Talent show and Disco =)

On friday there was a talent show in my school. Some kids from my class danced to " We go together" from Grease and I sang " I'm Yours". There were many people and it was really fun. Mama and abuela (grandma) couldn´t come, because they went to a fashion show, but Charo, Salva (her BF) and Edu came, and I think they liked it =)

<--Daniela (one of my best friends)

<-- Jorge and Daniela *lol*



<-- Fiorella, Pierina, Liz, AnaLu y Daniela =)

Gianmarco y yo =)

After the show we went home, Charo straightened my hair, did my make up, her friends and her BF came to our house and then our dad took us to queens. Actually you have to be 18 to get in, but they don't ever check ID, and there are 13-year-olds in there. At first it was a little boring, but then my friend AnaLu came and I went with here to a table, where there were other people we knew from our school ( one year older ). We talked, had fun, and danced,....well,...I tried,....they taught me how to dance reggaeton, and a little salsa and it was extremly fun. I danced with AnaLu and some guys from my school. We went home at 2:30, it was fun =)

The next day I was woken up by someone knocking at my door. It was my brother and he said " tus amigos estan aqua", which means " your friends are here". I jumped out of bed, washed, put on some clothes and went downstairs and there they were,...many of them. They had just come from "colegio Montessori" where there was some kind of event, and they were all wearing their school uniform. We talked a little and then I went with them to Montessori and we walked around a little. Almost everybody left and in the end it was just my two friends Jorge, Carlos and me. They walked me home, we talked a little and then they left. I am SO HAPPY to have such awesome friends!!!!!! They are SO NICE!!!

There's a first time for everything!!!

I finally bought a call phone and I also bought a dress to go to the disco =) Last weekend I went to the movies with some of my friend and my brother and we watched a movie called " Viaje al centro de la tierra". It was all Spanish, and I didn't understand everything, but quite a lot =) It was really fun! Here foreigners are called gringos/gringas. Charo was chatting with her friends and one friend asked her " UNA GRINGA VIVE EN TU CASA?" It was really funny, because I was sitting next to Charo......I have another new friend (the same guy), who was in America for a year and speaks really good English. His name is Junior, but I call him JJ, just like everybody in America did. =) I tried typical peruvian food, which was sea food. It was REALLY salty, but ok.

School

My first day of school was exciting! I was really nervous and scared, and even moreso when my mom just told me to go and look for the principal by myself. A teacher helped me find Miss Charito and she introduced me to her daughter Sofia, who is in my class. She's really nice!! She introduced me to everybody else from our class and showed me around. Everybody, absolutly EVERYBODY stares at me in school. The first couple of days were the worst. I couldn't make a move without everybody noticing....it's kind of weird, because in our class in Austria I'm not theg the center of attention, so I'm not used to it. My English teacher came up to me after class and said,....I know I'm your teacher, but I also want to be your friend. If you have a problem you can come talk to me. Everyday in the first week I was at school we played sports. Soccer, basketball, volleyball, everything, I absolutly LOVE me school, although it gets boring from time to time because I don' understand some things, and I can't write tests or do homework yet, because my spanish isn't good enough. But I still participate in class and my friends help me a lot. =)
When I told my friend that I want to be a singer they immediately handed me a guitar and demanded me to sing =) I sang a couple of songs and when I looked up at my friends they had tears in their eyes. I guess they really liked it =) Then I played the Star Spangled Banner and one guy seriously started crying an everbofy laughed at him.

Every day I can go to school with either my normal uniform (blouse and skirt) or my sports uniform( blue pants, white shirt, grey polo shirt). I only have one of each, and I wash it a couple times a week, but sometimes it isn't dry in the morning,...so one time, in the morning when I checked my pants and they were still really wet, my mom put them in the microwave, took them out and put them back in. She did this about 6 times and then suprise, suprise, my pants were nice and dry =)

Bienvenido Dani!

The next day, I got up and took my first peruvian shower = COLD!!!! In my house we have hot water, but we have to turn on a boiler or something and wait for a while for it to warm up. =)

I went to the city with my mom and my mom wanted to buy some chicken, so I thought, ok great, we are going to the supermarket, but no. What we did was stop on the side of the road, then a lady holding a living bird came up the car opened the door, and my mom poked the bird to see how good the meat was. I was seriously shocked. We didn't buy the bird, and as I didn't know the word for bird in spanish, I said " La comida vive", which means " the food lives/ is alive", and my mom said" Si, es normal". =) After lunch, Charo and I went to a house and listened to a priest praying for like 20 minutes. Then we sang some holy songs and stuff and it was really weird. Then she showed me the city center and we took a taxi home. Piura reminds me of New York City, because there are SO MANY taxis everywhere, I like it =)

.....................

