“my ego’s like my stomach; it keeps shitting what i feed it.”

I’m listening to… “The Recluse” by Cursive. Song for the motherfucking DAY. The video kinda blows, but see below… I’ve had Cursive’s music for a long ass time and I’ve always liked bits and pieces but today is the first time a song of theirs has really resonated with me musically. ^__~

(This is NOT the official video. Seems that I cannot find a good one, and people have made a lot of their own renditions of the videos… so there ye have it.)

Volunteered at the Greenwood Senior Center this evening with Joe (who I also keep running into at the library). Turns out he’s pretty much exactly my age… one year older… or maybe the same age, actually, since he did Running Start. Speaking Spanish — while I still suck — seems much more natural now than it did before. I hope that classes will help me get back into it (whenever the fuck they start), and that they’ll be somewhat useful, at the very least. Stupid non-English-speaking Spanish adults are just so cute, though. All non-English-speaking older adults, really. They just make me smile, so much! They’re so cute. I like helping people who can’t figure out how to double-click a mouse… it’s just… fun… .. .!

After that, went to buy some meat (and came to the realization that today was only like, the second day I’ve ever bought meat that wasn’t a frozen bag of chicken) and headed over to Hojo‘s, where he was holding a hot pot shindig. I needed to go over to pick up tickets for the Helio Sequence show tomorrow anyhow, and luckily, I knew more people than I thought. But man, people our age sure aren’t very mature. HAHA.

We ended up watching, freaking, some movie with Stephen Seagal called “Executive Decision”, and there’s this Asian guy in that movie who is also on “Law And Order” right now. His name is B.D. Wong. Alina was asked by someone what the B.D. stood for, and she didn’t know, so she concluded it stood for “Big Dick Wong.” So, the rest of the night, people were making up synonyms for “Big Dick Wong,” including but not limited to, “Big Dong Wong,” “Bombastic Dill Wong,” “Balls Deep Wong,” etc. LOL. Sometimes the name was expounded upon by putting it into a phrase, such as, “Big Dong Wong Goes To Hong Kong,” as the name of a film or something. I wish I even remembered a quarter of the ridiculous references, cause there musta been like… at least 50. Towards the end, it became not just penis jokes, but anything related to the letters B.D., such as “Blanket Drape.” Haha. Not all of it was funny but some of it became very hilarious.

I left a bit before everyone else, and on the way back, I stopped by QFC to buy some milk. Stopped for like a half hour to talk to a Real Change vendor named Jonathan, who was very unhappy about the evening. I guess he had been trying to sell Real Change copies outside of the Safeway on 15th and John in Capitol Hill around 7:00pm, and the manager had come out and told him he couldn’t sell stuff there. I reckon that bothered him, cause here he was, still out selling newspapers at 11:00pm and all he wanted to do was sleep. While I was chatting, this friendly biking guy came by and was really stoked to buy this week’s issue of Real Change (which, by the way, my name is now in, sucka!) and it was kinda cute and supportive and nice he was, being really friendly and offering cigarettes and what not. Go him. After he left, Jonathan was talking about stuff like how he had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend after the Safeway manager incident, and then went to the liquor store, which made his girlfriend even more mad… and how he had to go to court next Monday because of drug possession charges. I asked him what kind of drugs, and he said, “The good stuff,” and then asked me why I wanted to know. I said because I wondered what kind of drug possession would get you only one to eight months in jail, which is what he’d quoted (probably not the right word, but whatever!). He asked me some questions about myself, and I said I was unemployed but volunteering for Real Change, yadda yadda, and that I did stuff with computers. He said he had a cousin that did stuff with computers and was a real hot shot that made 6 digits a year, but then he got laid off… and that he hasn’t talked to this cousin for four or five years even though they used to play videogames together.

This guy Jonathan’s whole thing… as he had said it… is that he has made some mistakes in life, and while someone who was, in his words, “normal,” would get a slap on the wrist for drug possession, he’d have to go back to jail and then come back out with nothing and start all over again. He said something along the lines of, “There’s only so many times a person can start all over again,” and it was really quite sad. But he looked off kinda far off in the distance and said that this couldn’t continue on, though, and that he needed to change… and that he was trying to find a job at Goodwill because they help homeless people secure housing and will let people work even if they have some problems. Didn’t quite know what to say to him other than, you can do it… and then things will be better. And hopefully they are… but who knows. He was pretty resigned to the fact that he will probably spend at least a month in jail and then start all over again. It’s tough livings… but he acknowledged that “I made my own bed, and now I have to lie in it,” as far as drug possession charges go.

