Weekend

I don´t have anything educational to talk about right now, but I thought I´d let you all know what a typical weekend for me is, and how mine went.
Typically we have planned activities in the morning on Saturdays, and then have the rest of the day free to spend in Lima or return home. The next few Saturdays we´ll be in the agriculture university in Lima, learning about various topics such as animal husbandry and grain farming. This week we planted some vegetables out in the fields, tried various interesting fruits that are unheard of in the U.S., and took a tour of the greenhouses. The planting especially was interesting, and I wouldn´t mind doing some work with farmers, etc. at site. After that we kind of Americaned it up by going to the upscale Jockey Plaza center. We ate at Chiles and watched Get Smart in English just as a break from all of the cultural bombardment we´ve been having. It was fun, although next weekend I´d like to do some of the tourist stuff that Lima has to offer (visit the Cathedral, etc.)
Saturday night there was a festival that kept on going until early Sunday morning. I only was there for a small part and got to see the marching band wander through the streets, but not the other customs that I hear are pretty interesting. There is a festival at the end of July that I´ll be sure not to miss that is similar. What I did do was go to a cousin of my family´s party, did a little casual drinking, and got gifted a wooden spoon and a Chihuahua puppy to be named later. More on that later if anyone´s interested. Sunday I went with some compañeros to some 2 thousand year old pictographs sketched up in the mountains behind my community. They´re not well known, but older than the Nazca lines (and smaller). As always, pictures to come later. Sunday night I went to Chosica and hung out with my brother, his girlfriend, and her kids, which was nice. There was dancing in the square corresponding to different regions of Peru, which was interesting, and a giant illuminated white stone Christ statue that was the main draw of the town. Overall a pretty satisfying weekend, although I could have used a little more rest...