finally fri!!

Backstreet boys concert….. AWESOME!! They didn’t start playing til 12! I guess it’s Peru-time they were on. They played some new ones ( didn’t know those – who does?? ) and alllll their old ones!! Was so fun, and so funny cause all the chicas there would sing the words and say the words dif – prolly just how we talk all the time, and it was just funny to listen to. Then we were walking back, and we saw police and the the backstreet boys in a car speeding away!! Then when I got back to my apartment, I saw the car again – going like 90mph and I’m like, ‘What the heck, who needs to go that fast right now, it’s 3am!’, and then I was like, ‘OMG! That was the BackstreetBoys!!’ Pretty sure they stayed at the super elite Mariott 3 blocks from my apartment in Larcomar – a super savvy hotel with watchdogs and secret doors and such. Yeah.. I pretty much met them! And Amanda was at the same club as them on Tuesday night but they gated it off so no one else could go to that part of the club – but still super cool! Sleep is not something that I’ve gotten this week. A lot a lot of homework, then I stayed up til 230am listening to Backstreet Boys the night before the concert (idk why!!) and then awake for the concert til 330am – and always getting up cause I have to do homework in the morning, and I can’t sleep pasta 8 or 9am anyway. So I’m pretty tired today – I need to catch up! I don’t know what the day holds, but going out tonight (of course!) and the beach on Saturday (I will apply sunscreen every 15 min!!) and then out and then.. hopefully rest on Sunday, but who knows. I’m really just kind of like.. loving it here right now. I’m kind of realizing like – omg – you’re in peru molly! – and it’s awesome. There’s so much going on all the time, always something new to do and try. I’m getting used to the cat calls – my life pretty much summed up here is sweating and cat calls, how those two mix, I don’t know but they do every day! My computer is being really dumb tho, it for real took like an hour for it to start today. I was pretty sick yesterday (so maybe it wasn’t the Peruvian hotdog) and less sick today. I think there isn’t a day that goes by that one of us in the group isn’t sick – everything’s just so new and different and the air and the food, but not bad sick, just like – oh I don’t feel good but I’m still going to have an amazing day. One thing that’s sad here is the poverty. The ones that make me the saddest and that I usually give in to and give money are the women with babies on their backs begging for money. All the beggars will come to me it seems like and keep pestering me, and Kelly will usually have to say “Leave her alone, she’s not going to give you anything!” lol, they must see the weakness in my face or something. It’s a different world here and it’s amazing. Update me on how all of you are, I feel like it’s been a few days. Love and miss you!
Un beso de Peru

hasta miercoles

So tonight.. uhh Backstreet Boys! I am super super pumped! Lol – should be amazing!! All the old 90’s songs!! This week has been alright, on Monday we had a field trip instead of class to church’s in Lima – beautiful, huge church’s with this tour guide (I should know his name!) who is a famous writer and well known historian here? And yesterday for class we met with former Congressman Carlos Ferrero who was part of Congress during Fuijimori’s term and he just talked to us about corruption in the world and in Peru and.. it’s really interesting. We get to meet some pretty interesting people and go to some pretty elite places while we are here! Monday morning I woke up really sick.. I think it’s because what I ate on Sunday night, or maybe what I didn’t eat?? I had the sickest thing on Sunday night, I couldn’t even pretend to like it, for real. It was hot dogs – and I had no idea what it was when my host mom said it, I don’t know what the word for hotdog is in Spanish! But she said, ‘Oh you’ll really like it – it’s American food!’… uhh no! lol. Elisabeth served it to me and I was like o m g! Except.. I don’t know how.. but it was worse! It didn’t even look cooked and it wasn’t like.. the same. It was worse. I didn’t know you could get worse than American hotdogs – it had like dif meat or something, like gushy – like maybe cat or dog or something? I don’t even know but I could not even pretend to like it. I couldn’t even stand the smell. I decided I had to try it, it wasn’t hamster, and it could be totally good right, I mean did eat duck the other day.. uhh wrong – it was soooo so sick I almost spit it out back on my plate. So I just cut the rest up in little pieces and tried to like move it around and push it under my rice lol.. didn’t really work. Elisabeth always knows and she laughed and said you don’t like it, and then asked me if I didn’t like American food, and I said no.. lol. I couldn’t even pretend to like it, I never wanted to see that on my plate again. So I felt sick all morning yesterday and I think it’s cause of that sick cat-dog or something. It wasn’t from my malaria pills tho.. cause I stopped taking those lol. Wendy, from the ISA staff said it was ridiculous that we all had to take them, especially since they make us sick (they make all of our stomachs upset and make me throw up a lot too!) So we all decided to stop taking them, we aren’t going into any Malaria zones anyway she said, even when we do go to la selva. Then.. Kelly got sick. Kelly went to Africa during J-term and she said she didn’t take Malaria pills, but was in Malaria zones of course. So Kelly thought she had Malaria and oddly enough we all stopped taking our Malaria pills.. So I might have Malaria now! Hah no – Kelly is better tho and hopefully does not have Malaria! Last night was Michaels birthday and we sang karaoke (it’s the cool thing to do here for real, and it’s super funny and quite fun actually) and lucuma cake – lucuma is the richest fruit here that is to die for when put with chocolate. A must have while in Peru! So tonight is Backstreet Boys (super super pumped!!!!) Thursday night is Salsa dancing, and Friday night is a baby shower for Michelle on the ISA stuff, then out again!! This week we have had a TON of homework!! Next week we are starting salsa dancing classes three days a week – super super excited for!! I need to catch up with everyone soon – I feel like I haven’t heard people’s voices in a while! And I’m getting unburnt and mostly tanner – my daily makeup routine is.. deodorant (it’s so hot it’s usually off in the first hour!), hand sanitizer, because everything is dirty and sunscreen – and my belly ring is raw and my belly button is very sunburnt and hurts! Lol, if that’s not sick info you wanted to know.
Love and miss you!
Besos!!