I know that people who read this will be like, oh yes, another homeless person who is homeless because he’s a druggie and a deadbeat… and while I cannot possibly deny the druggie bit… how many of us do drugs and never get caught? But it’s not even about that… I feel what’s important is how good of a person you are. When he was talking about the Safeway manager not allowing him to sell Real Change outside of Safeway at 7:00pm, he was really bummed about it, and said, “It’s not like I’m asking for that much.” I tried to cheer him up by saying that it was only the opinion of one man, and he said that he didn’t want to get “into it” with the Safeway manager because he didn’t feel like it, and… here’s the part that made me kind of impressed… he didn’t want the folks over at Real Change to get into trouble or have trouble because of him. Maybe there are ulterior motives now that I write it, but it seemed genuine. I guess what I’m saying is… I don’t think we should be so quick to write a person off as worthless just because he or she might have a drug problem or can’t deal with shit or be responsible… what’s important is having one’s morals about. I think, anyhow. I mean… if you can go through the pits of the shit and still maintain the integrity of your character, then you’ve got something good going on.

///
(I haven’t felt compelled to write in a literary fashion for quite some time, but I felt compelled this evening.)

He caught my attention as I was entering the QFC. He called after me, “If you have any spare change when you’re done…” and I nodded — a slow nod implying a promise.

I kept some change out for him.

When I came back out, I handed it to him and proceeded to scope out his possessions on the ground. There wasn’t much — just a plastic bag overflowing slightly with clothing, a plastic see-through cup, and a cardboard sign that said, “OUT OF LUCK / NEED A BUCK,” in thick blue-black marker. Quickly rendered, no doubt, but with an artistic stroke of the hand.

With the change I’d given him still in his hands, he begun to talk very animatedly about his day and how the past four hours had been misery for him. In his excitement, he flung the change into the lawn and the sidewalk as he spoke.

His name was Jonathan, and he had a Michelle Pfeiffer kind of blonde, pale beauty. He could have made a beautiful woman. His loose-fitting maroon sweatshirt made obvious the drooping, aging mounds of his chest, but despite the fact that it was nearly midnight, he was vivacious and full of energy. Years of hardship had managed to weather his body, but not his face. His face remained youthful, and his piercing blue eyes, full of life, were the crux of it all.

For the most part, talking to Jonathan was completely ordinary. It was only when he would speak about himself that he became a little distant — that he would look off in the distance, focusing on nothing in particular, lost in his own convoluted thoughts. All of those thoughts were those of a man who, at that moment, felt completely downtrodden and defeated by life and wanted nothing more than to escape an endless cycle of losing. Whether it be losing to the system, to circumstances beyond his control, or to his own actions, it was all the same. It all ended up in the same place, with him possessing nothing and starting off again at square one.

\\\

His name was Jonathan. He had a Michelle Pfeiffer kind of pale blonde beauty, and he would have made a beautiful woman. Though it was nearly midnight, his blue eyes were piercing with their liveliness. His loose-fitting maroon sweatshirt made obvious the drooping mounds of his chest — a feature which is often found in aging men. But despite the fact that it was nearly midnight, he was vivacious and full of energy. His age was elusive. Years of hardship had managed to weather his body, but not his face. His face remained youthful, and his blue eyes, full of life, were the crux of it all.

my stomach hurts. too much salt and vinegar chips.

My newest love is Salt & Vinegar chips, which is really fucking bizarre because I used to abhor them. I really need to stop eating bags of chips, like seriously, asap. I feel like I’m turning into a giant fatass. :L

Anyway, this morning, I volunteered over at Real Change designing their layouts. As I was leaving, this long-bearded old dude saw me leaving. He was obviously a Real Change vendor, and Real Change is a homeless newspaper, so he was quite obviously homeless.

He said to me, “When did you start being a vendor?”

To which I responded, “I’m not a vendor!”

I don’t know if I said it offensively, but it was my instinctual reaction to deny it, not because it was so embarrassing or offensive anything, but because… well, I’m not a vendor. But I think it came off kind of offensively or something. :L So I offered, “I’m volunteering to lay out the pages.”

To which the man responded, “Right, cause you have a home to go home to.”

To which I could only reply… “Yup…”

In retrospect, had I been as witty as I sometimes like to think of myself as being, I would have said something like, “About ten years, actually.” But I’m never as witty as I think I could’ve been after I’ve thought it through, because I always answer these things without much thinking. I’m just honest. That’s why.

