Exploring Lima

After a wonderful adventure outside the city, I'm happy to finally start familiarizing myself with Lima from the perspective of a tourist and a resident. Exploring the city is both exciting and frustrating. It's so easy to get lost, but sometimes getting lost leads to new discoveries! I found a few spots I look forward to hanging out at once classes start and I get in the rhythm of things. :)

On Friday, I was pleasantly surprised on my birthday by the kindness of my new Peruvian family. My host mom took me out to lunch to Crepes & Waffles, a South American chain that primarily employees single mothers. Later, I went to a museum with the UVA group which featured pottery. Although the ceramics were primarily designed to be functional, I absolutely love the stylized figures that the various indigenous groups incorporated into the design. Later we joined the directors of the program for dinner at La Linterna, a pizzeria. Don Jorge de la Mancha even got me a cake. :)

Yesterday, Jose, Cristobal, Julio, and Susan showed us around the tourist attractions of Lima. It was nice see the city sights with the locals (including an art exhibit featuring the sculpture to the right). For lunch we had pollo a la brasa, one of the most famous Peruvian dishes. I'd have to say that my favorite part of our excursion was running around in the catacombs of the Museum of the Spanish Inquisition (which was otherwise pretty creepy and a terrible event in human history). At night we joined up with Dorita (la Exploradorita) at Estadio, a sports bar in central Lima. We were enjoying some dancing, pisco, and Spanish music when all of a sudden we were all given masks and the dancefloor was inundated in balloons, glitter, and confetti. It was La Hora Loca, which translates to "the sudden arrival of a band of exquisitely dressed, confrontational clowns, one of which was wearing bouncing-stilts, who were likely rolling." Possibly one of the strangest experiences in my life.

Today was much more low key. The highlight of the day was going to the Mali Art Museum. Most of the modern art addressed a political theme. My favorite piece was "Laberintos (after Octavio Paz)" by William Cordova. The piece was a collection of vinyl records which had been arranged into a maze. The records were stolen from Yale University library to protest Yale's illegal witholding of Peruvian artifacts. Nearly 100 years ago Peru temporarily loaned thousands of Incan relics to Yale, but Yale had been refusing to return them for decades, claiming that Peru no longer owned its own artifacts. After pressure from the president of Peru, President Obama, and alumni, Yale agreed last month to give the relics back to Peru and to store them at a university in Cuzco. In light of current events, I wonder if the artist will return these records. To continue with this theme of theft, I illegally took this picture of the work to better remember it.

Well, that's all for now. I start classes tomorrow... though I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited. Hasta luego!