Music, market, and coast

I am so thankful for the kindness and friendliness of the Peruvians, especially my classmates at Ruiz. I'm glad to be able to help Jose with his English homework, talk with Julio (aka "el gato") about US-Latin American relations, talk about boys with Jenifer, and discuss classic rock bands with Mauricio. I love that Peruvians greet each other with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and are always eager to include you in their conversation.

On Friday, I finally got to play guitar for my Peruvian friends and to meet another student who plays the guitar! I was so excited to finally meet a part of the group that I've seen jamming on campus. Mauricio gave me a list of Latin American rock bands to look up for tarea, including La Ley, Sui Generis (click for a beautiful '70s rock ballad), and Quechuan-blues band Uchpa. More recently, he suggested Mano Negra and Hot Pants, two of Manu Chao's old bands. Regretably, I can't watch many videos on YouTube because they aren't licensed to be played out of the country. In fact, Hulu, Netflix, and Pandora aren't accessible at all from Peru.

After a dinner of pollo a la brasa, the group went to a karaoke bar. It was a lot more formal (and fun) than I expected. I laughed when someone from another group sung "Firework" by Katie Perry, and also when a Calle 13 song came on. Karaoke is serious business here. 

Saturday Brigette and I woke up early to meet Patricia at an organic farmer's market in Miraflores. We slowly made our way down a line of colorful booths with fruits, vegetables, dairy products, crafts, and herbs. It reminded me a lot of the Charlottesville farmer's market, although with tropical produce instead of Virginia harvests. It's cool to see the local food movement in action in another locality... even though Juan Carlos still claims organic farming is a lie.

We left early from the market to meet up with Jose, Martin, Diego, and Pati to go on a tour of  Miraflores and to visit the Peruvian-Japanese cultural center. Peru has a large Asian population, and there are about 90,000 people of Japanese descent living in Peru. Past president Fujimori is of Japonese descent, and so is daughter who is a presidential candidate. Chinese (chifa) and Japanese restaurants are everywhere, and Lima even has it's own China Town (Barrio Chino). Multiculturalism ftw!

Afterwards, we checked out the beach of Miraflores (my district). Lima's coast (La Costa Verde) is unique because the beach is on a small cliff, and the actual beach itself is small, rocky, and (regrettably) full of trash that had been washed up from the tsunami. Flying in the air were  men in chairs with a giant fan and a parachute attached to them, seemingly defying physics to fly in the sky to advertise admissions exams for a local university. Surfers were waiting in the sea for the perfect wave. I'd love to join them sometime.

So much to do and so little time! Sometimes I think that 5 months here is an excruciatingly long time to be away from UVa, other times I lament that it's not enough time to fully experience Peru (much less the city of Lima or the district of Miraflores).