the weekend and then some!!

Ok! Sorry sorry sorry it’s been a while!! I’ve been busier than busy the last few days!! Where did I leave off? Oh yeah – I think Wednesday – hard hard hard day of class. I was just like – “Nevermind, I’d like to go home please, this is harder than I expected,” and I was just at a low point, and the group had made plans to go salsa dancing that night, but I didn’t want to, I just wanted to be miserable at home, but I told everyone I was going, so I went and.. it was amazing!! I love it! We are going to take classes weekly – hopefully more than once a week – and then go to the clubs on the weekend. We went to a salsa club on Friday after karaoke (yep, karaoke bar – first time – was hilarious), and the salsa dancing was amazing… amazing! The way they can move is incredible, oh I want to learn, but to be that good is of course impossible, it’s the coolest thing ever. We had class on Thursday, we went to a market to look at corruption in Peru, and looked at all these things for super super super cheap – like everything black marketed and.. it’s just different! Then Friday the girls in the group all went shopping in Miraflores.. super fun. I tried on like 10 pairs of shoes for super cheap in Saga Fallabella, but didn’t get any (I know ma – you wouldn’t believe it!), but did get some other things! A curling iron – cause if I use the one from the US, which I don’t know if it’s dual converter whatever, it will shut down all the electricity in my whole apartment building, which wasn’t a risk I wanted to take. I figured I could spend 100 soles on a curling iron, instead of a few loans to pay for the re-wiring of my apartment building! Shopping was fun, followed by ice cream (lucuma of course, a fruit here with super super rich ice cream, a def must try when you’re here), and then went home to get ready for the night of karaoke for an intercambio with other Peruanos, and it was so funny. We had drinks before all together (mojitos!), then walked to the karaoke bar (all in Miraflores, right where I live, super convenient for me!) and we sang karaoke for 3 hours! Lol – it was kinda weird at first, but it’s super fun! And funny!! It’s really chill cause no one cares if you’re really bad – like me, lol. Then we went to the Cuban salsa club – o m g amazing, you for real wouldn’t believe these dancers! I like to just sit there and watch, but sometimes someone will make me get up and dance, even tho I tell them I’m a gringa and can’t, but they say it’s the only way to learn – which is true!! So I give it my best shot and it’s always fun, lol, I’m sure you can imagine. Then the next morning went to Amanda’s to go to the beach in Santa Maria with her host sister and her friend, and laid out on the beach alllll day – was amazing…. And hot.. and I am no longer white, I’m pure red!! Ouch it hurts! Sunscreen 5 times I swear!! The ocean was so strong and beautiful, and we had ceviche for lunch on the beach (it’s supposed to be super good there) – a must have while in Peru! – I really like it too, and Chicha Morada – their purple corn drink, that’s quite good! (you need to try all this when you come Pagina!) Then, we got back to Amanda’s, I went home to get ready for the night, I got lost (to give you the PG 13 version.. rents J ) lol, and then we went out again! We went and got drinks in Café Café, a restaurant in Larcomar that over looks the ocean, yes – we can buy our own drinks! But it’s expensive… it’s like the same price, which is not too fun! And then we went to Barancco – kind of a sketch part of Lima, but where all the discotecas are, and danced for the night! Our Peruano friends had to go and ask for the price first before they saw all of us Americans, because they said they’d super over charge us if they saw us – so they got the price and paid before they even saw that all us Americans