a wrap up of the first 4 weeks.

Man, youd think blogspot would have more font choices than 9. Just for your information, there isnt a button for apostophes on the laptop that my brother from another mother let me borrow. Spanish doesnt need them. So here is the past 4 weeks, July 17th to August 14th.

The flights were smoothe gettin from bham to lima, but i think most people wouldve been fed up with the diapered kid next to me for 7 hours. So i arrived in the airport of lima at around 11 pm lima time and went to the passport control, where i had to tell them ill be a student in spanish and try to understand the attendent, who obviously didnt want to be there at that time. That went well... I got my stuff and off to the customs agency! Which is actually just a stop light for travelers. Green means go ahead; red means you lose. I got the green. I bowed to the light; it was fair.

My first thought of true lima was fish, due to the overwhelming smell of low tide odors comin from the bay. I cried a little inside, but i think that was a rare occasion because it has not happened since. I found my group leader, Marion, brave and ever-persevering. There were four other students already there, so we hit the road in a big taxi to the hotel, la paz apart. Marion stayed behind to wait for the rest... the conversation went kind of like this:

"No guys, you go ahead, leave me!"
"We cant leave you great leader! We will wait by your side!"
"It is my destiny"

Not really. We just wanted to get there, so we really did not even talk to her that much.

By the way, other posts wont be this long, but 4 weeks is a lot to catch up, so ill do the best i can.

First thing you learn about lima: driving here has a chaotic order to it. We weaved through traffic like being on a motorcycle, but we were in an Astro van. It was okay to be 2 inches away from other cars, at all times. It was me, Erica, John, Aaron, and Jeremy, and the driver. We talked some, prayed for our life a little, and got to the hotel in a nice part of lima that is obviously a tourism spot for gringos (Americans), Miraflores.

I celebrated the late night at a cuban bar with Aaron, his girlfriend Jamie, and Samantha. Dont worry mom, the drinking age is 18! Aaron and Jamie are from Minnesota and decided to do this study abroad together, while Samantha is from Kentucky goin to Transylvania University. They are definitely cool cats.

Next day, visited PUCP (AKA pook, la catolica, pontificia universidad catolica de peru and my university) located in San Miguel then ate some chifa, which is chinese-peruvian food of lima at a place called fou jou. There is a good minority of chinese and african decent in lima, along with european (of course). The majority has mainly indigenous decent, but there are a lot of mixed. Im straight up gringo.

Marion, our fearless leader, gave us 20 soles to eat with. She is also very generous. We as a group stopped by Larcomar, basically a theme park of stores for whenever i get homesick and need some commercial america, which will be never. It does have a beautiful park on the upper level that looks out into the ocean, with the stores and stuff being in the lower two levels. I ditched it with some others and spent the food money on booze (I am disloyal to my great leader, i know). First, there is this ice cream shop called dove vai (something french) that i got some lucuma (a fruit from peru) and pisco sour (a famous drink in lima) ice cream. MMmmmm. Lauren told us about the place, a student who is spending a year in lima. This will be her second semester here.

that night was my first night to try out the discoteca. It was me, John, Aaron, Jamie, and Shannon. John is doing a program in a different school (Pacifico) and is the only student there from our group. Ive tried calling him throughout the trip but heres what happens:

Me - BEEEP.... BEEEEP.... (there isnt ringing when you call a person, just long beeps)
Some Old Lady "AloooooO?"
Me "Uh, John esta alli?" (I literally dont know what to say)
Some Old Lady " Quien es? Quien es usted? ISRJIJGXJLGX (Spanish i dont understand)"
Me "UH UH UH UH LO SIENTO"

that has happened 5 times or so. i got your number now, John. Shannon is from California and in a small college somewhere else, i dont remember. She has a boyfriend who is actually from Lima and she is staying with his family for the semester. He goes to college in the states so they only have a couple of weeks together in Lima, ironic i know.

So i danced some, more than likely horribly

next day! we went to an arabic diner/hookah bar. That will be my homesick place! it is the only one that i know of in lima, and is sweet. the second level is pure white and you can buy drinks and smoke hookah (flavored tobacco). It was a huge group. Me, Jeremy, Danita, Elaina, Kate, Samantha, Zach, Daniel, Jessica, Meghan, Juliet, and maybe more. There was an awesome gypsy or arabic style (dont know, but he was on coke) dancer that got a lot of our group to dance with him, and it was crazy.