In Caracas we waited for two hours and then got on the plane to Lima. In the plane, after I had gotten back from the bathroom I suddenly a kind of panick attack. I wasn't feeling so good, because of the airplane food and then my eyes teared up and I couldn't breathe, so I was hyperventilating. But then I calmed down slowly and everything was fine again. The flight to Lima was about three and a half hours and after going through customs and getting our luggage we changed some dollars for soles,...that was exciting =) Then there was an AFS person waiting for us. He spoke German, but there were two other ladys( one from Trujillo, and one from Piura) who onlz spoke spanish. They brought us to a car and the car brought us to a type of school or something, where we stayed for the next two days. Diddi and I shared a room. The rooms looked like prison cells: there were two beds, a sink and eveyone got a towel, some soap and a role of toilet paper. Then I took a shoed and went to bed....we were really tired.

The next day we got up, ate breakfast and met lots of new people from all over the world. We found out that there were about 20 people from Belgium, 10 from Germany, 2 from Switzerland, 4 from Austria, 4 from Denmark, 3 from France, 1 from New Zealand and 1 from Canada. There was noone from the US or China, but we found out later that there were supposed to be 3 people from China, but they had a problem with their visa, and were going to come to Peru later. I made lots of friend, like Jessie from Switzerland, who spoke perfect German and Miriam from New Zealand, who is really crazy, just like me =) We mostly just hung out and relaxed, because there was noone from AFS there. Noone to tell us what to do,...there was just us,..the kids in Peru from other countries.

The next day, after breakfast an AFS volunteer showed up and we had and introduction in English. Then we got split into groups and a Peruvian talked about Peru in English. He said that Peruvian don't care about being skinny, as long as they can eat, they are happy and if they wanna make you happy, they give you food =) Then we got split into even smaller groups and had to perform certain skits. The rest of the day Miriam and I played cards, and we made a guy from Denmark and Miriam read out German words that I wrote down...that was fun =) Some people had already left for their towns. We ate dinner, got our stuff and got into minivans. The minivans took us to a busstation, we checked in our luggage, and got on the bus. We were on the second floor. It left Lima at 21:30 and we ate dinner on the bus. I couldn't really sleep, although the seats were really comfortable. We were in Chiclayo at 9:45. Diddi, Miriam and some other AFSlers left us and then we continued and were in Piura at 12:30. It was a 15 hours bus ride, I slept about 2 hours and I was tired.

I got off the bus and there was Rosario holding a huge sign that said " Bienvenida Dani". I spoke English with her....then her mom came and she only speaks Sanish, so whenever I didn't understand something Rosario ( a.k.a. Charo ) translated for me. At home they showed me the house and my room+bathroom ( so awesome!! ) and then we got Eduardo ( a.k.a Edu ) from school and went to a Chinese-Peruvian restaurant. It was good. We went back to the house, chillaxed and at 11 o'clock in the evening Charo's dad came home. He's really nice! We talked a little and then I went to bed ( SOOO TIRED....)

Diddi and Jessie (Switzerland)

Dani and Dani =)

The Adventure Begins

After I had everthing packed, I went to bed, but I couldn't really fall asleep. We got up at about 1:30, I said goodbye to Chris and we left home at about 2:45. I slept a little in the car, and we got to Vienna at a little past 5. Diddi and Daniel were already there and also this other girl from lower Austria called Luzia, but we all call her Lucy. We checked in, said goodbye and then we were off. Lucy and Diddi with tears and Dani and I with a sparkle of expectation in our eyes. The first flight was about one hour and 15 minutes. When we got off the plain there was a guy waiting for us, with an AFS sign. He was really nice, he led us to our next gate, and then left. We sat for about an hour on the floor waiting, plazing cards and talking. The flight from Frankfurt to Caracas was about 10 hours long. I can't really sleep on plains because it's so uncomfortable, but i watched to movies. One of the movies was Kung Fu Panda, and I wrote down this saying



Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mistery, but today is a gift, that's why it's called the present.

Getting the visa

Last Thursday Diddi and I went to Vienna to get our visa. On the train we met Daniel, a guy from Carinthia, who is also going to Peru this year. He was very helpful and we found the Peruvian embassy in Vienna quite easily.
The consulate, a rather tall, skinny guy, who mostly spoke Spanish with us, looked at us carefully and after he was done with one of us, he sent us outside to wait. It was funny, because before we went into his office Diddi and Daniel seemed really nervous and he gave them every right to be. But what made his office more comfortable was that there was music in the background and he kept tapping his foot and singing along to the music =)
When we were done, we still had lots of time left, so we went to Stephansplatz and sat down for a drink. We also went to the "Manner"- shop and bought some sweets.
The Daniel brought Diddi and me to the train station and we went home. This trip was fun!
Diddi's mom got Diddi that night. We had lots of fun together. =)