were coming in. It was – a weird bar kinda, girls danced on the table and – was weird lol, but fun! I’m learning to keep it chill – not everyone is out to get me, there are watchful eyes everywhere, and every taxi driver doesn’t have the same idea. I got my first fake money the other day! Luckily it was only 50 centimos, and the combi girl on the bus just handed it back to me and said no, it’s not real. And so I gave her another one – I was just glad it was 50 soles or 100! That would not be fun.. but it will probably happen! I asked the mom-like woman beside me if it was fake and how and she explained it to me. Then before she left, she kissed me and told me to be careful in Lima. So don’t worry rents, for every one sketch person, there are two good ones, I’m sure of it. One weird thing about being here is that.. I really don’t know the music besides some random stuff in clubs and the salsa – because everywhere everywhere they listen to American music! In the malls, in restaurants, in combis and taxis sometimes, everywhere! Like.. not now music tho – like 80 & 90’s music lol. Oh.. speaking of the good ole’ 90’s – we bought tickets for the Backstreet Boys in Lima for Wednesday! Lol – super pumped. (yes santh – I’ll do the dance we made up for dance camp to, ‘I want you back,’ don’t worry!)
I feel comfortable where I live – I get along well with my host mom and my maid – they are both super sweet. Pilar is my host mom and Elisabeth is the maid. Elisabeth makes everything – last night she made homemade lucuma ice cream! Was good – but really really rich! And I had spaghetti! I get excited every time I don’t have rice for a meal. I think I may never eat rice again after these next few months. It’s with everything! I don’t even wanna go out for Chinese, even tho it’s really good here, just cause I don’t wanna eat rice! And I still don’t know what I’m eating.. my maid will tell me but I won’t know what the heck the new words are so I try it.. and sometimes I like it and sometimes I don’t and she always knows lol. I’m just afraid that one of these times it’s going to be cuy – which is hamster!!! Which I have made it a point to NOT try! I don’t know if I could sleep well after knowing I have a rat in my stomach. Ick! I have at least 6 pieces of silverware for every meal, and everything comes on a little saucer – even the jam. Very proper or something here. Sometimes there’s mayo on my salads too.. it’s different. But the mayo here isn’t like the stuff we have, it’s a lot lighter and made with more milk, and I haven’t the heart to tell Elisabeth yet that I don’t want it, all my stuff is laid out waiting for me before I can see it. They also have amazing juice drinks here too – maracuya, banana leche, peach, strawberry, papaya, sooo good!
Right now I’m in my room watching Jon and Kate plus 8 in Spanish, love it (you would too Mandy, I know it! Lol)! Except Kate’s spanish voice-over is waaay too nice! It’s totally not the strict, bossy Kate that we love! So glad I got to listen to baby Presy talk for a little bit today! Oh I miss him so and all his little movements. I miss everyone and think of you often, I’ve hung up pictures and my little notes and so my room is more like my own with you all here with me! I haven’t put up pics yet – I know I know I need to! – but I don’t have internet in my house so when I am on the net I like to talk to people and email back and stalk everyone’s facebook (they call it fa-SAY-book here, funny!) real quick! I’ll get them up sometime tho! Hope everyone is doing well and to hear from you soon!
Sylv – Happy Birthday babe! Sorry I missed it, I was thinking of you tho! And trying to think of your birthday last year…. And I can’t. Why is that? I don’t think that’s a good thing – must have been fun! Lol ;)
- un beso de Peru

home sounds good

And for today..... I'd like to go home.

Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed.

getting in the groove

I can’t believe it’s already the 17th! Things are getting easier; I understand the combis and I know where I’m at most of the time and school is school (they give us like sooo so much to read!!), but I’m starting to really like my environment. My host mom is sooo soo sweet, and she lets me do whatever I want basically whenever I want. She is very very artsy and there’s these huge beautiful paintings all over and she always tells me about her life (which is very rich and interesting). I’m not as put off by the cat-calls, I come to expect them, I am blonde! The other day I learned the hard way not to wear a watch. Someone came up to me and asked for the time (completely harmless parents, don’t worry, was in broad daylight – I think I should put a warning label on this sometimes), and I thought that was innocent enough, I can give someone the time, then he started asking for my name and where I was from and where I was going, so I said, ‘No gracias,’ like I didn’t understand lol. Girlfriends – you’d never recognize me! My geek-watch is too touristy to wear and my Peru phone didn’t come with a clip! Peru is stripping the geek from me! What do I do! lol. The fruit here is amazing amazing, soo yummy; maracuya, lucuma, the watermelon is so delic, even the apples are sweeter! I have fruit everyday and it’s so cheap too when I buy it on the street! I eat rice with everything everything while at home. They eat rice with potatoes, rice with bread, rice with meat, rice with vegetables, rice with .. anything and everything. I haven’t had a meal yet without rice! And they have super yummy chifa – the Chinese, which isn’t as sketch as we have it in the US (I hope!). I have super super delic coffee every morning with their sugary leche. They have dif pop tho – the cola tastes flat and they have this ‘peruvian pop’ called Inca – Cola. Tastes like straight up bubble gum in a bottle. Why anyone would wanna drink that, I don’t know, but everyone does! They drink something called chichi morada a lot for meals, it’s like a kool-aid drink made out of purple corn that’s super super yum. Their drink is the Pisco Sour – and oh it’s strong! But very yummy J. We got it free a lot over the weekend – at our hotel, at restaurants when we go in as a group, etc. I think I may have Peru-allergies tho, cause I’m always sneezing now. It could be from all the pollution – it’s so so strong! During rush hour, on my way home, my eyes sometimes burn, and my nose too cause there’s so much fuel emission. I do my power-walking along the ocean coast in the mornings with other joggers and runners – oh it’s amazing. The view is simply breathtaking. A picture or words cannot describe it.. and I get to walk it every morning! The desserts here are very dif, but yummy. (I’ll watch out sylv – try at least!!) (And Mandy, you’d love love the ice cream – it’s to die for! I had some with chocolate covered cereal the other day! My new fav) My maid made me something with sugar, milk.. and other stuff I didn’t understand – and it had kind of a weird texture, like a sponge or something, but it was good. While I ate it, she sat like – a foot away from me watching me eat it. Maybe less than a foot. I was like, “It’s good, thanks.” All the while she is staring at me. Then I said thanks again. Then she told me I had very beautiful blue eyes. Lol. It’s just different here I guess. A lot of times I have no idea what I’m eating (that would def not fly at home!), but my maid tells me I don’t have to eat anything I don’t like and she can tell when I don’t like something and laughs (I’m very bad at lies, especially trying to eat food I don’t like). And I feel comfortable enough where I don’t eat the things I don’t like. My maid refers to me in the formal, which is very different, like I’m above her, which is something we don’t do in the US. There’s def a class system here. My host mom rings a bell when she wants our maid to come, and then she does. Seems like something for a pet, just different I guess. I bought an air-freshner cause my room smelled kinda weird at first, from all my host mom’s paint supplies and such, but I think I’m getting used to it, or the room is smelling more like me, but I bought an air freshner and now I’ve got this cheaply-cleaned bathroom smell in my room, so I think I may throw it away :P. I should actually do something right now – even though I’m just super overjoyed I have internet in my house right now! Love and miss you! Un beso!

weekend weekend!!

