A Typical Thursday

7:40- get up and pray that Rosita (my fiesty grandma schoolbus driver) doesn´t come earlier than 8:30
8:00- eat my usual breakfast of Corn Flakes and homemade, just-squeezed juice and chat with my host mom about my upcoming day
8:30- go stand at the corner and wait for the schoolbus
8:35- Rosita flies over a speedbump and inside, a group of about 8 (gringo) heads go up then down. When she stops just in front of me, I run around, throw open the sliding door and manage to squeeze myself into that tiny preschooler´s bus. Everyone says ¨Buenos dias!¨
8:37- start feeling nauseous
8:41- cling to the seat in front of me as we cross a 4-lane hwy and taxis are speeding towards us. Kate says something like ¨I can´t believe we haven´t had an accident yet.¨
8:45- arrive at UNSA, the public university in the south of the city
9:00- Peruvian art history class. It´s the 1st day of this class, and we all LOVE the teacher. She´s SO interesting. For example, she talked about how people rub black cuy (guinea pigs) over their bodies so to aborb all the ¨bad¨ stuff that a person may be feeling inside. They rub this thing over them like a bar of soap!
11:05- go sit outside with Felix (a Davidson student) and play grammar games with our Spanish professor
1:00- go to the school´s main gate and flag a taxi with other Davidson students
1:30- finally get home. Eat a quick lunch of cream of pea and carrot soup. I´m lucky my mom feeds me veggies because a lot of students don´t get meat or veggies on a daily basis!
2:00- head over to Saga (short for Sagafalabella, the nice shopping mail that´s 2 blocks from my house) to meet Claudia
2:10- Claudia (a Davidson student) and I hail a taxi at Saga then go pick up Prof. Mangan to go horseback riding
2:40- get to the ranch right outside of the city, pick a horse and start the trail ride
2:50- this is a different trail than last time. WAY different. This time, my horse has to climb almost straight up loose rocks on our way to see a waterfall
3:50- get back to the ranch, pay only 15 soles (about $5) and get in a taxi
4:10- arrive at Peruvian director, Lucy´s, house
4:15- go to a corner store with Claudia to buy a bowl of vanilla/lucuma ice cream with chocolate chips. Lucuma is a fruit that flavors a lot of sweets in Peru
5:00- dance class with the group at Lucy´s! We learn a jungle dance (kinda like a Samba, so it´s REALLY quick) then do some merengue.
7:00- go shower upstairs because I am NOT going out this sweaty
7:30- watch the Hangover and eat the best delivery chinese food ever
9:30- leave Lucy´s, get into taxis and go to the center of the city
9:40- 1st bar stop: Balde. ¨Bucket¨ in Spanish. This is because they serve alcohol here in buckets with a ton of straws so a group can share. Kate and I avoid this drink and chat on the couch. (ewww backwash)
10:15- it´s Grace´s 21st birthday so we bar hop until midnight.
12:00- take a group shot of Pisco, the Peruvian wine, gingerale and sugar
12:01- go to Forum, the best dance club around, and DANCE!
1:40- getting tired so we take taxis back home

This is why I got up at 11:00 this morning... :)

Look out for pics of this night and other times on Facebook. They´re coming soon!