Lima Lima Lima!!!

Holaaa Chicas!
I hope everyone is well and they've had a relaxing bank holiday weekend! Apart from those who went to Notting Hill Carnival I bet you all had a mad one and as I have heard my prayers were not answered and it did not piss down with rain as I had wanted it too seeing as though i was not able to go LOL. Im sorry guys but if i had said to you "have a good time at carnival" I would have most definitley been lying.

Anyways enough about you guys *gosh that whole paragraph about you*, this blog is called "Tanya In Peru" so I will give you guys what you want. An update as to what I have been doing these past few days.

From what I remember I left off telling you that the peru girlys and I were about to embark on a bus tour around Lima. For future volunteers let me warn you that this bus tour is unlike any other you may go on, it's not like london with landmarks such as big ben or the london eye and definitley not like Paris with the Eiffel Tower. The Peruvian Lima Bus tour consisted of a few hours of just nothingness, on a really windy windy bus. Saying that though the tour was a lot more fun seeing as though myself, claire, saskia, Izzy and Allie went to lunch prior to the bus tour and had our first proper peruvian meal, Cebviche along with a cold glass of Pisco Sour!


CEBVICHE I LOVEEE ITTT!!!

Oh yes pisco sour, I can already tell you Im going to have a lot of run ins with this drink and for those that think you are "hard core" in London with your Strongbow or vodka and coke, those are definatly POOF drinks compared to pisco sour. I can put my hand on my heart and say that after our complimentry two free glasses for being Gringas of course It had gone to all of our heads *minus allie who decided it was not her cup of tea*. Anyhoooooooo back to the bus tour. The tour really showed me the impatience of peruvians, I mean its quite ironic considering they generally have a manana manana attitude. We were stuck in traffic for what seemed like forever, all peruvian drivers had a death wish and were extrememly vocal with their beeping. Even now in my hostel room all I can hear is an array of beeps and honks from these impatient people LOL. One part of the tour I did like though was going to the cathedral, it was really beautiful and it happened to be that on that day was some sort of festival/celebration where people were lining up for literally hours to lay flowers in the cathedral as thanks to some sort of saint *which i will find out for you*, say their prayers and speak over their queries/problems with the priest. I found it kind of overwhelming being in the church, I haven't been to one since I was about 11 so yh, I think It will be something I'll like to do when i get to the project. Attend a few masses here and there.

After the bus tour the majority of the girls came back to the hostel as we were all completely KNACKERED after only around 2-3 hours sleep due to our jet lag. We all had a little nap and then got ourselves ready to go off for dinner. So let me set the scene for you, a group of 14 Gringas *for those that don't know what a gringa is its a term peruvians call white people, the context its used in generally determines how whether its used complimentary or as an insult, and for those thinking "Hey tanya, your not a gringa" Well I still fall under this catergory as Im a westerner even though they are all certain Im Brazillian* walking down a road of resteraunts. When i say you could say we were like a big poo and the waiters of the resteraunts were flys. They ATTACKD us in a SWARM.

"Come here We give you 1 free drink"
"No wait come here, we give you 2 free drinks"
"Okay no, we give you 3 free drinks"
"Ladies Ladies, We give you free drinks ALL night"

And with that we were soldddd! Headed off to the resteraunt. Instead of getting Peruvian cuisine we all opted for pizza which was highly recommended by the fat pervy canadians sitting accross the resteraunt. The pizza was immensely LARGE! And so delicious. After getting our first free pisco sour we had then asked for another round, only to be told by the angry manager in fast fast spanish " No only one you cannot get more blah blah blah blah blah" to which I just replyed "NO ENTIENDO" as yet again they assumed I could speak fluent spanish as the brown one of the group loool. So after speaking to the waiter he had said he got in trouble by the manager for promising us free drinks all night and that we wouldnt be getting them. Seeing as though we had already eaten our food we were tied to the resteraunt. At that moment i felt like a complete and utter MUG LOL!

