Los primeros dias

Things have been a complete whirlwind since arriving in Miraflores. The very first day, after being picked up in the airport at about 5am, myself and two other students were dropped off at a hotel (after I gawked out of the taxi window for 20 minutes) and told to be ready the next day at 10! The grogginess from the plane had yet to wear off and we found ourselves a bit bewildered. Finally we pulled ourselves together, put on the coolest clothes we could fish out of our bags and took our first walk through Miraflores. We made our way towards the ocean and were rewarded with one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.
















We spent the next hour wandering about, trying to make our way down to the beach. Finally we arrived! I promptly clambered down he rocks to dip my feet into the Pacific Ocean for the very first time. It was fantastic. However, my ambitions overwhelmed my practicalities and I ended up getting rather more wet than I had intended. On the other hand, this short visit was enough to enamor me with the idea of surfing lessons. We headed back to the hotel with the sound of the waves at our backs.

The next day was full of orientation madness: meeting the other students and staff, talking about the do's and don't's of Lima, and meeting our host families. I decided my host mom was amazing about two seconds after meeting her. She is incredibly kind and super helpful! We drove back to our house where I met Giancarlo, Gianluca, and later, Francesco. Gianluca, the youngest at 10, chatted with me about snow and favorite foods while I unpacked, although sometimes all I could do was smile and shake my head when I couldn't understand. I also met Samba, the boxer dog. She is very sweet, and hearing the familiar boxer dog snuffle in the house is incredibly comforting. My room here is brilliant! It's enormous, with loads of closet space and it's own bathroom! Talk about luxury!

Today is Wednesday, another day of orientation. Francesco showed me and Steph, another IFSA student who lives just across the beautiful park behind my house, how to take the combi (the bus) the the program office. Although it will definitely take me a while to be comfortable with particular mode of transportation. Later we went with our patas (Peruvian students with IFSA, pata means friend in Peru) to the store to get cell phones. Very exciting! Mine, like everyone else's is a black brick phone but it's Peruvian and I love it! Then we had the safety talk (how to make sure you don't get kidnapped by taxi drivers, that kind of stuff) and learned how to swear properly in Peru, which are both extremely important, obviously. I had dinner with my family and they helped me with some Peruvian slang and told me that they are firm supporters of the San Francisco (American) football teams, the Dolphins I believe.

Thus far Peru has been utterly fantastic despite the fact that speaking Spanish all the time is threatening to fry my brain. I can't wait to visit the University (which, I have been informed, is colloquially referred to as el Católico, rather than the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) and pick out my classes. I'm leaning towards a Peruvian or South American history class, along with a couple in Anthropology or Archaeology. We'll see how it goes.