THE END

I guess my blog should probably end here, because it is called Dani in PERU, and sadly I´m not in Peru anymore, so if you want to stay in contact with me or have some questions about doing an intercultural exchange or something else you can write me an e-mail.

--> gilmore_kelly@yahoo.com

I´d like to thank all of my loyal readers, who were always up to date on my blog. And I would also like to encourage anyone who is thinking about doing a year abroad or something similar to what I did this year, because this has been the greatest experience I have ever had and probably also the greatest year in my life and I know that this year will help me in the future.

I am already looking forward to visiting my Peruvian friends and family in a couple of years.

my AUSTRIAN home

When I opened the door to our apartment I immediately had the feeling that everything had gotten smaller. I went into my room and found everything really clean. It was good to be back, but I still really missed my friends and family in Peru. I unpacked, gave mom and dad some presents I had gotten them, gave them some chiffles and also made them listen to peruvian music. One of my best friends Lily came to my house and stayed until late. Then I stayed up late chatting with my boyfriend and some peruvian friends on msn. At night I cried and I have every day since I got here because I miss Tefy and everybody there soooooooo much!! I guess it´s going to take a lot of getting used to things again. It´s just so weird that I can drink the water from the tab, throw the toilet paper into the toilet and have so much luxuy again. And all the people speak German here, which is extremely weird for me.

It´s a LONG, trip

Daniel and I got up at 6 am. I took a quick shower, closed my suitcase again and carried it outside to the taxi that was already waiting for us. We were brought to the airport were an AFS volunteer was already waiting for us. Lucy came too and we checked in. Then we sat down and ate breakfast, said goodbye to Peru and got on the plane to Caracas, Venezuela. It was a 4 hour flight and I cried half of the time, because I couldn´t believe that I was really leaving the country I had been in for 10 months and that I loved a lot. Lucy and Dani made me calm down, but I just couldn´t help feel really sad. =(

In Caracas I bought some food in burger king, because I hadn´t been able to eat the airplane food. We checked in and were sitting in the plane hoping to take off soon, so we could then make our connecting flight to Vienna in Frankfurt when the pilot informed us that there had been some kind of problem with some passengers and that we would be taking off an hour and a half later than planned. So I started watching a movie called " 17 Again" and then finally we took off. I slept for about an hour on the plane. It was a new plane that had stairs that led down to the bathroom, which was awesome! Then about 11 hours later we landed in Frankfurt. We had missed our flight, so we went to change our tickets for a later flight, waited for not too long and then got on the plane to Vienna. It was only an hour flight and when we got to Viena Lucy spent about 15 minutes changing and putting on make-up in the bathroom, because she wanted to look pretty for the people who had come to see her. :) We quickly got our suitcases, then Daniel transferred some videos he had of me singing in Lima from his laptop onto my USB and then we walked outside into the "reception" hall. Mom spotted me before I had a chance to see her, ran up to me and hugged me and then Dad did. As we walked out of the airport I told my parents how weird it was to see so many white people with blond, brown and sometimes even red hair. Then we drove home and at 5:30 pm on Thursday we were finally in Graz.

Last stay in Lima

In Lima we went to call all our friends and family, then went back to the youth hostel and waiting until Nancy who was not staying in the same place as we were, picked us up to go eat lunch. After lunch we went to the "Indian market". Naja had a ton of money she wanted to spend so she bought Nancy a scarf and me a little chime. In the evening we went back to the youth hostel. I took the chip out of my cell phone and gave the cell phone to Nancy to give to Tefy when she got back to Piura. I used the internet in the hostal, chatted with a friend from my graduation class who lived in Lima and told him the adress of the youth hostel, so he could come visit me and he really did. We hung out for quite a while until 1 am and it was really good to see him again. I said goodbye to Naja and went to bed.

Saying goodbye

Gianmarco and Diego before giving me the flowers
me with tears in my eyes because of the nice gesture
Charly and I
friends!





