I chilled in the area for a little bit since it was nice,
sitting down to finish The Maze Runner.
I have to say, it was a fantastic book. The twists and turns and the action
were all on point, and I was captivated by the story the whole time. I fell in
love with Thomas, Minho, and Newt, and I loved the mystery and intrigue
surrounding what is real and what isn’t. The story really kept me on my toes,
and I can’t believe I made it through 101,000+ words in such a short time, but
it speaks to the story Daschner created in the trilogy. My little brother said
the first book was the best, but I hope he’s wrong on the others.
Anyway, I got up after a while to look for the Scientific
Museum that was supposedly right around there, but didn’t find anything. I
eventually saw a sign that indicted hours for the museum on Monday-Saturday,
and my guess is that it was closed on Sundays. I might try again tomorrow,
seeing as I need to go back to the city to withdraw money. I haven’t been able
to get enough since I spent so much on Machu Picchu and my balance in that
particular account has been low, but I might just give in to having to use my
card that makes me pay a fee just so I have money to use.
After that, I walked to the Regional Museum instead. I knew I was running out of money (I have the equivalent of just under $10 in cash right now), so I didn't call a taxi. Funny thing to note: the taxis here are little smart-car sized things without doors on one side. You climb into that side and tell the driver where you want to go, and I swear at least half the cars on the road are taxis. Funny enough, many of them are full all the time.
On my way there, I walked through several streets. On my map, it indicated that the streets I was using were big , main streets, but they were almost completely void of people and cars. It really highlighted for me the difference between the smaller town of Ica and the big city of Lima. One thing that made me mad was that a girl, maybe about 14 or so, was with some friends and turned back to look at me, saying "Chino" several times. It was quite obvious she was talking to me, and what I hate most is not being able to tell if the term is derogatory or not. I don't like to be called out in general, but to be identified by my race only makes me a little irrationally mad, like she thought she could talk bad about me behind my back because I am Chinese and can't understand her. But whatever, it's all part of the experience, I guess.
I got to the Regional Museum, which was 4 soles (about $1.25) for students. It had two sections, one with archaeological artifacts like bowls, spears, and cloths; and another section of "bio anthropology". The second was basically a bunch of human remains and an analysis of some of them, which was disgusting but oddly fascinating at the same time. I didn't take any pictures of the mummified people because it was creepy, but the first section held some beautiful stuff:
The latter two pictures are of the Nazca lines, which are these huge (100 km across) structures of lines in the sand from the Nazca people. I'm going to see them on Tuesday, and it was cool to get a visual in pictures beforehand.
After I left the Regional Museum, I decided that it was okay that I would have to pay an ATM fee to withdraw money because I can't live without cash for another couple days, or however long it takes for the money to clear. I walked for something like an hour looking for an ATM, but couldn't find anything along the way. Finally, I made it without two blocks of the Plaza de Armas where the I actually could find one. The road there was basically the suburbs, with almost no people, lots of houses, no cars, and lots of sand since we're in a desert area. It was, again, a stark contrast to what I had seen in Lima and its suburbs. Unfortunately for me, when I finally got to the ATM, I found that I had left my other debit card at home. Lol me. I bought a bag of popcorn and hailed a taxi home. I guess it could have been worse, but it's hard to think how, really.
When I got back to Huacachina, I went up the sand dune again, reading a little more. When it started getting cold, I headed back to the hostel and decided to pull up The Maze Runner movie. In general, I have to say that I'm conflicted. I loved the book. I felt like I was inside Thomas' head, and he was a complex character surrounded by a complex situation.
To be honest, it was the first book-turned-movie that I had seen, and I finally see how much is lost when words become pictures. Dylan O'Brien always has my heart, but I missed being able to really be Thomas, instead of watching him on-screen. I was sad that so many parts of the book - his mysterious relationship with Theresa, Minho's badassery and all his adventures with Thomas, Alby's leadership mixed with complexity and bravery, Newt's steady leadership, Gally's hatred of Thomas that ran so deep in the book, Chuck's pestering personality that wears Thomas down, Thomas' utter confusion about his role in creating the Maze - were lost. In a way, it makes sense - it took me maybe 5 hours to read the book and less than 2 to watch the movie, so things are going to be lost. I just didn't realize how much. If I had watched the movie all on its own, I'm sure it would have been great, but compared to the book, even everyone's lovely faces weren't enough to make everything match up. Oh well, I still love Dylan and Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter and Ki Hong Lee. The one thing I really did like was that they had Minho throw the spear at Gally when he tried to shoot Thomas, though.
On my way there, I walked through several streets. On my map, it indicated that the streets I was using were big , main streets, but they were almost completely void of people and cars. It really highlighted for me the difference between the smaller town of Ica and the big city of Lima. One thing that made me mad was that a girl, maybe about 14 or so, was with some friends and turned back to look at me, saying "Chino" several times. It was quite obvious she was talking to me, and what I hate most is not being able to tell if the term is derogatory or not. I don't like to be called out in general, but to be identified by my race only makes me a little irrationally mad, like she thought she could talk bad about me behind my back because I am Chinese and can't understand her. But whatever, it's all part of the experience, I guess.
I got to the Regional Museum, which was 4 soles (about $1.25) for students. It had two sections, one with archaeological artifacts like bowls, spears, and cloths; and another section of "bio anthropology". The second was basically a bunch of human remains and an analysis of some of them, which was disgusting but oddly fascinating at the same time. I didn't take any pictures of the mummified people because it was creepy, but the first section held some beautiful stuff:
The latter two pictures are of the Nazca lines, which are these huge (100 km across) structures of lines in the sand from the Nazca people. I'm going to see them on Tuesday, and it was cool to get a visual in pictures beforehand.
After I left the Regional Museum, I decided that it was okay that I would have to pay an ATM fee to withdraw money because I can't live without cash for another couple days, or however long it takes for the money to clear. I walked for something like an hour looking for an ATM, but couldn't find anything along the way. Finally, I made it without two blocks of the Plaza de Armas where the I actually could find one. The road there was basically the suburbs, with almost no people, lots of houses, no cars, and lots of sand since we're in a desert area. It was, again, a stark contrast to what I had seen in Lima and its suburbs. Unfortunately for me, when I finally got to the ATM, I found that I had left my other debit card at home. Lol me. I bought a bag of popcorn and hailed a taxi home. I guess it could have been worse, but it's hard to think how, really.
When I got back to Huacachina, I went up the sand dune again, reading a little more. When it started getting cold, I headed back to the hostel and decided to pull up The Maze Runner movie. In general, I have to say that I'm conflicted. I loved the book. I felt like I was inside Thomas' head, and he was a complex character surrounded by a complex situation.
To be honest, it was the first book-turned-movie that I had seen, and I finally see how much is lost when words become pictures. Dylan O'Brien always has my heart, but I missed being able to really be Thomas, instead of watching him on-screen. I was sad that so many parts of the book - his mysterious relationship with Theresa, Minho's badassery and all his adventures with Thomas, Alby's leadership mixed with complexity and bravery, Newt's steady leadership, Gally's hatred of Thomas that ran so deep in the book, Chuck's pestering personality that wears Thomas down, Thomas' utter confusion about his role in creating the Maze - were lost. In a way, it makes sense - it took me maybe 5 hours to read the book and less than 2 to watch the movie, so things are going to be lost. I just didn't realize how much. If I had watched the movie all on its own, I'm sure it would have been great, but compared to the book, even everyone's lovely faces weren't enough to make everything match up. Oh well, I still love Dylan and Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter and Ki Hong Lee. The one thing I really did like was that they had Minho throw the spear at Gally when he tried to shoot Thomas, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment