First morning

The couple who owns the house I am staying in took me out to breakfast at a typical Peruvian cafe —- LOTS OF MEAT. I had to explain in very broken spanish that I don't eat meat and am vegetarian. And no vegetarian doesn't mean I eat chicken. But the restaurant made me a sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce with sweet potatoes on the side! I also had hot chocolate and papaya juice! Then they drove me around the surrounding area to see what there is around the house — I understood about 40% of what they were saying (they speak in very rapid spanish) BUT from what I gathered we passed through several neighborhoods. My favorite was Pueblo Libre where most of the houses are the original ones from the 1700’s! They were painted all these bright beautiful colors and had really cool carved wooden doors. We also drive by a huaca (ancient worship site) that was just sitting in the middle of a neighborhood. It was really impressive — kind of like terraced pyramids? Hope to explore it more later. We also drove through the parking lot of a mall near the house.

The other students living in the house are all girls — 2 from Spain and one from Germany. They are all older (23-ish) and speak REALLY good Spanish (I mean the ones from Spain are obviously going to but even the girl from Germany speaks fluently….). 

My room is GREAT except for one thing…..the window doesn’t close all the way. Basically there are these small cutouts around where it opens that are not filled with anything so air is constantly coming through….and the house is not heated from what I can tell. Gotta invest in some warm fuzzy socks and sweatpants. 

THERE ARE SO MANY KEYS TO GET INTO THE HOUSE. And anyone who knows me knows how much I struggle with keys. There is an outer gate that goes around the house with spikes and barbed wire and broken bottles sunk into the concrete top. Then there is a iron gate in front of the door. Then the door is locked. Then my room is locked. I am grateful for all the security but.....struggle.

I need to go find a supermercado and do some serious shopping…..but I don’t know how to get there. It will be an adventure I guess. If I never blog again you’ll know what happened to me.