Miraflores

The adventure started as soon as I landed in Lima.  I found my ride (a very kind man named Amadeo), got in the car and was immediately told to place all of my things as flat as possible on the floor.  Apparently, it's very common for thieves to break into cars when they are at lights and to steal everything.  Then, in my very broken Spanish, I found out that the place I thought I was going to stay was full and that at 11:00 at night I was going to have to find another place for the night.  Bienvenido a Peru! Luckily the hostel that I planned to stay at later in my trip had an open bed, so I got to sleep in a warm, safe place the first night!!  I will probably actually stay in this hostel for the duration of my trip since the place where I was suppose to stay seems full through June.  But, seriously, you can't beat $8/night with breakfast included!

I went to Universidad Cayatano the next morning where I met with Bob (the doctor in charge of all the projects here) and got to meet a lot of the other students.  It was a very long day full of students sharing their research and ideas being bounced back and forth.

Today I went back to the University to the Lab (se llama LID).  I got to work with two people who are working on a Chagas research project mainly trying to find better treatment methods for Chagas.  Chagas is a parasitic disease in tropical countries, in case you were wondering!  My head is spinning with Spanish since I had to listen to Spanish and speak in Spanish from 7am to 1pm today!!  I really should have paid more attention in Spanish class!

For as busy as I have been since I arrived, I am so lonely.  I think it's probably a bit of culture shock, the fact that I really am alone, and not really understanding everything that is going on around me.  It's scary being in a foreign country alone.  I thought I was well-traveled and ready for this, but perhaps I am not quite cut out for traveling by myself.  Or maybe it really is just a bit of culture shock and maybe things will feel better once I get more acquainted with my surroundings.  I don't know.  In the meantime I am just counting down the days until Dr. Tran and Nate get here.