Made it BACK to Lima!

Hey everyone!

I successfully made it back to Lima and my new place! I am living in an apartment with 7 other people (6 women, 1 guy, and me!)....there are 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a tiny kitchen and a huge living room (we also have a washer/dryer, a nice tv, the internet, and a MAID 3 days a week!!). The apartment is in a nice part of the city, called Miraflores. Its near the ocean, but its winter here, and 90% of the time we are fogged in almost completely.

I am sharing a room with a woman named Mariella - she is a Peruvian woman who is supposed to live there and take care of the house and answer questions, but apparently she has a boyfriend and is always at his place, so I essentially have my own room for the moment!

The other roommates are from all over. There is a girl from Sweden, a girl from London, two Americans, and Mike from Jersey. I still think I am missing someone, but its been kind of crazy tiring to meet everyone and remember who is who, because there are always people in and out and this weekend there were a ton of guests at the house. I kept wandering around asking "Hi, I´m Kristyn...I live here, do you?", hahaha.

Anyway, when I got in on Saturday I was pretty fried - on Friday night a bunch of us went out for our last night in Cusco. I didn´t get home until the sun was beginning to shine (bars never close here, its dangerous!). Then I pretty much went straight to the airport. After the quick flight (it only takes one hour by plane but 20 HOURS by bus from Lima to Cusco) I arrived in Lima. I decided to brave it and take a taxi....but was still to chicken to bargain, so I got an official airport taxi. He was super nice, but had no idea where we were going. After about 3 calls to the house and innumerable stops to ask people, I finally made it to the new apartment after an hour and a half.

When I got in I was informed that there was going to be a party in the apartment that night....haha! So I went to lunch with a couple of the girls, went to the store to pick up the basics, showered and got a quick nap before I was woken up by the invasion of salsa dancing Peruvians. It was cool to meet more exchange students from the US (most people at the party were from the States), but at around 2am I had to crash.

Yesterday I didn´t do much besides laundry (YAY!) and go to the grocery store all by myself. In Lima, everything is an adventure. Its not the safest city, so nobody carries any ID, credit cards, or basically anything of any value. To be honest (don´t freak out!), muggings are sort of common, but violent crime isn´t. Usually its just opportunistic crimes against rich looking tourists or someone who wants your cell phone....so I have to adjust to never carrying a purse and only taking the money I need for the day. But our neighborhood is really safe, and so is the house :)

I went to work for the first day today, but nobody that I´m working with was here, so I´m now hiding in the library! I need to study more Spanish, because I feel REALLY dumb when I have NO idea what people are saying or what´s going on around me. Its pretty humbling/humiliating to be this mute...but everyone is so nice!

Anyway, as usual, this e-mail got way too long! But I wanted to say hi...I posted a few more pictures from Cusco, and I will try to take some of the new apartment soon.

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2596778&id=5100214&l=cfbb779a65

Hope everyone is doing great! Miss everyone!
Kristyn