I'd like a Nice and Smoth Smothie with my Sex Burger please

One month to go! I can't believe it...I'm excited to come home because there are some things here that I'm not sure I can ever get used to (like the traffic and dog poop on the sidewalks), but I know I'm going to be sad to leave my strange new home. We've been trying to pack in as many things as we can lately. We went to Oktoberfest here in Lima, which was a wierd mix of Peruvian girls dressed in German outfits, while American music was played and people drank the Bud Light of Peru. Also, we have been to the Peruvian zoo, which was actually really cool; there were even ancient ruins in the middle of the park.

This past weekend we had a long weekend because the Peruvians get the day after Halloween off for some reason. So my friends Mary and Lauren and I went on a trip north of Lima to Huaraz. We stayed there Friday and Saturday, went and saw ruins at Willkawain and Chavin, which were unbelievable how innovative and advanced these pre-Incan cultures were. These structures are still going strong since the 9th century even despite all the earthquakes. Saturday night we visited the Huaraz Plaza de Armas, which was pretty poor looking, and then we had a 10 hour overnight bus ride to Trujillo. Trujillo was a much bigger and cleaner city than Huaraz, and its Plaza de Armas was huge with statues, fountains, and colorful buildings. We spent Halloween night like cool teenage girls at the mall, ate Pizza Hut, watched an NFL game on the big screen, and tried to concentrate on Paranormal Activity 2 at the movie theater while all the Peruvians literally talked the entire time. Our beach-front hostel was in the next town over, Huanchaco, and we got to take some very interesting bus rides (see below!). Our last day, we visited the ruins of Chan Chan (incredible) and spent the afternoon on the beach! This weekend I'm running a 10k Saturday night in Lima, then we have a river rafting trip on Sunday!

Things I've learned:
1. If you want to say "that hurts my feelings", learn the difference between sentimientos and centimos, otherwise you're saying "that hurts my change/coins."
2. If a crazy man in white polyester pants and sunglasses on the public bus pulls a crab out of a plastic bag and starts flapping it around in front of your face...don't be alarmed, it's Peru.
3. "To flirt" here means "to have an affair." Sooo, if your Peruvian brother seems shocked and gives you judgemental looks when you tell him you flirt with a lot of guys, it's what Americans do, it's not that big of a deal...it's because he thinks you're whoring around.
4. Peruvian children are quite possibly the cutest species alive. No contest.
5. Peruvian "business cards" are a piece of notebook paper with just a name, "taxi" in parenthesis, and a cell number scribbled on it. Very professional! :)
6. Just smile and keep walking when a Peruvian says in broken English, "Are you from England? I've been to Michigan." Ummm, awesome?
7. If your daughter has to pee while you're at the beach, let her pop a squat in the middle of the stairs leading down to the beach. What's wrong with that?
8. I learned how mirrors are made. Yep, got even more bored one day.
9. Professors here are paid by the hour, so somehow it's your own responsibility to make up a cancelled class because your professor got "the itchies" from a bad reaction to crab...
10. It's not unusual to see a middle-aged woman at the zoo wearing a flat-billed hat that has grafitti letters that say, "Thug." hahahaha one of my favorite things here.

Mis amigos and I at Oktoberfest with a German cuy (guinea pig)...if only they were really this big and we could actually get a full meal out of them when we fry those suckers up!

We brought our German brother with us to Oktoberfest, he's on the right in the rockin' hat. I'm pretty sure Tina Turner's "Rollin on the River" was playing in the background here. Big wheels keep on turnin!!!!

Mishi mishi mishi. That's how cats say meow here. This is at the zoo, not in the jungle.

The ruins at Willkawain in Huaraz. They built this 3-story building out of giant stones to keep a lookout for enemies.

On our hike in the Cordillera Blanca in Huaraz. We randomly came upon this lady named Juanita with all of her sheep. She only spoke Quechua, but we unmistakeably understood when she starting laughing hysterically and pointing, saying, "Gringas!! haha! Gringas!" Apparently we were a sight to see! We got to take a picture...for a tip of course. Typical.

Our well-named hostel in Huaraz...

The Plaza de Armas in Huaraz...yikes.

On our way to the ruins at Chavin. Yes, whoever wants to steal this picture and frame it because it's so awesome...you have my permission.

The ruins at Chavin. This was a pretty close second to Machu Picchu at being some of the coolest ruins I've seen in Peru. They had a 7 times anti-seismic construction...hence the hundreds of years of existence. I'll go ahead and take the history dork award.

I think this was my favorite part of the whole trip. This was a burger stand in the middle of the street in Huaraz called "Sex Burger" run by two teenage guys. They couldn't understand why I couldn't stop laughing and immediately asked for a picture with them, but were good sports about it, as you can see. hahahahahaha, why don't we have things like this in the US?

This was the hostel we stayed at in Huanchaco. I got some, ocean front property in Huanchaco!

A cathedral at the Plaza de Armas in Trujillo...impressive.

Some of the architecture at the ruins at Chan Chan. If these people can make crap like this out of sand and make it last hundreds of years, they have my respect.

I spy....a gringa on giant old ruins!! Ohp, there I am in my same ridiculous jacket. Class class class!

The bus driver in Trujillo. Literally he's sitting in a beach chair. A plastic beach chair. And the gear shift was literally diagonally behind him. This country never ceases to amaze me: ancient ruins, beach chair buses.

Freshly made picarones...kind of like Peruvian donuts doused in syrup. A whole plate of them cost less than $1. One thing this country can do right is food...wicious!!

hahaha my 2nd favorite part of the trip: We visited a little cafe on the beach that had homemade menus that obviously took direct translations online, thus my "nice and smoth smothie" off the "Smothie" list.

View on the beach in Huanchaco...what you can't see is all the trash on the beach haha.

One of my fav pics. These boats lined the beach in Huanchaco...gorgeous!