Words are hard. Things are funny.

Backwards day. Field trip in the morning and class in the afternoon. You might think this isn’t a big deal, but I’ve become pretty set in my routine. Not only that, but we had to be at the uni at 8 instead of 9 today (we had to take a taxi, obvs).

Carlitos was very concerned about us being on time, and fortunately we were all very punctual! Who was late? Luis. He was runnin on Peruvian time. We rode the bus to Prom Peru, which is a government organization that promotes Peruvian exports and tourism. We listened to a presentation for Peruvians who are thinking about exporting their products. I was way prepared for this presentation: Business Spanish, International Trade (twice – once in Spain and again at OU), Law of Commercial Transactions, and International Business. I might be incredibly underprepared for an actual career, but I’ll be damned if I can’t understand a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish about exporting. Thank you, PCOB.

Afterwards, we met with a representative of Prom Peru and he discussed all of Peru’s export products. During most of this, Kathryn and I are writing notes back and forth to Luis. He has finally warmed up to me. Too bad we’re leaving in two days. Well I say he’s warmed up to me, but I’m 99% sure that he does the smile and nod routine to anything that I say. Little does he know, I invented that. Meant to be…

Lunch was an ordeal as usual. We sat outside (at actual tables today, not at the benches – def upgrade), but the abejas (bees) were out of control. I’m not big into bugs, and I would kind of lose it anytime they came flying near me. I’d try to just walk calmly into the cesped until it flew away, but I’m not near that cool. A nearby Peruvian offered us some advice and told us to trap in the chocolate pudding. He even tried to kill it for us, but I insisted, “Don’t be a hero.” He persisted, so I again replied, “Just let him be(e).” (As George well knows, nobody likes a pun). I set up the ultimate pudding trap just waiting for one of the bees to meet his untimely fate at our table, with the idea that he would then serve as an example to the rest of the hive. Of course, the area was completely free of bees for the next 20 minutes, so we just left.

Highlight of the day: Answered three, count them THREE, questions right today in class. Carlitos was so impressed, probably because he had previously thought that I’m slightly dumb and super creepy. We discussed the economy of Latin America, and well, I am an IB major after all, so I dominated.

I went to the pharmacy today to get some medicine because apparently I’m allergic to Lima. The pharmacy experience was very odd. I came prepared, already having looked up the words for antihistamine and allergies. The pharmacist came back with some pills and a long speech. I smiled and nodded as usual, and luckily caught myself because I realized that this was actually important and I should probably know what he’s saying. Good thing I did, because instead of a bottle with instructions and warnings on it, he gave me six individual pills and a receipt. Cool.

Tonight we had dinner, I skyped Ryan (is that a good enough shout out for you?) and Zico and now here I am waiting for Revae to fall asleep and I’m praying that my awful snoring and wheezing (due to las alergias) won’t keep her up.