Dancing with Scissors

This week was very busy. It was the last week of the ISA/classes portion of my stay, so we had exams, a goodbye party and basically anything that we had always wanted to do, but  hadn't gotten to yet.

Monday was a pretty uneventful day. We had classes like normal Literature at 8:30, economics after. But Karlos, my economics professor, had a cold so we got to leave that class early. What fun. This was our chance to get all of our work done for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, it ended up being time spent editing and posting pictures from Ica. I don't really know what I did that night, but it wasn't my homework.

Tuesday was the big game! Lionel Messi and his friends vs. THE REST OF THE WORLD! I'm part of the rest of the world. Why didn't I get to play? Anyways, we found out doors opened at 4. It was a 9:00 start time. Thankfully, some people had class until 6:15 so we left later. It took us way longer to walk there than it should have. Anyways, we got there after asking a few police officers where we should go and also meeting a guy who spoke english and was going to the same place as us. There were so many people outside the stadium trying to sell us things like gum and snacks and Messi jerseys. I should have bought a snack, but I thought there would be a lot of food inside. I also didn't know the security situation. So they ripped our tickets at 3 different places and then we found some seats. They weren't bad. They handed us each a giant plastic bag that we had to tie on each end and blow up like a giant balloon/tube thing. I didn't understand. I guess it kind of looked cool.

So the food situation was rough. There weren't any real vendors like we have in the states, you know with like, regulations and safety procedures. There were a few folding tables with people selling Pepsi from their 2 liters and homemade sausage sandwiches. I was wary. I bought an overpriced bag of Lay's and a Pepsi. Later we all got some ice cream for a reasonable price. Lúcuma, guys. It's the way to go when it comes to ice cream and dessert choices.

By now you are probably thinking, "But what about the game?!" Eh. It was alright. No one played very hard because it was a charity game. They didn't want to get hurt. They didn't run very much and they hardly played defense. The score was 8-5. One funny conversation that happened went like this:
"I'm so thirsty!"-Becca
"Don't do it! Drink your tears!"-Austin
"But I can't cry! I'm at the highest scoring soccer game ever!"
So yeah. It was cool to see Messi and I guess Neymar, but they weren't really playing, you know? If I had paid like $20 to see it, that would be fine, but I paid a bit more than that.

So. Wednesday. Three of the girls in my program lived with a really cool couple of sisters. One of them is a professional chef. So they wanted us all to come over for dinner. It was fantastic. Luz made cheviche and pisco sours. The girls made guacamole and chess taquenos. And there were lovely little tarts and plantain chips and tres leches cake. They live in a 20 story building so we went up on the roof and took pictures of the view. It was beautiful. Lima is such a big city. Also, for some reason, whenever you are on a roof you feel like dancing. At least 3 of us did. And not normal dancing. The flowey, not-quite-ballet, tiptoe kind of stuff. How strange. They promised us American cookies, but we left before they came out of the oven. I was sad. But those exams? Yeah, they still weren't done.

I stayed up late Wednesday night writing this stupid economics paper and making a presentation. I worked until about 1 or 2 am and then got up at 5:30 to finish before class. Gross.

The presentation wasn't bad. I was tired, but things could have been worse. I had coffee, so that was good. Also, on my way to class (I was early because I had to print out my paper) the guard at the Italian embassy that I always say hi to said "buenos dias" and then was like, "you're a little early today!" It actually made my morning. Oh! and it was the 4th of July. But no one cared. Except us. It was super weird. Class on the 4th of July?! blech. Then I got Starbucks to feel more like I love the USA.

Thursday night was the farewell dinner and 4th of July celebration with ISA. They took us to a fancy restaurant where they had a buffet of traditional peruvian dishes. They knew about our independence day so there were flags on the tables and apple pie for dessert. AMERICA! I ate so much. They didn't have the names of any of the dishes but I know I ate some raw fish in ahí sauce, ahí de gallina, palta relleno and causa. It was really good. And I had rice pudding, melon, apple pie, and a brownie for dessert. And a pisco sour.

While we were eating, there were professional dancers on the stage, doing traditional peruvian dances from all over the country. It was really really cool. I wish I was as cool as them. Some of those guys could move their hips about as well as Shakira. If you have a minute, you should look up "the scissors dance-cusco" on YouTube. These guys take running with scissors to the next level. In the taxi on the way home, we heard "Africa" by Toto, "California Dreamin'" and "Sweet Caroline." It really made my night.

I had my last class and final presentation Friday for my lit class. We had to analyze a poem by a Latin American author. I picked a poem about  a cat and put a different picture of a cat on every slide. It was wonderful. Bascially after that week we all stayed in on Friday night. It was great.