Another possibility is that I felt kinda awkward leaving and passing them in the first place, which is kind of a trained reaction I have with strangers, to not really look them in the face when walking by or whatever. I kinda have to force it. When passing this guy while leaving Real Change, I forced myself to look at him and kind of give him a half smile, which was really awkward and kind of forced, likely, and then when he actually said something to me, I was already in this awkward state of being and could only respond awkwardly.

Oh yes. Thinking about things that don’t matter. Oh yes.

let the status updates do my talking for me.

May the Facebook status updates put a face on my day… or at least part of it. The other part of it was characterized by going into the Real Change office, where I will be volunteering starting next week (holy shit, it’s June already) and watching “In Your Absence,” a Spanish movie, with Graham. Really good movie. I enjoyed.

@9:23 this morning:
Vivian was late for the bus but forgot bus money, had to run back home to grab the bus money, grabbed the bus money, kept it in her hands while running down the hill, lost a quarter of the fare in someone’s unkempt lawn (where it was never to be seen again), and missed the bus. W00t.

@10:29 this morning:
WOW i just went to the bus stop again and forgot to bring money. WTF.

@8:49 this evening:
Vivian was called by her mother today, and her mother said to her in Chinese: “Your house is actually pretty clean now! But you live with boys, so make sure you wrap up your pads well when you throw them out while you’re on your period.” To which I replied (verbatim, in English), “No crap, dude! I’m not retarded!” To which she responded in Chinese, “Oh, okay, that’s good, then.”

trujillo, peru, day ten.

Another fucking fun day.

Woke up ass early to go to El Melinda (ass early being, in this case, 8:40am, because I simply don’t wake up that early here), which is this huge outdoor market. I went with Jean-Claire. Fucking awesome. Unfortunately, I can’t get my photos off my camera right away because I don’t have the fucking cable with me, and I have to borrow it from Lizette, so HOPEFULLY I’ll be able to get to them later, but yeah. So if there end up being pictures later on, they were added later. Word. (Not going to change this text.)

El Melinda is CRAZY! There’s like freaking rows that are dedicated to certain crops. I don’t even know if the place is actually called El Melinda, but yeah. One row will be like, 10-15 different banana vendor stalls, another row will be like, 10-15 different potato vendor stalls, and so on and so forth. A lot of it was pretty overwhelming and there’s not like there are very many tourists in Trujillo at all, so ordering things is intimidating. I didn’t actually have much I wanted to buy, although Jean-Claire ended up buying these interesting fruits, like guanabana, which I don’t really like. It’s weird-textured and kinda sourish. Not a fan!! Lots of fruits here I’m not a fan of, actually. She also got this fruit which is like a cross between a small plum and a tomato, called a ____________?! Which was really interesting and I can’t decide whether I like it or not, actually, but I think I do.

The only thing I really wanted to buy — at least, initially — was some bananas. We’d walked down the banana aisle but I’d been waaay too intimidated by the stacks of banana shit, though, so we left and I didn’t buy anything. These families like OWN individual stalls. One particular banana stall had a fucking baby in like a playpen, right amongst all the bananas. Really kind of truly bizarre. As we were walking back and forth, though, there was one particularly smiley lady who kept smiling at me when I was taking photos and waving and saying, “Chinita!” in a really friendly way. We made circles of the market and then came back later to buy some bananas from her, since I wanted some, and everyone else is kinda scary and picking from a lady who was known to be nicer would be really pretty nice.

She ended up giving me these bananas that are called “La Isla” bananas, and they’re really kind of small, finger-big, and ORANGE inside. I need to take a picture tomorrow, but seriously! Orange! It’s pretty bizarre and awesome. I’ve found that I’m eating a shitload of sweet stuff here because there’s a lot of fruit intake and a lot of other foods that are really just very sweet. Not so exciting, no no no. Sweet food, no no. Anyway, she like handed us three of those small bananas and three regular large-sized bananas, and I was thinking seriously, “WTF,” because I didn’t actually tell her how many I’d wanted, but then she just asked us some questions about where we were from and stuff and what we were doing in Trujillo, and then gave us all those bananas. There were way more bananas than I’d know what to do with, so luckily, I was able to pawn one off on Chris and one off on Josh once we got back home. Wee. Now I only have one small one and one big one. Which is still a lot.

