Food + Shopping = Good day

So today was my first adventure on the "micro," which is the term used for the busses here. My host uncle rode with me to the university this morning, because I had no idea what I was doing. You can tell which micro is which by the color that they're painted, and they also have the locations that they drive to painted on the side. In addition, they have a guy that stands in the doorway and shouts out where the bus is going whenever it stops. It's all very hectic and confusing. You have to be careful, too, because they don't necessarily stop at every stop, and if you want to get out you have to shout "Bajo."
He took me to PUCP and then showed me where to get on the bus back home, and which bus it was. He also told me what to say to the bus driver, to make sure they were going to my house. "Huscares de Junin, en frente del grifo." I said that about 20 times in my head before I found someone to borrow a pen from so I could write it down. I was a little nervous about going home by myself! It's really hard to orient myself in Lima, because everything sort of looks the same to me, so it's hard to recognize when I'm in a certain area.
At the university, we had the academic orientation with all the int'l students, not just the ISA bunch. So there were students from France, Germany, England, one from Holland, and probably lots of other places. I didn't meet them all b/c there was like 250 or something.
We went over a lot of the same things we talked about Monday at ISA orientation, but then we were introduced to our PUCP "buddies." It's a program where you're paired with a Peruvian student so you have someone who sort of knows the ropes. I'd talked to mine on facebook before I came, so it was fun to meet her and all the other students.

We all went out to eat together to a buffet that served Peruvian dishes. So I got to try some new stuff. First of all, I got to try Inca Kola, a peruvian pop. It's yellow and tastes like bubblegum. I'm not a huge fan, but it wasn't bad.

I also got to try ceviche for the first time in Peru! It was yummy, except they didn't quite get all the bones out of the fish, so that grossed me out a little. Their corn here is cool too, because the kernels are like ginormous.
I also got to try Chifa, which is what they call the Chinese food here. It's sort of a Chinese/Peruvian mix, but it was yummy. And for dessert I had ice cream. Delish! All of that for 18 soles, or about 7 bucks, not bad.
After that they gave us a tour of campus, and then we went home. I made it back on the bus alright! Yay!
When I got home, I went with a couple other girls and one of the girl's host mom to Miraflores, which is one of the districts of Lima with good shopping. We walked around some shops that had souvenir type stuff like alpaca clothes little trinkets. I bought some fingerless gloves with llamas on them :) but for most of that kind of stuff I'm gonna get it in Cusco, where it's cheaper, and where the people probably actually make it themselves.
Then we went to a department store, and I found a nice warm coat (all I brought was a fleece jacket) on sale for about $27! Success!