Start of school in Peru

Hola todos!

I imagine most of you are enjoying your spring break in various parts of the world. I decided to save some money and stay at home in Lima. We don't travel a whole lot yet. I mean...ok, unless you count wandering around La Punta, Jesus Maria, Barranco, Larcomar, Miraflores, and various other provinces in Lima as traveling then, yes, we travel a bit. Not to mention the trips we are planning throughout the semester. No class on Fridays means long weekends to see Sudamerica!

Basically, I am having a great time here and I'm incredibly lucky because my family is about as helpful and fun as a host family can be. My host mom, much like my real mom, is very direct and open about everything. Our dinners last from 1.5 to 2 hours at night mainly because she loves to talk to us about anything and everything. One night, I told Laura we should try to find boyfriends here. La senora commented that we really shouldn't get boyfriends, rather "un hombre carinoso." Ya know, just a nice boy to have fun with. There are other bits of advice that she loves to impart on us which are quite crude and totally my style. I do believe each night "that's what she said jokes" could be applied in excess. LOVE dinner!

If I had to complain about anything in this town it would be the noise. When i get back to the states I'm not sure how I'll be able to fall asleep without the sound of sirens going, cars honking, saws grinding, birds squawking, and various other noises I can't even describe. Perhaps I'll create myself a cd while I'm here as a keepsake. Besides the noise, I am lucky enough to have a room in the middle of our flat with a window open to a common room. This common room is missing a part of the ceiling. I couldn't tell you why such a hole exists but it's great for tanning my face while I sleep -- we call this multitasking. So all kinds of friends come in through this gaping hole....like birds. So, one day I was just chillin with my roomies and the bird who makes a ridiculous amount of noise in the morning flew in and perched himself on my window. Don't worry, I remained calm.


And I do believe they say you eat about 13 spiders/insects in your sleep per year. Ok, well in South America I'd like to make that 13 per week. Yeah, I sleep with little ants and I'm sure other things I don't want to know about. Yeah, cockroaches roam the sidewalks. NOT A BIG DEAL.

Today is, in fact, the first day of school which means that the rating on my happiness scale goes down about 10 points. We had orientation last week in which we attended a presentation title "Surviving in Lima." I'd like to make a quick suggestion that they change that title because it didn't really sum up the meeting as well as "Watch out, you gonna die in Lima" or "Bienvenidos a Lima, hopefully you'll be one of the lucky ones we can say goodbye to in the end:):)" Yeah, those smiley faces really add something. Nothing like scaring someone shitless to help them understand a concept. And so, feeling just like I did freshman year of college, I shall embark on my first day of school. Wish me luck!



Just a random Penguin at orientation....