So, I was originally planning on completely devoting myself to homework after I got back from the weekend, but a call from the ma and my internet working in my room (YES!) changed that! I have sooo much homework to do tonight - reading (lots) and writing a paper, but figured I should do some catching up as well! My weekend was.. well, amazing is an understatement! We left on Friday, cause we never have class on Friday, in the morning on a 5 hour bus ride to Ica. The drive there was a little humbling, going past all the boxes for houses - for real like boxes, it's really sad. And tons and tons of garbage too - I don't know where all the garbage comes from because they have nothing? There's so much garbage tho. (I just got done talking with my host mom - Pilar - and she said, I know you won't believe this mom and dad.. or anyone else really?? lol, but she said I had the best manners of any student she's ever had). Ok, back to the weekend - we arrived in Ica in the afternoon and decided to go swimming in our hotel pool - a true oasis - desert everywhere - heaps and mountains of sandy desert everywhere except for our plush green hotel area, and then we saw the boys of the group climbing one of the huge sand dune - mountain things and decided we needed to do that too. Was soooo sooo hard - so hard - it was like doing the stairmaster x 900, and then added with the desert heat and sticky sand, but once we made it to the top and saw the whole town and our own little oasis - it was so worth it - vale la pena - it was sooo so beautiful. Then we ran down the huge sand mountain and it felt like we were jumping on a trampoline it was so steep - was such a rush! Then we went swimming and found talking parrots in the trees in our hotel that said, "Hola!" Lol - was sooo funny. And they were soo pretty, except one was very mean and almost ate me. (but then we decided that maybe we didn't like the talking parrots so much after they woke us up at 6am the next morning!!) Then, after that, we were going to go on the dunebuggies and sandboarding, which I really didn't know what to expect. We got in the dune-buggies - they can fit about 12 passengers - and they have harnesses, like you're going on a rollercoaster or something. Yeah.. it was faster and scarier and crazier than the scariest rollerocoaster I've ever been on! The driver was for real loco and he wasn't even wearing a seatbelt! He would go sooo fast up these HUGE sand mountains and then we would fly - almost free falling - to the bottom. The whole dune-buggy was screaming for dear life - I for real thought I was going to die, lol, was a real rush. Then, we pulled over to go sandboarding - on these super super super huge huge huge sand mountains. HUGE! I was sooo soo soo so scared to go down - we all went on our bellies for the most part for the really big sand dunes, and actually sandboarded down the smaller ones. Omg was such a rush. Then we saw the sunset in the sand-dunes and was sooo soo pretty. Then we went back to the hotel, and they had gratis pisco sours waiting for us! Yay! lol - gotta love the Peruvian pisco sours - their drink - and they make it strong! The next day we got up (at 6am from our friends the parrots) at 8am to drive to Paracas. Paracas was soo cool! We saw the famous Candelabra geoglyph We got to see sea lions and penguins at Islas Ballestas! And lots and lots of birds - peruvian pelicans :P and the ocean was soo soo beautiful, and I got soo soo burnt too - and then sick on the boat as well - and right when I was sure I was going to throw up from the boat ride - our boat decided to run out of gasoline, so we had to wait for another boat to come help us. I felt better tho when we went shopping all afternoon! And I got some super cute stuff, and mostly not for me! ;) And I so bargained for it. After we left Paracas, we went on to Nazca for the night and hung out at the pool during the day, then went to the planetarium dedicated to Maria Reiche, the german mathematician who researched the Nazca lines for most of her life. After that we grabbed a bite to eat. It's interesting here because there are people outside the restaurant who try and sell their restaurant to you by showing you the menu, or telling you what their special is, or saying that we'll get free stuff - we went to the restaurant that gave us free pisco sour and cake lol. This morning, we got up early to catch our flights, or sobrevuelos, to see the Nazca lines! The planes hold 6 people and swirve back and forth back and forth so everyone can see the lines in the desert. It's pretty interesting. My theory, amongst hearing them all, is that they were an irrigation system, yes, but also a way of speaking to their gods - why else would they make something that no one else could see? And I do believe that they did try and line them up with the stars as well, even tho that theory is widely refused. Really interesting tho. After we got back to the hotel, we got on the bus - for 7 hours!! And I just got home! (a while ago now) And I guess Lima did have an "earthquake", but a very very small one - "muy chiquito" - said my host mom, so nothing to worry about mom and dad :). I got the pleasure of talking to a few people on Thursday night before I left! Miss you all sooo so much and like to stay connected with you! (can't believe I still have internet in my room speaking of!) And I love love the videos of Pres eating Mandy :) - you have to put up the one of him opening my present too! Ok.. now I have more homework than I should in Peru :P - but back to it now! love you all! besos

omg - first week!

