When I landed at 1AM in Lima last night, my plan was to meet up with another girl in my program whose flight came in before mine, and wait with her until we could get a ride with our program at 6AM. So when I saw a man with a whiteboard that read 'Elizabeth Fairweather,' I knew he was my kidnapper and if I went with him I would be lost forever in some freaky sex trafficking business until I died of a cocaine overdose. I wasn't about to have a 'Taken' experience, so I just averted my eyes and sat around in populated areas for almost an hour, before a woman comes up to me and says she's my host mom. My spanish was not only limited, but also mixed with a lot of portuguese (in less than 24 hours I'm back on track though, this family is super encouraging and I'm learning spanish pretty fast talking to them, wahoo!) But somehow I became convinced she was Carmela, my host mom, and not an innocent-looking decoy and we were off with the poor taxi driver who had to wait for me. And vamos! We're driving through Lima, trying to speak spanish, and then we're at the most AMAZING BEAUTIFUL HOME AND I GOT TO PICK MY ROOM WHICH WAS STOCKED WITH DOCES AND FLORES AND MY OWN BATHROOM AND WHY DO I GET TO BE SUCH A PRINCESS?!?
This morning, we walked into Centro de San Borja (San Borja is the district of Lima we live in) and bought crazy frutas, pan integral, and tamales. Carmela and I both like quinoa and todos verduras solo no pimientos (all vegetables except peppers), so basically we're best friends. Then, I met her son Renzo and his wife Carola, and her husband Pepe before going to the beach. Except first we went house-hunting for Renzo and Carola, which was insane and involved me swimming in a pool right by the beach and saltando en un trampolin (jumping on a trampoline, fuck yeah!) at a YACHT club while they looked at the propriedads. Then we bought some food (recommended were Ritz crackers, plantain chips and keke (cake), before going to the beach.
When we came back, Taylor, one of the other 2 girls that will be staying in this castle of a casa, had arrived. She's from LA, plays rugby, and dedicated one entire suitcase to zapatos. I'm excited about her! We went out to dinner at a 'chifa' restaurant, which is peruvian-chinese fusion. The food and INKA KOLA was deliciosa.
So far, my experience in Peru is confirming my suspicion that I am destined to always be in the best situation possible, surrounded by the best people. I guess I can't escape it, no matter how far I travel. Oh well!
Goal: Understand what these people are saying, soon, even though Brasil has made me quite used to never knowing what's going on.
Hasta luego!
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