Peru-sing [Trujillo] Peru

It was an uneventful 9 hr bus ride overall, we did get some food, which was nice. They gave us a hamburger bun with mayo? and some ham, along with some wheat bread/tuna salad pinwheels, which was delicious. Of course I would drop 1 out of 2, what a pity! We also got a cookie, but I don't really like cookies in general, so I didn't eat it. They also offered us Inca Kola, a popular soda in Peru, kind of like Sprite/Mt. Dew. I didn't like it at all, not surprising as I don't like soda.

Exhausted bus ride picture

We arrived at the Trujillo bus station a bit earlier than expected and waited for KH, the person in charge of the program, to pick us up. He took us to meet out home stay family, which includes Mama Rosa, her daughters, son-in-law, and her 1 yr old grandson, Santiago (who has super big eyes and loves to smile all the time, very adorable kid). We then took an almost 3 hr stroll around Trujillo. All of us were starving, so it was hard to concentrate on what he was really saying. He ended up bringing us to a coffee shop that apparently is the best coffee in Trujillo. I ordered a Cappuccino. It was decent, I don't really know any better as I hardly go to coffee shops.

We were all starving at this point as we didn't really have breakfast, so this was a good snack, but we all couldn't wait until we went home for lunch, which was delicious. Peruvian cuisine is very heavy in flavors. I really like salt, but they use.... maybe TOO much salt.(<- and it takes alot for me to say that)

We had our first spanish classes that afternoon. I really don't like to speak Spanish, or any foreign language for that matter. I can understand things, but for me to put things into sentences, then got over the fact that I probably have a horrible accent, is muy difícil. Makes it really hard to learn languages -_- 

I have never really enjoyed learning languages anyways, but it is so important, grrr... 

After classes, we went to dinner with other students from the program to a steak house, El Torete, across the street from our school. As this was a sit down restaurant, it was on the more expensive side, but it was still sooo cheap! I got a HUGE piece (about the size of my 2 hands, unfortunately I don't have pictures as I didn't know how safe it would be to bring a camera on my first day there) of veal steak (or so I think as the menu was entirely in spanish and I could only guess what I was eating. Good thing I am not a picky eater) for S/30, which translates about ~$12.  A slab of meat that big in the US would have costed probably $30-$40, at the very least. My dinner was delicious. It also came with a salad, and all their salads here have avocados in them. The avocados in Peru are SO much better than the ones in the US, even avocados from farmer's markets that are actually quite delicious. I am convinced Peruvian avocados are grown in heaven, or at least in a plot of land borrowed from heaven. I must find a way to sneak some avocados back to the US so my parents could try them. 

After dinner, the other students took us on a stroll to check out the local grocery store at the mall. Boy, crossing the street is SSOOOOO scary. Cars are everywhere, in every which direction, kind of like a busy ant hill. Traffic hour is extremely terrible. Red lights are mere suggestions, and everyone honks at everyone (Though apparently, it is illegal to honk, but no one gets tickets for doing so). I truly believe that the cars honk at each other to make some street choir music. There are also no stop signs in smaller intersections, not that they would be useful in anyway.

A very, VERY long journey.

How many flights does it take to go from Saginaw, MI to Lima Peru???

Apparently 4 too many. even the guy at United Airlines ticket counter was appalled at how many boarding passes he had to print out for me.

My journey went from Saginaw, MI -> O'Hare, IL -> Ft. Lauderdale, FL -> Panama City, Panama -> Lima Peru.
The flights were overall uneventful, but there was something quite amusing during my overnight stay at Ft. Lauderdale Airport. I arrived at 10:30pm and within 30 seconds of sitting down for the night, one of the cleaning crew members started to talk to me, which was fine. We had a good conversation (albiet, him trying to flirt with me) for a bit, and after a brief moment of silence, he says " by the way, you are really cute." (At least he was young and decent looking, so it wasn't creepy) Not knowing what to reply to that, I just said thank you and thought to myself, "hm... maybe I shouldn't sleep tonight." I ended up staying up most of the night as the arm rest between chairs made it impossible to lay down anywhere. Plus, I didn't know if the dude would keep coming back to the section I was at since he did spend a LONG time clean that section.... There was wifi after all (well sort of, it was so slow, I just hot spotted from my phone instead. I think I used more data that night than I've ever used, so I definitely used my month's worth even though I am unable to actually use my phone for an entire month, SCORE!) so I just began a new k-drama, "Three Days" with Micky YooChun. I got through like 3 episodes. so far so good. Thanks mom for the recommendation.

Anyways, I was kind of tired by the time my flight came along at 7am the next morning given that I was only able to nap about ~1hr. My entire flight was filled with spanish speaking families who just visited Disneyworld. I was super jealous. I hope to go to Disneyworld again one day. It was a nice surprise that I was fed breakfast (during the flight from FL -> Panama) and lunch (Panama-> Lima) as I was totally not expecting it, and the flights were only ~3hrs each. It WAS through Copa Airlines and not United Airlines though. Why do airlines governed by other countries always have better service?

Breakfast: Tacos

Waiting in Panama. no wifi = time to take crappy pictures

Lunch: Potato Cake with beef. That's not the actual name, but I don't know what it is called. also, guava juice which was quite tasty

After arriving in Lima, I proceeded to wait for my friend MK, JS, and JL's flight to arrive for 7.5 long and miserable hours as there was no free wifi. When the time finally came to meet them after international arrivals, I was appalled by the amount of friends and families there waiting. When I arrived, there were not too many. I thought I would not find them in time to catch a 40min taxi ride over to the bus station so we could bus to Trujillo.

Bad camera angle, but this was the best I could do from the second floor as people were crowding the balcony as well. 

I ended up standing on a luguage cart so I could be a itsy-bit taller so my friends could see me,

otherwise we really would have missed out bus. They wondered how I was so tall ;D

.... maybe I shouldn't have given away my secret. oh well =/

The taxi ride was an interesting experience. Let's just say, driving in Peru is almost like riding in bumper cars. no kidding. people are crazy and there are more Taxis than ants. More about that later. We made it just in time to pick up our tickets and get on the bus =)