Ok, so, I guess this is the first full week I've been here! Kinda crazy! I can maybe say that this may be up there with one of the hardest weeks of my life! It's just been intense taking everything in and learning all these new.. words and systems and .. everything! Today we had class of course, from 2pm to 5pm (3 hours Mon - Thurs) and it is getting easier, thankfully! The first day (last Thurs.) I was def thinking - what the heck am I doing here, uhhh I'd like to go home please! But it's getting better day by day, I'm a hard adjuster as everyone knows! School is dif here, you make copies of everything, and you can't just make them at the school - you have to go to a special shop, and you have print in special shops too outside of the school. Way dif than my Luther comfort zone where I can print and copy and waste all the paper possible at my beck and call. Got to class on a micro - bigger than a combi and more comfortable, and maybe like an eensy weensy bit cleaner. It takes about 45 min to get to class and about an hour 20 min to get home, cause of all the traffic. The combi fits probably about 16 people "legally" (there's no such thing as "legally" here), and today I counted.. there was between 16 and 20 people just standing in the aisles that weren't even sitting! It's hot and sweaty and close and there's no such thing as personal space. This girl told me to put my backpack in front of me so no one would steal anything, so I was thankful for the advice! I'm getting more used to the cat calls - I was really threatened by them at first and I felt scared everywhere I walked, but I'm getting accustomed. Guys will stare, whistle, yell out 'You're beautiful' and such in spanish, try to talk to you in english, taxi drivers will honk and do kissy faces out the window and stop in front of me all the time when I'm trying to walk across the street - it's definitely something to get used to! And it's everywhere especially because I'm white... and blonde. At times when I'm walking I promise myself I'll dye my hair and find myself wishing I were 6 foot 9! Thanks for the advice Pagina :) That's exactly what our director said too - that she stopped getting the cat calls and now she misses them! My computer.. is now working. It has not worked all day and I was pretty much a wreck this morning because of it. Having my comp not work sucks - having it not work in a dif country is so much more terrible! But our director said she knows a good technician if I have problems and that it's must cheaper and better service here too. It's working right now tho (have no idea why! I was basically almost in tears in Starbucks this morning) and I'm in my apartment and getting wireless internet! God is good! There are so many little things I don't understand here it's like whoa. For example.. I give my laundry away each week to the lavenderia.. I have no idea when I get it back. Also, there's this reappearing bread in my doorway and I don't know how it gets there. Many times, I have no idea what I'm eating. I ask, but I don't understand. Just these tiny things you'd never think you'd have to think of when you're in the comfort zone of home! I just started brushing my teeth with the water here, so hopefully I don't get sick! But def can't drink or do anything else with it. Little things are very dif - theft is super high, - you can't put toilet paper in the toilet, - you can't drink the water, - the police don't really have authority, - traffic is super crazy and they don't abide by signs (such as stop or pared) or others, - lots of money is fake, - many people won't accept "large" bills like 50/soles - which is about $15, just lots of little little things.
We are going to Ica, Paracas, and Nazca this weekend from Friday to Sunday and am super excited! But, first week - omg - dios mio - can't believe I made it through. It was a rough one. Asked myself many times what I was doing here with out the love and comfort of home, but that's all part of the experience, I'm sure!

First note!

Ok - so I'm in a whole different world - Peru, and having all of these crazy different things happen that I want to inform you all of without writing a bazillion emails, although you know I love you all :). I do have homework tho.. actually tonight, right now! But I wanted to let everyone know how I was doing so you can check in if you want to, or not bother you if you don't! I'm having so many new experiences it's just crazy! Some are not so fun, and some are exciting, but all hopefully well worth it! So here's the blog of Peru - to let the rents know I'm not dead (which they pretty much did think before they heard from me!!), and my sisters up to date and not just gushy emails about what Preston is doing every single second (Mandy) and my hardships and tough "problems" (Pagina), and able my friends to read when they miss me :). I'm in Starbucks right now about 3 blocks from my house in Larcomar. I live in Miraflores in an apartment in the middle of... everything! I live in the action basically and am attempting to do homework (homework on the second day of intense spanish - what the heck?) soon, after I created this blog of course, priorities! I had my second day of class today, and I finally got home on the bus! They call them 'combis' and they are.. a little sketch, but it's the norm, so what the heck. It's this little bus that's really dirty and they're all over Lima to get around, super cheap, about 2 soles (3 soles is about $1) and they try and pack as many people in there as possible so they can make more money. And it's hotter than heck as you can imagine. The combi probably naturally fits 14 people but I think about 20 or so were in it tonight. Then when you want to get off you have to yell, "Baja baja baja," and they pull over whenever you like lol. Little dif and little sketch, but it's how it works! And the traffic... well crazy is an understatement! Then I went home and my maid made me supper, I have no idea what I ate. They eat rice with everything, and they eat LOTS for meals. There are so many little things that you just don't have any idea about.. for example, I asked my maid what I was eating and I had no idea what she said of course, so - oh well! Lol, also bread always appears in the doorway of the living room each morning and I have no idea how it gets there. So many small things to figure out, that I'll keep posted! So I'll post often to keep everyone updated :) Hope you all are doing well and to hear from you soon! :) Besos.