Stephanie Metzger

Unforgettable Experiences

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 06:13:12 -0500

Since I have to turn in my last blog to be graded by tomorrow, I didn’t know how I was supposed to describe all my great memories into one blog…. SOO I summed it up by making a list of just a few of the memories that helped make my experience in Perú complete.

Here it goes:

1. Watching the dark scary waves in the middle of the night and talking to Ashley about how scary the ocean is.

2. Hiking to the sungate in Machu Picchu. It was by far the most amazing view.

3. Teaming up with Marshall to make smores at the bonfire, and getting nutella all over my arm.

4. Arriving in Cuzco and Mary panicking that her suitcase won’t come around the conveyer belt, and screaming in panic mode so that everybody could stare at us.

5. Ashley’s birthday night. Enough said.

6. Yo también also.

7. My host mom dancing and “dropping it down low” and not being able to come back up, and us having to help her up. Never laughed so hard.

8. José photobombing EVERY. SINGLE. PHOTO. (effortlessly)

9. Adriana and Ashley getting swallowed up by a massive wave on the beach.

10. The Drink, Stephily, that Emily and I created together.

11. Sleeping under the stars on the beach.

12. The little puppy(we named her Jasper) following us home from Punta Roca.

13. Burning Deep Rivers, the book that we had to read for class the following week…. in order to survive.

14. Learning how to salsa dance

15. The bets that we made in Arequipa about how many times Mary will complain about the food she eats. (Ashley won)

16. Getting ready at Ashley’s place with Amelia, Rachel, Adriana, Sarah, Kathy, and Jessica to head out to the discotecas.

17. Over bartering with the man at the Indian Market, and him getting really angry at me.

18. First time trying a random Peruvian dish before knowing the content (Arequipa).

19. Goons be Lurkin’!

20. My host sister, Claudia and I, eating all the chips at her friend’s house, then later making a Bembos run.

21. Amy and I watching the Friends seasons, as an excuse to “learn Spanish.”

22. Dune buggying in the desert.

23. Mototaxi ride with Emily, and getting lost on our way back to our resort in Ica.

24. Marshall doing the worm on karaoke night.

25. Sneaking photos in the Cathedral in Cuzco when it was strictly prohibited.

26. Playing “how many people can fit in a taxi/combi?”

27. White water rafting in El Rio Chile, and being the only person who didn’t fall out of the raft.

28. Chelsie explaining to me how to get to UPC over and over a thousand times, when it was really two blocks away.

29. Making Peruvian friends

30. Playing Dr. Seuss for a day and arguing with Oprah and Leonardo DiCaprio about why I am better than them.

31. Eating the fanciest meal with “perfect etiquette” with Kathy, Chelsie, and Jessica. Pinkies up ladies!

32. Chasing the transparent butterflies at Machu Picchu, and Ashley hurrying to get a picture.

33. High fives all around for getting questions wrong on our grammar exam. The world’s most ridiculous test.

34. Befriending my host family’s dog Spike with goldfish crackers

35. Adriana getting lost on our hike alongside the Colca Canyon.

That is only the gist of it, but I am truly going to miss Perú and will never forget the unforgettable experience that I have had… especially with the friends that I have made within the group. They were the ones that made this trip complete!

High Schools

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:51:15 -0500

For part of our program, it is required for us to help teach English at some high schools. Now, we didn’t start this until the last couple of weeks in our semester, so this was a brand new thing for me. The school that I go to is Colegio Pio XIII, which teaches kids ages 4-17. The age group that I have worked with is girls ages 15-17, and surprisingly enough their English was almost perfect so we never had any troubles. This is a Catholic school, so they wear uniforms which include blue sweatpants and a plain white tee that says their school’s name on the front. I wish our uniforms from my high school were that comfortable! Each Nebraska student would sit down with a group of 3 or 4 girls to work on a project. The projects that we helped worked on with these girls were more of learning about Lima and Nebraska’s cultures and the similarities and differences between the two. It was surprising to me, when a lot of the girls explained that they want to work in a different country when they grow up, like the United States or Spain especially. It is just like what we learned in our Indigenous Politics class how Peru is currently experiencing substantial out-migration to Japan, the United States, and Europe.

Another thing that I thought was interesting about this school was how their P.E. consists of karate lessons, which in my opinion is a clever way to use up energy of the kids so that they aren’t bouncing off the walls later. After our couple hours of teaching, the school offers us some snacks such as delicious pizza and empanadas before we go home. This was a great experience in learning how the school system is compared to the United States.

