Yesterday was a day of exploring Lima! I woke up around 8:30 am, got ready and ate some breakfast. Yesterday's breakfast consisted of some scrambled eggs, tea, orange juice, and little toasted pieces of bread with some marmalade. It was very good! Similar to breakfast I would eat at home.
After breakfast, Sarah, the other exchange student here, and myself watched some Netflix. I got through about 2 episodes of Friends, and then I needed a nap around 10:30 am. I went and took a nap for probably 2 hours, maybe longer. I have been sleeping and napping a lot.
When I woke up, my host grandfather was there to visit. My host brother, Jahir, also arrived and has been staying at home. There's now 6 people in the apartment, and honestly, I don't mind it at all. It's cozy! We had a delicious meal of rice, potatoes, and salad prepared by my host mom. I'm not tired of it all quite yet, but I have been told I will be soon. It's also weird typing it in English since I'm already used to calling the food by it's Spanish name. They had me pray before eating in English, which was very cool. They didn't understand a word I said, but they appreciated it. After lunch, we all continued to visit for a while until my host grandfather and host brother left. Then we were on our way to exploring Lima!
My host parents took Hillary, Sarah and I all over. First we went to the beach. There weren't many people there since it's cold and winter, but it was still fun. Chorrillos is the fishing district of Lima, so there were many boats and a lot of places to get fish. We walked around the beach some and went onto a pier just to look over the water and the boats. After the beach, we went sightseeing around Chorrillos. There were many monuments and symbolic things to see. I'm not sure what they were all called, but one was a tomb of a military person from a war in 1881. Another was a chapel kind of thing for the Virgin Mary. There was a big statue of her, and it was on a mountain overlooking the city. There was also a giant Jesus similar to the one in Brazil that overlooks the city. After that, we went to the supermarket. While my host parents got some things, us girls got some ice cream. It was so good! I've noticed about all of the food that it isn't very processed at all and even tastes more real. I got a scoop of strawberry ice cream, and something else that I think was supposed to be caramel. I'm not sure but it tasted good!
After that, we were on our way to a Rotary party! We went through the districts in Lima of Barranco and Miraflores, which were very metropolitan and beautiful to look at. They're the more tourist regions of Lima. First stop was the home of the president of the exchange program, Luis Malaga, or Henry. I didn't meet him, but I met his wife Rosario, or Charro. There, Hillary got her blazer, flag, pins, and business cards. Their Rotary provides everything they need for them!
Soon, we finally arrived to the house the party was being held in, and it was a lovely party. Everyone was greeted by a kiss on the cheek, which is a cultural custom I have already grown to like surprisingly. It is polite to give everyone in the room or venue a kiss on the cheek when you arrive and leave. If you don't kiss everyone, that is considered rude. We were the first ones there since the party was for Hillary; wishing her farewell before she leaves for exchange on Saturday. It was interesting, there were a lot of important people there. I had no idea who any of them were but I could tell they were all important; and they all knew who I was. Which made me feel kind of bad, but oh well, I'll figure out who they all are eventually. I did come to know some of them, like my councilor, Ana Marie. She approached me, and was the sweetest lady ever! And spoke English! I was otherwise talking to other exchange students most of the time. There were what we would call rebounds, but they just called them ex-exchange students. The out bounds were Hillary and another girl, Nicole, who is going to Germany. The inbounds were me, Sarah, Dorian (France), and Lukas (Germany). It's strange to think that I'm now an inbound when I've been an out bound for so long... The only food I really liked was a sandwich with lettuce and chicken- about as American as it gets. All of the food was good, but some of it was just so different that I couldn't eat it. Mostly because things that I would have expected to be hot were prepared cold. For drinks, I had chicha morada, which I remember having when I went to Arequipa 2 years ago. It was just as I remembered it! I also had Sprite, which felt nice and homey- even though I never drink Sprite in America.
We finally left the party around 11 pm, which was crazy seeing that I had gone to sleep around 9:30 the night before. I was exhausted and couldn't wait to get home and go to bed! I had just spent the last couple hours eating new food and talking people up. When I got home, I took a shower and went straight to bed. And then I woke up at 8 this morning. We had to get up early since we were going to Hillary's, and now my school. They were having a festival in celebration of Independence Day this weekend.
I had a great time there! I got to explore my new school, meet my new teachers and classmates, and try some new food. I didn't like most of it, but it was worth a try! Hillary's classmates also had a small farewell ceremony for her to say goodbye. Today she finished her exams, and it was her last day of school ever! It is her and my last year of school here in Peru. They were all sad to see Hillary go, but excited to see me. And I was excited to see them!
After that, we had to go to the bank since Sarah and I had to deposit some money we owe the Rotary here in Lima. When we got home, I went to go take a nap, but not right away. My family ate lunch, but I wasn't hungry. I prayed again for the food and sat at the table for a little bit. I ate some pineapple jello that was good! And then I took a nice and long nap. So far I think the acceptance of my extensive napping is my favorite part of the culture. Not really, but I very much appreciate how understanding and laid back my host family is.
I awoke to watching some TV with Sarah. She has introduced me to this hilarious show on Netflix called Arrested Development. We watch it with Spanish subtitles so I can be able to recognize things and learn more Spanish. My host parents also brought home pizza for dinner, which was about the nicest thing in the world I could have thought of! They got a plain ham pizza and a Hawaiian pizza: my favorite! I hadn't had Hawaiian pizza in forever either, so I was very happy. It was a great time for us all to sit and enjoy each other's company while eating. I do my usual practicing Spanish as well just by them pointing things out and me saying the word in Spanish. They do that with me everywhere and all the time, and they say I'm learning quickly! Hopefully it will keep going up from here!
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