Mi primer mes en Perú!

So as of September 8th I have officially been in Perú for a month! I have finally started to settle more into the everyday things such as going to school, chatting with my host family (without being so overwhelmed by how fast they talk), and just hanging out with the friends I've made here.

I go to school at PCUP in Lima, aka the only school in South America to have a squirrel for its mascot. For some reason, when I think about Perú the last thing I think about is squirrels, but luckily PUCP gave all the exchange students bags as a reminder of our new awesome mascot.

Some of my friends and I showing off our school-spirited backpacks! Go squirrels!

I am taking four classes that total up to 12 credits... the minimum number of credits I can take and still be considered a full time student. That may sound a bit lazy, but 12 credits all in a foreign language is no cake walk. My favorite class is a basic anthropology class that has an emphasis on case studies in Perú. The class is interesting and very relevant to my study abroad experience. My professor is a sweet little man who is really understanding towards any struggles we exchange students have had. Most importantly, I can understand his accent perfectly! Woo!

My "Cine"  class and literature classe are tied as my second favorite classes... In cine we watch internationally acclaimed films and discuss them afterwards. The movies are not always in spanish, but definitely always have subtitles in spanish. It can be a bit difficult to analyze a movie when the dialogue I hear is in french, but the subtitles I read are in spanish. I felt like my brain was about to explode, but this past week we watched Erin Brockovich (in english!) with spanish subtitles. I felt a bit like I was cheating the system, but due to the fact that I didn't have to focus so hard on comprehension of the movie I was able to pay more attention to the cinematography.

In my literature class we analyze poems from peruvian authors like José María Eugren and César Vellajo. My professor is super passionate about the class so it's pretty easy for me to be passionate about it too! It should by all means be an easy class, but I have found that analyzing poems in Spanish is a long process for me... First, I have to look up all the words that I don't know in the poem, reread the poem with the words I now know, gather the overall meaning of the poem, then finally analyze what the real message is and decide whether or not the words I just looked up are actually symbolic of something else! At times it's hard to keep up with the professor, because all of these hidden meanings are very clear to him. Nonetheless, the class is interesting and I've definitely expanded my vocabulary because of it!

My final, and least favorite, class is Ecoturismo. The class is all about Ecotourism, or sustainable tourism in Perú. Now there's nothing wrong with the subject, I'm all about being an eco-friendly tourist, but my professor is absolutely horrible. The worst part is that I can tell that he's passionate about the subject, but is unable to convey the information to the class in an interesting and non-oversimplified way. He repeats the same BASIC points over and over. This is particularly excruciating for me, because his accent is difficult for me to understand. So I have to commit so much energy to understand him only to have him repeat the same thing over and over. After I realize that he's repeating himself it becomes 10 times more difficult to motivate myself to translate the next repetitive thing he says. Needless to say, I have made some pretty solid "To Do..." lists in his class. There is a perk to the class though... We are taking a field trip to Pachacmac this Sunday! I can't wait to tell you all about that!

My housemates and I haven't done much traveling outside of Lima in the past few weeks, but there is plenty happening in Lima to keep us busy. For example, last week Kati, Mari, Erin and I went to a festival called Mistura where we tried dozens of tradition peruvian dishes. I can't remember all of the dishes that we tried, but we definitely tried...

Anticucho (cow heart) served with potatoes (of course),

Cebiche: fish cooked only by the acid of lemon juice,

Chicha morada: a purple colored juice made from a special type of purple corn,

Lamb and potatoes (that were cooked in a traditional underground stove),

 A variety of potato chips (made from a few of the THOUSANDS of types of potato that Perú has),

Cremelados : a yummy frozen slushie drink,
(The pear flavor was the best!)

and one GIANT hamburger "A Lo Pobre" that came with one burger, a fried egg, little french fry crisps, cheese, a fried plantain, lettuce, and tomatoes.

We didn't try all of the "standard" peruvian dishes at Mistura because our host family does a wonderful job of serving us a wide variety of peruvian cuisine. One of my favorite dishes my mom, Cecilia, serves is papas de huancaína. I'd compare it to potato salad because it has potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, but the sauce if far superior. "Salsa de Huancaína" is the yellow sauce made with a combination of spicy peppers (ají), garlic, onions, milk, and cheese. We're actually planning a trip to Huancayo (the city where this dish originated) and I'm going to go to town trying all the papas de huancaína dishes I can!

Papa de Huancaína with the typical garnish of a hard-boiled egg and olives.

My other favorite dish is ají de gallina. Once again it has a cheesy/ spicy sauce... probably the same sauce actually. The difference is that this dish is garnished with hard-boiled eggs and olives, Oh wait... I guess it's not really all that different except for the fact that it's served with chicken and rice. Here's a picture...

So if you can't tell by now, my family has been feeding me well to say the least. Overall, my host family is extremely accommodating. The other day I was talking with Cecilia and she called me "hijita" which directly translated means "little daughter." I just about melted! She even makes me chicken noodle soup when I'm feeling sick. I think it's pretty safe to say that I officially have a Peruvian mom now!! 

Speaking of being sick that's why I haven't posted in a while... I've been feeling a bit homesick and writing in my blog just made me miss you all even more! Not only did I have my first real taste of homesickness, but sickness in general. I'm not sure what I had, but I literally slept for two days straight! All is well now though.

I've found that singing (anywhere and everywhere I get a chance) has been helping me feel more at home in Peru because singing is just something I love to do. In fact, this new realization led me to find my new blog title...

"Bienvenidos a Llamaland" or "Welcome to Llamaland"

The other week while I was making sure to get my daily dose of music I stumbled across "Come Fly with Me" by Frank Sinatra and was overjoyed to hear the lyrics...

"Come fly with me, let's float down to Perú,

In Llamaland there's a one-man band,

And his toot his flute for you,

Come fly with me, let's take off in the blue."

I've also found that exploring Lima more has made me feel more at home in the city. Although I still ache for Madison there are little things in Lima that I've discovered brighten my day. My friends Mari, Kati and I have been exploring Miraflores (a nearby district of Lima) and have found many enjoyable activities. First off, they were sweeties and went to Glee 3D in the theaters with me.

Here's a picture of Mari and I blending in with the Glee cast!

The movie theater was located within a shopping complex called Larcomar. It's actually built into the side of the cliff that runs into the coast. The first time we went there we had a hard time finding the actual entrance. We literally looked right past the mall to the ocean because most of Miraflores is level with the top of the cliff, whereas the mall is carved into the cliff. Here's a picture Kati and I on the top level of Larcomar/ ground level of the rest of the city.

I'll tell you more about other things we've discovered in my next blog! I'm finally going to finish off this blog. Here's you new vocabulary word!...

El cine= cinema

Hasta Luego,

Katie :)