important findings that Dr. Walter Alva Alva found in 1987. He was the one who prompted the construction of a museum (Royal Tombs of Sipán) which was inaugurated in 2002. The museum is located in the town of Lambayeque (which also happens to be in the "state" of Lambayeque) in Peru. The museum itself is constructed to look similar to the ancient Moche tombs (with the exception of giant golden figures on the side). What is unique about the museum is that Dr. Alva lives very close to the museum and his first wife, whom he found the Lord of Sipán with, is buried on the front lawn of the museum.

The obvious main attraction is the Lord of Sipan and his eight guests that went to the after world with him. The warriors that were buried with him were buried with amputated feet so they wouldn't run away from the tomb; the women had their ceremonial clothes on, dogs, llamas, and 80+ huacos (Peruvian pottery)."

So cameras aren't allowed in the museum at all which I was pretty bummed about. It was amazing in there though. It actually had the actual remains of this guy. It was just surreal. All his jewelry and clothing was so intricate and fine. It really blew me away. At the end of the little tour of the museum you go int othis big room where there are all these human like figures all set up how the ceremonies in that time would have been. They lights turned on and all they all started moving and music started and it was just so cool and amazing. I always wonder how people now can figure out so many details about the way these people lived and were back then. That just boggles my mind!

Museo Tumbas reales

me and Julio

Outside of the museum was pretty awesome too. There I was able to take pictures. They have it all set up to how their houses would've been back then. In the little houses they had stuff for sale. And in one they had ceviche and other food to eat. They also had Chicha de Jora. This is a traditional drink that the Incas drank for rituals and in religious festivals. It is made out of fermented maize of Jora. You have to acquire a taste for it. I used to not like it but after drinking it again a few times I started to. So me and Julio bought a jug of it. It was really good too! I loved the little gord cups they gave us to drink out of too.

Chicha de Jora

I love Chicha de jora!

the little women selling it




how their ceremonies were possibly like





there were so many cool designs








I love this one!











After we left the museum Julio took me to "Casa Montjoy", it was built in the XVI century, and has the largest colonial balcony in Peru! It's 67 meters long! It wraps around the entire house. It was declared a national monument in 1963. It was awesome! We had to pay 1 sol to be able to go inside the whole house. It was really old and rustic inside. Probably would be really scary to be there at night. The balcony was huge too. The lady told us to be careful though because the wood is so old it could possibly break! After we left there we walked around some in the little town. It was such a cute little place.










this was just in some random destroyed room. I loved it!










the walls were all crazy and rusty looking






a hallway


writing on the wall






there's Julio all the way down there!


there's me all the way down there!








I climbed to the top of the roof and the lady yelled at me to get down..Apparently the roof isn't very sturdy!


the cathedral




I saw these little old men just hanging out on a bench. I thought they were so cute!


this was the municipalidad I think that's like City Hall or something