After the meal we went back to the hostel and went to the bar. We had a night full of pisco sours, sex on the bar *the drink guys, We're not that bad LOL* and darts and pool. After we were all slightly tipsy we got taken to the club by the owners of the hostel, the first club we headed to was full with peruvians who all seemed to look slightly chinese. The music was actually quite good and they played a lot of old school english songs along with reggaeton and salsa. Suprisingly in this club they were quite mad on drum and bass and remixed every song into a drum n bass mix. As we were all getting into the salsa after being taught by these peruvian men the power suddenly cut. As it was our first experiance of a peruvian club I was thinking "is this the custom?" But alas no it was just a power cut LOL only in a peruvian club. So after this we headed to the salsa bar, this however was completely jam packed with seedy old men and as we were knackered we decided to head back to the hostel for some well earned sleep.

The first night

The sunday we slept in till late and myself, claire and saskiiiiii went off to a resteraunt underneath the hostel and had the most immense meal EVERRRRR!! We originally was going just for ice cream however after seeing the menu ended up having a 3 course meal for 21 soles which is the equivilent of around £5.25p! A F*CKIN BARGAIN! It was actually sooooooooooo nice the food, i could eat it all the time, which is why im doubting my original thoughts that i would lose weight over this gap year and they have been thrown out the window LOL!

After lunch we came back to the hostel yet again for some more rest, sorted out my suitcase and headed off to the beach with all the girls. However by saying beach it wasn't really a sandy beach, more like rocks, rocks and more rocks. It was really nice though and it just showed Limas mad Surfing culture. Got a nice show by the surfer dudes, and got to see a lot of tight asses in the wet suits looool. My idea of fun ;)

Yet again me and my eating buddies saskia and claire headed off to the same resteraunt we went to for lunch and yet again had an immense dinner. I had the tastiest of chicken called "supremo pollo" and the way it was fried was just sooooooo tasty! All the girls decided that rather then going out to the bar to drink we would just go to the supermarket and get a couple bottles. A couple bottles of Kiev Vodka and some strawberry Daquiri *Which the scots laughed at and called poof juice*, lots of card games and drinking games later. We were all well truley "Wankered" to put it frankly looool. We all then headed off to the karaoke bar and belted out hits along the lines of Titanic, Hit me baby one more time and my personal favourite "Shaggy, It Wasn;t me" LOOOOL, To which the peruvians found hilarious and called us all legends. After screaming our hearts out and straining our voices we ran off to find another club and ended up at this "Disco-Tech" and danced the night away. The music was purely reggaeton and had lots of reggaeton remixs of english/american songs. Once again we got a lot of attention from peruvian men but contrary to what project trust told us it wasn't really all this Machismo attitude where the men were trying to touch every crevice of our body they were just cheekily dancing. Apart from this one seedy man who the security guard kept escorting out of the building however he kept coming back inside in different clothes LOL. So funny!! The night ended with us dancing away back to the hostel and into our beds.


Drinking Game-- The Lethal Cupgame


Us and the chinese Peruvian in the rave


Ravin it upppp



We had an early start monday morning *which happened to be a bank holiday* where we met up with our Peru Rep Maria Pia and her friend/co worker Ruth from the british embassy. We had like a talk about all our projects, got our plane tickets and stuff. It was funny hearing her opinion on some of the directors of the orphanages. She said one of the directors from Puira was referred to as the "Dragon Lady" and another from Arequipa was just the "bitch". LOL I felt so sorry for the girls at those orphanages as with your first thoughts of your director being bitch, i would not be looking forward to it too much to be honest. As mine and Rachels project is newly set up Maria says she doesn;t have much experiance with out director. However she did say that through her phone conversations with him, he is a lovely guy and was really ecstatic and enthusiastic about Rachel and I's arrival. Which was music to my ears as I've been feeling fairly anxious about going.