My Blog Worthy Day

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:48:04 -0500

So today was a very interesting one, and I figured it was worth sharing. After my class I went to work out at the new gym on the UPC campus. Not knowing that bringing a towel was required, I was running on the treadmill for about 20 minutes(at a fast pace, of course) and the lady at the front desk came over and told me “no, you can’t workout unless you bring a towel”(but in Spanish) she then reaches over and hits the emergency stop button and I jolt forward because it was really unexpected… and rude! So needless to say I was not happy after that. So I walked to my house only to find out that nobody was home and I was locked out once again, which put another damper on my day. I was sitting outside my door for a good 20 minutes until my next door neighbor came out to water her lawn and flowers. She saw me and asked if I wanted to sit in her house while I waited for my host family to return. And I thought, “Okay, I’m in a foreign country, I don’t know this woman, it would probably be smart if I waited outside.”So I went inside her house. Her house was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS and the lady was really sweet and she immediately went to work, making me a sandwich and fresh lemonade. She asked me the usual, “Where are you from? How long are you here for? What are you studying? How do you like Peru?” She then asked me if there was anything I needed. I said no, but honestly I could have gone for a nice hot shower, since I was sweaty from my short run/walk home and I felt bad for sitting on her expensive-looking furniture. After a while of hanging out and talking to Alicia(ahh-lee-see-ah) she called my house to see if anybody was home so that I could return. Which my host brother was, thankfully. Alicia then told me that if I ever get locked out again, I can come over and hang out. How nice of her! I can’t imagine opening my home up for a stranger to come and hang around in the house. She even went out of her way to make me feel comfortable and serve me food. It really made my day so much better! There needs to be more people like her in the world. End of story.

Dune Buggying in the desert in Ica!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:49:17 -0500

Dune Buggying in the desert in Ica!

Ica/Paracas

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:17:40 -0500

This last weekend (well, Sunday-Tuesday) was a blast! It made me realize how much there is to do in Peru, and I enjoyed it very well. My fellow campañeros and I took about a 5 hour long bus ride on the PanAmerica highway which goes all the way to Alaska in order to get to the city of Ica, where we stayed at our resort. I have never stayed at a resort before, but I am almost certain that nobody can go to this resort and be bored. There was so much to do! They had horse back riding, a bike trail, a pool with a giant slide, a giant chess set, rock climbing wall, spa, paintball gun, racquetball, skating rink, planetarium, a castle, and the list goes on. I was really happy that we had so much free time, because all I wanted to do was to take advantage of these opportunities. So my friends Amy, Chelsie, and I went sand dune buggying our first day in Ica. For the people that do not know, Ica is in the desert and is really close to where the Nazca lines are(mysterious lines in the sand that were built by the Nazca Indians but some people believe were created by aliens). Dune buggying on the sand dunes was so much fun! I figured it would just be a casual ride to see the views, but I was wrong. Our driver whipped us around and took us over the top of a dune and we flew down. We also went on the dunes sideways and it felt as if we were going to tip over. The whole time I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride because I would get that feeling of when my stomach dropped. Our driver stopped us at the top of a dune so that we could sand board down a hill, which was also just as fun. The really ironic thing about this was that it was raining the whole time we were doing this, which I figured is very peculiar since we were in the desert. Even though I developed a nice line on my face from where my goggles were, it was well worth the ride! After dune buggying, we went for a swim, played soccer, and ended the night with some great karaoke. The next day we had our tour around an island, that was off the coast of the city Paracas. Along our route on the boat we drove buy an island that had Nazca lines on it, which was really neat to see. We drove around another island that had no space for anybody to walk on because there were so many birds, penguins, and sea lions. The sea lions were my favorite to watch because they would swim around the boat and talk to the other sea lions with deep howls and barks. The penguins were really boring, because whenever we would drive by on our boat they would just stand still and would not flinch. We also saw some giant crabs on the side of the rocks, but what I was really hoping to see were some dolphins. I have already seen dolphins swim in the distance when I was in Santa Maria, but I was really hoping to see some up close. I didn’t see any but I suppose I have plenty more opportunities to see them when I go to the beach! After our long tour, a couple friends and I went horse back riding into the sand dunes, which was close to our resort. These horses were really difficult to calm down, because once they saw the sand dunes they took off running, which was okay with me because it was so much fun! Whenever I had to slow my horse down I had to pull the reins with all my might because he didn’t want to follow my commands. I had to keep holding the reins back after that because if I were to let loose just a tad that means “faster” to him. I suppose it wasn’t very smart to put 50 soles in my back pocket because it had fallen out and I didn’t realize it until we got back, so it is now forever buried in the sand somewhere.The next day, another group of friends and I went to Wacachina which is a lagoon in the desert. It was really relaxing because we were in row boats with straw tops for shade and just took our sweet time on the lagoon until it was time for us to go back to our resort to pack our things together to head out. It was such a fun trip!