Ana Claudia and I
Fiorella and I
Diana and I
My tutor Miss Claudia and I
me wearing the signed school shirt they gave me :)
my class
the girls from my class :) ( one day we went to school with normal clothes)

In the morning I went to school with normal clothes because my uniform was already packed in my suitcase. I stayed until 11 o'clock and then said goodbye to everyone including my best friend Carlitos Vara. I cried a lot, I can't even imagine my life without all of my class mates and teachers in Peru. Then I went to the post office to ask how much it cost to send a package to Austria, because I could only bring back a suitcase that weighs 20 kilos and a carry one that weighs 8 kilos. Then I went home, where Carlos was already waiting for me. We spent some time together and then he and Tefy went with me to the post office to send a package. I said goodbye to Carlos, meet two really good friends of mine and said bye to them too and then went home, showered and squeezed the rest of my things into my suitcase. Then we put the big suitcase on the roof of the Volkswagen and the little one in the back and my mom, my sister Kathy, my aunt Bello, who had come from Catacaos, Tefy and I squeezed into the car. Our neighbor, Laurita drove, but the car kept turing itself off in the middle of the roadm which kind of made me nervous. When we were about to drove up onto a bridge the car stopped and started rolling backwards. We all had to get out, asked a couple of men to help us and starting pushing the car up onto the flat part of the road, which was hilarious because all the people stopped to watch us. Then, because it was late already Laurita drove like a wild person, shouting at everyone who got into her way. The rest of us in the car just laughed until we got to the bus station. Laurita, after parking the car said " Get me out of here!!!! ". :) Almost all of my clas mates and my best friends from last years graduastion class had come to say goodbye to me and my whole family was there too. I started crying and hugging all of them. I was still hugging people when someone told to to hurry up because the whole bus was waiting for only me. So I took one look back and got on the bus. Naja, the girl from Greenland and I had first class seats. We were both crying like crazy people and when then when the bus pulled out onto the street all of my friends ran up to the window or just stood there and waved until I couldn´t see them anymore. I cried for a really long time, and then listening to spanish songs which reminded me of my friends and family and made me cry even more. =( Neither Naja nor I were hungry, so we skipped dinner and then cried ourselves to sleep.

Last weekend in Piura

On thursay I did something really crazy, then went to a friends house to work on a spanish presentation, which was really fun. So many things happened that day, I'm sure I will never forget.

On Friday I went to school, had a power point presentation in Spanish class and we had a little going-away party for me. We took lots of pictures, ate chips and cookies, danced and had a good time. My class gave me a shirt from school with all of their signatures on it and also a really big thing of roses and other flowers. I cried a little. :(

In the afternoon I went to the market and then to the center with Claudia, a friend of mine. In the evening we were all supposed to go the Steve's house before going to Queens (the disco), but there was no water in my house, so I had to fill containers with water and wash first my hair in the sink and then the rest of my body by pouring water in cup over myself. That took quite some time and when I was finished straightening my hair and getting ready it was already really late, so I went straight to Queens where Steve, Lisa and the rest of the AFS people were already waiting for us. I think I was one of the few people who didn't get drunk that night. I danced with a couple of friends, including Ricardo, whom I was looking after since Tefy was grounded for getting bad grades and didn't go to Queens. We went home a little after 4. It was a fun night.

On Saturday I got up early, cleaned the house, put baloons on the walls, decoraded the place and then got read. Carlos came to see me in the morning and we had a good talk. Around 3 my friends starting coming, Winnie, Ricardo and others. We sat in the living room and talked and ate and had a good time. In the evening we all went to a friends house, but went back home early.

On Sunday I spent the whole day packing my suitcase which was really frustrating becauase it weighed a lot more than 20 kilos, so i came some shirts and a sweater to Tefy which made things easier.

MOVIES

We really do look like brother and sister, white skin and green eyes, just like on the poster :)

Ricardo and I eating french fries and ice cream in the food cort

On Sunday Tefy, Ricardo and I wen to the movies and watched "La Era de Hielo 3" (Ice Age 3). On Monday I just stayed at home doing my homework and on Tuesday I went to the university with Tefy and got to know all of her friends.

Friends will always be there for you!

Last weekend, on Friday Tefy and I stayed in but on Saturday Winnie, Maria, Carlos and I went to a birthday party. Tefy wasn't allowed to go because she was still grounded. That night my boyfriend broke up with me and he didn't even tell me a good reason. I guess that's just the way some men are here, machos. :( But a week later he told me that he only bryoke up with me because he didn´t want to suffer from the fact that I would soon be leaving him. =(

On Sunday I went out to eat with all the AFS people and did an end of exchange evaluation of how our experience here in Peru has been.

In school I have a ton of homework and papers to write. On Wednesday I had a power point presentation about Austria to once and for all let my class mates know where in the world Austria is situated, that the people there speak German and not English and for them to "get to know" my mom, dad and brother in Austria.