After that, Marion got the whole group into a Jazz club with Afro-Peruvian musicians. Good, then a group of us ditched that and went to dance! there is this street called calle de pizza, literally pizza street, where there are bars and discotecas that all serve... pizza. It is kinda trashy, but its my kind of place hah. so we danced there, me Tyler, Samantha, Stephanie, and Juliet. Tyler is my nightlife amigo. He is from Colorado and a cool, chilled guy. Stephanie is from new york city and lives with a family that is related to the family im stayin with, so we are technically kin here.. kinda. i dont know the word on Juliet, ill get back on that one. Anyway, it was fun.

Next day.. (this has only been one weekend, it was packed). We meet our family!
Ill get a pic sometime, but its a full house, literally. I live with the parents, grandmother and housesitter (never see them though), an empleada (maid who lives with us) Marisa, 4 kids (Jose-Luiz 18 who i hang out a lot with, Tamara 22 who has a precious but 2 year old daughter, Camila, Fernando 29? who is movin out to be with his wife, and another sister that i never see), and two dogs. and two turtles. its full. (the turtles live outside). we got home in Pueblo Libre, a part that is only 5 minutes from my university and 30 minutes from miraflores.. not a bad location. We ate some and i got into my room on the third floor and chilled. It was smoothe, except for my spanish.

Classes start! its intensive spanish course, which wasnt intense at all.. things start slowing down now.. or do they!?!?!?

Things to note: almost all my teachers got to class late... its refreshing because i dont like being pushed for time, but of course punctuality exists in lima. There are no public transit systems, only small (or big i dont know) transit businesses that have micros (buses) that go through certain routes. You just wait to find a micro that takes you to where you need to go and wont overcharge you because you cant speak that well. Its different, and is taking a while to get used to. there is constantly tons of traffic, and you can tell by the air. these cars arent necessarily eco-friendly. there is also constant road work around the city. they are trying to make the streets cleaner and nicer without causing too much chaos, but chaos already exists.

So one week passes. Clearly ive written too much, but i cannot turn back. The weekend! its fiestas patrias, so we have monday and tuesday off. Oh.. no...

friday was Samanthas birthday, so i visited her house and met her peru family (her dad looks like a peruvian mafia man, but is nice as hell) i was planning on goin to miraflores that night, but still naive to the transit system so i couldnt find the one micro i knew to get there. there were tons by the way, i just didnt know. So.. i walked home.. 10 blocks at night, wasnt too smart... but okay i made it home and chilled... its okay. it was best, because i went out 3 nights straight after that, maybe 4 i dont remember.

Saturday, i decided to do some sight seeing. it was me, my brother from another mother Jose, aaron and jamie. We walked around central lima at la plaza de armas y la plaza san martin. there were old buildings and beautiful churches, and also the presidents crib. we took a tour to the catacombs of la iglesia san francisco and took a guide in spanish... i didnt understand anything. cool day, then the night.

it was me, tyler and matt to begin with. We drank some somewhere in la calle de pizza with i think Kate, and then met up with kaitlyn and her friend and some others at a bar kaitlyn suggested. Kaitlyn already did her semester in peru and it was her last weekend, so had to make it count right? Matt is from philly and is really cool, i think hes in a colorado university somewhere, dont know. So we bought some johnny walker red label and went to town. I had my share, and I left with Danita, Daniel, Zach, Kate, Tonisha, Elaina? and Zachs host brother to a discoteca called Bierhous, beerhouse, and danced for a while. I ended up tryin my dance moves with a peruvian girl, who was fun and it went alright, or atleast... i though so hah. It was a good day, luckily my host sister was around the area and we got in touch and took a cab together. The taxi driver asked if i was mexican. ??? A Successful saturday.

Sunday, a badass day. I skipped out on an event at la plaza de armas, where the fountain there had pisco (a peruvian licour) instead of water, and the president spoke. must had been a party, but i decided to go to el parque de la reserva, where they had an event with food to show all of the awesome fountains in the park. it was incredible. there are about 20 fountains in this park, all unique and beautiful, and are only on at night, which is even cooler. they have the highest shooting fountain in the world, and some other cool stuff. ill go again no doubt and get pictures. it was me, Daniel, Danita, Jessica, and Tonisha. Ill get their info later. I talked to a girl who had a kid and gave her my number, which i immediately regretted (she called all day for two days)The ticket was paid for by none other than our great majestic leader, Marion. I bow when i see her. they had this cool fountain that acts like a maze, where its a flat fountain you can walk through, but randomly walls of water shoot up and you have to guess when to cross the wall area and when not to, but ultimately you getfooled, and whoever did it from my group got soaked, me being one. My pants were soaked, especially around my groin, but the night was young! hah. Yes, i spent the rest of the night with wet pants.

i went back to the calle de pizza and met up with matt, jeremy, meghan, tyler, and aaron. I think there was one more but i forgot. Jeremy is from colorado and a really cool guy, hes into anthropology and doing a whole year in lima. Meghan is a cool girl from i think philly who is also into anthropology and also doing muay thai boxing.. hell yes. anyway, while in a bar, we met a group of people from los olivos, a part of lima. It was Molly, Sammy, and Cecelia. We talked with them for a while, and everyone from my group left, so it was just me and the peruvians, who all spoke english. Somehow dancing came up and we left to a discoteca, where we danced for a good while and took a taxi home.

