With a hundred soles in my pocket...

Hey everyone!!

It's been a strange couple of days both because I've been in a really good mood and everything in Huaraz has just been insane. For example, I called my brother and Amy today, which was awesome!! However, I went to pay and I had 14 soles or a 100 sole bill. The bill was just a little over my change, but she couldn't break a 100 sole bill (I've had this conversation with EVERYONE who has traveled here... How do locals get around? The ATM spits out 100s but NO ONE takes them. It's very frustrating.) So, I said I would be right back (I see her a lot, so we're friends... You know the kind of friends where one of them pays the other one for services... WOW. That sounds awful but I can't think of how else to phrase it. She's the phone lady and I pay her. Sometimes we have conversations about Hindi music or what she wants to do with her life... That's friendly, right??) So, I go walking down the street to the gas station (grifa... I learned a new word!) where I ask if that lady could give me change for a 100. She affirms that I want soles and says yes. Then she proceeds to give me 100 soles.... in coins.

That's right, coins!! And only 30 was in 5 sol coins. A good 35 was in 1 sol coins and the rest was in 2 sol coins. My pockets are absolutely bulging. It's pulling my pants down... I'm going to have to stop by the hostel to drop some of this madness off. Plus, I think I have a 10 bill somewhere, maybe in yesterday's pants pocket. The tens are much more convenient, but even those, some people can't break them. It's insanity. The whole town is insane!!!

A little boy was walking down the street with his mom, but she stopped to look at a street vendor's goods, but he kept walking. I was stopped also, and he came over and wrapped his arms around my legs because he thought I was his mother. It was adorable, but I hadn't been paying attention, so I made a surprised noise. He looked up and started sobbing. Broke my heart. His mom turned quickly and scooped him up away from the crazy gringa, but I just raised my hands in front of me, the universal gesture of "Hey, sorry, it wasn't me!"

I also had this interview with this socialist tourist guide... he was crazy, too!! I liked it, though. He was funny, and I agreed with a lot of what he said. He was really angry with the United States, and I was like, I can't blame you. You get screwed over a lot in the name of capitalism... However, he was telling me that I needed to tell my government... and I'm like, I tell them what I can, but no one cares what I think. I can't even get all my friends, who love me, to read this blog... The U.S. government is NOT going to listen to me. Especially if I talked like he did. He was REALLY angry. However, I liked him. He was funny. It's people like him that are angry at the U.S., but aren't mean to me that make this more fun. Well, they don't have to be angry at the U.S. to be fun. But the people that have really strong opinions but don't yell at me.... I love them. I liked that guy so much that I bought an absolutely expensive and useless book from him. It's about geography in the Cordillera Blanca. It's mostly stuff I know already, but high five for the little socialist capitalizing on capitalism. Of course, he said that business is WAY down this year. I felt bad. He obviously really cared about the area and saw it crumbling before his eyes.

I don't know, I'm still striking out a lot with interviews, but people haven't been MEAN this week. I know what it is!! I only went to the bus station one day and left after everyone on four buses rejected me. None of them were particularly mean, although it probably would have hurt my feelings during the first couple weeks. The people from Lima like to glare. A LOT. They just get this look on their faces like you are the stupidest person they've ever met and they hate you for bothering them. That look crushed me every time for a while. Now it's just kind of funny. Well, it still bothers me, but I've learned not to be a glutton for punishment. If I feel bad vibes from the bus station, I leave before I want to cry. It's a much better system. Rather than sitting there because I feel like I have to, I sit as long as I can stand it and then go buy another DVD or hats for someone... It's nice.

Anyways, it almost feels like Huaraz (the city as an entity...) is trying to make up for a lot of the crap it's put me through as a whole. Funny, crazy incidents, but none of them involve late night phone calls to Sandip where I try to avoid crying in the phone booth... I'm exaggerating a bit. However, I do feel like I'm just happier now than I was for a long time. I don't know if I'm just seeing things differently or they ARE different. Who knows? Either way, if this keeps up, I'm going to miss Huaraz as soon as I leave. Funny, funny people. Although, I still think all drunk men should be locked up before they bother me... But I've learned to give them a wide berth and ignore anything they say. jerks..... The stories I could tell you would shock you!!!

Huayna Picchu and her more famous sibiling: Machu Picchu!!

The famous rock out face and the famous Machu Picchu!!
A guy with the EXACT same camera took this with his wide angle lense!! Ithaca is gorges, but so is Machu Picchu!!!

