Sappy Sap and Chocolate

I just returned from Huancayo and I am yet again sitting on my pink, baby elephant covered bed in my tiny room in Lima. And it is suddenly hitting me that it is really over, this amazing semester, and that most of my American friends have flown home and that I too have less than three weeks in Peru.

Lovely Huancayo,

where I crashed an Andean wedding party,

did some Latino jazzercise, met a ton of Georgians

and ate really unhealthy food.

I had a week of goodbyes (and finals) that were sad, but also filled with good drinks, good jokes and salsa dancing. I spent my days writing essays and touring around with my mom and my nights meeting up "one last time" with different groups of friends. Then last week I was in Huancayo making some amazing new friends. To sum up, I've been distracted, and now I'm not, and like with a grumpy two-year old you are trying to keep happy, that's not a good thing.

Who wants to leave a country like this?

It's been an amazing semester. Sure, there were hard times and frustrations and unmet expectations....but it has really been crazy good and I have been so blessed with my friends, professors and host family.

Picture the road below as the metaphor for the semester.

Some intense curves, but always beautiful views....

uhm...working? Nope. Not so much.

These are both from our drive from Huancayo to Lima

But enough sappiness. On to important matters.

I splurged and bought a Snickers about a month back. This was indeed a splurge as a Snickers is three times the price of a Peruvian candy bar and also has an absolutely impossible little thief-catching sticker that makes the alarms go off when you leave the store and it's really embarrassing and is really hard to get off. I find this strange that Snickers, and Snickers alone (as far as I know), have this sticker.

So I mostly stick to Peruvian chocolate. And the real question is, as my Peruvian mom very seriously asked me near the beginning of the semester, what is your favorite...

Sublime or Princesa???

It's a tough question. I'll try to answer it tomorrow on yet another long bus ride. Armed with a few of each candy bar and the equally discerning palate of my mom, it should be figured out.

I know you all are dying to know.

Hey, I have to cheer myself up somehow, right?

Sublime Quest!

No, the title of this blog is not a combination of two '80s/'90s band names (Sublime and a Tribe Called Quest) but the delicious chocolate of Peru called Sublime (pronounced the Spanish way - Sub-leem-ay). This chocolate is delicious, cheap and addictive. I love it. I had heard tell also about the glorious Sublime Ice Cream and decided it must be had. I attempted to buy this elusive treat while out to dinner with friends but was twice thwarted by the said "friends" own desire for Sublime Ice Cream - they bought it all first. Then I decided that if I didn't buy any treats for a week I could have a Sublime ice cream (it's slightly more expensive at 3 soles - sacrifices had to be made). I managed this task and then, one fine morning, it was the day. I set out to buy Sublime Ice Cream.

I first headed to Vivanda where I had seen it before.

Vivanda didn't have it. Selfish people had bought it all.

And D'nafria people with their cool yellow carts never do. Sublime Ice Cream is that upscale.

This tienda near my house didn't have it.

(But they do have a lighter they let you use when you buy cigarettes there - how nice of them.)

(not that I buy cigarettes there, but I have witnessed it. I promise.)

This fruit stand of course didn't have it, but it did make me feel guilty

for wanting ice cream and not fruit.

This store had it!!

Look at the delicious Sublime (and my tiny foot!) Glorious moment!

(Also, Blogger won't let me un-underline this...??)