Y dale U!

I'm back with some real stories.
1.
Yesterday I went to my first soccer game ever! And you know which one it was? It was el clasico. It's like the last game of the Peruvian playoffs in soccer. And you wanna know which teams made it? Lima's two biggest teams: La U (Universitario) and Alianza. I belong to La U. Well, me and Coco (a guy, that I am kind of seeing... Coco is the nickname for Jorge) went together. The game was in a barrio (neighborhood) called La Victoria, which happens to be a little (a lot) on the sketchy side. Usually, I'm definitely down for going to those places when I'm with Peruvians but this time, I thought to myself: "What am I doing here? I am going to be the onnnnnly gringa in the whole place." And in the section we sat in, I'm pretty sure I was. It was what you would imagine the student section would be where everyone is standing up and most of the people are young and rambunctious.... Except here, everybody tends to be a little more... a little less affluent than the nice white kids you find at Madison football games. And I'm pretty sure the vast majority aren't in college.
But you know what? Nobody, nobody, nobody said a thing to me. Nobody did anything. Because I was with a Peruvian obviously, but it's crazy because when I'm by myself, even in the fancy smancy places like miraflores, guys are always making stupid-ass comments and whistling at me.
Well anyways, the game was great! I got to sing really fun, vulgar songs hating on the other team. And cheer and eat peanuts and stuff. And I got to marvel at the 14,000 officers from the national police force that showed up to take part in the festivities. Yep. 14,500, to be more precise. They decided to come hang out with their riot gear, horses, ak-47s, cars, and tanks because the violence during games like this in the past has been a little out of hand. There were police EVERYWHERE. and they were serious. They did not take any shit from anyone. But everybody was safe and sound at the end of the day- even the gringas! And you know who won? La Uuuuuuuu!
Afterwards me and Coco and his two friends went to Barranco where we bought some rum and coke and had a celebratory drink or 3. And, since you cant really officially drink in public in Barranco, every time the serenazgo (local police of the district) walked past, one of the guys hid the bottle of rum under is jacket. But on 5th time he walked past, he asked to try a sip of our drinks, and when we were found out, one of our friends pulled out the bottle of rum and invited the officer to a celebratory drink for the victory of La U! And I was like "Ok, let's go." And so we left. And that was it. And then I went home. Safe and happy and a real soccer fan.

2.
The day before that, my friend Mathias (who goes to Madison and just finished studying in Chile) stopped by Lima for about 22 hours. It was great! Me and my friend Nina took him all around Lima to everything authentically Peruvian: drink beers while walking around in public, drink Pisco sours in this fancy smancy hotel, ride the combi a WHOLE bunch, eat chifa (Peru's standardized menu of chinese food available everywhere and anywhere), go to Trapiche and drink super strong fruity drinks from the jungle, and dance to cumbia and salsa and reggaeton, and that's it. The next morning, we ate Chicharron (which is some sort of pork product, the social equivalent of what Bacon is for Americans). And then we said goodbye.
One additional fun fact about that story goes like this:
While we were buying Peru's sweetest, most delicious dark beers in a corner store, I ran into a Peruvian that I had met a week back at a Capoeira workshop. The thing is, this Peruvian was only there at the workshop to accompany a blonde, very gringa looking girl (who was actually from Denmark). Well, at that workshop, when I saw him, the first thing I thought was: "Man!That is a brichero if I have ever seen one!" And at the end of the workshop when I struck up a little conversation with the dude, he was like, "So, why don't you give me your number?" And I was like.... "Uhhh.... no."
Anyways, so here we are at the corner store, a week later, and I see this dude and I think to myself, "Oh man! I can't believe I ran into this guy again." And we were talking and he was like, "I'll be down there selling my artesania... you an your friends should come and talk to me." And I agreed and then we parted ways. Well, we went down there (by the ocean, at like 10pm) and I didn't see him.
But we (me mathias and Nina) stopped on a bridge to drink our beers. Little did I know that at the very second the guy from the corner store would approach us, a big band of 20 teenagers were going to come walking by us gringos without any warning. And so, the moral of the story is, this Brichero that I had met a week earlier, that I ran into at a corner store, effectively saved our asses from getting into quite a messy situation in which we would have been f-ed. He was a Peruvian, brichero angel, probably sent from Maria, madre de Dios, que siempre me acompana.

My semester's over. I'm getting my act together. and I leave for Brazil in 10 days. Things are good. And I feel fine. And the next soccer game of the championship is this Sunday.... Dale U!!!