After all the officialness of everything we went to a MASSIVE shopping mall in Lima and we all got our peruvian simcards. So guys you heard it here, I now don't have a UK number and to be honest you might as well just delete my UK number as It will become non existant in a matter of days as my dad cancels my contract. We also got a bite to eat, me and some of the girls got chinese which was different as this was more fast food then a resteraunt in terms of the way they served it. After eating we headed back to the hostel where I slept for a bit and we all then packed our stuff and went off to eat in a REALLY nice brazillian resteraunt.

Im currently sititng in the airport, Its tuesday morning around 6am. Im back where I started in the exact same spot I was stuck at for hours on the friday/saturday. Fun? Well meh... I look like a complete dude right now in my du-rag *I had no time to do my hair*, trackies and my polo top. Lesbian Much? LOL! But who cares Im comfy so no one can chat Sh*t cause as you should all know by now Im BOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSYYYY!!! HAHA! Im so full of myself aren't I! Now im just babbling, which is what I tend to do quite a lot.

Back to the point. So as Im sitting here in the airport I feel sooooo many different emotions its crazy. Im nervous, but good nervous, Im slightly scared and slightly worried about what its all going to be like. Theres like a million and one different thoughts pinging across my cranium....
"Will they like me"
"Will the kids take the piss out of my lack of spanish and think im retarded"
"Will I be forced to drink cows milk and forever be on the toilet?" *For those that dont know Im lactose intolerent*
"How will the altitude sickness affect me?"
blahh blahh blahh blahh blahh
the list is seriously endless

Right so before I go I need to leave you with my details

My Address is :
Tanya Compas
Azul Wasi
Chinicara, Basa Distrito De Oropesa- Cuzco

And my Peruvian number is
997629677
I dno what the peruvian area code is but hey you can work that out lads LOL

I dnt know when/how often I will have internet from now on but I will try and update my blog as much as possible however Im not sure whether they will all be in this much detail LOL.

For those thinking " I've donated for her to go on holiday & Get drunk". No. Your wrong. Yes these past few days have felt like a holiday but too be fair when you put a group of 17-18 year old girls together in a foreign country you are bound to get up to all sorts of things. Yet as I am sitting here I have waved goodbye to over half who have all already boarded their flights to their destinations all across Peru! It still hasn't set in yet that Im staying away from you guys for a whole year and i doubt it will for a while. All I can do is promise to you guys that I WILL put all my effort into making this a life changing year and all you can do is take my word for it. Because to be honest Im here now and there's no refunds LOL! But in all seriousness please keep up to date with my blog. It will start becoming a lot more real to the both of us when you can see what I'm going to be going through. Yes i will probably moan a lot, make inappropriate jokes and swear making this blog unsuitable for young children. But that's just me, this is my blog and its about the Simply Compas take over of Peru!!

Adios Amigos!
Keep it locked :)
Simply Signed,
Simply Compas xxxxxx

Take care, Adios

Simply Signed,
Simply Compas xxxx

First Day In Peru!

I just want to being with saying THANK YOU MILLIONS to everyone who donated and helped me to get here. It means so much to me and I promise to do you all proud.

I'm going to start the day with the things you guys would want to hear, the day started with me getting showered washed and ready, I made my way to Heathrow airport, boarded my plane to miami, done a bit of shopping in the paradise that is Miami, boarded the flight to Peru and landed in record time. As we stepped off the plane in Peru we were met with a searing sun that screamed a year filled with joy, excitement and hope.

