My first week in Perú (and other stuff)

Oh my goodness! I don´t even know where to begin. I just got home, and the house is deserted and silent, thank God! I need a few minutes of solitude and quiet to myself.

It has been a rollercoaster of a week!!! I am currently living in the house/apartment of my exchange partner. His wife and son are here until the beginning of October and then the whole place is mine!!! I was originally going to stay the whole week or month at a Hostel, Mami Panchita, but it wasn´t quite up to snuff! It was ok, a little old, but then the owner started smoking AND had a cat running around!!! Two big things I´m allergic to. Not gonna happen. I considered staying at the hostel just down the street, but Elisa invited me to stay at their place so I could get used to all the ins and outs of the place, meet the neighbors, etc. So much for quiet!! They just got home! I don´t really mind, most of the time, but after my first week of school, all I want to do is sit on my butt, watch the Olympics (I still am confused about the schedule here), and veg out!!! Not with an 8 year old in the house! He´s a sweetie and well-behaved, but I need quiet sometimes. Walking into the house tonight was like a glimpse into my future. Honestly, right now it´s good because I don´t get as lonely and I think they feel the same way.

Fun observations-

When you take the bus, there is always a guy hanging out at every stop telling you the destination, and sometimes holding a sign! He sounds like an auctioneer!!!

I have some interesting neighbors- about 30 chickens, including a few roosters who NEVER SHUT UP!!! Remind me of my 6th grade students! There are also a few dogs who are worse!! Ugghh..I know I´ll get used to them; it´s only been a week!

Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way!! If you see a car coming, you´d better start runnning because they WILL plow you down! What´s another dent in a crappy car?

All doors are unlocked turning to the right and have quirk about them. It took me 10 freakin' minutes to open the door to my gate last night because it was raining and getting stuck! It was 3am so I couldn´t have Elisa buzz me in; the intercom is broken upstairs anyway. My neighbor across the street heard me and came over to help! Then he tried to kiss me!!! What the hell?? What can I say? I'm a delicacy!!! LOL!!

When in a public shopping area or grocery store, you can say excuse me all you want, but people might not move or even acknowledge you are there!! Yeah, I almost knocked down two people this week because they were pissing me off!!! I´m thinking, hello, I´m here! I know you can see me since I´m at least 6 inches taller than you and BLONDE!!!

Okay, enough of the griping. I do like it here overall, so far! I spent half the day last Saturday trying to find my friend Patrick, fellow Fulbrighter, but I messed up the name of the place and ended up eating at a pretty low end restaurant, but I got my cell phone and then I met some of Elisa's in-laws. They are super nice, and I went to the Jazz Zone in Miraflores with Pedro. He´s the oldest brother (around 47) but he's nice and owns a translation company. He is currently in Cusco working with organizations getting ready for APEC which is here in November. Quite exciting!

My thoughts are running together right now; I´m so tired from lesson planning (a whole other story there!!!). I start a trial period of teaching high school English tomorrow. If anyone i reading this, pray for me!!! I'm excited, to be quite honest, because I had a horrible time trying to manage 6th graders!! Not my forté in any way, shape or form. I guess the stress of that, the change of moving and starting a new job in a new culture, and hearing about the housing situation of my exchange partner constantly from his wife, plus al the new foods I had tried, took their toll. I missed school on Thursday from a bad case of, you know what, diarrhea!!! Woo hoo!! I had to toss out my pajamas!!!! It was awful!!! THEN everyone at school knew I was sick and kept asking me how I was doing all day!! It was very sweet but really embarrassing! The people here are very warm and love meeting Americans, especially at my school. Their big saying is, "Anything you need, the smallest little thing, ask me, I will help you." which is truly nice. Of course there are bad people everywhere, perhaps including my horny neighbor, but everyone at school and Lalo's relatives are great!!! I miss you all and hope to hear from you soon!!! I´m going to figure out skype this week, but we can also use hotmail IM. With both you can use webcam or mics so we can see and hear each other!!!