Note: most discotecas in la calle de pizza dont do much salsa and meringue, but rather reggae-tone and electronica, and american music also. So most dancin there has a slight hint of salsa but mostly just normal dancing (not really grinding). I got there numbers and hopefully will stay bein friends with them. Sunday was over, the end. Ive written too much, but oh well.

SO monday rolls around.. I have infinite energy, and want to go out again to dance. I meet up with matt, tyler, and a friend matt met up with saturday night and we chilled around la paz apart in miraflores. First, me and tyler met up and bought a glass of wine to drink, but didnt have a good place to go, so we went back to la paz apart and talked to a friend i met who works at the hotel, Rony. I met two friends, actually, Rony and Miguel, friend the hotel, both really friendly and really cool, and ill visit them and maybe even salir (go out) some with Rony.

After, we go to Bierhous again and meet up with Samantha and Stephanie. The place starts hoppin and we go out to the dance floor. Me and Tyler go to a group of girls and start dancing with them, who were really fun. There were 3, and willing to share us hah. Tyler got their number and had an interesting story ill tell later. I left Tyler, who gladly took all 3, and hung out and danced with stephanie some. I found another girl and a salsa song came on and she helped me learn some steps and was really nice, but stephanie and samantha wanted to go, so sadly i had to leave her.

Note: Matts girl he met is a wild but good dancer, really fun.

Oh yeah, somewhere in the week of school me, stephanie, Elaina, and Juliet went to see Batman, which was the bomb diggity. it was good.

Okay the weekend is past. 140 dollars later I must start slowing down, or do i?!?!?

Week was blah, then the weekend! Hell yes. It was Jessicas birthday and Chanels birthday. Chanel has family in Peru and her dad had a glorious house party i didnt go to, but oh well because friday night chanel decided to go out with us. It was me, stephanie, abbe, erin, chanel, danita i think and others i forgot. My host sister taught us some salsa and meringue, which was really cool. We had a little lesson at my house. It was me, Kate, Matt, Danita, Stephanie, and Abbe. After that it was me, tyler, matt, stephanie, and abbe drinkin in a park. Danita met up with some otheres and Kate went home. Dont buy cheap champagne in lima, by the way; luckily we had whiskey, so the girls had to suffer. We talked to some hostal owners who wanted suggestions for a name and they were cool and visited colorado for snow boarding and matt and tyler were all in that, one guy actually visited telluride, the only place ive been to in colorado.

so i was gettin sloppy, and i forgot what happened to matt and tyler but they were gone and it was me and all the girls, and me being happy decided to buy some drinks for everyone. So i got even more happy and found a peruvian to dance with that the girls swear looked like a guy. oh well, who cares? i was just in the mood to dance. And maybe to kiss.. embarrassing hah. Abbe wanted to go home, and me being so chilvalrous walked her, which i thought would be 5 minutes... it was like 20! okay maybe shorter, but i couldnt tell, and supposedly i took a pit stop at a school and was complaining the whole way.. Abbe says that, i dont remember... but she was probably right. abbes nickname is A bay bay ey, since if you spell her name in spanish it sounds like that.

i came back, stumbling probably. i dont know how i remembered the way. I met up with stephanie and the girls, who were talkin to some guys, i ended up gettin a 30 year olds number, who put her name as D Gig... cant say why. i thought her friend was cute at least.

Stephanie and Abbe wont let that night go probably hah. Abbe is from virginia and goes to school with Shannon, but they didnt really know each other there.

Next day, i think. Jessicas birthday! But first...
So me, meghan, jeremy, and kate met up with that group of friends from los olivos to play some volleyball and hang out in a park. We met up with them near the university and left to a park in los olivos, about 40 minutes away on a micro. I was definitely feelin the other night, but continued through the day. It was really nice and relaxing. Molly introduced me to Eliot, a friend of hers who likes to play Dota, Counter-strike, Magic the gathering, and other things im addicted to. So basically, im gonna start back on those games.. shame on me. the park was huge. it had a zoo, which was not bad, and soccer fields, a big play pool, courts for whatever sport and more... well not much more. It was relaxin and everyone had fun. Me and Kate stayed and ate some lunch at Mollys house, which her mother was beggin for us to do. I got eliots number and me and Kate left.