And also, I bought these little mango things that are like, smaller, and supposedly more sweet than regular mangos. We could only buy it in half kilos (is it a kilo? Perhaps I forget the unit of measurement), so I ended up with three, and I actually wanted like, two. ~__~ So we’ll see how I’ll go about eating these in the… two days… that I’m still around this place :0

I totally got called, “Chinita,” a FUCKLOAD there, though, and at one point, we passed by a group of five guys who were standing in a line, selling things. The first guy said, really loudly, “Chinita!” out of surprise, and when I walked by, the third or so guy was like, “Chinita!” and extended his arm and did a little bow. Not like an Oriental bow — more like a, “I’M SUPER FUCKING EXCITED!” bow. It’s REALLLLLLLY interesting.

Actually, there were quite a few good-looking guys at the market, but it’s kinda hard to pay attention to those things in Peru because people are actually like working hard doing labor and are kinda dirty and stuff… they’re so busy and not just simply hanging around looking pretty, you know?

After that, we came back, ate some food, and shot some shit with Jean-Claire about politics and shit. She was saying how it was really interesting being here because she makes friends with people and because of language barriers, never really gets to know certain things about them which might otherwise be divisive, had she met them in Portland or something. Things such as people’s opinions on homosexuality, for instance… and how she makes friends here without knowing those things, and she wouldn’t really even WANT to know those things, but at home, those things would matter a great deal more. Pretty interesting.

I took a half hour or so nap. Was good. Then I woke up and did some writing — blog posts, in fact — and then got ready to head over to the IndoAmericano school where I’m teaching with Jean-Claire. Jasmine and Elliot and Fran rode with us as well, so the five of us crammed into a car together.

When we first go to the school, the door was locked to the classroom that we normally teach in. Four of the little kids were already outside, and two of the boys kept asking me how to say all these different things in English that they didn’t REALLY care about but they just wanted to ask about.

At one point, I took a picture of this passage from a Bible verse that was on one of the walls. There’s not like any separation of church and state here or whatever. So I took a picture of that, and two of the kids asked me to translate it into English, and I did, half-assedly (putting “something” in place of one of the words I didn’t know). Then they asked me to say the rosary in English, and I’m like, “No se (I don’t know),” and you should have seen the look on their faces! They were like, “NO SABESSSSS?????” like it’s out of the fucking QUESTION to not know the rosary!!! Scary, really. Quite scary.

The class itself went pretty well, though, and as we taught it mostly in English this time (or perhaps other reasons, as well), the class actually more or less understood this time. Tuesdays are the fun days. Tuesdays are the days when the class is full of fucking cute ass second graders who are very responsive, very open, and very awesome. The first class is a little harder, but it’s very interesting to see the kids who get it right away and the kids who don’t. Makes you wonder if the ones who don’t get it are: a) kinda just a little dumb, or b) need a different style of teaching to learn. Very curious.

At the end of the first class, we had some extra time and asked the kids what kinds of words they wanted to learn in Spanish. They all wanted to know animal words, so we spent some time doing that. It seemed the kids picked up on “elephant”, or in Spanish, “elefante,” and “monkey,” or in Spanish, “mono,” pretty quickly, relatively speaking. And “cat” (“gato”) and “dog” (“perro”).

We had a little break and then began the second class by asking the three students who’d showed up on time what words they’d like to know in Spanish. Again, animals. So we listed some and there was some enjoyment, but they soon ran out of words, and one particular kid, Oliver, was not so quick with the thinking. Haha. But he’s really cute. I’m hoping and hoping during this time that the cutest kid ever, ALEJANDRO, will show up. He does. FUCK.

Alejandro is one kid, and the only kid, that makes me want to have kids, in the small percentage of hope that I could possibly have a kid as awesome as this kid. He’s cute as FUCK, super duper smart, and really, really hilarious and cute. He picks up on everything instantly, and then proceeds to make funny animal sounds and things because he’s so bored. This particular day, we began talking about emotions (moving off of things like, “What’s your name?” and, “What’s her name?”) and so, Alejandro (and everyone in the class knows his name) would act out the emotions hilariously… like, for the word “angry,” he would make angry growling noises… or when we were going around the class asking kids how they were (and they had to choose out of “angry”, “happy”, or “sad”) and all the other kids uncreatively answered “happy”, Alejandro answered that he was “sad” while making a frowny face, although he clearly wasn’t. And when asked why he was sad, he answered, “Because I am sad,” in Spanish. Haha. SO CUTE.

I took a buncha videos of him cause I’m a creeper and he’s just SO fucking cute. EEEEE. Seriously. That kid. Makes me want to have kids. But most likely my kids won’t turn out as cute and genius as him, so why have kids!!!

