Emma G.'s Blog (11)

07/02/2009 Now I’m back in the States again. Ahora estoy en los estados unidos un otra vez Back to work, back to three car garajes, back to silly kids consuming alcoholic bevereges every weekend, back to school, back to Walmarts, back to America. Vuelto a mi trabajo, a garajes gigantitos, a adolescentes tontos consumando bebidas alcohólico cada fin de semana, a Walmart, vuelto a America. I’ve learned a lot, grown a lot. He aprendido, y crecido mucho. I’ve had a lot o… Continue

4/06/2009 Oi! I am very, very sick. The antibiotics for my bladder infection seemed to have shot down my immune system, leaving my body defenceless and vulnerable. Nothing serious—a little vomit, a lot of snot; I can’t really talk, itchy ears, burning eyes, pressured head, a lil’ fever, mucho acidic saliva. I’m really living up to my last name here. Emma Gross? Why yes I am! The other day, Adriane, Emeterio, Clemente and I went down to the little village just down the river and I played guitar f… Continue

04/01/2009 I BROKE MY ARM! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! IT HURT! haha just kidding it TIS April Fools day you know...my favorite holiday! ANYways...This seems as good a time as any to talk about my living situation. It’s perfect; Marcos totally hooked me up with the sickest spot available. It’s just far enough away from everyone that I can have space, peace, and quiet (not that that’s very hard to come by around here). Just far enough that I can belt out songs in the shower and play music without feeling… Continue

03/27/09 The past few days have been fun! I have begun a few projects. One is the beetle project. Every day I check these sacks of logs for insects. When I find them, I put them in alcohol, label the tag, and write the date. There are about sixty logs I’d say. The point is to see what kind of bugs live in various types of wood and how often they leave their nests. How is that going? I’ve actually had some pretty terrifying realizations about human nature and I am not at all pleased with myself r… Continue

3/22/09 Life en el campo is pretty relajado. I’ve had a blast so far! I get to play guitar and read a lot. Every night we’ve been playing guitar—and by now, all of them have a few of my songs recorded on their cellular telephones. We play games sometimes at night and laugh for hours. The other day, I went on an expedition with Walter, Victor y John Paul and helped them with their ‘proyecto’. They have two by two nets systematically placed in rows and columns throughout the forest, hanging to col… Continue

03/19/09 I’ve made it. Bloody right! I lucked out big time as far as the boat ride goes—I caught a CICRA boat and there were only three passengers on it! We were bringing a bunch of food over from Labrinto so I just sat among a bunch of coolers and boxes on the floor. To my left sat mi amigo nuevo ‘Marcos’. We leaned against some boxes and rested our knees on some more. It was “snug” you might say, but we had a big cushion to rest upon! That was cool! I shared my grapes with him and we talked a… Continue

03/18/09 Well, it’s safe to say that I’ve had my share of Lima. The West coast can’t even compare to eastern Peru. Inland is lush and people don’t mind the poverty so much because the jungle provides them with food a plenty. Where as on the coast, you’ll find ten by ten shacks tied together with scrap material, and people living in squalor in the heat of the desert. “It’s just like the Sahara” Dad repeated to me in awe, over and over again. How do they survive? Selling newspapers to cars on the… Continue

3/12/2009 HOLY S***! Jesus Christo! Pardon ME but that is the only way I could begin this entry. I’m not gonna’ lie—these past couple days have been T-R-E-A-CHEROUS. What an unexpected change from the peaceful Amazon. Truly ying and yang. It’s like going to heaven and then God walks over and…“PSYCHE” “Down you go!” “Hell’s gonna’ feel a lot worse now that you know what heaven feels like!” Yes, the tranquillity couldn’t last forever, to the Eco-Truly Park we went. We arrived at the Eco-Truly Park… Continue

03/10/09 Alright—the Amazon. The Amazon is a crazy cool place. It’s just like I always imagined; lush, green, sticky, humid, and breathtaking. Vines and roots take over the scene, seducing your eyes this way and that, like a million snakes constricting everything in sight. When you’re in the jungle all of your senses become more acute; your eyes immediately sense any flicker of movement, you hear each individual chipper, chirp, and snap around—it’s actually very loud. The jungle sings. You smell… Continue

3/05/09 Machu Picho was NUTTY—to say the least. I was blown away by the entire experience. Tuesday morning dad and I woke up around 6:00 AM to catch our bus. We were met by this little trooper of a van, filled to its maximum capacity. I sat between the driver Richard, and dad who sat shotgun. What a ride it was! It started off relaxed, the scenery was beautiful and the road was relatively safe. After about forty-five minutes however, we found ourselves thousands of feet up the mountain on a tiny… Continue

3/02/09 It’s March 2nd meaning I’ve got two days of Peru under my belt, or should I say “mi cintura”. I’ve concluded but two things; that it’s nutty here and that I like it a lot. It’s so lush and green here in Cuzco and the people are friendly, always ready to take time to converse. People definitely live the simple life here. Scratch that, I shouldn’t say “simple”, they have very rich days, with a lot of activities and occurrences—just very few ‘material goods’. They have warmly embraced the s… Continue