Another great day in Peru. On second thought, I suppose this is only my first full day in Peru. It started out with a bang in the form of a breakfast feast! Our host mother, Ella, provided cereal, yogurt, fruit, milk, juice, and… paninis! Awesome. Just like Boo used to make… I was telling the other girls about the Boeckings’ new panini maker. I’m sure they were impressed (I know Ryan was).

We walked to the university (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) from our house for class this morning. It was only about 20 minutes, but it seemed like a lot longer as I was responsible for translating the directions that our house mom told us, and that’s a lot of pressure.

During class, Bobbi (who I used to work with at OU Scholars) along with two other girls who are studying abroad in Lima came and told our class about their experience here. It was really interesting and enlightening. I have plans to meet up again with Bobbi on Wednesday and I’m super excited about that!

Our lunch was a treat as well! We ate in the cafeteria reserved for professors and ate like kings! They whipped out the Inca Kola first thing – another reason I love Peru. Inca Kola is a soda that is neon yellow in color and tastes like bubblegum. Fantastic. At lunch we discussed how attractive our guide, Luis, is. Consensus: Very.

After lunch, we went to Huaca Pucllana, which are ancient ruins that are just sitting smack dab in the middle of Lima. It’s so crazy, there’s a 10-acre lot with a huge pyramid structure constructed 1600 years ago surrounded by modern houses, buildings, and stores. Like it ain’t no thing. It sort of reminded me of that oil well in the parking lot of Buy For Less in OKC. No big deal. Well I guess a huaca is slightly cooler than a pumpjack…

Next we went to the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera, which incidentally is just down the street from our house. There was a TON of ancient, indigenous art in there -- 45,000 pieces or something ridiculous like that, complete with a room dedicated solely to erotic art. Shelby would be happy to know that helping me study for Pre-Columbian Art circa Fall 2007 finally paid off as I could recognize a lot of the art.

Later we went to Wong, which is a supermarket kind of like Wal-Mart or Carrefour, so that everyone could purchase items that they forgot to pack. Naturally, I’m an expert packer (thanks to Boo) and I didn’t have to buy anything. For dinner we had fish and rice and vegetables (and Inca Kola!) prepared by Ella. As we were bringing our dishes into the kitchen after we had finished, I asked Ella if she wanted help with the dishes – my mother raised me to be polite. Never mind that is was a completely empty offer. Well Ella unfortunately took me up on it, so I found myself standing at the sink washing all of our dishes by hand (of course there’s no dishwasher). But everyone stayed in the kitchen with me and we all chatted in both Spanish and English and it was actually very pleasant.

This wasn’t clever or amusing at all, but I guess I just need better material to work with (kind of like the Hoot n Holla). Hopefully, I’ll be better equipped tomorrow.