On Friday in the afternoon Tefy and I went to the center and walked around. We went to the " Chalán" to drink ice drinks and eat cake, a ritual we have. In the evening we stayed up late watching movies on the computer. On Saturday all of my class mates were supposed to meet in a friend's house, Claudia, to go out to eat as a kind of going-away party for me. I went to Claudia's house and we waited for 2 hours, but noone showed up, so the two of us went out to eat. I was kind of disappointed because everybody had told Claudia that they would come, but then they didn't.

In the evening Winnie, Ricardo and other friends from my graduation class and we went to a friends house with all of my friends from my graduacion class. Later on Tefy and then Maria came too. It was really fun to go out with just my friends again.

Caritas Pintadas =)

In school I have A LOT to do these days, so I'm always happy when we are in art class, because it's relaxing. I have a class called "Caritas Pintadas" which means " painted faces". There's one guy in my class called Jose Luis Chen. Everyone calls him by his last name, Chen. He's a true artist, so in art class I asked him to paint something pretty on my face. Here are the pictures. =)

It was on of my friends birthday so we went to visit her. I sat with Winnie! =) Tefy and I went to see the world premier of Transformers 2, which was awesome!!!

Catacaos & Narihuala

The fireworks on the plaza

my cousin Ana Maria, Tefy and I

Sergio, Ana Maria, Tefy and I

Tefy and I in the sementary of Narihuala

Tefy and I and the old enchanted church of Narihuala

old ceramics of the inkas

Our tour guide Abel, Tefy and I

On Friday Tefy, Ricardo, Carlos and I stayed in and just talked and listened to music.

On Saturday Tefy and I got up early, got our stuff ready and went to Catacaos, which is were my peruvian grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins live. It was a 25 mintute ride in combi and when we got there my Mami Nene (mi grandma) , aunt Bello and Chana were already expecting us. Then my cousin Ana Maria, who's Tefy's age, her boyfriend Sergio and I went to Narihuala, which is a touristic place, which has a lot of peruvian history. Our tour guide was 6 year old Abel, who knew the whole history of Narihuala, which really suprised us, considering he was still a little boy. Then we went to eat cebiche, and drank chicha and then went back to the house, ate lunch and then went to buy stuff. Catacaos is a really touristic place, because the jewellery is extremly cheap!! I bought some presents and saw some some English speaking people walking around. Tefy told me to talk to them, so I did and asked two girls where they were from. The girl, Olivia, told me that she was 17, from Chicago and on a school trip. She asked Tefy "Do you speak English?" and Tefy answered " Yes, but just a little. " I was proud of her =) The Olivia presented me to her teacher and then said goodbye and went back home. Tefy and I were really tired of walking around in the blazing sun all day, so we took a nap, then ate shrimp with mayonnaise and drank milk, then watched on TV the female world champion of boxing Kina Malpartida, who's peruvian, defend her title, and win, and then went to the plaza where there was a small town party going on. We watched really pretty fireworks, and just walked around the plaza all night. We went back to the house quite late, slept in on Sunday, which was, in Peru, fathersday. Tefy and I both had a really bad stomach ache, Tefy even threw, so when we went oyt to eat with the whole family plus my ma, pa, brothers and my aunt who had also come to Catacaos, we both ate soup, but we didn't feel better afterwards. We went back to the house, layed down for a while and then went back home to Piura, 8 people in one little Volkswagen. As usual, Pa, Giampi and Javier sat in the front seats, Tefy on my lap, Karina on my aunts lap, and my ma in the back. Luckily Kathy didn't come because she had to study beacuse we were already squished in the car. Tefy threw up again, so they brought her to the emergency room. I also felt bad, but I started washing my clothes, by hand as usual, to keep my mind off of my pain. When my ma and pa came back they told me that Tefy had to stay in the hospital, because she was really sick. I went back to visit her with them. She was sleeping. Her arm was hooked up to some kind of liquid, and she looked even skinnyier than usual, which made me really worry about her. We bought some medicine for myself and then went back to the house.

Carlos came to see me later in the evening, the 21st was our 4-months anniversary. =) When he left at 11 pm Tefy came home and went straight to bed. She looked better than before, but still really sick. =(

On I went to school and Tefy to the doctors with her mom and when she came home she told me that she had Gastritis. She is incredibly skinny and one time about a month ago a nutritionist came to our house and evaluated us. He told Tefy that she, to be in a normal weight range, for her age and height, she had to gain at least 10 kilos and he also told me that I have to lose some weight,...=) My whole family, my friends and everyone we know is worried about Tefy and we are all trying as a team to get her to gain weight.