Anyway. After I was done being a creeper, Jean-Claire and I headed back to the house and I headed back out with Mihae to meet up with Ever. We had decided the previous day that we were going to meet at the restaurant at 5:30 after I got off volunteering — or at least, I thought we had decided that — but he wasn’t there, so I had to call him. Good thing I brought his phone number! He said he’d be there in ten minutes but took longer than that. Ass!

When he got back, he asked what we wanted to do and then suggested we go to the casino. He exchanged some money and we played slots for like. 10 minutes. Max. It was not exciting and 4 soles amongst me and Mihae went away in like, 5 seconds.

Then we took a taxi to play billiards. But it’s fucking SNOOKER! I’ve never played snooker before, but let’s just say that the game was fucking HORRIBLE and REALLY HARD because the pockets are super small. We were there for like 45 minutes and I made in one ball, but I also simultaneously made in the cue ball, so it didn’t count. By the time we left, all of the balls were still on the fucking table, HAHAHAHA. SO PATHETIC. It was seriously pathetic. Or maybe it wasn’t snooker. But it was pool with a really weird table and no fucking triangle for racking. Completely, completely confusing.

Oh yeah, Ever was supposed to be at the restaurant at 6:30pm for work and we didn’t end up going there til 7:00pm or so. Ha. I was like, the whole time, “AREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE GOING TO WORK?!” and he’s like, “No problema!” So not sure if he was going to get in trouble or not but whatever.

So we got back to the Chinese restaurant and sat down there. One table was me, Mihae, and Ever. The other table was two of the Peruvian cooks, Jose and Marcos, and the waitress, Ana. The older Chinese cook man came over to us and talked to me in Chinese for a while. We later found out that his name was Kevin, and Mihae laughed at him for having a “gringo” name. He talked to me a lot and was again incredulous that we would be spending any time at all in what I assume he thinks is shitty-ass Trujillo.

At one point while the four of us were talking, the other table with the two chefs and waitress were like talking and laughing and occasionally making comments to us. Then the chefs were asking for our names, but not asking us, but Kevin and Ever. Ever called them over and they came over to sit at our table and were basically just watching us talk and not really saying anything. Twas really kind of strange.

Soon, some customers came in, so the chefs went into the kitchen and temporarily stopped harassing us. Or sooooo we thought. Soon, the notes started coming in. Hahahaha. So bad. So bad. I’ve kept a bunch of them. They are hilarious. Here are some sample quotes.

“Vivian Minjae (aka Mihae, but spelled in Spanish) con carino este corazon – Att. Jose – Escribeme tu correo.”
(“Vivian, Mihae, with passion, this heart. – Jose – Write me your address.”)
[There is a heart drawing, and all this is written in red. Crossed out is something that says, "Tell me your phone number!" HAHAHAHA.]

“Llamame love, baby forever, me gustas love – llamame amor – ###########”
(“Call me love, baby forever, I love love – call me love – ###########”)
[Scrawled alongside some weird obscure Chinese-looking letters, but not quite, to which I asked, "WHAT IS THIS?!! CHINESE?!" and they answered, "NO!"]

[Drawing, with a face with eyebrows, two flowers, and a heart that says "Love", with an arrow through it. Then the guy's name, Marco Antonio Saguma, and his cell phone number.]

[A note with their email addresses and names.]

There were actually more, believe it or not, but these are the only ones I kept. Fucking amazing. Seriously. Chifa at Nueva China in Trujillo, Peru, is always a fucking good time, motherfucker. Three for three. We hadn’t actually intended on staying all that long there, but it just turned out to be so entertaining we really could not leave that quickly.

Some girl kept calling Ever the entire time(even when we were at the billiards), and I guess he didn’t want to talk to her because he kept ignoring the phone calls. He had Mihae pick up one time and start talking random English gibberish sentences to her, like, “How are you? My name is Mihae. I like California. Do you like California?” etc. and then the girl called back again, and Mihae started talking again, but in Korean, saying things like, “Hello! Do you speak Korean well?” etc. Pretty amusing. The girl didn’t call back again. He said it was a friend who liked him, but who he didn’t like.

So at one point during this conversation, my Spanish got a slight bit better all of a sudden, and I was actually able to convey complex thoughts moreso, and it was really kind of exciting. We talked to Ever for a bit about money and things. Got some comparisons.