Our victory pose after hiking to the top of the mountain, with...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:57:06 -0500

Our victory pose after hiking to the top of the mountain, with machu picchu in the background.

Photo

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:43:07 -0500

Photo

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:33:06 -0500

MACHU PICCHU!! (God bless you)

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:23:02 -0500

There is nothing like waking up at 3am to catch a bus at 4am to take us to catch our train, then to take another bus to THE Machu Picchu. At least I got a nice hot shower in the morning to wake me up(my first hot shower in Peru, might I add)! Our bus ride to the top of the mountain was crazy! We took a route that zigzagged it’s way up to the top, on a very narrow road. There was a point that a bus from the other direction was coming down as our bus was trying to make it to the top, and there was no room to pass so our bus backed up into the mountain as far as it could so that the other bus could attempt to pass, which it did, with barely an inch to spare from the edge of the cliff. But we made it! When we got to Machu Picchu it was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold. Everything was a lot bigger than it seemed in pictures too, and it was absolutely unreal. I took pictures beyond pictures, but I honestly don’t think my pictures did any justice as to how it was in real life. For anybody that doesn’t know what Machu Picchu is, they are ruins of a village that took 300 years to build during the Inca Empire in the 1500s. Then after being built for 200 years, the Spanish came to Peru and were destroying all of the communities within the area. The people that lived in Machu Picchu during this time knew that the Spanish would come, so they abandoned Machu Picchu so that it wouldn’t be destroyed. THEN, in 1911 an American, I can’t remember his name, found the ruins. Within Machu Picchu they had different types of instruments used to measure the astrological system. They also had rocks that pointed to north, south, east, and west around every corner, just incase if anybody got confused of course! They had a sun dome that had two windows pointing north and south. On the winter solstice(December 21^st), the sun shines straight through these windows perfectly without catching a splinter of the dome inside. Another thing that I thought was pretty interesting was how in some rooms they have what looks like a window sill, but there are stones blocking from being able to see out. These were used to place things, and they were also used as a speaker system. Our tour guide had us put our heads inside and he would go to another one from across the room and you could hear everything that he was saying through the vibrations. It was crazy! After our tour a couple friends and I went on a 20 minute hike to a bridge that was also built for the village. This bridge was alongside the cliff and it was basically logs that were place down to connect from one side to the other, which looked extremely unsafe since ONCE AGAIN there was no railing. But I didn’t cross it because it was blocked off to the public which was probably a good thing! The hike to this bridge was gorgeous, and it was as if I were in the jungle because it was very green and there was moss along the side of the mountain with bright colored flowers. Then to top off that hike, another group of friends and I decided to take an hour long hike up to the top mountain on the other side of machu picchu. It was a tough hike up to the mountain, but I am very glad I decided to hike it because by this point I was worn out, but it was so worth it! Once we got to the top, there were more Inca ruins and we sat on them for a while just to admire the sight. We were so high up that Machu Picchu looked so little and the river running below us was so far away! If it was a cloudy day I probably would have been sitting in the clouds! I still can’t believe that I visited one of the seven wonders of the world, and it is something that I will never forget!

Driving through the country

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:11:31 -0500

Driving through the country

- at the top of the fortress!

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:05:33 -0500

- at the top of the fortress!

The indigenous house that I toured.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:51:46 -0500

The indigenous house that I toured.

