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.