Austry and I ate ham and cheese sandwiches, cereal and milk, and fruit and yogurt. The bread for the sandwiches was yolk bread (as in an egg), the milk was soymilk, and the yogurt was more liquidy than I am used to. The food is all new to me. I’m not a huge fan of soymilk, but I don’t really like the milk here anyway, so I’m trying to adjust. The yogurt will also take some getting used to.
We met our group at the ISA office and had an orientation. Part of it was in Spanish and then the security and health was in English. The resident director’s name is Michelle and she gave the presentation. She was just talking away in Spanish and I thought she was going to pass it off to someone else for the English portion. Then she said that she was going to start speaking in English and she mumbled for a second and I thought that maybe she might be better understood in Spanish, but then she just started talking away in English. As it turns out, she’s from Florida. She learned Spanish in Guanajuato and studied in Peru and met a guy, got married, and stayed.
After the orientation we had our first outing with public transportation. It was kind of like the Gringo parade. There are 20 students in our group, plus the ISA staff, and a few Peruvian students so we can have a little more interaction with locals.
We went to a place to get ice cream. It was an upscale place with a lot of American things. It was on the Pacific Ocean with a huge Marriott Hotel near by. On top of that there was a Dunkin’ Donuts, which means COFFEE! Here in Peru they mainly drink instant coffee and it’s not very good and I prefer it actually made, so it’s hard to come by. I drank come coffee and it was excellent. We had some ice cream with some Peruvian flavors.
I wast super excited to see a Dunkin Donuts where they had real coffee, not instant.
We then walked around and got to a double Decker tour bus and sat on the top. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We were on the bus for an hour. Got off the bus for an hour to go to a park with lots of water fountains. Then we were on the bus for another hour and then took a break for a coffee with a snack for a half-hour and then another half-hour on the bus. It sounds nice, but it got too cold and too long. By the end I was cold, tired, and hungry and therefore in a bad mood.
Me at the fountain park.
Lima main plaza
I was so happy to see our host moms because that meant we got to go home where we could be warm, eat, and sleep. We took the bus home. It involved taking two buses and a lot of time. I’m almost positive with the four of us it would have been less expensive and less time consuming to take a taxi together. Surprisingly, no one asked my opinion.
We had our tour of the University of the Pacific campus today. It’s nice. It’s one big building located about 15 minutes from my house. There is one additional building for languages and that’s where I’ll be taking my Spanish class. My other class will be taken in the main building.
After the tour, five of us trekked off to buy cell phones. ISA recommends we get one so they can get in touch with us and since it’s such a big city the group is so spread out. This way we can get in touch with each other easier. In Peru, even local calls cost money and we’d have to buy a calling card. This way of communication is inexpensive. My purchase came to 69 soles or $22. This included the phone, charger, 200 messages, and 100 minutes of talking. Not a bad deal for a 40-day stay.
I was really lazy in the afternoon. I sat there writing stuff for my blog and watching T.V.
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