Poco a poco

Whew!!! So, I've neglected to post for a few days and now I have tons of things to tell you!
Last Friday in the afternoon I went to a place called Larcomar to meet up with everyone from our group. Larcomar is kind of a mall, but it is outside and overlooks the ocean. Its a gorgeous view! There are all kinds of things there, from clothes stores to restaurants to discotecas! I haven't taken any pictures of that yet, but I will soon! :)
Anyways, we hung out there for a while and got some ice cream. We were all kind of feeling overwhelmed after the first day of class, so it was nice to just relax and be able to talk about all of the things we are experiencing. A lot of people are having trouble getting used to the attitudes towards food here!
First of all, the food is great. There is, of course, lots of seafood! Rice is eaten with every single meal and most of the time there is some type of potato as well. Chicken is also one of the main things to eat. So far, my favorite dish is Lomo Saltado. But I've had some other really good things too! I've been very adventurous...yesterday I tried squid!! And I also tried the national dish, ceviche, which is fish marinated in lime juice. They were both pretty good. The other day I was really surprised because I came down to breakfast and we were having grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. It was kind of bizarre to eat that at 8 in the morning! But its pretty common here, I guess.
The thing with food here is that they feed us SO MUCH of it! Its delicious but sometimes I cannot physically eat everything on my plate! Our program directors told us that giving people food is a way to show love and caring but sometimes its just way too much. I feel bad because I end up wasting quite a bit of food, but they won't let me serve myself...My host mom keeps saying that I don't eat very much and that she thinks I will get "more hungry" the longer I am here. :)

Two other things that are strange to adjust to:
1) Having a maid/housekeeper. Its very common for middle class families here to have empleadas (maids). They often live in the house with the family and a lot of times they are just considered part of the family. The empleada in our house is named Sofia. She is really really nice and I love talking to her. She has a few kids and grandkids who also live in Lima, but she is from a small town somewhere northeast of here. (At least I THINK that is right....sometimes its kind of hard to know if I've understood things correctly.) She lives on the top floor of the house and does all of the cooking and cleaning. I feel kind of guilty sometimes because I'm pretty used to doing most things for myself. At every meal I try to clear my place at the table, just out of habit, but they won't let me! She also comes and makes my bed and straightens up the things in my room every morning, which is really bizarre. I know its pretty normal here, but its something that makes me feel a little weird sometimes.
2) People being very blunt. In the US it seems like we are always trying to be politically correct and not hurt anyone's feelings. Here, people call it like it is. Which I actually really like, but sometimes it seems a little strange. The other night, my friend Bethany and I were talking to my host mom and her brother and they both kept saying that he was very fat and needed to lose weight. Both Bethany and I said that losing weight would be good but that we didn't think he was fat and that he was fine just the way he is. Afterwards, I realized how programmed I am to try not to offend anyone! Its just really interesting to see all of these differences in the way people think and behave. Its like a continuous anthropology class and I LOVE IT!

Back to the events of the weekend:
On Friday night, we went to a concert in the Plaza de Armas, which is the main square in the center of Lima. The concert was right in front of a cathedral and it was gorgeous! It was a national youth orchestra, with kids from ages 8 and up who are from all over Peru. I was so happy to see the kids who were cellists! It made me miss being able to play! (I thought it was really funny because when I do have my cello, practicing can sometimes be more like a chore, but now that I don't have it with me, I want to play so badly!!!) The orchestra was really good and it was fun to hear a few songs that I've played before in orchestra! The other part of the concert was a well-known Peruvian singer, Ruben Flores, who is the host dad of one of the students in our group. It was fun because when he was singing, they had some traditional dancers on stage as well. The president of Peru was supposed to be there to say a few words, but he didn't show up....I never really figured out why.
After the concert, we went to a salsa restaurant/bar with the whole group which was really fun.

On Saturday, we had an intercambio activity. ISA puts them on and they are really fun because they invite Peruvian university students along. Its great practice to talk to them and really fun to be making some friends who are from Peru and are our age! We went to a church near the center of Lima which was really beautiful. The library was absolutely incredible. It had these really cool spiral staircases inside of it and tons of ancient books and...AH! I could have spent hours just looking at that room. There were also tons of huge paintings and the architecture was really pretty. The coolest part, though, was the catacombs which we got to go down in. There were salas de tortura (torture rooms) and loads of compartments with human bones in them. There must have been thousands of people's bones down there. It was a little creepy but also fascinating. Afterwards, we went to el Barrio Chino (Chinatown) and had chifa, which is the Peruvian version of chinese food. Its pretty similar to American chinese food but a little less greasy. I liked it a lot.

After the intercambio thing, Bethany, our friend Kelly and I took a taxi back to our houses because our three families were going to THE BEACH! Kelly's host mom rents a house at Punta Hermosa, which is about 30 min. away from Lima. My host mom's brother also has a friend who lets him use a house there. We all loaded our stuff into the car and were off!
I've seen this so many times before but it struck me again as we were driving through the outskirts of Lima...there is a lot of poverty here. Its so weird that one minute you can be in a really nice, really safe neighborhood and then 10 minutes later, you are driving past these run-down shacks that people live in. Its kind of hard to see. I know that there is this kind of poverty in a lot of places in the world, but its especially visible here and such an extreme opposite of the houses and neighborhoods where our host families live.
On the highway on the way to the beach, there are tons of stands that are selling swimsuits, beach balls, and lots of other beach-y things. You can just pull over to one and buy what you need and then continue on to the beach! It seemed really strange but its probably quite convenient if you realize you've forgotten something!
The beach was really fun. We arrived in the late afternoon on Sat. and changed into our suits. I went swimming for a long time with Ale and it was a blast. The waves were really big although the water was a bit chilly...we got used to it after a few minutes. That night we watched the sunset, which was absolutely magnificent. We kind of just hung out and relaxed that night at Maruja's (my host mom) brother's friends house. :)
On Sun. we spent the morning on the beach and I got pretty sunburned! My shoulders and back are pretty sensitive today. I thought I was pretty good about sunscreen too! I put it on at least 4 or 5 times in about 3 hours so I thought I would be ok, but the sun is SO strong here. We didn't swim as much yesterday because the waves were even bigger and a bit more dangerous.
The whole day was just super relaxing and lovely. I love spending time at the beach.
It was a really great weekend.

Today, I have just been calling people..my parents and some friends. Its so good to talk to people and hear their voices! I haven't been as homesick in the last few days, but I still miss everyone and I miss MN/IA a lot. Even though I don't miss the cold weather. I have my second day of classes later today, which I am a little nervous for, but not too bad...things will get better poco a poco. (Little by little).
I'm going to try and post a few pictures now...we'll see if I can figure out how!
Love you all lots!!!
Kia