Rompemuelles

Hola!!!
I finally have time to post something!! It has been such a whirlwind since the moment we stepped off of the plane!! We arrived pretty late on Monday night and then had to wait a long long time in the lines to get our passports stamped and go through customs. We finally got everyone through (there are eleven of us-one professor and 10 students) and Wendy, who is one of the directors of our program, was waiting for us.
It was really really surreal to finally be here. It didn't really hit me until the next morning that I AM IN LIMA, PERU!!! :)
Anyways, we were driven to our host families' houses. I was the first one to be dropped off and I was REALLY nervous to meet them, but it was so late that my family just came out to say hi, showed me my room and the bathroom and said "Buenas noches!" I was kind of relieved, to be honest....after spending the entire day in the airport, I didn't feel prepared to converse in Spanish!

The next morning, I got to talk to my family and get to know them a bit more. I have a host mother, Maria (but people call her Maruja), a host sister, Alejandra, and a host brother, Marcos. Ale is 12 and Marcos is 17. For the first couple days he wouldn't talk to me. Ale and Maria said that he is just very shy...tonight, though I talked to him for a really long time. It made me laugh because he was so quiet before but now that I've got him talking to me, he won't stop!!! Which is great. He speaks very fast and uses lots of slang so I am learning a lot from talking to him.

So. I don't really know where to start describing all the things we've done in the past two days. We had two orientation sessions, one for ISA (International Studies Abroad) which is the organization that planned our program and one for USIL (Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola-our university). It was good to finally know more details about what classes we are taking and when they are, etc. We start classes at 2 every afternoon and end at 6. Its really different because we have each class only once a week. So every day is a different class, but it lasts three hours. AND we only have classes Mon.-Thurs. WAHOO!!! :) Fridays are free so that we can travel, etc.

Yesterday evening, we went to a restaurant that had a buffet of many traditional Peruvian foods....I was feeling a little sick so I didn't eat much, but I did try some of the dishes with chicken and a dish called lomo saltado, which is beef with onions and peppers and some other vegetables and it has a really good spice. Also I had something called La Causa, which is a very very yellow type of potato that is mashed into a ball and topped with kind of a tuna salad. (Potato #1-CHECK! Only 3999 left!) Lots of people also ate pulpo (which is octopus) and we all tried the national drink, Pisco Sour. It was good but REALLY strong, so I couldn't drink the whole thing. Overall, the food is really really good. After eating, the restaurant puts on a show of different Peruvian dances. It was really fun to see the variety of styles there are here and all of the different dresses and costumes they wear for the traditional dances.

Today, after the USIL orentation, we went to a place called Larcomar, which is really close to my house (and my friend Bethany's house! We only live about 2 blocks from one another!!!). Its sort of a mall/park thing. We met with some Peruvian students and got ice cream with them and then walked to a place where we took a salsa class. It was really fun but REALLY hot in the room we were in. It made me want to really learn how to salsa well. Its so much fun and the people who were teaching us gave a demonstration at the end that made me want to learn really badly. Wendy (one of the directors of the program) said that every Weds. night, they have free dance classes and afterwards they open up to the public and you can practice what you've learned. I think I might go sometime!

After the dance class, we went on a bus tour of downtown Lima. It was a blast because we sat on the top level of a double decker bus and we could take lots of pictures and see everything! (I will upload some pictures tomorrow.) There are lots of really beautiful buildings and parks (plazas) in the city. We went to a park that had a bunch of different fountains in it and one of them was kind of a show with music, etc. (It was like the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas)

Bethany and I were trying to remember all of the new vocabulary we've learned on the bus ride. Every time we went over a speed bump we would say the word for it, which is rompemuelle. It literally means something that breaks the car's suspension (or something like that.) When we were doing that I had a very philosophical moment. :) I was thinking that the last few days have been a lot like that bus ride. I've been moving so fast and having such a great time, but there are times when I hit a rompemuelle and I just feel like if I don't slow down, I'll fall apart. I love it here and things are exciting and fun, but I am feeling pretty overwhelmed. Lima is aboslutely enormous (8 million people!!!) and having to communicate only in Spanish is really challenging. I talked to Maria and Marcos for about 2 hours tonight and I probably only understood about a third (actually probably less!) of what they said. Its frustrating and scary but I do feel like my Spanish has already improved a bit. Its so incredible to me that our brains can so easily make the transition from one language to another. Already I am starting to think in Spanish! I was looking for something in my room today and I found myself saying out loud, "Donde lo puse????" (Where did I put it?) It took me a minute to realize it, but I was really excited because its already starting to become a habit and somewhat natural.

Well, I think I need to go to bed. I'm really really tired....today's been a long day! A good one, though.

I'll try and post more pictures and give details about my family and my house tomorrow. :)
I love you all and miss you lots!! Besos!! (Kisses)