Chilly weather!

The chillier weather I was expecting is definitely here now!

We got a new student today who lives literally right around the corner! Her name is Liz, and she seems really nice from the 30 minute conversation in the cab ride!

Today 2 taxis tried to overcharge me, so I said no way! haha except I said no thank you... I will not fall for that! Now with three people, it will cost us each 3 soles, or about 1 American dollar each to get to school! Not bad for a 30 minute drive!

Yesterday after school I was looking at where to go this weekend with some other people. A lot of people have a lot of papers to write and stuff... so that is really unfortunate so they dont know if they can go... but I really want to go to the beaches up north! That would be wonderful... Mancara is where were looking. Its really hard to find airlines and hostels etc. when everything is in Spanish! So hopefully I can just join a group. I also want to go sandboarding at some point, but that is in the south...

Lorena (my ma here!) is off work until Sunday! She has been sleeping because the women works so much. She said seh will pick us up from school on Thursday to show us around! Im definitely excited for that.

So yesterday Gabby and I went to Lar Cormar, which is a shopping mall along the beach near our house. Side note .. i can see the beach from my room! Just figured that out today haha... it has been so foggy, but today it was clear enough to see if I look really hard and squint my eyes a little bit.
The mall was way overpriced... it was too Americanized and you cant bargain with them... which I am definitely a fan of haha
After that, we located a kiosk for tourists! We got a map of Miraflores (YAYYYYYYYYY) so now we know where we are. I had figured out that all the names of streets that were countries ran parallel to our street (Francia), but it was nice to see what ran perpendicular to us as well. I am finally getting the hang of the city. So then we figured out that it was about a mile to walk home, and we get to walk along the beach! Lorena had told us its really safe, and I felt 100 percent safe because there were security gurads everywhere. There are so many police officers all around Miraflores, so I always feel good about walking around with others there... even at night. (Though dont worry ma and dad I dont do this frequently.)

After we got back, I just wanted to have some alone time... haha. Sometimes I just need my space from others so I came back and worked on a lot of Spanish homework. I am getting the hang of it... its actually easier than German to l earn I think... and its easier to learn the articles.

But then we had dinner... some sort of bean soup! New kind of beans that I have never had, but it was really good! I had much slower and not as much as I had the previous night... that was just bad! But Morena told me I was too thin haha! She was trying to give us the Natilla again, but I had to pass. I get so much fuller here than ever before. The food is so fresh and wonderful, but I just get so full. I think its also because I am not exercising here like I do at home.

Let me go on about Morena for a little bit... this women is wonderful!! She has no children, but she has raised Lorena since she was born (and Lorena is 31). She is under five foot with teh biggest eyes and the best smile around. She talks so quickly, and seh loves her 2 dogs.. I laugh every time I hear her talking to them! Chuiy and Benito! She will have full conversations with them, sing to them, call them her children! (sound familiar, Ma?!) haha. She tells us seh will only cook us healthy food that is pure. Its really interesting because if you look in our fridge it only has natural food... no yogurt or processed cheese, but fresh fruits and veggies, fresh chicken and blocks of cheese. It just makes me so full!

Today they are taking us to the catacombes... but most of us have been there already, so I think some people were thinking of going to china town... its apparently not the safest place, but they said it was ok if you went in a large group, and I definitely want to see it because there is such a large Chinese population here (Chinos) and the many Chinese restaurants are called Chifas! Very cool.

Ok I did pretty well for typing as fast as I could for about 15 minutes! But off to Spanish class for me!
Hope you all are doing well. I am going to remember to bring my camera cord one day to upload some pics! The pics of Miraflores on Sunday are really cool since we had perfect weather, and I want to show you pics of Caral also! The mountains were awesome! ADIOS