My Saturday started out just like any other Saturday, which was with Spanish classes. My Spanish class was cool that day, and an hour longer than normal. It's normally 8:30-10:00, but today it was 8:30-11:00 because there won't be another Spanish class for another 3 weeks. For Spanish class, we had to present a Peruvian recipe with our chosen groups. My group did ceviche. All we did was read the recipe off of the internet... which means I didn't even look at it until I presented it to the class... but it was fine. (I'm very tempted to put lol at the end of this but I have to keep reminding myself this is my blog, not a text message... although it's basically a super long text message) Lol. Besides that, we did our normal song every week. We have to listen to a song in Spanish, and our teacher writes the lyrics on the board but we have to fill in the blanks. I don't know why, but it is like the hardest thing ever for me. I can't pick out words in Spanish to save my life! Another thing I learned, is I am the only 6540 outbound who took their language at school before going to their country. I had 2 years of Spanish, have been here for 50 days now, and am probably still just as clueless about the language as the other exchange students who just left. Ok, maybe that's a little exaggerated... After the song thing, we had a little vocabulary competition- which I'm always down for. Two people just go up to the white board and have are timed for how many words they can get down for a certain topic. When I went, the topic was months, and because there's only 12 of those, I got that done real fast. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I have the best vocabulary in the class... but probably the worst grammar.
After Spanish class, my host parents and I went to the grocery store. There, we got our lunch for the day: pollo a la brasa, babas fritas, e Inca Kola. We then went home, and I cleaned up a little bit until we all ate lunch- which was really early. About 12:45-1:00 ish. I then took a little nap until we had to leave for my little cousin, Rafaela's, 6th birthday party.
I was expecting this birthday party to be a small family event at their house with some cake and presents. But no- this was the most extravagant 6th birthday party I have ever seen. Whaddaya know, even the little Peruvians party hard. We got there, and it was beautiful and sunny located in a nice and green park. But of course, not knowing what the weather would be like, I wore the usual heavy sweater, boots, vest, and scarf. Thankfully, they were layers and I could take stuff off, because it gets toasty here when the sun comes out. Which is rare in winter, which is why it's always so cold. I was very surprised by the party when I first got there. Outside in the green, there were 2 bouncy houses and a trampoline. Then under the shaded concrete area was the extravagant Disney princess set up. This would have been my dream 6th birthday party... or current birthday party... It was just us and some other family there at first, so my host dad and my uncle coaxed me into going into the bounce houses with them. I kept at it for a few minutes until kids starting showing up... one by one, until it turned into what I'm guessing to be 25 kids running around.
Thankfully, I had some older cousins there, too: Fernanda and Leslie. I hung around them the entire time and just talked- in Spanish! It was a little (lot) tricky, but it always is for right now. We ate a lot of food... there were so many tasty snacks and treats at this party, and we definitely took advantage of them... now I kind of want some more just thinking about them... After a while and it got dark outside, we all sang Happy Birthday to Rafaela. Except things were a little different, as I was expecting to eat cake and watch her open some presents. But all of the kids went home after we sang Happy Birthday and they got their goody bags. All of us in the family stuck around for a while to finish eating all of the left over food and clean up. Leslie and I then talked about going to see a movie, since I had yet to go to the movies here in Lima. She decided we would go see "La Monja" or "The Nun," which just came out. Again, all of the Peruvians love horror movies... and they've got me hooked on them now, too. Until we had to leave for the movie, Leslie and I jumped on the trampoline until we got kicked off of it by the people it was rented by, who had to take it down. While we were on there, I did my fair share of very impressive summer salts and not very high flips. It was so much fun getting to be able to get back on a trampoline!
Soon, we left for the cinema! The cinema we decided to go to was at a mall I had never been to before. And of course, it was huge just like the rest of them here. The movies here and food aren't very expensive compared to American cinemas. Nothing is expensive here compared to anything American... To them it's not cheap, so I suppose it's just the cost of living in general. It was s/15.00 for a ticket into the movie, so about $5.00 USD. We were loaded up on food from the party, so we didn't get any food, but I was thirsty as always. My host dad went to the supermarket in the mall and got both Leslie and I a water to take into the theatre. We had to sneak them in. How we did that, was but both bottles in my vest and then cover it up with my scarf... so I just looked a little extra chesty. I have never done anything like sneak food into the movie theatre before, so I guess I've been turned bad. We finally got inside and I was so excited to see this movie, event though it was all in Spanish. I was surprised by how comfy the seat in the movie theatre were, even though I didn't need my seat that much by the middle of the movie. I understood most of the movie, although I looked up the plot once I got home just to make sure I got everything right. I mostly did. It's not that difficult to understand when you can see everything happening on the screen. The fact that it was a horror movie also could have made it easier to understand. Even though my hands were covering my eyes or I'd bury my face in my scarf part of the time just because I could not look at whatever gory demon was on the screen. It's even scarier knowing that this movie is a part of "The Conjuring" series, and is all supposedly true. It's all obviously very exaggerated, but still thought provoking.
After the movie, Leslie and I walked around the mall some until my host dad came back to pick us up. He brought Scotty along, so he kept us company on the way home while we talked some more. We dropped off Leslie, and then headed home for the night! It was quite a fun and eventful day!
I got these pictures from my cousin, Leslie's, Instagram story. First is me, Fernanda, Leslie, and Rafaela at Rafaela's birthday party. Second is Leslie and I getting ready to watch "La Monja" in the cinema. Third is a picture I took of Rafaela's extravagant party decorations.
The Disney Princess party sounds like so much fun. Can we have that for your 18th birthday?
Mr Paredes sounds like he spoils you more than I do. I'll pass on the horror movies, good news is your mom will have someone to watch them with next year.