Lima!!!

I'm in Lima! So here begins the third and final leg of my South America experience. Ok, I know I was supposed to talk about ArgtenTime in this post, but right now I'm in a super good mood, so I don't want to dampen it by talking about something negative. And I think it would be a good idea anyway to first see what it's like in Peru and then be able to compare the two countries and how they handle time similarly and differently. I want to see if it's true what people say about all of Latin America being like that, or if Argentina is just especially slow. Uruguay and Brazil certainly are more efficient and time-conscious than Argentina, from my limited experience. We'll see about Peru.

I am loving my host family and house in Lima so far. The couple is so friendly and helpful, we've had great conversations, and they have taken me around to help me get stuff I need, like going to the bank and to the supermarket. From talking to other people in my program, it seems like all of us have better living situations than we did in Buenos Aires. In BA, we were all in apartments, and here, we're in houses. My room and bed are much bigger, I get a lot more furniture and necessities in my room (like a study desk, a nightstand, a hamper, trash can, a lamp, and a bunch of other things that my host mom in BA didn't provide). And my own TV in my room! A lot of my friends here have their own private bathrooms and balconies, which no one got in BA. I was hoping to get a private bathroom since the housing description they sent me said there were 4 bedrooms but 5 bathrooms, but it turns out there it's because there is a bathroom next to the dining room and another one up on the roof. So my host mom and I are sharing a bathroom, but that's fine. The bathroom here is much nicer than the one I used in BA anyway. The floors are much cleaner, and the kitchen, dining area, living room, etc. are much bigger than the ones in my apartment in BA. Also, the Wi-Fi connection here is infinitely better, so far as I can tell (it doesn't cut out for several minutes every few minutes). The only complaint I have is that my blanket kind of smells of sweat, but I can ask my host mom to change it out.

Although all of us have much more luxurious accomodations in Lima than in BA, I don't think it's because the standard of living is higher (probably the opposite is true). I think we just probably got placed in wealthier host families. Lima is less safe than BA, so out of safety concerns, ISA probably felt that it was necessary to place us all in the nicest areas where wealthy families lived. The house I'm in feels pretty safe, it's got a whole alarm system and everything. My host dad was trying to show me how to disarm the alarm whenever I enter or leave the house. When I enter the house, it's pretty easy. I unlock the two locks, open the door, I close it and lock the two locks, then dial the alarm code before it goes off (I have 45 seconds). However, leaving the house is much more complicated, since the dialpad to disarm the alarm is on the inside, and I can only disarm it when the door is closed. You have to open the door, then lock the two locks while the door is open to trick the alarm into thinking the door is closed, dial in the code to disarm the alarm, then you exit the house, stick the red key in the top keyhole, the blue key in the bottom keyhole, then you close the door as far as it will go (the two locks are in the way, so it won't close all the way), then you have to turn the keys (red one clockwise, blue one counterclockwise) so that the locks retract just enough to not be in the way of the door closing all the way, but don't retract all the way and alert the alarm that the door is now unlocked again. The host dad let me practice this, but I ended up setting off the alarm, and he had to call the security peeps to tell them not to come over because it was set off by accident.

One thing I like about Lima is the diversity here. There are so many different races and so many people who have mixed ancestry. This is a welcome change from the homogeneous European look of Buenos Aires. I've experienced a few instances of racism while in Buenos Aires (denied admission into a club, refused service at a bar, and just comments on the streets, mostly from the older generations), but I think it will be much better here. Here, I've seen a bunch of people of asian descent around who seem fully integrated into society and live amongst everyone else (they're not limited to just being restaurant/shop owners in Chinatown or simply tourists, like the way they are in Buenos Aires). Just by looking at the commercial ads or presidential campaign ads throughout Lima, you can see the racial diversity (mestizo, white, amerindian, asian, black, mixed, ect.). There are minority groups and also mestizos in Buenos Aires, but you will NEVER see them in ads or commercials because they are very much looked down upon there. By just looking at the ads, you would think 100% of the population in Argentina is white, and that blond people make up a huge proportion (which they don't; the vast majority have brown hair). In this respect, I think Lima is much more like big cities in the US, like a melting pot where people of different races can co-exist. That was actually another one of my big complaints about Buenos Aires, their Aryan superiority complex.

Anyways, I think later this afternoon ISA's gonna give us a mini tour of Lima and also give us a safety orientation, so I'll write more about Lima some other time.

If I have time today, I'll write about my trip to Mendoza last weekend.

Did I forget to mention? LIMA IS ON THE BEACH!