Funnily enough that's not only what you wanted to hear, but its what I wanted to happen. However as you should all know by now, no day in the life of SIMPLY COMPAS is ever simple lol. So the night before I was due to depart I spent the day with my girls Wendy, Eva & Cleo and the night with a certain Sir lol so didnt do the smart thing and check my luggage and how much it weighed. So with around 3 hours of sleep under my belt I woke up had a shower and got on the phone to Alex who was pouring out her heart to me as she obviously can't handle a year without me loool! *Sorry Alex* haha but then i was forced to get off the phone to my dad as he said I have to weigh the bag because it's so heavy even he can't lift it. Not a good sign. So we weighed it and it was over 30kg!!! EEEEEEEEEEEK. The luggage had to be 20kg max so I went into a serious uproar, tearing clothes and toiletries from my bag to lighten the load. So in a huff and puff I did it and was moody as F*ck. So I waved goodbye to the house, hugged the cats and the dog and left with my room still in a state. Got in the car and was half way down the M25 when i shouted out SHITTTT. I had forgotten the 2 things that probably meant the most to me. My massive purple headphones and my ipod. My frickin ipod i spent ages putting music on. We was already late as it is so couldn't turn back so I had to accept the fact I wasn't going to have an ipod which was not something I was willing to accept. We then got in traffic but luckily arrived in time to the airport. After a tearful goodbye *Not from my side may I add* I headed off through security and into the airport. I called some of the other girls who said they were in the airport and we were frantically searching for one another. It got to the point where I was like F*ck this i can't find them so i headed off to the gate. I waited till 5 mins before the check-in closed and called them. They said they were at Gate 34 and the plane was at 9.55am. Confusion literally rushed through my head and my heart started pounding. I was at Gate 46 and my plane left at 9.40am. Was I on the right flight? What was going on? So I ran around not knowing what to do and Amy asked
"Tanya what terminal are you at"
"Terminal 5"
"Well we're at terminal 3"
A rush of relief rushed through my brain, we were on different flights so i then had to run back to the gate where the woman proclaimed "I knew you would be back". I got on the flight and it went very smoothly. Good movies, I watched Avatar and Shutters island *Which messed with my head a lot*, good food and excellent free wine LOL. You see, even when I'm by myself theres always a party when Tanya's involved. So anyhoo as I was enjoying the wine there was terrible turbulance. I mean TERRIBLE. The plane was shaking, half my wine poured over my cous cous *which didnt taste too bad to be honest* and the isles were shaking like mad. All stabled though after the pilot flew at a lower altitude and the rest of the flight was fine albeit lonely but fine all the same. When the plane landed in Miami all i wanted to do was scream

"I'M IN MIAMI BITCH"

But realised I was by myself and people would think i'm too weird loool. But as i was thinking this I looked to my right and saw my partner rachel, I shouted to her and we united for the rest of the journey. Both relieved we had found on another as It is slightly daunting being by yourself on such a long journey. We got a nice burger king with a FAT burger and FAT chips surrounded by FAT americans looool im kidding guys, well not really. Anyhoo we then went too look for an electronics store as I was desperate to buy an ipod but alas they never had one, well they did but they only sold it with $260 headphones. So i thought sod off and we made our way to the gate. With only 15 minutes left till the plane boarded we made it and got on the flight to Peru. Once again noticing the other girls were no where to be seen. Yet again I had a flight with no seats next to me and so could stretch out completley and watch films on my laptop. This plane journey ran very smoothly except for the fact that all the peruvians and anyone else spanish on the flight thought I was Peruvian or Brazillian and were trying to speak to me in spanish and wouldn't give me a visitor form to go through customs with LOL. The fact that my spanish is very limited and my portugese is non existant made it a funny flight and hand signals were a neccesity.
Around 9.45pm peruvian time we had landed, me and rachel got our stuff, went through security and waited in the airport for the rep Maria who was meant to meet us. After waiting about an hour we realised no one was here. So we got a bit worried. We realised there was another flight from Miami arriving around 11.45pm so we assume the other girls would be on that flight and so waited in the arrivals lounge. 11.45pm came and we sat with baited breath with arms open waiting to greet the other girls. Yet again they were not there. We waited and waited and waited thinking *maybe they got caught up in customs?*. 1am came and we decided to call Maria, not only was she not there but neither was anyone else. Rachel and I felt we had been thrown in the deep end and had no one to save us! Well we spoke to maria who said that the other girls had missed their connection flight to Lima from Miami and she thought we were with them! Like Rachel and I she was unaware that all us girls weren't on the same flight. *Round of applause for project Trust, Great means of communication* LOL. So she said that she could come and get us now or we could wait for the other girls. It was already 1am and the girls were coming in at 4.30am so we decided to just wait. So we headed upstairs and me and rachel crashed on the floor outside an internet cafe. Rachel was smart enought to bring a sleeping bag and so crashed in that, me on the other hand just rolled up my jackets for a pillow and put on South Park on my laptop it was not long till I was awoken by a rush of coldddddddddd. I was freezing and this was around 2.30am so I put on my jackets and walked off to warm up. I saw a McDonalds and decided to get a meal, 10 chicken nuggets, drink and chips for the equivelant of £3! Score. And they gave me salsa for my nuggets lol yummy. I ate that and nodded off for a bit. Awoken yet again by the cold I just read and then before I knew it, it was 4am and so decided to wake rachel up.

