My first Peruvian weekend

It's been a crazy first couple of days here in Lima! When we first arrived in the airport no one knew what to do. First we went through immigration and I thought for a second that they weren't going to let us into the country. They were so strict! We finally got through and it was off to baggage claim. Once we got or bags we were once again confused. We thought our host families would be waiting for us there. Once we figured out they were waiting in another part of the airport we rushed off to go meet them. When we entered there were people everywhere with signs with people's names. I quickly found my host family and we greeted. In Peru you great girls with a kiss on the cheek. This really threw me off. I thought they were getting fresh with me. We left the airport and went home and pretty much straight to bed. It was almost three in the morning.

The next morning I ate breakfast with my host family and then I went with Max, the dad, and he showed me around Lima, mainly the district I live in, Surco. We got in the car and he turned on the radio and Britney Spears was playing! They listen to a lot of American music here like, Katy Perry, Adele, and Bruno Mars. We went to markets, stores, the school I'm going to and past the American Embassy, where Max works. The first thing I noticed was how people drive. It was nuts! We got cut off every second. As long as there was an inch of space a car would cut right in front of you. The markets were very different also. There were fish stands next to flower stands next to stands of pirated American movies.

The next day I went with the daughter, Fiorella, and her friends to go swimming at one of her friends' house. It was an hour away from where I live so I got to see a lot of Lima. Some parts were nicer than others to say the least. We got to the house and the first thing we did was play soccer of course. I was awful compared to the Peruvians but my team did manage to win. We didn't swim much, the water was freezing! We did play a lot of cards though. They sure do like their cards. I taught them BS and they loved it. But instead of saying BS we said mentiroso, which means liar. Afterwards they taught me Peruvian slang. Paja, Mostruo, chereve, which all mean cool. I learned some others but aren't that appropriate.

So far I'm loving it here. I've probably made a fool of myself one to many times with the language and the customs but that's alright. Everyone here is really nice and cool about it. For example I was trying to say 'oh doesn't matter to me' but instead was saying I don't care about you guys, ahh!! They just laughed and corrected me. I also didn't know guys don't shake hands and instead just slide their hands together. That's probably why I was getting so many weird looks!