Staying in/ being grounded

I only went to the gym on Monday last week. The rest of the week I didn't because I was grounded, because I'd gone to a friends' house after the gym without my moms' permission, which is probably the most important thing for parents here in Peru. I wasn't allowed to go out on the weekend either, so I stayed in and worked on a Phisics paper until 2 a.m on Friday and on Saturday I went to the Club Grau with my friend Valeria. We ate, sunbathed and then went for a swim. We met some of her friends there and watched them play a professional game of ping pong. In the evening all of my friends plus Tefy and my brother Giampi went to either the party that was organized by the university of Piura or to a party called "fiesta de Tekila", where a shot of Tekila cost about 3 Soles, which is less than a dollar and a lot less than a euro. Carlos came to see me, because for one, I wasn't allowed to go out and also he didn't have any money to go out himself. We sat on the doorstep talking, as usual, until 12 p.m., then he left and I went to bed. I didn't fall asllep until late and then at 4 a.m. Tefy came home and woke me up. She had drunken a little too much beer and Tekila, which is never a good idea. I stayed up with her for 2 hours, then went to my sister Kathys' room, slept for an hour and then had to get up to go to school for a " father's day" performance (although Father's day in Peru isn't until the 21st of June). At 12 o'clock lunch time Carlos came and I was happy because I was really bored being in school on a Sunday! We went home around 3, and just sat in the little park in front of my house for a while. =)

Doing school work

Pierina and Lisley

Today two friends from school, Pierina y Lisley, came to my house to work on a Phisics paper. When we were done I played the guitar, we sang and then took some pictures. Then Carlos came to see me.

Spending time with friends =)

Winnie Pooh (Cristhian) and I =)

Since none of us really had enough money to go out Ricardo, Tefy, Maria, Gaimpi, Winnie and I went to have our own "little party" sitting in the basketball court across the road from my house. My boyfriend couldn't come, but I had a really good time with just my friends.

On Saturday we had a AFS meeting in Steve's houes. We all had to bake a typical dish from our country, so I went to the market with Tefy and Karina and bought all the things we needes to make "Vanillekipferl", which an Austrian dessert. Tefy, Kathy and Maria also went to Steve's house with me, and we all ate a lot, Crepe and Kish from France, Zopf from Switzerland and many other tasty things.

School and being sick =S

I have been sick for the last couple of weeks, and now it's getting colder and colder here in Piura because winter is coming. I'm already so used to the warmth, so I get cold really fast. We don't have warm water in our house, so we can't shower in the mornings anymore, because the water is freezing. I have been going to school wearing, besides my school uniform of course, a sweater and a scarf, because we still have air conditioning in our class room. I got back into the habit of doing my homework and taking little tests. I really like going to school. I think the fact that teenagers here in Peru can graduate and go to the university at 15 or 16 years of age is absolutely amazing, in many ways. Of course their education status isn't, by far, as good as ours' in Austria or in the USA, but most of the kids do ok.

In my class I don't have a lot of real friends that I go out with or that come to see me at my house, like I do from last years graduating class with Tefy, there's only one of my best friends called Carlitos and a friend called Gianmarco.

In the afternoons I just hung out at home, looked after my little cousin Karina, did my homework and spent some time with my boyfriend Carlos.

Cusco and Machu Picchu

Adrian(Canada), me, Diddi, Thomas and Sophi (Germany) wearing our masks, Thomas and SophiThomas (Germany) and I on the plane (Canada), me, Diddi

MACHU PICCHU!!!!!

people from all over the world where there, only a few peruvians

Me, Sofie (Germany), Clara ( Switzerland), Emily (France), Suzanne, Evelyn (Belgium)

a little rabbit

Diddi

5 am, it was cold!!

the line of people waiting to go to Machu Picchu

me and the train, many people have told me that I really look like an American in this picture, do you think so?

next to me: Florian ( Germany), opposite of me: Adnar ( Iceland ), Clara ( Switzerland)

Ronald, the AFS volunteer that went with us, me, Diddi and Daniel ( Austria )

Diddi and I eating cocklo (corn)

Nickolai (Denmark), he was really cold, just like all of us!!