We got up and headed off to Starbucks *yes like you i was suprised by how many chain stores peru had* and I made full use of their free internet and went on skype. I saw my auntie tina was online and decided to call, it was answered by my 2 little cousins who amazingly knew how to work it and they were jumping up and down on the screen in their football kits and ran to go get my auntie who then ran to get my uncle LOL. After that I spoke to my mum n dad on skype and my mum being the big softie that she is burst into tears on screen which made me laugh. 4.30am came and I had to say goodbye to everyone and went to go and meet the girls.

After waiting around 45 minutes they arrived and I have never been so relieved I'm telling you!!! I ran to greet them and then we turned around and there was Maria and Ruth. They were really lovely and suprisingly young. We all got into a nice shuttle which took us to a hostel which is where I am now writing this. Its currently around 8am here and I just can't sleep. Lunch is at 12pm which i'm looking forward to as considering I've eaten plane food, burger king and mcdonalds all in the span of 1 day I am suprisingly hungry lol.

Anyways off to sleep for me, Gonna catch a few hours nap and then we have a bus tour at 2.30pm so I'll let you know how that is in my next update.

Cheers big ears
Simply Signed, Simply Compas xxxxxxxxx

P.S: Wendy I Still miss you LOL ;)

2 Days and 7 Hours to go .. EEEEEEKKKKKK

Hi Everyone!
Don't know how many of you actually read this right now but meh who cares I enjoy talking to myself loool....
Well a lot has happened since I posted my last blog, from the 12th - 16th July I went back to Coll for training, and to say that training was eventful is a huge understatement. It was jam packed with lecture after lecture, lesson after lesson, discussion after discussion, group work after group work all to prepare us for our gap years. At my training we were joined by all the Peru girls, the 3 Bolivians (who flew out on the 28th July) and the massive group of people going china. Everyone i met was amazinggggg, the Peru girls are a lot of fun and I can tell there's a lot of good times ahead.
However at one point of training I think after around 3 days, me n my partner rachel got told BAD news.. our project fell through and . pulled out apparently due to having too many volunteers. So this left me and rachel in a predicament, at that point we had NO PROJECT.. and so project trust had started to look for a new project to send us to. At the beginning we were told the likely hood of finding another project in not only peru but south america in general is practically ZERO and they suggested Malawi. At first after i heard about the projects in Malawi i was actually quite excited, the projects sounded really good. However after a nights sleep i started having doubts, would i be able to spend a year there? In general Africa and travelling africa especially the surrounding countries of Malawi didn't interest me and after seeing pictures of Malawi whilst it looked beautiful it just didnt seem somewhere i could spend a year and so I voiced my opinions to the directors of Project Trust. With that they just said we're going to have to wait and see and 2 days later me and Rachel were given the best news ever that they have found us a project in PERU WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

So I guess you'll be wanting some info on my new project right? Well this time its just outside Cusco, near one of the 7 wonders of the world - Machu Pichu! The orphanage is home to 12 street kids, all boys from the ages 5-20 and all of whom have a bad background with lives that you wouldnt wish upon any young child. Mine and Rachels role in the orphanage is to help with basic care, the running of the orphanage, team building, playing sports, teaching english just everything to enhance their lives and put them on the right path.