Now to Jessica. We went to a peña, which is an entertainment venue with some dance called del carajo. it was really nice, but not my sort of place. it was fun, everyone seemed like they were havin a good time, and i took it easy that night. Samantha... didnt. Hah but it was really fun. The peña had a dance competition for foreigners near the end that sadly i took part of. Samantha did as well. It was really just a good opportunity for peruvians to make fun of all the foreigners. I was definitely in relaxed clothing since i didnt know that it was so nice when they told me where to go and when they presented me they called me shaggie and asked where scooby doo was. cute. i was 2nd to dance and they put music on and in front of everyone i danced like a fool. Someone has a video of it, so yall can enjoy my absurdity. Samantha was glorious hah. they put on 50s style foxy lady music on and she danced the part. The host even gave her a chair to i guess mimic brittney spears. She got a prize and i was left in tears. By the way there were over 200 people there, and there was even the host of Bailando con los suenos, a latin spin off of dancing with the stars. Danita got a picture with a peruvian olympic wrestler who was also there.

alright! I still got more!

week of school, meh. We had orientation. I am taking a class in Peruvian culture, spanish, administration and legislation of education, alternatives for elementary school, and development and social responsability. we also met our compañeros, or la catolica students who will help us through. They seem nice and ill keep in touch with them. Marion, our most trusted and courageous master, treated anyone from our group and the compañeros to beer and soda in a deutch bar on thursday. There i talked to Daniel, daniel from the compañeros, and Fernanda, who Jeremy got a number from. It was fun and relaxing, and I went home early since was Samantha was feeling under the weather. FRIDAY!... AYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEe

Yeah I am getting tired, but I must persevere! Friday i decided to try out a pure salsa and meringue venue with live music and an open bar for 30 soles. The plans were me, meghan, jeremy, fernanda, shannon and her boyfriend to meet up at Casa Vieja in Miraflores. My sister told me about it and said it was nice and low key, since i was ready for a different scene (ive had salsa fevah!). Great, we met up and walked to the place, just for it to be closed. Pucha (shoot)! Oh well, because Shannons boyfriend got us in for free to a place in barranco called Saquaras. We all split a bottle of johnny walkers and had our fun. There was live music for a while, and i got on the dance floor with shannons boyfriends friend and swept the floor. Not really, but we found some people to dance with and meghan came to save me from my mistakes and danced with me some. Eventually stephanie abbe and elaina came in for free, and immediately some guys took them and put them in the VIP section of the place and gave them free booze. what the hell!?!? anyway i partook some in that and danced with abbe. Things came out of that, and we left. Saquaras was nice, it was like a venue for upper class younger people. Del Carajo had majority older people. Once again, not my style.

Saturday, i decided to do some non-nightlife sight seeing. I went with Eliot and my two brothers from another mother to go to Polvos Azules, a market with the best deals ever. Clothes, shoes, accessories, games, movies, dvds, music, anything, all for cheap black market price. Copyrights mean nothing in Lima, thank god. I bought final fantasy XII and tekken 5 and Akira, since my brother has a playstation 2 and a computer. I had to go back of course. After i chilled with eliot some and we went to a gaming internet cafe and played some dota and counter strike, which was pretty cool. He told me of a place wheres its 3 stories of just gaming computers. Hell yes, im there! im coming back a gamer nerd, guys... who knows how to dance salsa.

This week has been free, since classes start the 18th. I went through an interesting time when Fernando, my host brother, invited his wife and her family to eat with my family on sunday afternoon. The father owns two chifa restaurants, one being in the chinatown of lima, which i will definitely visit sometime. They seemed really jolly, even though i didnt understand everything they said. We celebrated the beginning with a shot of nice Pisco. We said salud and drank. Is it courteous not to drink all of a shotglass for that? I took the whole thing, just to see that everyone sippeda little. They laughed and I didnt ask for a refill. Let me tell you, that dinner lasted 5 hours, something i have NEVER done. Maybe 6, i dont know, but i went through it all hah. the course took an hour and they talked literally for 4 or 5 hours straight. There was an intermission just after lunch just because thewifes father took a 5 minute nap.

Everyone is traveling and im chilling with my brother. Today we went back to polvos azules because i wanted to get some movies. I bought 16 movies for a total of 20 dollars. And these work anywhere, and are legit, just copies. okay so not legit, but you get the picture.

Damn, im done! I got mostly every event in. That took 4 hours exactly for me to write. Ill get into specifics when i think about it later or if asked.