My first flight (to Miami) went good. Nothing to crazy, and no I didn't get to see the giant oil spill when we went over the gulf. Once I got to Miami I started to get really nervous and felt really alone (welcome the beginning of culture shock). People all around me were speaking Spanish and I definitely felt lost. Now I'm sitting at the gate for my next flight, to Lima (it's about 10p.m. in Miami). I'm starting to get worried that my Spanish isn't up to par for this trip, I really hope I'm wrong. I met these two young women not much older than me that are going to Machu Picchu just to go and don't speak any Spanish so that made me feel better, I can at least understand some of it. Then I met two extremely nice women on the plane. A woman of Korean heritage was on her way with her church for a mission trip, there seemed to be a lot of mission trip groups on my flight-it was packed by the way, who would have thought. The other woman is from Lima and was visiting with her American husband and children for the first time in 3 years.
It was really hard to leave my mom and stepdad in Houston, I am still nervous about doing this by myself. I talked to Emily (my roommate) today briefly through text. I'm really excited to meet her and my host family. I know once I actually get there everything will be alright because I will have tons of helpful people around me.
After arriving in Peru - Very early and very cloudy. I'll tell you Lima taxi drivers are way more intense than NYC. So right off the plane two ISA directors met me and Paul, speaking entirely Spanish. This is were I start getting worried. Then driving through Lima early in the morning is an experience. I arrived at my host family at around 7am and none of them speak English, Alejandra speaks some English but prefers Spanish, which I understand. So I can barely understand them and I'm extremely tired at this point. Their house is gorgeous with very large and ornate (I believe that is the word I want to use) furniture . I'll post picture tomorrow, I have to use the offices ethernet until they setup the WiFi. I ate breakfast with mi madre de Peru Victoria and mi hermana Alejandra, then attempted to try and sleep. My nerves were on edge and my phone wasn't working at this point. Eventually I fell asleep and woke up around noon, took a shower and unpacked. Then Alejandra and I figured out how to hook my computer up to the ethernet, I showed her what Skype was..she loved it. Then we had a late lunch which was very good with stuff I couldn't tell you what, but we did have some watermelon :)
I also found out my classes start Tuesday (martes - see I'm trying already) and are back to back starting at 9:30 until 2p.m. Hopefully they will go easy on us the first few days, it's suppose to be completely taught in Spanish (what was I thinking signing up for this trip, oh the once in a lifetime excursions that's right). My classes are Spanish Grammar and Culture, Composition and Conversation.Later there was music coming from outside and my host family took me out to see this shrine of Mary being carried around to different houses also with shrines to Mary. It's a religious ritual, not sure what it's called but I will find out. They paraded around the entire neighborhood and stopped at various places. Then they walked me down to the University of the Pacific and the ISA office where we have to go tomorrow. They showed me the best way to walk there and back. Then madre Victoria and I went to a fellow ISA host family that is only a few blocks away where 2 girls from the program are staying because like Victoria said "4 es better than 2" -all with hand signals mind you but I got the point, already a protective mom :). Here brought another awkward moment of not being able to converse in Spanish, I hope one of those girls can speak Spanish well. Now I'm just waiting for Emily!
This is a picture of the shrine to Mary they were carrying through the streets, it's HUGE. When I can post more pictures those will show the detail, it was very pretty. Below is a small boy next to one of the shrines in front of a house, they stopped and set the large shrine on the flower picture of Mary.
P.S. my phone finally works, so readers with my number can call BUT I'll be charged $2 per minute because of roaming...email works just as good :) and my computer is dying so no more blogging tonight!LOVE!
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