-at Saqsaywaman

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:16:08 -0500

-at Saqsaywaman

Llama land

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:04:05 -0500

Before leaving for Cusco on Friday, I was full of nerves. I was also more worried about getting altitude sickness more than anything. I never ended up getting horribly sick, yet on my first day I felt as if were to faint and had to sit down for a good half an hour. I also took a tea, made from coca leaves that is meant to cure altitude sickness. Along with that, I chewed on coca candy which is also supposed to help, but I don’t recommend it because it had a taste worse than the popcorn flavored Bertie Bott’s Jelly Beans. After the torture of consuming the candy and the tea, I was good to go, and I felt nothing worse than a little light- headedness. Our first day we went to the Convento de San Domingo, in which I was really disappointed that I wasn’t allowed to snap any photos, because it was gorgeous! Our tour guide explained how the church was built in the 1500’s for attraction in order for the people to be persuaded into becoming Catholics. Everything in the church was made out of cedar wood, silver, and gold, and the paintings took up the space of the whole wall. I felt like I was in a church for giants because everything was so huge, not only the paintings, but the doors were as tall as the ceiling! The detail on all of the artwork blew my mind, it was all so gorgeous! After touring the historical parts of Cusco, we ended the day by going to a pizzeria and looking through all of the little indigenous shops… in which I bought a pair of gloves and a scarf that was much needed for the climate in Cusco. Then on the second day, we went to Saqsaymaman, which had the stones that were placed together so tightly that not even a blade of grass can fit between them, along with an incredible view of the city. But it was also cold and rainy, so I really should have thought twice about the shoes that I wore. After going there, we went to another place that had rocks similar to the first place we went to that was alongside a creek. What I thought was really interesting about this place is how they built a system during the Inca Empire that had fresh water from the ground coming through the rocks, and it has still been flowing for over 500 years. It is crazy to think that they built it without using any technology or anything, and we go through a lot of work just to build a clean water system now. When we were leaving, we stopped in front of the sacred valley, which is an amazing view of the sacred river. They call it the sacred river because it allows them to have fertile land to grow crops abundantly. THEN, after that we went to a indigenous village, in which we got to go inside somebody’s home. They have their houses built so that ten houses are built in a square with a courtyard in the middle where they have chickens, ducks, cats, and pigs running around. The house that I went to was far more different than any other house that I have seen in my life. They had guinea pigs all over the floor that were eating grass so that they could make their traditional dish of cuy out of them. They had preserved animals hanging from the ceiling and wall as a sacrifice to Mother Earth for good soil to grow their crops and raise livestock. This is very similar to Rigoberta Menchu and the traditions that her and her family has in order to give thanks to Mother Earth so that they will have good soil to grow their maiz. In their home, they also had the skulls of their ancestors on the walls with spooky candles, in which I never found out why, but I know that it is something I would not be okay with sleeping next to at night. Following that, we went to a ruined fortress that was on a hill next to the village. It was so gorgeous, but I’m not going to lie, I am surprised I am alive after climbing all those steps. These steps were very old, very steep, and were made for people with really tiny feet(which I do not have). Going up the fortress I thought “Oh, no big deal. This isn’t so bad.” But on the way down, it was only one slip away from death, and I was scared out of my mind! Since my feet are so big, I almost had to walk down sideways, but there was nothing to hold on to so it was a little complicated. But I did it! I think the next time I decide to go back up to the top is when they have installed escalators. It was totally worth to see the view at the top, but I don’t think I want to risk death a second time! THEN, after the fortress, we went to a restaurant that I’m almost certain is a resort. It was an outdoor restaurant that had macaws and llamas roaming on the lawn. The food was exquisite too I was in heaven! After the restaurant we headed back to the hotel. We drove through the country of Peru, and it was b-e-a-utiful! They had fields of bright green, dark green, flowers, on hills with snow topped mountains in the background. We also saw indigenous people who were working by hand in the fields with their babies on their backs and they had with them dogs, mules, and sheep. It was so neat! Then once we got back to the hotel I decided to go to the shop next door with some friends to buy some bottled water. While I was getting ready to pay, I took my wallet out of my purse and bent down to look at the candy that was below the registers(while my purse was still open). And the next thing I know my friends are yelling at me, “STEPHANIE! GOONS BE LURKIN! GOONS BE LURKIN!!” I then looked behind me and a girl was walking fast out of the store. Supposedly she had been eyein’ my purse as soon as I had opened it, and when I bent down she tried to go for the kill, yet the screaming of my friends scared her off. Even though I didn’t have anything worth stealing in my purse other than a pack of gum and some chapstick, I would have still been scared to death if I felt her take something out of my purse or even grab it! Thank God my friends were there!

This is a pretty poor area of Lima. I just love all the bright...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:15:01 -0500

This is a pretty poor area of Lima. I just love all the bright colors of the houses!

