First day at Mundo Libre

I promise the Cuzco post is coming soon. We just did so much in three days that I am having trouble organizing everything. I have it started though, I promise. With lots of photos!

 On another note, I did my orientation day at my internship yesterday. It was such a LONG day. I left the house at 0730 and walked up to the bus stop. The bus for IML picked me up at at 0805 and we finally arrived at 0900. An hour bus ride is how I will start and end my days. I got my tour around the boys home in the morning and then a tour of the what will be the girls home after they are finished unpacking from their recent move. After my tour I got released to spend time with the girls. All of the girls are in their teens (which as we all know is a great stage for girls but all seem to be sweet. I will be there from 0900 until 1730, I do workshops with the girls, eat lunch with the girls and everything else. I can tell from yesterday that the language difference will be a HUGE barrier and I will have a lot of problems because of it, but I hope that after a while they will warm up to me and things will start to go smoothly. Day by day I learn a little more and the girls I talked to yesterday were pretty patient with me. Until the day that we can communicate smoothly comes around I will just keep going back and doing my best. I took the hour bus ride back at the end of the day and was so drained that once I got home I changed, said hello to the hubby and fell fast asleep. I have a couple days off until I am back at it. At least now I know what to expect.

 Until next time, I will keep up on the posts as much as possible, get the Cuzco post up soon and keep pressuring the hubs into sharing on the blog.

 Hasta Luego.

Waiting at the Bus Stop

Week 2

It looks like I am only having the time right now to do weekly updates. Settling into a new country can be very time consuming and busy busy busy! We have had so much to do and figure out. Learning the city, figuring out where we need to go without getting lost, how long it will take to get to where we are going,and settling into our new home.

Monday we got back from Cusco (it was supposed to be Sunday but you will hear more about that in my Cusco entry coming soon!) and moved into what is going to be our new home for the next four months. Our room is small, but not less than what we need. Right now we have two twin beds that we have converted into a King, but should be getting Queen size bed soon. The first floor is all common areas, the second is the rooms for the family and the third is rental rooms. There are 5 (i think)rooms on the third floor and two shared baths which Mitchell and I use. It is nothing elegant or fancy, but it is exactly what we need and we are very excited to have found it. The family that we are staying with is amazing. Fanny, the mother, has been great already teaching me how to cook and helping me SO MUCH with my Spanish. I really look forward to the time that we have here getting to know them.

Tuesday this week we met with the rest of our group and went on a tour of Historic Lima. We got to see so much and so many beautiful buildings. Mitchell understood more than I did, but it was amazing seeing so much of the city. We plan on going back and exploring more soon. Maybe I can even get him to contribute to the blog and help me to explain some of the things that we went and saw! I can tell you where we went but the history I understood was amazing and hopefully we can share more of that! Tuesday was a really long day and by the end of it we were for bed.

Wednesday and Thursday Mitchell had Orientation for his school and a chance to meet his professors and I think choose some classes. While he was gone I walked around our area a little bit, visited our local Starbucks and found the laundry mat where we will be dropping off our laundry while we are here. It is 5 or 6 soles per kilo of laundry and we pick it up the next day. Since I dropped it off Thursday and Mitchell left early this morning to go to Iquitos with the group we had to pay 28 soles in order to get it back in time for him to pack! Lesson learned. We also braved the bus system a couple times this week. Mitchell more than myself. We have been taking Taxi's around the city, usually about 10 soles, because the buses are a bit confusing and we have had deadlines since we arrived. As we get to know the city more I am sure that it will become easier and easier We do have it figured out to get to the ISA office and Mitchell can get to school. Hopefully the next weekend we have off we will take the bus to Pachacamac where I will be doing my internship starting September!

At about 2 a.m. the alarms started ringing and going off for Mitchell to get up. By 2:30 a.m. he was out the door to another exciting adventure while I am here doing my own thing. I slept in this morning, went to the grocery store and then came home and spend some time with Fanny. She taught me how to cook a local Peruvian dish which I am excited to try when we get back to states and I spent the afternoon just talking to her, as best as I could. I about killed my cell phone battery using Word Reference to figure out some of what she was saying. I feel very lucky to be in this situation where technology is available to help bridge the language gap.

