It is a great day. Its sunny in Lima, and I got into all the classes that I wanted to take this semester. My class schedule had a way of becoming less and less strenuous each day as I was deciding which courses to take... Go figure. So, I am currently enrolled in the following...

Cine. We watch a bunch of international independent films and then analyze them. No reading homework, and Spanish subtitles (usually) as opposed to listening to lectures in Spanish :)

Literatura de Teatro. Just reading a bunch of plays, and although I have read some of them already, I figure that this is a good, enjoyable way to improve my Spanish.

Danza Moderna. We dance and choreograph. Usually not my thing, but I'm trying to work the other side of my brain. Plus, no lectures.

Ethnicidad y Mestizaje en Perú. I love sociology, it counts for both my majors, and its specific to Peru. I'm killing four birds with one stone.

This weekend I went with some friends down to el centro (the very downtown of Lima), and saw the Plaza de Armas and some famous cathedrals. While we were there we also saw the changing of the guard in front of the president's mansion. I'm not exactly sure what the actual name of the building is, but its old and beautiful.

My favorite place was the San Francisco cathedral. There are some very unique murals, and paintings. There is a huge painting of the famous "Last Supper" except with some traditional Peruvian influences. For example, Jesus is serving cuy (guinea pig) to all his disciples. I thought that was funny. I also saw tons of bones, as there are thousands of people buried in the catacombs under the church. It was really cool. I wasn't allowed to take pictures anywhere inside the cathedral, but I'm sure there are pictures online if anyone is interested.

Some of the girls I live with wanted to purchase some board games to play at the house with all of our brothers and sisters. We got pictionary (in Spanish, obviously) and it was a blast! Its also a really fun way to learn new words in Spanish. We had to evenly divide the native Spanish speakers onto teams to be fair :) Afterwards, we played charades. My Peruvian brother and all of his friends are amazing at charades, despite acting out movies with English titles, some that they had never seen. It was ridiculous. I was very impressed.

I heard that the country of Peru holds a record for having the widest variety of desserts out of any other country. This doesn't really surprise me, and I hope I can try them all. So far, my favorite, rice pudding. Least favorite, flan. Flan is gross.

In response to the desserts, I have been running. I finally figured out the significance of the huge building that I have been jogging around, which always has a ton of security guards, barbed wire, etc. They call it the "pentagonita," (little pentagon) after our big pentagon government building. The building is actually Peru's central intelligence center. All of their FBI/CIA people work there. That makes me feel better, because for awhile I thought I was jogging around a jail or something. Its only four blocks from my house. Nice, safe place to do my jogging I figure.

Part of the family. Left to right, Julia and Colleen from Wisconsin, Benjamin (Peruvian brother), Nancy (Peruvian mother), Me, and Regina from Texas.

The president of Peru lives here.

Catedral de San Francisco. Catacombs underneath.

I like the yellow buildings.
More buildings in the Plaza de Armas.