Dedication to Don Mamino and other things.

First of all Don Mamino is my new favorite restaurant. Okay maybe it doesn't beat Fanatics's pizza but it's keeping me from getting too nostalgic for American restaurants (by the way the fact that we call ourselves Americans REALLY irritates my advanced conversation teacher but I'll get to that later). Anyway I have been to this place 4 times and here is a little food porn for you...

Just when I thought all the coffee here sucks... a sip of that changed my mind.

 So. Much. Fruit. <3

This one below might not look like much but it was AMAZING and it's fresh squeezed OJ on the side  

 No explanation needed. Fin and I were in banana split heaven.

 And I don't even like salad but this was dang good. Chicha on the left is pretty yummy too.

****Also it's not even expensive. That's my favorite part.

Okay now that I got the important stuff (food) out of the way I'll give the rest of the update.

So last Saturday I experienced Peruvian health care which I gotta say is actually really awesome, the health care itself NOT the fact that I needed to experience it. I had a really bad reaction to the Malaria pills I was taking and I got really dizzy, chest pains, etc that were symptoms of the medicine along with being in a totally new place and all that jazz, or that's what I understood from the Doc. Moral of the story all is well, I'm feeling way better and the next day I was able to climb a mountain (with the help of some motion sickness pills haha)!
*****Special shout out to Aída (jr.) for taking me. This was another time where I felt so incredibly blessed to live with this family. Everyone was so concerned about me and made me feel so cared for.

Sunday morning I woke up at 5:15am and I felt pretty good so I decided I could join my group, my UNK professor, his wife and our grammar teacher for our journey to Matucana. I'm just going to put a few pictures up of this because it was amazing. Definitely my favorite part of the trip so far so I was really happy I was actually able to go.

Then I had school. That wasn't too fun. My conversation teacher went on a huge rant about how we shouldn't call ourselves Americans and Peruvian Literature was about as exciting as it sounds! I do like my cultural psychology class a lot and grammar is okay since the teacher is super nice. I'm loving it here but definitely missing home.

Anyway, that's all for now folks! :)

Getting Comfortable

So before I came here I was told that the first two weeks of the trip are the hardest because it's the time when you get the most homesick, culture shocked, language shocked, etc... But honestly these last two weeks have gone by really fast! Although, I still have experienced all of the above. Part of what has helped me is that we have a lot of fun trips to look forward too like the Amazon Feb. 2-4 where I HAVE to hold a sloth and Machu Picchu Feb. 5-8 where I mean it's one of the 7 wonders of the world, so obviously I'm pumped :). That's what I have to come but here is a wrap up of the last week...

Last Saturday some of my family took me on a little tour of Miraflores and I realized that the day before when I went with the UNK group... we went to about all the worst places you could go haha not dangerous or anything just that we went to the worst restaurant area, the worst beach and not even the prettiest park so it's safe to say we were big time Miraflores nubes. Now that I have the local scoop we will be much better off next time. My tour guides below were Joshua and Flavia on the ledge and from left to right Aída (jr), Aída (sr) and Gladius then on the lower picture Aleesia is next to me, she took turns with her mama taking the pictures.

Sunday was a relax/homework day. As this is my first semester ever only taking 12 credits, not having a job and not playing soccer... Free time is kind of hard to get used too. In that time I have begun to watch this ridiculous reality show "Esto es Guerra" it's kind of like a mix of "Real World" and "Wipe Out" if you can imagine that. I also tried Peruvian Ceviche for the first time... not sure I'm in love but it was pretty good. So far I have loved the food here overall. I think "aji de gallina con pollo" was my favorite which is a dish with chicken, rice and potatoes served with an aji peper sauce. A close second was "lomo saltado" which has tomatoes, onions, beef, potatoes and idk what else but mmmmmm :) both of these were made by Pati who is my family's cook. I have loved everything she has made so far. It's pretty awesome. 

