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Published: August 16th 2011
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Hey friends!
There is so much I want to write, and you all know how bad I am at telling stories so I'll try to keep it short and sweet, but we know how well that will go.
I just want to write about some Peruvian ways of life before I dig into the juicy stuff:
1) whenever you greet someone you have to go in for the kiss on the cheek even if you don't know them, it's a little awkward at first but I'm getting used to it.
2) you can't drink the water from the faucet or you'll get sick, it has to be boiled first.
3) you can't flush the toilet paper so their are garbages (covered!!) where you can throw it.
I'm starting to become more accustomed to getting around in my district and recognizing where I am. Two friends from Madison and I explored Miraflores a little bit on Friday. We went to Larcomar which is a mall right on the ocean about 5 blocks from where I live. It's crazy because in Lima there aren't beaches for swimming and the coast is basically all developed with apartments and buildings. Larcomar reminded me
Larcomar
Calm, peaceful mall by day. Crazy, loud dance party by night of a mall in the US and the stores were pretty expensive there. Unbeknownst (wow I don't think I have ever written that word) to me at the time, there is a huge discoteca there called Aura (I think?), and that is where I ended up going out Friday night with my new friend Renzo! My friend from high school/Madison, Ashley, studied abroad here last year and her boyfriend, Renzo, has been helping me a lot and I went to Aura with him, his friends, and one of my friends. It was crazy and a lot of fun! First of all we didn't go out until like 1:15am because here you go out later at night and people stay out until like 6 or 7 in the morning! Well, you know it's going to be a bit before I am capable of doing that, I will need some caffeine if I ever attempt it. I was already tired at 1:15 hehe. But there were tons of people and lights and music and it was like something you see out of a movie, and we were able to see the ocean from where we were! And I just want to note
Tree
Just a pretty tree in Parque Kennedy, there are tons of small parks around Lima that I went to bed at 5am Friday night/Sat. morning and slept until 11:30am which is the latest I have ever slept in my life! But don't worry mom, I am being very careful and Renzo brought me home. He and all of his friends are some of the nicest people I have ever met! They are trying to teach me how to dance, because, let's face it, I'm an awful dancer. I hope I'm not a hopeless cause! I'm still trying to be able to understand what everyone is saying to me though, and it's difficult when there's lots of background noise.
Anywho that was my first night out here and it was a success! Sunday we went on a tour to the "Centro de Lima" and there were lots of nice buildings and cathedrals and we took a tour of "La Iglesia de San Francisco" which was ok, the best part was going into some catecombs and seeing some bones that they told us were real so I suppose I'll believe them. It was pretty touristy and crowded there though and I can only take so much touristy business. Also, why people feel the necessity to bring their
Huesos
I was a rebel and snapped a pic of the bones. I'm lucky I didn't get deported for breaking the rules! 2 year old squirmy kid, who's not really going to remember anything on a tour of a church is still a mystery to me. Sorry, back to my day. Then we went to "El Parque de la Reserva" where there were tons of cool fountains with lights and music so that was pretty cool! And that was my last day of summer vacation...
My first day of school was today and this week is like a "free week" where we test out classes and see if we want to enroll in them and we finalize our enrollment on Monday. Today I went to a linguistics class and an anthropology class. I understand most of what the teachers are saying, but it's really easy to zone out so I really have to concentrate. Classes are two hours as well so that gets a little long. But so far so good! My tentative class schedule doesn't have Friday classes so let's cross our fingers and hope it stays this way!!
I hope this didn't bore you, and this weekend I'm hoping to travel somewhere. I need a little sun in my life!!
Ciao!
Natalie
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