He aprendido cosas nuevas

Things I have learned:

1) In quechua, the word for baby is wawa. I think it's funny that that's what Stephanie used to call me when she was little and couldn't pronounce Laura.

2) I had seen a short news clip about a very impoverished neighborhood in Lima that had suffered under Fujimori's dictatorship (and that's what it was after he rigged the voting and tore apart the constitution and congress). I didn't really understand what had happened, so I asked yesterday during our political science class. Our professor is extremely opinionated when it comes to Fujimori. The name of the neighborhood is Barrios Altos, and during the time the terrorist group Shinging Path was causing trouble Peru's intelligence found a party in Barrios Altos where there were supposedly four known terrorists. So Fujimori sent in the military and the shot 70 people to death, including 5 children. That's what they mean by human rights violations.

3) Maria, my host mother, got married when she was 17 years old and still in high school. She has also always been a little bit afraid of the dark. :)

4) I still procrastinate assignments when I'm in Peru.

5) I met another Peruvian vegetarian last night at the intercambio who claims Peruvians speak normally and so do Colombians but no one else in the Spanish speaking world.

I've learned a lot of other things, but unfortunately they'll have to wait because I have a lot of reading and writing to do...