clases, familia, SALSA

I have been keeping busy as I am getting used to my routine. I have class Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6pm and 6-9pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-10:30am. And NOTHING on Fridays which is so nice, also it'll be handy when I want to travel and can leave after my class Thursday and not have to return until Monday morning.

Classes are going well, my poli sci class is probably the hardest just because (obviously) it is in Spanish and the readings are so dense to begin with that sometimes it takes a while to wade through it all. I am really enjoying my anthropology class, the professor is great and very lively which makes the 3 hours pass relatively painlessly.

I have really enjoyed getting to meet my host family. In the house it is just my host mom Anita and I, and her older brother also lives in the house but I don't see much of him, he leaves early in the morning and comes home late. But, Anita and I eat most of our meals together and she's always got funny stories and things to share. Also she has four grown kids. Her oldest son lives in La Paz, Bolivia and the next oldest son lives in Lima and has two daughters. Then, about 10 years later she had two more, her third son lives in the jungle now (although when I say jungle I just mean regionally, not actually IN the jungle) and works in tourism. Then her fourth is her daughter who also lives in Lima, about 20 mins from us. The younger two kids are a bit older than me, I think the daughter is late 20s but she loves to dance, I think we will go out dancing some night...

Which brings me to my next point! I had my first salsa class and it was SPICY!! I had a blast, I can't wait to go back, it's so much fun and great exercise too! There are some great salsa clubs around that I would love to hit up once I feel ready to reveal my salsa side to the world...

I think that is all for now!

más fotos

These pics are from el Museo de la Inquisición y del Congreso.
We went when we had some time to kill in el Centro de Lima.



































These pics are all shots from the ruins at Pachacamac.

a estudiar...

I finished my first week of classes! I think I am going to take a political science class and an anthro class in addition to the two classes that are obligatory for the program. Both of the classes have a lot of reading so I am going to be wading through that!! I am sort of nervous about keeping up with all of the reading but I'm sure it will work out, it always does. The campus is very nice, the school is the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP for short). There are about 18,000 students at PUCP I think.

:)

Well, I've been keeping busy. We've been having more outings as a group as part of orientation.










This is 3 blocks from my house!










Zully, yo, Elly at a stop on our Mirabús tour of Lima at night.













A shot from atop the Mirabús.












El Parque del Amor













At the fountains again. Carmen, Melinda, David y yo.

bienvenidos a lima!

Okay! Today we went to Huaca Pucllana, an excavated site in the middle of Miraflores. They say it was actively inhabited between 200-700 B.C. but wasn't discovered and excavated until 1981-1984. It was really neat, it was just sort of a trash site before it was excavated I think. A ver...qué mas...

I ate chifa again today, it's basically asian-peruvian food, really good!!
Here are some more pics for now!










This one is from atop "La gran pirámide."










Zully y yo en la pirámide.













Mi mamá y yo! Anita! pero con su abrazo roto! :(















El grupo! Somos 17 con 5 chicos!

Yesterday we made our first trip to the university (La Católica). From my house I just walk one block and take a combi (bus) all the way to the entrance of the university. The bus ride is anywhere from 30 mins to an hour depending on the time of day. The university is really nice, very pretty campus. We opened bank accounts there at a branch of Banco Continental, took our pictures for our IDs and toured the campus.

Today all I have is a Spanish class this afternoon. Then on Monday our orientation begins at La Católica for international students. The following, the 17th, we start our classes! Right now I'm feeling nervou but I'm sure it will all be fine!

al final

he llegado en lima!

This morning I woke up for breakfast at the Hotel Alemán, went to the program office and now I am successfully moved into my house. Mi mamá es actriz! I think she is on TV in some comedy show, and does plays too! My room is really really cool. I have my own little bathroom too.



These are the stairs up to my room! EMOCIONANTE! My area connects to the kitchen through a back patio area. Under the stairs you can kind of see my bathroom!