Dani with delicious, warm, salty corn

THE inka, and Evelyn (Belgium)

Can you see the English spelling mistake here??

Nachos with Guacamole...(??)

Pizza

the market in Cusco--> a lot nicer and cleaner than the market in Piura

two little cute street dogs fooling around

Cusco

the train station in Cusco

Suzanne (Belgium) and Adnar (Iceland)

Diddi and I

me and the train again =)

me after the disco

we went shopping a lot

me in the bus in VIP with a little cup of Sangria (wine)

The ones who went to sleep got woken up at 4 am. We packed all our and were brought to the airport. We had to wear mouth masks because of the swine flu. In the plane I got a window seat next to my friend Thomas from Germany. We spent the whole flight comparing German German with Austrian German, which was quite fun. It was only a one hour flight over the mountains, which was really beautiful and when we got off the plane it was really cold. I could see my own breath , so I quickly bought some gloves and got on the bus that brought us to our hotel. We went straight to our rooms, to bed, which is were I stayed all day, because I feeling bad. The rest of the AFS people went out for lunch and sight seeing around Cusco. Diddi brought me wool socks when she got back in the evening. All I ate all day was a little piece of bread and I drank Coca tea, which is good for you, especially if you have a stomache ache. The second day we all got up early, I felt a little better, so I went with the whole group on a sight seeing tour through Cusco. When we got back to the hotel we got our bacgs ready and went to the train station. We had to wait for two hours and it was freezing cold, so we ate warm, salty, delicous corn. It was an hour to Aguas Calientes, the city you go from to Machu Pichhu. We split up into our rooms, I shared a room with Diddi and Miriam (New Zealand).

The next day we got up at 4 am, ate breakfast, left the hotel at 5:15am and got into the long line of people waiting to get on the bus to Machu Picchu. We finally got on a bus, and a half an hour later we were in Machu Picchu. We started walking around and our tour guide explained Machu Picchu's history to us. Then everybody from our group, minus 6 girls and the guide went up a very dangerous trail on a mountain called Waynapicchu. I didn't go because I was still feeling bad and had a stomach ache, but I still had to walk a lot, because Machu Picchu is enormous. After our very private tour we just enjoyed the sun that had found its way out between the clouds and enjoyed the beautiful view of Machu Picchu. Around 12 o'clock the 6 of us got back on the bus and went back to Aguas Calientes because we still wanted to get some shopping done. In Peru, you always have to bargain, because they always tell you a higher price than it actually is. Diddi and I have gotten quite good at bargaining and it's really fun too. The trick is to bargain as long as you can and if they don't want to go down any lower with the price you just walk away slowly and most of the time they yell "ya, señorita" after you, which means, they give up, and you got the price you wanted. At 4pm we went to the train station and back to Cusco. For some unknown reason this train ride back, which should have been, like the train ride there, an hour, took 3 hours plus then half an hour in a bus to our hotel we had stayed at before. As soon as we got to our room we got showered and got ready to go out to eat and then to the disco. I still had a really bad stomach ache, so all I had to eat was soup. Then we went to dance, in a bar full of foreigners and I got to know some intersting people: a guy from Argentina, a guy from Brasil, a guy from Egypt and a guy from Israel. I spoke English and Spanish with all of them. We got home late and went straight to bed, it was freezing at night.

The next day we got up early again, as always, and went off in groups. Diddi and I went shopping and I got a little present for each one of my peruvian family member, minus the dog, my 3 best friend Ricardo, Maria and Jose and my boyfriend Carlos. At 2 we got all our stuff and got on the bus to the airport. We had to wait for only half an hour and then boarded the plane. This time i sat next to two guys from Argentina, I think. We landed in Lima an hour later, got jammed into a little combi, 11 people plus all our luggage, which was a lot, because everyone bought a lot of stuff, and went to the AFS office. We stayed there for about an hour and then went to the bus station. AFS payed for a sandwich and drink fot us. I was the first one to go and I was the only one from Piura who went to Cusco. Luckily I had a seat by myself in VIP and I was really tired, so I even sleep for a couple of hours, which I normally can't do. We got served Sangria (wine), dinner, which I didn't eat, tea or coffee and breakfast. It was a 14 and a half hour ride, but finally I got to Piura and went home by taxi. I said hi to everyone, gave them their presents, which made them happy and spent the day with tefy and my little cousin Karina. It's really good to be home!!! =)