¡Muchas Clases!

      Hello all! First of all I would like to start this post by wishing both Eoin and Paul Irmiter happy birthdays. You guys rock! Congrats on not dying yet! Eat lots of cake for me! I hope you like your presents!

    
Into the sea!!

      So last week I got to go to the beach with my IFSA peeps. It was pretty fantastic. We went to a really good pizza place for lunch and then chilled at the beach until the sun went down. I made fun of people for saying the water was cold. It was great. I mention this partly because I love the beach, partly because I want to make you lot jealous, and partly because I actually have pictures of it.

The beach crew

Seaside Sunset

On campus!

     The rest of this week was spent at la Católica trying different classes. The first week of classes is called shopping week for exchange students. This means that we get to spend one week going to as many classes as we want to try them out before we sign up. The good part about this is that it lets us eliminate classes that are too much work, not the subject we thought they were, or that have professors we straight up cannot understand. This has proven very helpful as I tried at least two classes in which I understood not even one word that came out of the professors' mouths. The not so good part about it is that I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time at the university this week. I was also stupid enough to try out an 8am class one day. Turns out both the class and professor were really cool, but that was not enough to stop me from nearly nodding off in class. Leaving the house at 6:30 is not gonna fly. I also tried out one night class on Andean Technology, but when the professor walked in looking like an old, frail Popeye the Sailor and began speaking in extreme Spanglish, I booked it out of there. I am, however, super psyched to announce that I will not have any classes on Fridays! Plus, what I will be doing with that time is volunteering at the archaeological site in Miraflores called Huaca Pucllana. Free field school? Hell yes! I cannot tell you how excited I am about this.

Yep, I get to work here.

On Monday all the international students officially matriculate and sign up for classes. This process starts at 9am but apparently people start lining up at like 5am to get the classes they want. For this reason, myself and a few other IFSA kids are seriously considering spending the night at la Católica, just to beat the rush. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned to hear what classes I actually end up getting into!

Another campus shot.

      Also, next weekend I am heading out to Ayacucho for la Semana Santa, or Holy Week(end). We have Thursday and Friday off of school so we are getting on an overnight bus on Wednesday night. I am super excited. Ayacucho has the biggest Semana Santa celebration in all of Peru. It is meant to be just amazing. Basically there are loads of parades and religious celebrations up until Good Friday. Then people party it up because they believe there is no such thing as sin until Easter Sunday when good old Jesus Christ gets resurrected. It promises to be absolutely fantastic. Francesco, one of my host brothers, loves Ayacucho and has promised to tell us all the best places to go. He is also studying music in school and has agreed to give me guitar lessons which I am SUPER EXCITED about. I know what you're thinking: "Adrienne? With a guitar? Why would anyone do that to the institution of music?"But hopefully I won't be too terrible.

Last but not least, I spent yesterday doing a bit of wandering and a bit of shopping with some friends by Parque Kennedy. This park is a main center of activity in Miraflores and is filled with ridiculously well-fed, super friendly, stray cats. Yep, that's right. There are loads of them. It is actually super adorable.

So many cats! Meow!

That's all for now! ¡Un abrazo grande!