Cusco is one of the biggest cities in Peru and is approximatley 3350 meters above sea level. So I'll be feeling like im high for the first couple of weeks as i get used to the altitude and stuff.

So What else has been going on in the life of tanya? Well on the 19th August I recieved my A-Level results... They werent great to say the least and meant I didn't get into my universities. However after speaking to a couple of universitys I managed to get into Essex. I was ecstatic as I was worried I'd have nothing to come back to when I came home from Peru. Yet this feeling didnt last long as I was only told that they wouldn't allow me to defer my entry till 2011. So yep right at this moment in time I have no university to go to. It just shows how much I've put on the line to go to Peru but as I always say "it is what it is, theirs no point crying about it". Whatever the future holds for me I'm sure will be great. I just have to think about what are my options for the future and what I actually want to do with my life. Enough about this stuff though, let's get back to what else has been happening in the life of Tanya.

On August 22nd I had my leavers BBQ, which was an EXTREMELY drunken night for every1 (minus the non drinkers & Drivers). I had everyone I wanted under one roof and it as so nice seeing everyone. I think it was at the BBQ when it truly kicked in that I was going as I had to say goodbye to my nan, auntie uncle and my little cousins. I can put my hand on my heart and say prior to this day I HAVE NOT shed a tear about going and those who know me know just how hard this is loool. I also had to say goodbye to alot of my friends :( which was still emotional but i'd already shed enough tears for one night LOL. But yh overall this was an IMMENSE night and morning.


Some of My girls on my leavers BBQ


Family Photo

On the Tuesday 24th, I was readily making my way to see Sister Act with my little sister and was meeting my auntie and uncle down there. So we went off to a restaurant picadilly circus for some drinks readily waiting for my auntie and uncle but they were taking AGES!!!! After me and lisa had our drinks, Lisa recieved a call from my uncle saying that we were at the wrong resteraunt and it was the one in shaftsbury avenue we was meant to go to. ARGH so long man i was incredibly hungry as well. So off we went, we went to the restaurant and got taken downstairs to be seated with my auntie and uncle. Only when i went downstairs my auntie and uncle weren't there and I was met with a room of screaming people with party poppers saying "SUPRISE", I actually kind of shit myself to be honest. I was in complete shock and didn't know what to say for a while. In this room was all my closest friends who all came out to suprise me one last (and first) time. I found out it was all organised by my besttttttttttttt friend Wendy (frankz), as we would say shes MY DARG!! Wendy put ALOT of work into this and it meant so much. I really wasnt expecting this at all and it showed what great friends I have.


Me & My Wife Wendy
*Wendy if you're reading this (Which you should be doing every moment of your life) I love you darg*



So now its Wednesday morning and Im having my last 2 full days in england. I don't actually know how I'm feeling right now if im honest. Im not an emotional person as it is so It still hasn't completely hit me that I'm leaving yet. I try not to think about it which is easier said then done if Im honest. My things are half packed, I still need to iron a couple of things but hey thats not gonna take too long. I seriously need to get all that done today so that I can have a stress free last day. We fly out on Friday morning from heathrow airport, which is good for me because its around an hours drive from my house so not too bad and also my dad works in immigration there :).

All i can say to everyone is PLEASE keep in contact with me whilst I'm out in Peru, I'll be posting up my address tomorrow for you guys, incase you want to send me letters, Presents *Wink Wink* or a lock of your hair to remember you by loooool Im kidding guys I really don't want your hair. I prefer letters and presents haha. I'd say don't forget me but that's gonna be hard for all of you as Im such an unforgettable character even if I do say so myself. Im just so immense ;).

That's all for now lads. Im tired and want to go back for a nap after drinking some hot ribena YUMMMMMMM.

Until next time,
Simply Signed
Simply Compas :) xxxxx