Convento de San Francisco

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:09:53 -0500

I was super stoked to find out that I would be going to El Centro de Lima to see the catacombs and the Convento de San Francisco, but I must say that there’s no way I can talk about everything so I will just include the highlights of the whole trip. It was built back in 1673 so everything that I saw on our tour was absolutely gorgeous, the architecture, the paintings, all the gold, just everything in general of the whole building was beyond unbelievable! My favorite part was walking up a staircase, and looking up to find a huge dome full of little wooden pieces that created a design that was placed together by pressure, not using any nails or any type of adhesive glue, so if one piece were to come out, they all would fall. The library was also amazing, it looked like it came out a Harry Potter movie! After everything inside, we went underground to where the catacombs are. Our tour guide told us that about 70,000 bodies were buried there up until the early 1800’s, before they started using cemeteries. They kept the bodies underneath the convento so that way they could be closer to the church and to God. The tour guide never told us this, but I also heard from several people that they used to torture people down there in order to convert them to catholics. I’m not going to lie, it was pretty eerie. Seeing all those human bones and skulls was crazy! When I was in the catacomb, I wouldn’t let myself think too much about it, which I’m really glad I did. After that, we went to a mass in the church itself. It was absolutely beautiful! I already posted a video of it, and I took plenty of pictures!

New Camera= More Pictures!

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:42:50 -0500

As you all know, when I first got to Peru my camera busted and hasn’t been working since. The camera store where I bought it from in Kearney was nice enough to let me exchange the camera for a new one. So about a week ago, I came back from class and my host brother explained that they tried to deliver my package with the new camera in the mail but I wasn’t home, so I had to go to the post office the next day to pick it up, and I thought, “Oh that’s no big deal that will only take like 5 minutes.” No. It took three hours. I never would have thought how complicated it would be to pick up a package at the post office! I stood in line for about an hour and a half, and then they finally called my name and I stood behind the desk as they pulled out all my belongings in the package for everyone to see. My parents bought a straightener as a gift for my host sister and they pulled it out and were so confused as to what it was, as if they have never seen a hair appliance before. It was like they were cavemen seeing a fork for the first time, it was pretty hysterical. After that I assumed, “Oh awesome, I can have my package now, since they checked it, and I can go happily on my way.” No. I had to wait another half an hour until they finally decided to be so kind as to hand me my package. I felt so bad for my host mom and host sister that took out time in their busy day to come with me and wait for three hours. Note to self: BE HOME WHEN THE PACKAGE ARRIVES. But I have never been so happy to get a package, and now I’ll be able to take pictures of all my excursions in Peru, especially Cusco/Machu Picchu which is in T-5 days!

Oh, so that's what an earthquake feels like...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:48:39 -0500

Coming from the midwest, I was always curious about what earthquakes felt like. Of course I have never wanted to experience a severe one, but before coming to Peru I was wanting to experience one that was small enough but at the same time being able to recognize that it is an earthquake. Well I got my wish! And might I add that I’m okay with that being my last earthquake to experience! It was so crazy! It was a little after midnight and I was in bed just getting ready to fall asleep. I heard a car drive by our neighborhood and the house shook a little, and my initial thought was wow that must have been a semi to make the house shake that much. Then after that, I realized that the car had passed and the house was still shaking. The next thing I knew my bed was shaking and the windows were rattling. Right after that, I knew for sure it was an earthquake. I immediately jumped out of the bed, and panicked. I heard my host mom yell from upstairs, “Temblor! Temblor!” (which is Spanish for earthquake). I was mainly panicking because I had no clue what procedure to take. Was I supposed to crouch down by the wall with my hands over my head? Or is that only for tornadoes? For everybody that doesn’t know, earthquake drills are not usually very common in Nebraska, but that was definitely a time where I wish it would have been! After about a minute, the earthquake passed and my host mom checked on my host siblings and me to see if we were okay. She couldn’t help but notice the freightened look on my face and said, “It’s okay. It was just a small one.” I looked it up the next day and it was a 6.4 magnitude that hit the coast just south of Lima. The next day my host brother, Diego, told me a story about how Lima had a terremoto(a strong earthquake) when he was just getting ready to take his test in English class(in which he didn’t prepare for). He said that when it struck, the floor in his classroom moved in one big wave and then it was over. They all ran out of the building in order to avoid the aftershock and the test was cancelled. He said that he has never been more happy to have an earthquake, because it got him out of taking the test. His story definitely added humor into the situation and made me feel all the more better. That day we also went over what to do in situations like that, so now I know to stand under the doorway until the earthquake passes, then immediately go outside. So if there may be another one, I will for sure be prepared this time!

Some Peruvian dancers at the festival!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:14:38 -0500

Some Peruvian dancers at the festival!

A video of part of the mass at San Francisco cathedral

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:51:50 -0500

A video of part of the mass at San Francisco cathedral