Fourth of July... Peru style!

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My summer is usually spent doing drum corps. This means spending every weekend outside-- rain or shine. This means an awful sunburn when it's an unconfortable 100 degrees plus humidity and an equally bad sunburn when it's partially cloudy at 80 degrees and a nice breeze. There are about 6-8 shows every summer-- including the ever-popular TCF show at the TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota. We put hours and hours every week into a 14 minute field show. Why? To prepare for DCA finals out East over Labor Day weekend. All these hours spent out in the hot sun or clod rain also mean hours of people yelling at each other because we're all so burnt out. Then again, it also means sitting together on the patio at Patrick's after rehearsal enjoying a cold beverage and talking about how awesome the show is coming along.

This is the summer that I started missing not too long ago, especially with the fourth of July yesterday. I was jealous that all the people's statuses on Facebook from the drum corps were about how they were getting for the parades, concert, and then hanging out afterwards. Despite all the negatives (sunburn and people yelling at each other), there are many things I miss about that summer. I always look forward to the fourth of July because we all get together and hang out from early in the morning to waaaay late at night. It's a day of showing the community what our organization is all about and how much fun we have while still putting together a great quality product of the arts. In addition to missing my standard fourth of July celebration, I have had a terrible craving for the "American" food that nearly everyone has on the fourth of July-- corn on the cobb, hamgburgers, and pop. However, when I woke up yesterday, little did I know that I was going to celebrate Independence Day the American way... with a bit of a Peruvian twist.

I was missing home even more yesterday morning because Daniel and his mom were asking us about what we do to celebrate the fourth of July in the US. We told them about going to a parade in the morning and how many people head out to a lake to spend the day there. While people are at the lake, there is always swimming, sometimes people waterski or go boating. And there is always, without exception, TONS of food and beverages... Especially beer. 😉 While people are eating, they usually play yard games or relax in the shade. Finally, the evening ends by watching a fireworks show for about an hour. (We told them that we eat corn on the cobb a lot in the summer because it goes so well with so many things. It's very "summery." Daniel's mom could believe it because, in Peru, the corn is very different. The individual kernals are MASSIVE and don't really have much taste. She was amazed to hear about how small the kernals of corn are and about how sweet it is. It's so funny to see her reactions!) Since Daniel is a fan of sweets, we also thought it would be a perfect time to mention that it's a tradition to make s'mores on warm summer nights. He couldn't believe such a concoction! After the descriptions of food, he was determined to make it "American Night" for dinner and dessert!

School was pretty mediocre. However, remember the scissor incident I mentioned from a few days ago? Well, I had ANOTHER one! I couldn't believe it! Two in the same week... This one happened with one of my first grade classrooms. Silly 6 year old ninos! Again, before I arrived, they had been working on an activity where they had to cut some paper and then glue the pieces into their books correctly. As I was walking around the classroom, one students took a pair of scissors and was making a cutting motion at another student and pushing the scissors toward him. O_O WHATTTT?! I couldn't believe it! She was getting exceptionallllllly close to the boy's face with the scissors. Once again, I took the scissors away and explained that it was quite a dangerous activity. (They didn't really get it, though. They're still at a very basic level.) Buh. So many scissor incidents in such a short time. Weird much?

As soon as classes finished at the language center in the evening, we immediately left for dinner... Chili's! :D I had never eaten there before, but it proved to be VERY American! It wasn't even American with a Peruvian twist. It was AMERICAN. I had a giant hamburger with french fries and Pepsi. It was like heaven on a plate. 😊)))) Mmmm. Daniel was very impressed with his fajitas. The other girls also got giant hamburgers. Then it was time to head home for s'mores! Earlier in the afternoon, we had gone to a grocery store to get the necessary items. We couldn't find graham crackers, though, so we just ended up getting some cookies. We got home and Berli was there doing homework with Danielito and Samira. We told them what we were going to do, and they were intrigued... So they joined us in roasting the marshmallows over the stove. 😊 At one point we had four people gathered over the flame. It was definitely far too big of a flame than should have been allowed in the kitchen! Jaja. Despite not having proper fire, the s'mores turned out great! Tasted perfectly wonderful even without the right kind of cracker. 😊

A giant hamburger and three s'mores later, I'm still alive. Happy Independence Day, America!

Monique

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Photos

FOOD.
What better way to celebrate the fourth than with a huge hamburger, bacon, french fries, and pop?! Mmm. I demolished that. It was so good. :)

S'mores!
Our little celebration of the fourth wouldn't have been complete without some good ol' fashioned American dessert-- s'mores! :D

Cram into the kitchen.
The kitchen at Daniel's house is very small. We all crowded around the gas stove to cook our 'mallows. :)

Time to enjoy!
After finally figuring out how to maneuver in the kitchen, we created an assembly line. Then.... it was the moment we had all been waiting for. TIME TO EAT! :D