Hello all! I'm back! And still alive! This has been quite an interesting weekend, to say the least. Let me preface this by telling you some of the stories that made me a little scared to go to the jungle in the first place; a fellow exchange student’s friend’s boyfriend who died camping in the jungle (they woke up and he was just dead, stung by a scorpion in the middle of the night), the exchange student who came back from the jungle with a rash only to discover a month later that it was a nest of bugs in his [View Full Entry]

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Hi all! So I have officially survived midterms, and just realized that I only have 4 more weeks of school left. Crazy how fast this semester has gone! Somehow, and mostly because of how pathetic and elementary the “extranjeros” (exchange students) are, I have managed to pull out AB’s in all my classes…..I only brag about this because I can’t remember the last time I was an AB student (because it was in high school). I’ve been hanging in there even though waves of homesickness are starting to get to me. The funny thing is that besides my amazing friends a [View Full Entry]

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Que tal chicos! So while I’m sure that all of you were watching the Badger game this past Saturday, I was enduring quite a rivalry myself…..between me…..and the deepest canyon in the world, the Colca Canyon. It was quite a tough adventure (and I have lots of blisters and sore muscles to prove it), pero se vale la pena (but it was worth it). Desiree, who is another exchange student from La Catolica, and I left Thursday afternoon from Lima on a 16 hour bus ride to Arequipa. It sounds worse than it was. These are high tech buses with GPS [View Full Entry]

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Hola, This has been one of the best trips I have ever had. I had almost forgotten what real Peru was like. Outside of Lima is a very different Peru. I have come back with 360 pictures, a slight tan, quite a few mosquito bites, some Inca power, and quite a high from the trip. Everything started Tuesday (9/15) with my flight to Cusco. I went on this trip with a fellow exchange student from my school, Thea. We ended up being great traveling buddies. When I got off the plane, I could immediately feel the change in altitude. It got [View Full Entry]

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Que tal amigos???? So yesterday I had my first surfing lesson. It was awesome! My instructor was this cute little Peruvian guy who was only about 5 feet tall. And it only cost $20 for an hour and a half lesson including the wetsuit and board rental. I was pretty intimidated at first because the waves looked pretty scary from the beach, but after about 10 minutes of paddling around I was loving it! And I got up on the board on my first try! There was a lot of salt in the water…and I drank a lot of it. A [View Full Entry]

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Hi all! This has been a rollar coaster week for me. Monday I was emailing my Dad telling him to get me outta here because I didn’t think I could handle everything I was going through and Tuesday I was ecstatic because I made my first Peruvian friend.. I have had classes for two weeks now and already have one group project and presentation of a literary work in front of the class on Monday. Classes sure are a challenge. On Monday, the professor of one of my literature classes grilled all the international students on the first story we had [View Full Entry]

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Hey all! So today was a very interesting day...to say the least. I woke up at 6:30am this morning (I'm sure almost all of you do this every morning, but for me it was rough) to get to school at 7:45 and get registered for my classes (registration officially started at 9am). We were advised to get there early because as international students we get whatever spots are left in classes on a first come, first serve basis. There are around 500 international students, so when we all started getting there, they put us all into classrooms and gave us numbers [View Full Entry]

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Hola hola hola! So I have now attended one full week of classes here in Peru. Whoopy...cough. (this typed with much sarcasm). They call this week shopping cart week because all the international students can go to different classes to see if they want to take them before they officially sign up. This has been pretty helpful after discovering a couple classes that I cannot get credit for, a couple professors who I could not understand a word out of, and a professor who started yelling at the entire class on the first day. I went to 8 different classes this [View Full Entry]

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Que tal amigos? So I've had a rough couple days of boring and pointless orientation, trying to understand the international student system for picking classes, adjusting to new roommates (8 other girls), and trying to find fun in Lima. Five days after starting to run again, I have come into major leg problems again. So yesterday I got a membership to this gym near my house. I can't believe that I ever complained about the SERF and UW Facilities. I'm one week in, and I am already missing driving around, being with my amazing and fun friends from Madtown, and living [View Full Entry]

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Hola! So for the past two days I have had orientation for school. Que pena! What a drag! Yesterday all they talked about what how serious the students are and how the classes will be double or triple as hard for us. Then last night I heard someone say that all the students who were here last semester said that all of the classes where really easy. So what happens is next week I'll go to the classes that I want to take, get them approved by my advisor at the UW, and figure out if they work out. Then in [View Full Entry]

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