A Quite Nice Turn of Events

Though I'm not a fan of double-posting, it's technically Sunday so I'm thinkin' it's OK. I promise I won't be updating quite this frequently once I start working, but my afternoon/night were much more exciting, so I figured I'd share.

Five minutes after I mentioned wanting to walk around the neighborhood, Sra. P told her daughter to acompañarme (accompany me), so W and I walked out the door into the wintry 65-degree-weather, she flagged down a taxi, and two minutes later we were at a mall. Efficient, these drivers. The mall's called the Jockey Center, as in...Jockey underwear...and the stores all look very American, but with different names--a JCPenney look-alike is called Ripley's, for example. W and I circled the mall, chatting away, since neither of us had brought much money and there wasn't much else to do.

As I often find, talking to people is the absolute best way to get to know a place, the best way to get a sense of the local ambiente. From my 24 or so hours here, I've found that Peruvians are sincere, open, amiable people, and generous with their time and hospitality. W and I talked about everything--how not to get ripped off by a taxi driver (always ask for a few soles lower), the fact that I could pass as Peruvian (until I opened my mouth), my family, the U.S. states I'd been to, her Orlando experience (five-day-non-stop-Disney), her desire to live in Europe (there's so much history there, she says), the use of Usted vs. tú here (Ud. for someone you respect or don't know very well, tú for everyone else, used in particular by people from the selva, or jungle), the best/worst discotecas in Lima (best: Gótica, in Larcomar shopping center, worst: I forgot the name...), the education system here (much like what I saw in Monterrey---the more money you have, the better education you get, the more English you learn, and the more opportunities you have to enter into a good college, with only the most elite/expensive schools sending kids to the States), and some quick lessons in Puerto Rican and Peruvian Spanish. I have since forgotten the Peruvian words I learned (versions of our words emplegoste and reguero, both referring to "sticky mess," as I was eating a cinnamon roll), but I hope with practice I will remember more.

After we arrived home, we ate lunch/dinner, pava (female turkey apparently?), with a potato/carrot/something else salad, an onion/lemon juice? salad, and some white rice. It doesn't seem like beverages are a big thing here, W and I ate the whole dinner dry. I think I'll need to invest in some water bottles to keep up my hardcore hydration habit, haha. Afterwards, we stayed at the table and W, Sra. P and I had a long conversation about Peruvian food (SO excited to try all these amazing dishes they were talking about!), Peruvian geography (sierra=mountains, selva=jungle), and the possibility of volunteering here, either with medical brigades that go into squatter-esque settlements (just like Alianza Real, where I worked in Monterrey, except here they have a different name, asentamientos humanos), or in an orphanage of some kind. We shall see!

Around 6, Dr. S (my mentor) picked me up to go around town, with his friend R, who's studying accounting. Dr. S is fantastic; he pointed out all these sights on the way to downtown, so that I got a sense of the way there, showed me around the plazas, took us to eat pizza (I was full, but it looked good!) and wine, and then took us by the Rio Rimac? where there are a whole bunch of people selling traditional foods and desserts and wares (at 9 PM!), and then to the Plaza de Armas, which is where the President of Peru lives! It's gorgeous, very Spanish-looking. We walked around until it was time to watch the Under-18 Girl's Peru vs. Turkey volleyball match, in a nice-ish sports bar that had life-size wooden figures of famous fútbol players sitting at the tables right with you. What a trip.

I became Peruvian for those few hours, cheering just as hard as the people at the next table, groaning when they ultimately lost after a hard-fought five sets. The conversations, as I'm coming to expect, were great--everything from the differences between Chilean, Argentine, and Peruvian wines, to Peru's health system, to how they feel machismo is greater in the U.S. than in Peru. Interesting, eh? I'm going to get more about that later, the only example we discussed was how women in America change their names when they get married; they applauded me when they found out I would not. :)

Well, my computer's about to die, and tomorrow's an early day; I'm going to meet E, Dr. S's sister, tomorrow, and go out to breakfast with them and Dr. S's niece(s)/nephew(s), who are apparently around my age and very happy to show me around where the jovenes hang out.

So, 24-hour-conclusion: I'm loving Lima.