Peruvian Independence day y mas

This past weekend was Peru's independence day. This included a lot of fiestas, a lot of Peru flags EVERY WHERE (they say you get fined by the police if you don't have a Peruvian flag outside of your house during Peru's independence week!!) and official marches that took place in the streets of Lima that all the families love to watch on TV. I personally became bored after just ten minutes of watching the same kind of marching but for some reason my family and all the other families in Peru seem to be enthralled with it. I think its because of the tradition! I guess during recent years there has been this movement of nationalism and patriotism in Peru. I guess before this didn't really exist but now people are all about it and during their celebration week of independence, like I said, literally every house has a Peruvian flag hanging outside, there are many less official flags every where that say "TE AMO PERU" (I love you Peru) and people will wear buttons that say "SOY PERUANO Y SOY FELIZ!!!" (I am Peruvian and happy!!). I of course went all out for Peru's independence day and bought a Peruvian flag and their national soccer jersey! VIVA PERU!! :) We still had training class on Peru's independence day but our Spanish teachers performed some traditional Peruvian dances from different parts of Peru. They even wore the traditional outfits and had been practicing the dances for weeks. It was very beautiful!!

With out Spanish teacher in her traditional coastal Peruvian outfit :)

Showing my love for Peru on their independence day

Being in Lima and still being in training now that I know my site has been difficult....now that I know my site, I am really anxious to get there, learn all about it, and start working with the youth. I really feel done with training and all the busy work that I feel like we are doing but I know that I need to finish strong and enjoy these last weeks with my fellow volunteers while we are all together. We are all feeling pretty ansy to be done with training. Only 2.5 weeks left! And a week of that includes the site visits we do next week!

One thing is for sure, after spending just a week in Ancash I really realized how sort of, kind of, really ugly Lima is...dusty, dry, brown, polluted, over crowded. Its a dessert surrounded by enormous dirt hills that look like big piles of dirt. I love Lima for certain things but I definitely won't be sad to move to the fresh, lush, clean, beautiful Sierra Mountain Range!!!

2.5 weeks and I'll be there for good!! Well, for the next two years at least :)

This is a map of Peru with a sticker in every state that Peace Corps Peru has volunteers! 

A little "hike" by Kaeli's house...a 10 minute incline up the side of a large pile of dirt is really the closet thing to a hike that you get around here.

Being from Washington and Colorado, we like to hike and Lima is definitely lacking in that department. Thankfully soon I will be moving to the mountains where I will be surrounded by unlimited glorious hikes!!  

Sorry Lima, but I really won't miss this...Here's the view we had from out hike. Even though we felt like we were in Palestine, it was still nice to get out and do a little hike of some sort!