I asked him if he worked 12 hour days at the restaurant, because that’s what Kevin, the Chinese guy, had told me, and he said that he did, but his job was easier than that of the cooks, because he could sit around but they had to stand practically the whole time. To us, though, as Americans, a 12 hour day is fucking insanity!! And so Ever asked us how much we would make, and I calculated that maybe a waiter or waitress who received $10 an hour would get 30 soles an hour. He said he got 13 soles a day at his job (although later he said he got 700 soles a month, so I’m a little confused about that… either he didn’t get 13 soles a day, was confused, or gets some money through other means). But then I tried to explain to him the difference between cost of living, and how a bottle of water here in Peru costs like 1 sol but it would cost 4.5 soles in the United States… or how a meal would cost 5 soles here but 28 to 30 soles in the United States.

He asked us how much rent was, and Mihae calculated that hers was 2,010 soles ($670 USD) a month. Mine was 1,575 soles ($525 USD). He said that rent in the area of Trujillo was about 120 soles ($40 USD). The difference is really quite insane, so the wage difference is also kind of like… oh well.

He mentioned that although that’s the cost of rent just about, that he doesn’t pay for rent because he’s house-sitting someone’s house, because the person he house-sits for is a rich teacher who works most of the time in Lima and comes out about once a year to Trujillo for two months. He just has to watch the house and he gets to live there for free, watching television and enjoying a nice kitchen, apparently. He said he knew the family he was house-sitting for because he used to be an office helper for them.

Ever told us before that he wants to go to school for finance and administration, but I didn’t really know til today that it meant to be a banker, essentially. I asked him how much schooling cost, and he said it was expensive. He said the matriculation fees were $400 USD, and then each subsequent month had a payment of $400 USD tuition per month. Pretty fucking expensive, and really, unbelievable, although it was pretty clearly stated by Ever. I said essentially, “Well, then can’t most people not afford college?” and Ever said, “Yes, some can’t, but I can.” And it turned out that the reason that he can is because he’s from La Selva, or the Jungle area (Peru has three areas — the Jungle area, la Selva, the Mountain area – la Sierra, and the Coastal area — la Costa… and where people are from is very much engrained into the lives of people here) and his father works selling wood to people… and that his father earns $800 USD every fifteen days or so driving from the Jungle region to the Coastal region, selling wood to people. FUCKING INSANE.

A lot of people here apparently calculate things in USD or accept USD because they think that it’s more reliable than their own currency in a way, so pretty much everyone knows the conversion rate from Peruvian soles to USD, which is super interesting.

At one point, and I don’t know why, Ever starts asking if we have an “enamorado”. I didn’t know that word and thought it was like, a verb, that meant, “to be in love,” or something. Turned out it meant “boyfriend,” and I only found that out after I used the other word for boyfriend, which is “novio,” and Ever said they were the same thing. So, I don’t know why he started writing this down in my notepad, but he wrote things down in my notepad like this:

Viviana Tu Tienes Enamorado?
R: No

Minjey Tu Tienes Enamorado?
R: Si

Como Se Llama?
R: David Martin

Cuantos Anos Tiene?
R: 27 anos

And below it, he had scrawled, “Recuerdos De Ever,” meaning, “Memories of Ever”… HAHAHA. What a funny kid. While he was writing it down, I kept asking him why he was writing it down, but he never really answered… but I assume because of the “recuerdos” that it’s because he wants us to have a memory of him in written form or something. No freaking clue. I can respect that, though. I like keeping every fucking scrap of paper, after all, for memory’s sake.

So then it got to us asking him if he had a girlfriend, to which he responded, yes, but that she was “muy mala,” meaning, “very bad.” We asked him why. He slapped his own face and said that she did that to him. We asked why. He said he didn’t know. But then later said because of “mensajes,” aka “messages.” What did that mean? He showed us his cell phone and showed us text messages from other girls, and essentially said that his girlfriend would hit him because of that. I pulled a word out of my ass, surprisingly, and it proved rather useful: “celosa” to mean “jealous.” And he said that was exactly what his girlfriend was.

I asked him how long they’d been together, and he said four months. She is older than him, at 18 years old. I asked him if he had a photo of her, and he said no, and then I asked if she was pretty, and he kinda said she was OK. And I was like, “But you should like your girlfriend, shouldn’t you?” or something like that, and he just said that she was really bad. So I made a motion with my hands of separating and said, “Then you should…” [separate]. Lol.