Being in a country, especially alone like I am this weekend, and not being able to speak fluently and converse the way I am used to can be extremely overwhelming. One on one it isn't horrible, but in a large group of people where it is hard to keep up it is draining. I am enjoying the challenge though, tiring as it may be, and learning little by little. I am determined to fit in and not stand out as a typical American. I will slowly learn the customs and I am positive my language skills will improve. I am confident going to the store, ordering food and such alone; I know that eventually it will come naturally to me.

I have a lot to catch up on this weekend, writing in my journal, organizing our room so that we are comfortable living in it and hopefully finding time to tell you all about our amazing time in Cusco and visiting one of the seven wonders of the world. I find myself being a little bit of a hermit as I adjust to our new home and surroundings. Hopefully that will all change as I become more comfortable but as for right now, I am enjoying the break and down time. Keep an eye out for a second entry from me this weekend! We miss you all bunches and can't wait to see you in December.

Hasta Luego!

One Week Already?!

Cats sleeping in the courtyard of a chuch

I figured by not doing a daily update that it wouldn't get annoying, however I realize now that this will just be a long post. First week comes to an end tomorrow and we have been SO busy. We have done a lot of exploring around the district of Miraflores. We are getting to know our way around, at least knowing the different districts. We learned that the cats are only in Parque Kennedy. We still have yet to learn the story behind it but we heard it was because the priests in the area feed the strays. This weekend we went to Parque Kennedy to walk around and they were doing a cat adoption. It was busy this past weekend with many street vendors selling beautiful works of art, people walking around and watching performers and food vendors. We had quite possibly the best churro that I have ever had with a dulce de leche filling. YUM! I can get used to the food out here.

View of the Beach

The main ISA office is by Universidad del Pacifico in Jesus Maria. We went there before everyone else for our program arrived and met with one of the on-site coordinators. Everyone working in the office is amazing and we were able to get some information about the area and some tips on things to do. We also got to go the where I will be doing my internship and get to meet the people and get a short tour of the place. I also got the opportunity to talk to the outgoing students that have been working there. I am so excited to start working and may start volunteering early since I am already here. We are still in the search for a place to live but we have an area that we want to be in and a couple prospects so we are hopeful. We have been spending nights in most of the time, we are usually beat by the end of the day from all the excitement and exploring a new city and for me getting used to a new language.
Here are some views from our current room. I am still learning how to arrange pictures. Forgive the spastic arrangement of the photos!



You can also see an area where clothes are hanging to dry. Many Peruvians do not have dryers so they hang their clothes to dry. Due to the VERY high humidity it takes a couple days for clothing to dry. Our room right now is COVERED in clothes hanging to dry. :)

Alfajores

Yesterday was Mitchell's first official day and I got to tag along to orientation. They gave lots of good information and did an orientation for our trip to Cuzco that we leave for on Thursday. I am so excited for that trip! Today we met up with a new friend that we were introduced to by Mitchell's cousin Ashley and went to look at places. He is such a great person. It is nice to know a local person who can keep us in the good neighborhoods and show us good food to eat. We have Peruvian tamales for breakfast this morning and tried Alfajores for the first time. They both were delicious. I am so excited for all the good food that we are going to get while we are here! After that we went of a Scavenger Hunt with the ISA group and local students. It was a ton of fun (my group won!) and we got to see the distract of Barranco, which Mitch and I hadn't been to yet. I have yet to see a part of Lima that I can't wait to explore more of.

Us in Parque Kennedy

All in all everything is great here! We are both completely in love with the country and the people of Peru. It is a huge challenge to assimilate to a new way of life, a new environment, new food and a new language but it is such a thrilling and exhilarating experience.  We have been working pretty hard to fit in and not get anything stolen this week while we get to know the city a little more so that is why we do not have many pictures but I realize as I sit here that it makes for a rather dull entry. Tomorrow we are going to do some more exploring and look for some stuff that will keep us warm this upcoming weekend so look out for a picture heavy blog tomorrow! I hope to have some more photos of the city, the traffic (horrible!) and the shops and areas that we get to explore! Hasta Luego!