Anyway...
Til we go to Cuzco, we´re just putzing around Iquitos. I´m going to meet a
Brazilian shaman today.
I´m practicing bargaining--at least my Spanish is
good enough to do it. I just don´t care that much. So I knock five soles
off the price of something, I just saved like less than $1.50. I´m frugal
generally, but I don´t care that much!
But it´s the custom... so I do it. At first I forgot--there was one time I
forgot, I just said, okay, and then I could tell I messed up, because the
lady was real surprised and tried to sell me more things. (You could tell
she thought, damn, I should have said more money!) Then she started to try
and sell me way more, since I was a sucker, and they started swarming. But
I had spent it all! too little was left to bargain with. I learned my
lesson. Bargain and it´ll be less of a pain afterwards. don´t bargain and
they´ll be after you.
you can´t chill on the lawn at la plaza de las armas or any other plaza.
lame!!!!! that´s the whole point of a plaza!
sounds are really loud. lots of motos, mototaxis. music is way loud!! but
people somehow still understand each other--reading lips, context, body
language, I guess. I haven´t a clue. Sometimes I ask them to repeat a
bunch, and then they think I don´t understand the spanish. No--I can´t
freaking hear you!!
I don´t know how they don´t lose their hearing. they must! it hurts!
yesterday we went to see a movie--agent 86 with steve carell. I liked him
back when he was on the daily show. anyway, we go, and it was dubbed in
spanish (we had gone to another one with subtitles, which I like--english
is easy to follow, and I learn spanish from reading subtitles)!
me and our friend henry couldn´t follow. we caught like two jokes, that
was it. and the voices sucked and all the jokes are changed (since they´re
cultural) and suck (assuming you understand). roman could at least follow
it (even if he didn´t get it all). but so we left...
one day we went in a colectivo bus, those white unmarked minivans...ha ha.
just when you thought, okay, we´re full, you can´t fit in anymore
people...they did. it woulkd be a seven-seater in the US. the the seven
could not be large people. we, no shit, fit in 17 or 18 people at the peak.
it was so funny. eventually I started playing the game: ín how many ways
would this be illegal in the US?
there were over ten ways--unlicensed van, broken side window (like, pieces
missing), too many people, no seatbelts, dude holding chicken in a box (I
think that´s illegal--you can´t just bring a chicken with you like that),
loads of stuff not really secured to the top, dude hanging out of the side
of the van (he collected money--this is actually illegal, because he ducked
back in when we were by cops), side door open, small child on mom´s lap,
throwing garbage out the window... too funny. at least I was so crammed in
that if we crashed, I probably wouldn´t fly out.
also money...they would not accept this US 20 dollar bill because it had
the tiniest rip. no one at home would consider it ripped, we were
confounded. one waitress refused a peruvian bill because it was ´too old´´.
what that means, I don´t know. uh...you can´t get change for a 20 sol bill
unless you are at a real legit establishment, where you spend lots of
money. 20 soles is like under seven bucks. no change for a seven dollar
bill! so you can be loaded, but effectively have no money.
crime is NOT worse than at home here. violent crime is LESS. maybe
robbing-pickipocket the same
the differences are funny...so I´m not complaining! I enjoy it a lot.
I was also thinking I really, really want to work with Spanish-speaking immigrants somehow when I get to Ithaca. I miss the women I would see a lot and I learned so much from them. Of course I want to continue to improve my Spanish as well. I don´t know how much time I will have... but I am looking for opportunities.
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