cuzqueñas negras

I had my first ever at the Sofa Bar in Chivay, in Arequipa, and it is sweet. Maybe a little too sweet for my tastes. Nothing too complex, but I’ll take the more straight forward lager version of the Cuzqueña any day. 10 soles got us a 610ml bottle, enough for a couple of glassfuls between two people.

As for the locale, yes they had a couple of couches and a few comfy seats, but what caught our attention was the pool table that took up about 1/3rd of the space in this small bar. Luckily for us it was free. Unluckily for us the pockets were ridiculously narrow and it took us about half an hour before we hit our first shot, and about another half hour before the next two. We gave up soon after that being that we had to be up @ 5am for the remainder of the trip.

a timeline of events

Wednesday, August 16th, 2007

10:03 p.m. *phone rings*

me: Hello?

mom: Have you seen the news yet?

nope. What’s going?

There was a big earthquake in Lima!

Ow! Have you heard from anyone yet?

No, not at all. But it’s on the news right now. It seems really bad. M*** got a call from Lima and then she called to let me know.

Alright, I’ll call my cousin and see if he’s heard anything.

O.K. tell him to call me later.

‘k. Bye.

10:05 p.m. *dials North Carolina*

cousin: PRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEMO!!!

me: B***, hey, have you been watching to the news tonight?

No.

There was an earthquake in Lima. I don’t know the details, but it sounds like it’s bad.

An earthquake?

Yeah, my mom called me up with the news just now.

Wow. I’m gonna call my mom right away. Thanks cousin.

No worries cous. Give tia my regards and give my mom a call afterwards.

Alright. Thanks again.

Don’t mention it. Take care.

Chao primo.

10:08 p.m. *dials Arkansas*

dad: Hola R!!!!

me: pa, did you hear about Lima?

No. What happened?

There was an earthquake.

Have you gotten in touch with anyone?

No, I just found out.

And your cousin?

I’ve just called him. I told him to call us back if he hears anything.

O.K. Good. Alright, I’m going to call Lima. Thanks for letting me know, I don’t even have the cable running yet. I’ll talk to you later.

‘k pa, chao.

Bueno, bye.

jimmy kimmel *hearts* laura bozo

I could easily file this under things that are supposed to be funny, but aren’t, but I’m actually ecstatic that it would go under the radar, but seriously, Mexico is not the only country south of the U.S.

Jimmy Kimmel is an alright guy. He’s actually very funny at times. I spent my share of time watching the Man Show during college, and think his late night talk show is a bit underrated (particularly when it comes to music guests) not to mention, bits like George Takei’s reply to Tim Hardaway’s homophobic rant are just hilarity personified.

I was watching Kimmel tonight, when he introduced a segment he referred to as one of his favorite recurring new series. It was called “Que Pasa Con Laura,” and it was set to mariachi music. And here is where the problem begins.

The Laura in his “Que Pasa Con Laura” segment is none other than Peru’s infamous talk show hostess, Laura Bozo, the-self-anointed-savior-of-the-destitute-Oprah-Winfrey wanna-be-but-more-Jerry-Springeresque-unscrupulous exploiter-of-the-poor-eye-sore-of-spanish-language-television and-thorn-on-the-side-of-fellow-peruvians. I can’t stomach that woman. Every time I see her face on television, I throw up in my mouth a little bit.

It’s a horrible feeling to have random people misidentify your country of origin as a whole because of such trash. Horrible because this woman does such a disservice to the community she lives in and gets away with it (laughing all the way to the bank), and horrible because it says a lot about random people’s mental capacity when they make these ground-braking connections based on such asinine observations.

I also find it irritating when spanish speaking people are referred to, or identified, as Mexicans by the Caucasian populace.

I suppose I’d find it funnier if it didn’t actually happen so frequently. Yup, frequency tends to kill the laugh factor. But in the end, I guess it’s all jokes, right?

Hmm… in this case, I think couldn’t care less. So Jimmy, feel free to keep on playing that mariachi music along with Laura’s clips… if my fellow Mexicans don’t mind, that is.