So at this point we were thinking of getting ready to leave because Ever started writing some things and it was like, “ERRRR?” Something he wrote:

“Que linda hacido estan juntos en una momenta de amistad juntos en una mesa de un restaurante.”
(“How beautiful they were sitting together in the moment of friendship at one table of the restaurant.”)

What a cornball, right? But there’s more.

“La noche contemplo lo luna hermoza en un frio tan tensa que hay en el paid de Peru como quiesa acompanante todo el tiempo pardonde ?? y lo que piensar pero solo se y voy a extranate”

All this, to me, seemed like a bunch of gibberish, so I wrote, “No entiendo,” or, “I don’t understand,” on the next page. To which he responded:

“No importa pero practicalo cuando vas muy lejos adonde yo no te puedo ver se que vaya o extranarte mucho Viviana te extrano mucha quisiera ir contigo.”
(“It doesn’t matter, but ?? when you go very far away where I cannot see you and you go, I will miss you very much, Viviana, I miss you very much, I wish to go with you.”)

And below, he drew some weird picture I don’t understand and wrote, “Recuerdos,” or “Memories.”

Truly bizarre. Truly bizarre. But really, really interesting. When we came back and relayed the story to Jean-Claire and Jasmine, Jean-Claire said that people like Bee and Liz say that people in Peru make friendships very quickly and it’s not SUPER unusual for people to say things so extreme as this upon not knowing someone for very long at all. Very interesting.

Oh yeah, though. Before we left the restaurant, the cooks really wanted to take photos with us, so we took some, and took some with Ever, too. And then they wanted besos before we left, but I wouldn’t give them any. Mihae gave them some, though. WEE!

trujillo, peru, day nine.

I’m listening to… Stars’ “Midnight Coward”, Tilly And The Wall’s “Cacaphony”, Rogue Wave’s “Chicago x 12″, Jenny Lewis’ “Barking At The Moon”.

Okay, going to try and update my journal for once!! I haven’t had time to update it a great amount, unfortunately.

Got up at like 10:15am this morning despite going to bed at like 3:00am the previous night (well, I guess that’s not bad) because everyone in the house is really loud and there’s always sun shining in through the window, and hell, with such a bustling house, it’s just really, really difficult to sleep most of the time. ~__~

Anyway, got up, sat around, and did some Redefine work. Was going to go eat lunch with Lizette and Veronica but decided to stay in and finish some more Redefine stuff. Stayed up til pretty late last night editing some articles just because I haven’t updated the site in so long. Got a buncha stuff done, and have to put up a Sunn O))) article tomorrow… or the day after… so that’ll be good. As long as I get it done before going to Cusco, really.

Anyway. Headed over to the SKIP office with Elliot around 2:00pm and was really hungry because all I really ate for breakfast was some jam and some crackers, haha. Totally forgot about that whole eating thing because I was so much in the zone with editing and writing articles. Oops? Giving directions to get to the SKIP office when it is Elliot and I is always kind of hilarious, because we don’t really know what say. I learned what to say today, actually, but this is my last opportunity anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. Well, actually, it may come in handy on Thursday when it is possibly Elliot and I again.

ANYWAY. We get to the SKIP office and Elliot like, talks to Francesca, who is supposed to go to class with him (and Jasmine is as well), but then disappears before she can follow him, which is SUPER BIZARRE and kind of super rude. So Fran and Jasmine (the new girl) head home and Jean-Claire and I hang around reading. But first, we look for easy-to-read English-Spanish books that we can teach the first graders with, because it’s SUPER hard to teach first graders English. They just don’t get it. The difference from first to second grade is absolutely humongous.

So we finish picking out books, and I see this one AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING illustrated children’s book which I’ll have to write about on Redefine later, because the graphics were just AWESOME. After that, we sit down on these prison benches, and Jean-Claire does research on the 7 week South America trip she’s going to take while I’m reading “The Old Man & The Sea” in Spanish… the book in one hand and a dictionary in another hand. Actually, it’s an easier read than I thought it would be. So it is a welcome challenge. As of tonight, I am about… 1/8th into the book. Not too shabby. But I’m not sure that I’ll be able to finish it by the time I leave Thursday evening, which is actually kind of sad. ~__~

We finally go to class around 4:00pm, while stopping to get myself some crackers on the way. Only one child shows up, just like last week. The first graders are fickle for who knows what reason. We (and by we, I mean Jean-Claire) teach her colors for half a minute using this poster that she made, but the first graders are shy and this girl is not particularly responsive, and her mom is waiting around the whole time trying to see if other kids will show up (because if not, the class will get canceled). No additional kids do show up, so the class gets canceled. How sad. That little girl and her sister are SUPER DUPER cute. And very well-behaved. I probably just like her sister because her sister really liked me, though.

