We Rocked It

5/31/16

Today was full of surprises, the first of which was after school the Bus to UNIFE came on time. I realize I have not yet commented on this but to my readers and my future self the bus has usually been arriving at 1:40 but we would gather for it at 1:10. So assuming I had time today I made the hastened decision to buy a loaf of bread, only to end up running to catch the bus on time. This bread would come in handy much later.

At UNIFE we had a lecture of Peruvian Literature and looked at many different pieces and learn about the different styles of writing. For example certain styles are used only to convey stories of unfrequented love. The one we spent a lot of time on learning was Las Ultimas Frase de Bolívar, about the last words of Simón Bolívar, one of the two liberators of Peru. I really enjoyed reading it because some of the sentences are written incredibly poetically in a way that once translated I feel like it loses some of the magic and that the smoothness of the poem can only be appreciated in its original language. We ended the lecture talking about "Persistencia del Sueño" the famous Dalí photo with the melting clocks. I always enjoyed art commentary in Spanish class because it was a great time to learn new vocabulary and associated it with specific memories or images that were easy to remember.

Next we went to Museo Oro del Perú a private collection of gold and weapons that since the owners death has been turned into a museum. The museum is inside a compound and in the basement is the collection of gold. The gold came in every shape and size including even stitched into the squares used for a quilt. There were also gold teasers, gold ear rings, gold face plates, gold figures, gold clothing, goal finger caps, at this point I'm sure you get the idea. There were also weapon heads in the basement large metal rings in the shape of gears, which I learned were made into clubs by allowing the tree to grow through the center and to fit it like a ring. Then the native americans would break off the branch and use it as a weapon. The upstairs portion of the museum was the largest collection of guns, swords, and military memorabilia. It kind of made me sad that everything was just sitting around but it was quite the collection and although we were told not to take pictures Monica authorized it so I managed to sneak a few.

Once we were set free from our school responsibilities many of us followed Annie to a rock wall up in a different part of Lima. I thought it was interesting walking there seeing the different stores and parts of Lima outside of our affluent Miraflores. What made things worse is that we lost the building as Annie didn't have a direct address and as we would find out the business had relocated to further down the block. So two conversations with strangers and 45 minutes of walking around we managed to find the place Base Camp Peru just a block down from where the old building had been. While many of us were doubting it at first once we suited up and started climbing everyone was having fun. I even surprised myself by climbing to the top of a giant wall and almost reaching the top of a short section of blue steps. I could see myself enjoying rock climbing and seeing myself getting better and stronger at it with each climb. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me but it was great being able to get back into an athletic activity.