I had to get a fedora, in the land of fedoras, and what better one to get than an Indiana Jones style fedora!!!! I am actually doing a cool leap of faith kind of thing in this picture, but you´re missing out on the coolness. However, I´ve got the hat, so it has to be awesome, right?? (Theme music plays!)

I hope you enjoy my mini-tour of the top of Huayna Picchu!! Although I thought I was going to die (many, many times) on the way up, it was totally worth it!! Of course, if I died, it probably would´ve been less worth it... It was an absolutely amazing experience, and I totally bonded with a lot of people on the way!!

Ms. Cranky-Pants' Last Day in Columbus, OH

Foreword: the first few paragraphs, I let my fears and doubts run wild. If you would like to skip to the happy, sunshiney parts, skip to the paragraph with "positive note" in the first line.

My nerves feel like they are literally on fire. I am incredibly jumpy, fidgety, and freaking out. Don't get me wrong, I am a seasoned world traveler (although I think I always get a little nervy when heading out to a new CONTINENT!), but field research is the most terrifying thing in the world right now. Especially field research where you only have a minimal grasp of the language, no knowledge of the people I will be working with, and only a vague idea of what the research is all about. I mean, seriously.


However, on a more positive note. I am starting out my big fancy trip to Peru with a bang! I'm going to Machu Picchu this weekend. How many people can say that? Well, approximately 2500 per day, according to the guidebooks. But, how many people that I know can say that??? not many. just Gaby, my friend from school, who will also be traveling to Machu Picchu this weekend. But other than that, no one!! Whooooooo!!!

Then, I will be spending a week immersed in Spanish. Literally. I will be staying with a family in Cusco who will only speak Spanish with me. I will have 8 hr a day classes of non-stop Spanish. Well, not NON-stop. We'll have lunch, but I'm sure we'll speak Spanish while eating.

This will be followed by another week of less intense Spanish, with only 4 hours a day of class and afternoons of museums. Oh, and this week will have a day of no class because it will be the festival of Inti Raymi!! WHOOOOO!!!!! This local Incan festival is the second largest festival in South America. Cusco shuts down completely with parades and special food and utter craziness. I love it!!! I am ridiculously excited for Cusco. I do want to point that out to everyone, especially parents that read the eariler, spoiled brat part of the blog. I'm excited about the country, learning Spanish, seeing MACHU PICCHU!!!!, going to this festival, seeing Peru, and everything else except the research part. However, as my wonderful, magnificent professor Marie Cieri says, "Doing research is like jumping off a cliff. You're terrified of it, and you just don't want to, but the very best thing you can do is jump anyways." Well, that's not a direct quote, but you get the idea.

As long as I'm plugging professors, Kendra, one of my advisers has been an absolute life-saver with this Peru trip. She has helped me out tremendously with the dreaded fun-sucking IRB of doom! She has also been very supportive and talked me off of cliffs of non-research sorts. She's awesome. I really wish that she were going, but she's pregnant, even if it were her project. She could be having a baby on the negative one anniversary with Sandip. (Yes, while I am in Peru, it will be 1 year until we get married. This is why I was trying to get things together ahead of time, because we will have less than 11 mths and a thesis to write after I get back. No matter how much I explained this to people, everyone was like, but why are you doing it now? I would like to point out that this is like asking, "why don't you want to do everything last minute?" and that's a really dumb question.) So, anyways, Kendra = Awesome.

That's not to say my other adviser, the one who is actually bringing me on this trip and paying for stuff isn't awesome, because he is. Very nice guy. Believes altitude sickness is only in your head, like all insanely health people believe about something they don't suffer from, but I won't hold that against him unless I die of altitude sickness. Let's face it now, my healthiness track record is against me- I will probably get sicker than he does with the altitude. Here me now, world, I will haunt OSU if I die on this trip. Specific people may also be included, like if I die of altitude sickness, but just in general. I will, however, pick somewhere cooler than the bathroom to haunt. perhaps the grad lab. I could totally haunt that. I'd live in the scanner or something. Oooh, or the printer, so I could go haunt Jim or Jens when it runs out of paper or ink. maybe they'd replace things more quickly.

Anyways, the moral of the story is that I am very excited but also very nervous about my trip. I will probably laugh at all of this afterwards, but that is still a long way off. Nerves aside, though, tomorrow, I begin to jump off the cliff of research. Well, maybe the first in the series of cliffs? Like the Indiana Jones movie IN Peru- 3 cliffs- Lima, Cusco, then Huaraz!!! Hurray for me working Indiana into this post.

I love you all very much and I'm going to miss you like crazy!!! Please feel free to e-mail me anytime. I can't promise long intricate responses, but I will do my best to send you something! Have a good summer, everyone!