Monday, May 24, 2010

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Monday, May 10, 2010

Confessions of a Field Linguist




Laundry
My Peruvian mom said they had a dryer, but really dryer is Peruvian for extra spin cycle on the washer. And I was left pinning up my underwear within view of my Peruvian sister's baby daddy. Furthermore, I was instructed to place a bucket underneath my clothes to collect water for the times when the city turns it off, which has been almost every night.  Since my jeans weren't completely dry, I wore slacks.  But since I wore slacks, that meant I needed to wear heels.

The Heel Formula
Heels + Cobblestone +steep hill +heavy bag with laptop +speeding cars + altitude = very difficult walk to the center of town.


Mondays are universal
My teacher told me today that when you don't like someone you tell them  "I love you like Mondays."  
Despite everything being so different, the breakfast for late night snack called lunch and the llamas that stroll through the street Mondays are the same even in the navel of the world. 









Sunday, May 9, 2010

Confessions of Field Linguist

My Uvula is Sore


After 8 hours of Quechua, where seemingly every word has a uvular stop, my uvula is sore.  Moreover, I feel like I'm hiccuping every time I produce an ejective.  And then I ponder the amalgamation that is aspirated ejectives, that should not be physically possible.  Once I force my mouth to produce uvulars, ejectives and lateral glides I think have to concentrate on conjugation.  Quechua is not strictly agglutinative, subject and object agreement are fused.  There are 24 forms to memorize. Then when I know how those forms work in ordinary contexts I must remember that when I am studying the impulsative, the agreement is flipped.

My professor tells me all kinds of stories


I already know that her husband is a stubborn womanizer, her son has a heart condition, that her cat, Ron, is sick, that she refuses to learn English, that she used to earn extra tips by speaking Japanese at the airport, that she doesn't want grandkids to overpopulate the Earth, that her childhood neighbor once pulled a gun on her mom because their cow was on their pasture, I think I'm learning more about her than Quechua.

I'm getting fat


Fitting of the female confessional genre ala Bridget Jones, I must complain about my weight.  I've had cheeseburgers and pizza, not because of my american tastes but because the locals have recommended it.  Every meal is at least two courses and usually has lots of carbs, potato, rice, bread, did I mention potato. Lastly, there is a woman who sells chocolates where I go to get data, its rude if I do not buy chocolates from her (besides, she claims to speak Quechua so I'm buttering her up... or  rather she's is buttering me up).

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Coffee




When you go on trips, everyone wants to know all the cool stuff.  Did you see llamas? Did you see the twelve point rock and the wall? etc.  But I'm settling in for two months and right now my priority is getting into routine.  I'll have plenty of time to see the sights. And while I am totally enjoying the change of scenery and soaking in the new culture, I'm busy trying to figure out how things are going to be for the next two months.  Priority number one, coffee.  I dont' know why I thought there would be coffee shops, but no there are not.  Not even Starbucks.  Which is fine by me.  but the first morning making coffee was an adventure.

My host mom was very kind in preparing the coffee maker the night before so that I could just put it on the stove.  So the next morning I take the coffee pot and put it on the stove.  Next I grab the matches and try to light them.  I try two from box number one.  No luck.  Peruvian matches in my coffee deprived mind were evil.  I grabbed box number two.  Same.  I try box number three.  At this point I am beginning to doubt whether I will be able to make any coffee.  Its six am and no one is awake.  Finally box number four, a different brand, had three normal looking matches with nice little round nubs.  The first one lights up and burns out right away, since  I didn't really expect them to work.  Finally, coffee is happening!  Now knowing I have working matches I turn on the burner.  The second match breaks as I struck it a little too eagerly. So with the final match I strike and light the stove.  

So I wait for the coffee to be made and when it is done I get this super thick black liquid.  I take a sip >whew< that is tar! I go to the fridge to see if I can sneak a little milk, but they have no milk.  I want to add water, but well boiling water at this point was out of the question and there was no microwave.  Needless to say, I did not drink coffee that morning.  Maybe I'll just have to stick to Mate de Coca.



Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Monday, April 26, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Seferino

Not so exotic, but its a start!!