Llege en Lima!

I have arrived in Lima! I got here early this morning, around 1am after some delays on the flight. I felt terrible for the taxi driver that World University Service of Canada (WUSC) sent, he was waiting around for some 3 hours or so. Oh geez.

During the flight, I managed to employ my bad Spanish skills and spoke to a few people on the plane, asking one woman if she needed help getting her carry-on in the overhead bin. Though I believe it might have accidentally come out as "I need help" rather than "You need help". I get all flustered when I am speaking that I forget a lot of things and get too anxious to listen carefully! I hope that that improves with time, and I hope to be able to find a good and cheap conversational Spanish course to help me out.

Moving on, I live in a big house with I believe, though I am not entirely sure, 7 other people, including an infant. There are 3 Japanese volunteers/teachers living upstairs and 1 Peruvian. I haven't really met any of them, and I am not sure whether any of them speak English or Japanese. My landlord is a cute little Japanese lady named Margarita, and her sister lives with her also.

From Random Lima

The house I live in in San Isidro

I haven't managed to meet the other people living in the house yet, the 4 people upstairs. Hopefully I manage to be able to, I am worried that because I am new and because of the obvious language barrier that it will be hard for me to meet them and other people as well. But...it is only the first day. Hopefully I will be able to enroll in a good conversationalist Spanish course and meet some people who I can practice my broken Spanish with but also some people that I am able to relate to. Though of course I also want to make some local friends as well, I would be disappointed if I was not able to develop a relationship with any locals.

I live in the district of San Isidro, it's a affluent residential district adjacent to Miraflores and close(ish) to La Victoria (where I work), at least it appears close on the map. Earlier today Margarita and Juan, the WUSC representative in Peru took me a round a bit in San Isidro. I later took a walk on my own.

I didn't find too many sites that were exceptional to me, but still in all the residential neighbourhoods here are much more interesting than those in North America.

From Random Lima

This is the damn dog that woke me up in the morning

From Random Lima

This is the street that I live on

The houses here are beautiful, and in a way are more grand than those in North America and in another way, not. The architecture is interesting, it's very blocky (as in not many houses have peaked roofs) but the houses are gorgeous. Upon my way, I happened upon a set of vending machines just sitting about:

From Random Lima

They made me laugh and reminded me of Japan, however these ones don't sell panties like they do in Japan. Hahaha. I walked to the grocery store, which is the ritziest grocery store I have ever been to! Of course, in Waterloo I regularly go to Bulk Barn. I bought 2 bottles of water, but I hadn't realized they were carbonated! I really should have just taken the time because I do understand what "con gas" means. As a result, during my walk when I got thirsty, the contents of my water exploded and spewed all over me! =(

I walked down Calle Dos de Mayo and happened upon a couple of Chifas (Chinese-Peruvian restaurants) before I ended up at Avenida Arequipa. This road was a little scary for me, not that I was scared of the people or anything of that sort. I was just scared of crossing the roads at this street. After my trip from the airport to the house, I believe everything I have heard about drivers in Lima! My former idea of biking around was immediately dispelled from my head. Hahaha.

I felt a bit strange during my walk because I wasn't sure whether or not I should look and smile at people. In the intercultural information I found on Peru, it had noted that eye contact between members of the opposite sex can be easily misconstrued, though I guess this is very similar as in North American. So I didn't end up saying hello to the couple of men who had said hi to me, though I suppose I would react similarly in Canada.

Arriving here and speaking with Margarita, Juan, the cashier at the grocery store and others I realize just how poor my spoken Spanish is. So, my resolve is to also watch more TV (I KNOW I never watch TV). First I will watch the programs in English and relate them to the Spanish subtitles, and then I will move onto Spanish programs. We'll see how that goes, I would hate for my time to fly by here so quickly without vastly improving my Spanish skills.


The house that I am living at includes meals and it is so strange to have somebody cooking my meals for me! Since I've moved to Ontario, I have grown accustomed to cooking my own meals. I feel like Margarita is like a little Japanese mother, making sure I eat. Hahaha.

Anyway...I am surprisingly sleepy so I am going to do some quick yoga before bed, without a yoga mat, and then head to bed. Sorry, this blog entry is sort of crappy...I will try harder in the future. Hahaha.

Talk to you later my dear readers!
Renee