Lima - Week #1

***** all pics in Perú *****

To start things off, my plane arrived 8 hours late after some bullshit delay in Houston. I was forced to hang around IAH for 6.5 hours, and even though I got something free and I love free stuff (a meal coupon), still, it meant I ended up getting into Lima around 3:50am. I had to find a hotel quick, so I actually spent a lot for Perú ($40). My room was... as simple as it gets

The next day I went to the address of my house I was supposed to be staying at, but there was nobody there. I didn't know what to do, but the taxi driver saw that no one was answering the door, so he ended up driving me to a place to use the internet, let me use his cell phone, and was really just being as genuine as anyone could be. This is the first sight I got of how nice Limeños really are, and everyone I've talked to since has been suuuuper generous, hospitable, and interested in me. It's awesome. But anyways, the only thing I could think of was to go my school, which I did and ended up taking 4 hours of class that day.

The classes are one-on-one, designed specifically for what I (and my mentor at ASU Carmen García) want to perfect of my Spanish. I have known the Spanish language for years, but I've never been quite able to get from a 7.5/10 to 10/10. Special attention like this (and living in a Hispanic country for a while) is awesome, and even after 3 days my speed/accuracy has increased, so I'm happy. It's funny because my teacher here in Lima is a linguist named Carmen, as well. She's super cool. It's only 2 hours/day Monday-Friday, which isn't bad at all, plus it was super cheap compared to some of the big universities my roommates go to.

And speaking of roommates, I have six of them, and they're all girls :-) 2 Germans, 2 (South) Koreans, 1 American (from Wisconsin) & 1 French. It's great because we don't really change to English (unless we don't know a word) because, well... because we're all here for Spanish (duh). Here's the house:

There are 10 houses involved in this little circuit of "university residences", and the girls in my house (all are here for 6 months to a year) know people in the other houses. Last night we went to a house with 10 Frenchies, some Americans, Germans (one who was an exchange student at ASU), Chinese, Norwegians, plus more and more came as the night went on. Kind of felt like a frat party actually, the booze-a-flowin and the weed-a-blazin. Also, this Brazilian Marta has a hookah :-) Sooooo I'm most DEFinitely goin there again soon! We also went kloooooobing together last night!!

This club was called "Help" was absolutely enormous. There was this whack-ass DJ who introduced two live bands, which both sucked hella. But whatever, we got our dance on and they played some MJ and classic remixes, so it was all good. Beers were 10 soles (~$3.50), probably the most comparably-priced item to anything in the US that I've seen here.

The food is healthy, filling, and über cheap. I haven't been to a restaurant with a lot of classic Peruvian dishes yet, but there are really cheap places called chifas that are Chinese-Peruvian hybrid restaurants and there are also these little stores with a menú, in which you pick a starter plate and a main one after. They're always 6-10 soles, so for $2-3 you are sittin pretty fat and happy! One dumb move I made was saying I wanted a "big" beer (I didn't know it was 1.1 liters), which ended up costing 10 soles and the meal was only 6. Hahaaa whaaatever. Here's some stuff I've tried so far:

We also learned how to make Solterito de Queso at my school today, which was super simple, super healthy, and was great!!

One fucking crazy thing here are the combis, or the public transportation system. They are all privately owned, & all look like big Volkswagen Vans painted up in bright colors with all they're destinations and what not. The stops are random, the routes are random, and the situation is FUBAR.

There's a driver, who drives with no regret & would make any American shit there pants at how close they get to pedestrians, other cars/combis, and even the edge of bridges sometimes... but there's also a guy who stands by the door (which is almost always swung half-open), and he yells (what sounds like Arabic to me sometimes) at people on the street and at the stops, trying to get them to enter the bus. The routes change based on how many people use their buses, so apparently what he says changes every day, as well. Every mile or so there is also this other guy who tells him how many people are on other buses, along with a bunch of random numbers scribbled on paper. People selling candy and stuff get on every few stops, looking into my gringo eyes, hoping I will buy the stuff. Also, like I have always said: HORNS DON'T WORK IF EVERYONE USES THEM!!. It only costs 1 sol to get to school, whereas a taxi would be like 5 or 6, but it's just... fucking crazy, from the street and from within. These videos don't reflect the craziness so well, but you get the idea:

I haven't had any problems with the food or water yet, even though I (out of habit) chugged a liter of tap water the first morning I was in my house after gettin hammered the night before. I did just learn, though, that when you wipe your butt after pooping, you are supposed to put the toilet paper in the garbage can next to the toilet. They are just normal trash cans with a plastic bag in them, & it's super weird putting my used ass-wipe in a can with other pieces of toilet paper that have my roommates' feces on it. It's to help not clog the pipes in the city, but... it's just fuckin weird. Super weird. No pictures, lol...

I have noticed that Peruvian skin color is incredibly varying: white, criollo, mestizo, and indigenous. Of course, the more light-skinned you are, the nicer clothes you have and the nicer area you live in. I have yet to see a white Peruvian (who look incredibly Spanish, as in Spain) begging for money, not wearing business or name brand clothes, or driving a shitty car. There is definitely a strong differentiation in class here, as I notice the looks that some of them give to one another, the sense of confidence that the lighter-skinned people tend to have, and the respect that they give me personally. I have to say also that Carmen García was right when she said that all the girls will love my blue eyes and blonde hair. I can't walk past a high school without giggling girls pointing at me, as well as the elongated looks I get from the girls on the streets. Not to sound conceded, it's just weird how much I stand out even though there are green- and blue-eyed Peruvians that are as white or whiter than me. Maybe it's my Google shirts, North face shoes and my Smith glasses as well (lol)... But I do have to say the skin color is directly representative of social class here, which is sad, as always. There is a large population of Chinese immigrants, as well, and they call all Asians chinos, even if they're Japanese, Korean, etc...

Well, I hope to recover from this little cold I have and can go and explore this enormous city to take more pictures. There's no doubt I'll have sooooo much more to say!

Until then, uhhh.... chilllll like this guy ;-)