Monday - Thursday was school. Nothing crazy exciting to report on that but on Tuesday Amber, Nikki, Fin, Adam and I went to the movie "No Se Aceptan Devoluciones" and it is AMAZING, even if you don't know any Spanish it is a must see. 

Thursday night was our first "going out" experience and we went to a Discoteca in Miraflores which was basically just a really awesome night club and you just dance the whole time! I feel so lucky to be with this UNK group because everyone was so protective of each other, always making sure we were together and if one of us girls didn't want to dance with someone (me for example haha) the boys (Jorge, Adam or Dan) would come in for the rescue. We ended up getting home around 2:30am after our 20 min cab ride home and the funny part of this was that for Peruvians we came home REALLY early. I was thinking that we had a late night but no, usually people don't come home from the clubs till like 5 or 6am. Here's a before pic even, missing Dan and Adam and the addition of Karla (my Ecuadorian sort of host sister) 

Then to finish off, yesterday Luciano and I did some tanning....

And Amber, Nikki, Fin and I had a very American movie night of stuffing our faces with Pizza, chocolate, bread sticks and popcorn. I am so thankful they share my same interests haha 

A couple more Peru points:

• THEY DON'T EAT DINNER (or supper if you are one of my Nebraska friends, you know who you are ;) this is probably why everyone is skinny here.
• Meals are as follows: medium breakfast, big lunch, bread for dinner (really yummy bread I might add)
• The corn here is huge! 
• Coffee here is kinda gross unless you go to a café 
• They don't eat spicy food 
• They love bread (which means I fit in here wonderfully)
• Peruvian chocolate is delicious. 

One week down

Okay so I have now been in Peru for a whole week! I have had a few bouts of homesickness but thank goodness for technology because I have been able to keep in touch with friends via social media, FaceTime Luke, text C.A, and call my mom and dad all for free. It’s pretty wonderful. So I have talked about my new Peruvian family already so this time I will talk about my classes and some of the things I have gotten to do and try!

The classes I am taking are Advanced Conversation, Peruvian Literature and Advanced Grammar and Cultural Psychology. Dr. Miller teaches cultural Psychology, he is the professor here from UNK and his class is the only one taught in English. The other three classes are all taught by UPC professors, they speak very little amounts of English so sometimes it’s a real struggle. My Costa Rica experience has really helped me in this department because I have kind of gotten over the shock of being in another country where everyone is speaking Spanish all the time. Speaking of Costa Rica, in my short time in Peru I already like Peru WAY more. Yes, Costa Rica is gorgeous and I loved going to the resorts and zip lining and seeing the beautiful forests BUT the people of Lima are so much kinder and understanding. When you go out to eat, the waiters and waitresses are very patient and try to help you along if you get stuck on words and aren’t sure what to say. It’s also way cleaner here, there are always people sweeping the streets and raking up leaves. Also, it might help that I love my family here and in Costa Rica… Not so much.

My schedule is pretty wonderful because my Spanish classes are all in the afternoon Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and my Cultural Psychology class is in the morning on Tuesday. So no classes on Friday!  This is something I really missed from my time at Colombia Basin College. During the week we (as in my UNK friends and I) did lots of exploring around Surco, which is the district of Lima we live in. We went to Bembos, which is like Peru’s version of McDonalds but way better tasting. Also, we went to Jockey Plaza that is the biggest mall I have ever seen! We have now gone twice and I have probably only seen a quarter of it. There are tons of Starbucks here (surprise Lima is like Washington, a Starbucks on every corner) but we also went to a really cute local café. We also tried out the cheap wine selection in Peru and had a few drinks on the rooftop of Nikki’s house (UNK group) – we were definitely living the good life even if I was only drinking boxed wine haha

***Side note: Lima has 43 districts and about 9 million people.

Vino (wine) with Jen!

