Arrival!

It's only been 2 days since my arrival and I feel like I've already done so much! Here's a quick run down:


Saturday night (after a 26 hour total travel that I don't want to talk about) we got picked up from the airport by a taxi driver named Raul and he took us to "La Escuela" where we're living. We got lost a few times but he eventually found our street - La Calle Maria. I will post a mailing address soon! A sweet woman named Margarita greeted us and gave us our keys - she is kind of like the "mom" of the house who cooks for us and looks out for us. I was sooo tired but after the best shower of my whole life I went back downstairs and Margarita made us tea and some tortilla with potatoes. She talks really fast and I am not the best at understanding Spanish when I'm so tired! I went to sleep in my room - which has a twin sized bed, a desk, a dresser, and my own bathroom with a really big shower! I'll post pictures soon. The view out of my window is a park across the street with funny zig-zag looking branched trees and also pre-historic Incan ruins! 


Sunday (yesterday) - I woke up early and met a bunch of people who live in the house: Ina, from Norway, who has a Peruvian boyfriend named Adrian... Laurie, a really nice girl from Belgium... Paul, a guy who works in Peru but he's from France... and Tomoyo, a girl from Japan. It's so fun to hear all of these different Spanish dialects! Adrian took all of us (plus Drew and Margarita) to a nice restaurant where I had a tomalito, a sort of corn-ish thing that I can't really describe. But it was good! Then we walked around town a little more, got a glimpse of my university (looks super nice!) and headed back to Kusi Wasi. Oh, PS I learned that Kusi Wasi means "happy house" in Quechua, a language spoken by very ancient Peruvians. Margarita, Drew, Laurie, and I went to a market just a few blocks from the dorm to get some food and toilet paper (it wasn't provided in our bathrooms, so weird). I got some rice and strange spaghetti sauce in small bags and some fruit!! Including grenadillas, these amazing little orange things that I ate all the time in Ecuador and haven't had since. 
Later in the day Margarita made us pisco sours, the signature drink of Peru. (Grams, yes I consumed alcohol, sorry! It's legal!) They were super good! It's kind of like brandy but mixed with the juice from a whole pound of limes (yes we squeezed that many limes) and an egg white and ice. After hanging out at the house for a while we all piled in taxis and went to Miraflores, a really nice "neighborhood" for Arabian food. I had antecuchos de pollo, which are basically chicken shishkabobs, Arabian style. Yum! When we drove to Miraflores we took the route right by the ocean and it was soo pretty even though it was dark. The waves were so huge! I was very very tired when we got home and starting to get impatient with all of the Spanish so I went to sleep early and slept for a long time.


Today a few os us are going to a soccer game (futbol) at the university to watch Guillermo and Michael, some of Margarita's friends, play their championship game. We met them last night and they were very nice and know a lot of English - although I'm trying to speak as little as possible! I spoke more Spanish yesterday than I probably have in an entire semester of Spanish class. Anyways, after the futbol game we're going to Miraflores to check it out during the daytime. I'm also buying a cellphone today to make local calls so I can keep in touch/coordinate with friends I meet down here, including the other Sconnies that are staying in a different dorm or with host families. 


Overall I love it. I was a little weary at first when we came on Saturday night and I was exhausted and just wanted to be home but I told myself to just stick it out and here I am! Yesterday was soo fun and I really like everyone who lives here and Margarita and the city and culture and just everything. Except for my terrible sunburn from being outside for about 25 minutes yesterday.... 


More later! With pictures! Ciao!