Day 1: Arrival

May 16-17, 2018
My first flight was scheduled for 6:15 PM on Wednesday, so my mom and dad drove me down to the airport. When the airline guy weighed my bag, the number kept jumping up higher and higher, eventually past 50 pounds. You have to understand, I weighed my bag like 20 times and the highest it ever read was 27 pounds. Then the guy took his foot off the scale and it jumped down to 27. I just about had a heart attack, but it was a joke much needed because I was starting to freak out about flying for the first time. So, thanks Mr. United Airlines Man. You are awesome.

By the way, while going through security, do not attempt to collect your bag if they put it to the side, or else they will yell at you. And possibly attack you. Whoops. (Each airport stopped me for a candle I had in my bag).

My first flight was to Houston and it was swell. Smoother than my dad's driving on the way down to Nashville at least. Houston's airport was huge. Like, it could have been its own city. I didn't really know where I was going for my next flight, so I just hopped on a skyrail that happened to take me to the right terminal. My next flight was to Bogota. Before boarding the flight, another girl and I struck up a conversation and found out that not only did we share the same final destination (Cusco), but we were also participating in the same study abroad program and going to be staying in the same house (as of now we're roommates but we're about to get our own rooms).

The flight to Bogota was 5 hours. Once we got there, Kylee and I met up again for some breakfast and then to wait for our next flight to Cusco. I wish I could have got out of the airport to see some more of Bogota, but these were the only two pictures I took:

This picture didn't capture how beautiful it was. It's hard to see because of the clouds, but there were mountains surrounding the whole city.

Here's a plane. Surrounded by Bogota. But it's hard to tell. :/

3 more hours of flying to Cusco. Here was my first view:

I'll get better at taking pictures. Hopefully.

By the way, all of the cities were in the same time zone so that was pretty great.

After getting through customs, Kylee and I headed out of the airport to find our ride. After about 20 minutes we found Mila and Arturo, representatives from ProPeru who are kind of our guides (for lack of a better word) while we're in Cusco. They took us to our homestay. Let me tell you, after experiencing riding in a car in Peru, I will never again complain about bad drivers in the United States. It's crazy down here. Like, I don't know if there are even traffic laws. Everyone just kind of drives the way they want; down the middle of the road, fast, slow, backwards. Anything goes. Anyway, we made it to our house alive.

I'm staying in the house in the middle

Tania is my host mom while I'm in Peru. She (and the rest of her family) is truly one of the sweetest people that I have ever met. We had tea in the living area while we got to know each other. Tania doesn't speak much English, but she's very easy to communicate with in Spanish and is happy to help us learn the language. I went back to my room for a brief nap until lunch, which they eat at 2 here. I've heard that Peru has the best food in all of Latin America, and now I can say that is most likely true. 

Lunch is their biggest meal of the day. The first part was sopa de arroz, which is similar to grits, but 10x better.

I'm not sure what it's called, but the second half had papas fritas (french fries) with onion, tomato, some kind of meat and some other stuff.

At 5 PM all of the students with CISabroad and ASA met for orientation with Mila and Arturo. Tania told us on the way there that Cusco has a lot of two things: cars and dogs. You can spot at least one dog down every street that you look down. Unfortunately, most of them are strays so we can't really pet them or anything. They keep to themselves a lot and walk around in small groups, but seem friendly. I haven't seen any dog fights yet so there's that.

Theres's about 10 students with CIS and ASA combined. After orientation they took us on a small walking tour of the city. We saw USIL, the school we'll be studying at, and la Plaza de Armas, the main square in the city. I got some soles from the ATM, so hopefully my credit card doesn't get stolen because there were definitely some scanners on some of the machines.

First view of USIL, featuring Arturo

We ate in la Plaza de Armas at a restaurant called Mistura Grille. I got this drink called chicha morada, or purple corn juice. It's for sure one of my new favorite drinks. Here's another food pic because right now I'm obsessed.

Honestly I don't remember what this is called, but it was chicken with some kind of sauce.

And finally I gave Tania her gift at the end of the day. I ended up getting a candle from Candlemakers on the Square and made a little cookbook with some food my family makes the most. I should have translated the book to Spanish. The regret is real.

That was a probably too-detailed summary of my first day, but so far I love it here. These 5 weeks shall go by super fast.