Here I am, on my next journey in lands completely foreign to me. Not only is it my first time in South America, but it's also my first time below the equator. It isn't very cold during the day in Lima, even in winter, but it does get pretty cold at night and I'm thankful to my friend Becca for warning me about that.
I was pretty worried about my trip to Peru yesterday, and stumbled across a few problems early on. I woke up at 4:00, and "assembled the troops" - aka the parents - so that they'd be ready to go by 4:30. I hadn't done any packing for this trip until the day before, since I spent all of August traveling around to FL, OH and MA. I woke up at 4 am nervous that I had made the wrong decision about what to pack. I filled one small carry-on size duffel and a messenger bag. I was worried that my stuff wouldn't make it to a connecting flight if I checked it, so I prepared in order to bring everything on the plane with me. In retrospect I see that it would have been fine, but that's for later.
We left for the airport at what seemed to still be the middle of the night, and made it more or less on time. We even found the right terminal at JFK, which can be a challenge as those who have ever flown out of there may know. As soon as I walked through the doors, I knew it was going to be a hectic day. There was a line for the Avianca counter that wrapped through the tape and all the way down the hall. Of course all of the other airlines were completely empty. I had to go to the bathroom, but I was afraid that the line would just keep getting longer and that I needed to check it. Not until I was ON the line, did I realize that the flight was delayed by an hour. There were already twenty new travelers lined up behind me. After this point however, everything went pretty well. The airline told me not to worry about the delay and transfer until I got to Bogota, Columbia, and they would take care of it from there. Luckily the flight out of Bogota to Lima was also delayed, so I made it without trouble. Now I wish I had just decided to check a larger bag, but I would have been worried about it all day if I had. Plus I also have another layover in Lima in a few weeks, and one in Bogota again on my way back to NY so I guess there's still a chance that I'll arrive somewhere and have nothing to wear for a few days.
When I got to Lima the prearranged Taxi Driver was waiting for me, and we had a pleasant ride through the different neighborhoods in Lima on our way to my host-family's house. He spoke only a little English, and I spoke only a little Spanish but we had a very successful time communicating. Some people just have a knack for knowing how to speak to a non-native speaker. He was great at gesturing and inserting all the right English words at the right time. Also he used very slow and simple Spanish. He works for the ECELA language school, so I'm sure he's had lots of practice speaking with people of all different levels.
I sat and chatted with the host family for a few hours after arrival last night, and met their niece who's also fluent in English and French. It was great getting to know them but a little frustrating realizing how little Spanish I remember from six years ago. I'm really looking forward to starting class tomorrow so I can start picking things up again.
My host mother is about to take me on a walk to see how to get to school, but I will post some photos when I have them.
Ciao!
Lana
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