So we go home after like 20 minutes and get to the house fairly early. Lots of reading gets done and lots of chilling. Then once Mihae wakes up and exchanges money, I ask her if she wants to go eat, and she suggests Chifa, so we go to eat Chifa. Jasmine and Elliot come along (and aren’t particularly excited, I think, because a meal at this place is slightly more expensive than a meal at other places… like twice as expensive, meaning, like, 10 soles instead of 5 soles per person, which is like, $3.33 USD instead of $1.66 USD), and the experience is ridiculous and fun.

We get there, and Eber, Ever, is sitting down at one of the tables and greets us with besos. We sit down, chat with him for half an awkward sec about what we should order, and then order three things, rice, and water to split amongst the three of us. He brings out some lemonade for us for free, which I’m not sure why even though we were saying WATER!!!! I don’t know if he gave it to us for free because he felt bad for messing up and bringing us lemonade, or if he was trying to be nice by bringing us lemonade. Hah. He served us, and then left.

At one point, he ran out of the restaurant, and then ran back in…

And before he left, the music that was being played was modern traditional kumbia.

When he came back, the volume started blasting (he MUST have turned it up) and freaking CELINE DION came on!! WITH THE FREAKING TITANIC SONG!! And we learned from last time that Titanic is Ever’s favorite movie!! I’m pretty convinced he actually ran out and bought the CD, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. It was just so damn coincidental!

Okay, so we start giggling at the fact that freaking Titanic soundtrack just came on, and the subsequent songs are equally corny, if not moreso, including Ryan Adams’ “Everything I Do.” Not sure WHY this music came on. WTF. But it was super enjoyable, although not necessarily in a good way. A Chinese restaurant blasting ’90s American power ballads? I don’t know, man. I just don’t know. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING EVER!!!

Jasmine sees him peeking over at our table a few times and thinks that he wants to stop and chat with us but is intimidated by the presence of Jasmine and Elliot. Haha. ~__~

So at one point, Ever has his keys and is heading towards the main door of the restaurant when I call him over and ask him where Lili, the owner is. He says she’s in Cajamarca visiting her husband. And then some more small talk. And then he leaves, kind of awkwardly. He doesn’t go back towards the door, although that’s where he was going in the first place. Interesting.

As soon as he leaves, Jasmine says, “Watch, he’s going to turn down the music and come back.”

Two seconds later, the music gets turned down.

We laugh hysterically.

Eber doesn’t come back, but still, it’s hilarious. The music is ridiculous!!! Mihae manages to know freaking every song, though, because evidently, she used to be SUPER DUPER into ’90s power ballads. WOO!!

After we paid really super awkwardly, I asked Eber, “Quieres salir manana?” because we had said the previous week that we would go out on Tuesday. He said that he had to work, and that we should hang out next time, but I told him we were leaving on Thursday, so he said he was free tomorrow from 4:00pm to 6:30pm. I don’t get off volunteering until 5:30pm, though, so we decided that we’d meet at the restaurant right after.

On the way back, Jasmine and Mihae were having quite the girly freaking giggles, as Jasmine was now a convert who thinks Eber is a hottie pie. Jasmine is also 18, so she is actually around his age and it would actually work. Haha. Awesomeness. Jasmine thought it was soooo funny that we just “asked him out” but it’s not like a date really! We had said we would hang out before! We’re buddies now!! It’s not like he’s a random dude we’re picking up!

Anyways, once we came back, Mihae strummed some songs on the guitar, and then a bunch of us watched some horrible, horrible DVDs of Jean-Claire’s and Lizette’s, such as “Chinitos De Los Andes” (The Chinese From The Andes) which are like Peruvian music videos. Amazingly terrible stuff.

aahhh! mini ants!

There’s all these mini ants around, all over everything, and a lot of times, they’re just hanging out by themselves and there’s not a trail of them or anything, which makes it super hard to spot them. It’s starting to make me feel like, “OMG THERE’S AN ANT ON ME!” when I’m sleeping, regardless of whether or not there might be. And anyway, those ants are so small I probably wouldn’t be able to feel them anyway T__T

When I first got here, for the first two nights, I just passed out and didn’t get any bug bites at all. Two nights ago, I got 3, and last night I must’ve gotten another 4. It’s going up in number! They know I’m here! AAAHHHHH! HAILP!