Aprender - to learn

We've been in Lima a little over two weeks and I feel like we've learned a TON already.  Obviously, the culture and language are a big part of that.  And a huge part of Lima's culture is food... delicious food.  I probably eat chicken, rice, and potatoes everyday, but never in the same way twice.  Limeños love chicken and serve it so many different ways that I can't remember all of them.  Same goes for potatoes...  I've had your typical french fries, big chunks in "estofado de pollo", slices with "aji de gallina", baked in butter sauce, or covered in "papas a la huancaina."  All of it is so good and we eat so much that I better start exercising before I look like a potato. 

One of the most delicious lunches I've had so far, including butter-soaked potatoes :)

Another part of the culture is the greeting/goodbye.  If you're a boy greeting a boy it's not very much different from the U.S. - a simple handshake will do.  But if a girl is a part of the greeting you give a kiss on the cheek... even to people you haven't even met yet.  This is one of the small differences I've learned to accept rather quickly since it happens so much.  When you enter a room yo say hello to everyone and when you leave you say goodbye with a kiss too.  At first it seemed super awkward, but it's slowly becoming less awkward, and I'm sure it'll get better with time.

Spanish.  Even though I have studied it for over 6 years, I still don't feel totally comfortable speaking it.  Being totally immersed in it has helped so much.  All four of us are at the point now where we can have a whole conversation and it's so exciting!  Our language school is also a huge help with castellano (did you know there was another name for Spanish?).  We go from 9 to 1 every week day and learn in small classes.  But I don't just learn Spanish in class.  I've learned all about England, Brazil, Canada, and Iceland thanks to my new friends Cally, Mariana, Adriana, Matt, and Kristine.  I love being around people from different countries.  The things we have in common are sometimes unexpected.  And the small words and ideas that are different are so funny to me.  For example, Canadian people really do say "eh?" all the time!

On our first day of Spanish class

Some more fun things we've learned are surfing and salsa dancing!  Kyle G. and I took surfing lessons this week at the beach in Miraflores.  It was pretty fun, but man do you have to paddle a lot!  Way more effort goes into surfing than I thought... I think I should be in better shape next time I try.  The next day Kyle W., Taylor, and I took salsa dancing lessons after school with some of our other classmates.  I don't know if it's our CoC background or what, but none of us were very good at it!  We had fun trying, and I know I laughed the whole time.

Kyle, pre-surfing

We'll keep on learning more as we go along and fit into our roles here in Lima.  We hope you can learn along with us, so your questions are always welcome!
And see more pictures on my album on facebook.

Chau y cuidate
-JLD