Yesterday was our first big adventure as a group and we went to Miraflores! It’s the most touristy district of Lima so there were lots of cute shops and restaurants. It was here that we finally saw the ocean! It was gorgeous even though the beach was rocks instead of sand (I guess the really pretty beaches are in the south, farther away from Surco). This will definitely be the first time I have ever had a tan in January :) 

Finally got to see the ocean!

The end of day 5

Okay so I have now been in Lima, Peru for roughly 120 hours so I thought I should attempt my first ever blog. The past five days have gone by in a blur, it still hasn't hit me that I will be here for almost four months. So I will start from the beginning...
I arrived at the Lima airport at around 11:30pm and my host mom Aída, one of her daughters Marylinda (Mary) and Alessia who is one of Aída's granddaughters picked me up and drove me back to my new home for the next four months and I immediately fell asleep after the almost 14 hours of traveling and airport dwelling.

My first official day in Peru, Saturday, was spent attempting to get to know my new family. This is an ongoing process because my new family is HUGE. Let me rephrase, huge for me as I only have one brother and my two parents in America.

So here is Mi Familia Peruana:

Aída (Sr.) is the oldest of the house and is either the mama, tia or abuela to everyone here. She speaks no English but is extremely sweet and always is making sure that I am doing alright.

Gladius is Aída's sister and she knows very little English but also is just extremely sweet whenever she sees me.

Aída (Jr.) is the oldest of Aída's (Sr.) children. Her husband and three children all live here in a kind of separated/attached apartment. That's the best way I can explain it. She actually does speak English fairly well but I try my best only to use Spanish but I use English for S.O.S.

Coque is Aída's (Jr.) husband, he speaks very little English but he is so nice and patient when I speak with him.

Aleesia (age 12), Favia (age 6), and Luciano (age 4) are Coque and Aída's 3 children. I already love them and my favorite part of breakfast every morning is waking up to a kiss on the cheek from all 3 of them.

Marylinda or Mary is Aída's (Sr.) youngest daughter and she is one of the prettiest and nicest people I have ever met. She speaks English very well and always helps to translate when I get stuck on words. She is also the creator of my new nickname "Meli" which I will talk about later.

Pito is Aída's (Sr.) son who also lives here with his wife Veronica. I haven't talked with them quite as much yet but they lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 6 years so they know a lot of English and seem very nice.

Adriana (age 10) and Lyah (age 7) are Pito and Veronica's two children. Both of them remember some English from their time in Atlanta so when one of the other children want to say something to me, they both try to translate.

Aída (Sr.) also has one other son and he and his wife have a son named Joshua (age probably 4, I have not asked). They don't live with us here but I met them this weekend so more info on this part of the family will come later.

Finally, there is Karla who is from Ecuador and goes to UPC but is currently on summer break so she won't have classes again until March. She is leaving for Mexico on January 29th to visit her dad for a month which makes me sad because she has really helped me transition to Peruvian life. She has helped me get a Peruvian phone, new chargers, shown me what transportation to use and really made me feel welcome.

Basically, I live with 13 amazing people. I still have a lot to learn about them all but they are the most welcoming and kind people. I feel like the luckiest person in Peru because I get to live with such a happy and loving family.

Here's a few more bullet points to wrap it up the last few days...

• Every time you greet or say goodbye to someone you kiss them on the cheek (this is hard for me to get used to).
• I now go by "Meli" which is short for my real name Melissa. I actually kind of love it, which is wierd since I have never gone by anything but Missy. Marylinda started calling me this from the first day I got here and everyone else followed suit. 
• I live literally across the street from campus, which is awesome.
• It's really hot, which is also awesome.
• I already love everyone from UNK and I can't wait for all of us to get closer throughout this adventure.
• UPC has a beautiful campus.
• "chevere" = cool (this is the first slang word I learned here).

So far so good... I love Peru :)

My "Welcome to Peru" Presents

The Beautiful UPC Campus

The whole UNK group