First day of school!

So today was the first day of classes and I was very fortunate to have one at 8am. I left early and walked the mile and a half to school to make sure I had plenty of time to find the "aula" so as to not be late. First was History of America: precolonial and colonial. In Spanish the word "America" refers to all the countries in North, Central, and South America so that is a lot of history to cover. The professor is from Peru but has studied in Miami so after class he called over the international students to let us know that if we want to take the tests or write the papers in English we can. The 3 of us declined the offer politely which he understood so he went on to say that we won't take points off for mistakes at the fault of Spanish nto being our native language. In other words I'm greatly looking forward to the class, even if it is as 8am.

When class got over at 10am, I had 4 hours before my next class. I was too much of a floja to walk back to the apartment only to have to go back for another class so I mostly walked around campus and sat under a tree to read my book. At one point there were 3 guys sitting on the bench next to me. I was engrossed in my book but I overheard the word "gringa" more than once from them. HEY GUYS, GUESS WHAT? IF I'M HERE STUDYING IT MEANS THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT ME! I decided to let it go but we'll see how long that lasts. I did run into Maggie, another international student. She showed me this little place just outside of campus where one can get a 3 course meal for 6.5 soles, under $3! Getting off campus was it's own adventure. Dad and Eric, you never said that engineers get special treatment! I might have stuck with my physics major if I would have known :P Apparently the entrance farthest south (the direction we needed to go to get to the restaurant) is only for engineering students. We couldn't even leave from it!

The second class was at 2pm, the state and politics of Peru. We started with an overview of 19th century Peruvian history which I'm not very strong on. I was able to put in my two cents when the professor wanted to put the important dates in context. "And what was going on in France at the time?" . . . silence, the guy from the Czech Republic and I were waiting for someone else to answer. "Napoleon was ruling most of Europe" Score 1 for the exchange students! A little while later: "And what country was the second country in the Americas, after the U.S., to break off from colonial rule?" . . . more silence . . . "Haiti" Score 2! The lecture was hard to pay attention to but the professor is only filling in for 2 weeks until the actual one returns.

After all that, I waited the hour until Sarah was done with her last class and we headed for the plaza. There's a Lifetime Fitness look-a-like there and I wanted to check out prices so I can work out while I'm here. The trainers (all wearing muscle shirts) had a hard time understanding that I would not be needed a trainer here. I have one in Minnesota and I'm getting a workout plan from him. All I need is access to the weight room and such.