Having arrived...

Lima is not SO much different from Chicago, but obviously not really like Chicago. There's a lot of traffic and general commotion on the street. Drivers in Lima seem to generally have one of two goals: 1. to pick you up; 2. to run you over. I gather that one gets around, for the most part, by taxi or by mini-bus. Taxis are UBIQUITOUS- some belong to larger firms and are considered reputable, some are just individuals who got a taxi license. Mini-buses are cool- they are way cheap kind of Volkswagen Bus type vehicles with a driver and a 'cobrador' who takes money, advertises the Mini-bus (by shouting at pedestrians) and helps passengers (the ones I've seen are very friendly). Selma (mi madre peruana) and I took a taxi yesterday to the downtown area. The driver was very conversational, and he and Selma talked about politics, traffic, young people today, everything. He got in a heated exchange with another taxi driver at one point, from which I understood "You are aggressive!" "No, YOU are aggressive!" Mini-bus and taxi drivers seem very skilled at what they do, and with such a volume of vehicles on the road you would think it'd be hard to get anywhere, but it's all very fluid.
Downtown was very interesting- we went to go shopping 'al mayor' which I guess kind of means at a discount. We walked mostly among shopping complexes with hundreds of tiny stalls (I think Selma called these catacombs, which they were). There were stands for everything- I bought a watch at a watch-stand. We also walked past the government palace where the president lives and the congress building.
My familia has introduced me to some VERY good fruit. The mango here eats like ice cream- no stringy fibers to speak of, and so sweet it's almost fermented (does that make sense)? Also, 'bananas of the island' look outwardly like unusually fat American Bananas, but reveal themselves to be in fact orange inside. They have a richer more interesting flavor than American Bananas. Also, 'pacai', which hangs from the tree in a huge pod. You strip the tough skin and it looks like an odd banana, but breaks up into segments each with a bean-like pit inside about the size of a dried apricot. The flesh tastes a bit like our own bananas with a crisper texture and a sweet juice. Yeah you could've found all this fruit information elsewhere on the internet, but you know.
I have a sore throat, you will be sorry to hear, which I got not in Peru but at the airport in Atlanta when I had to stay the night (I missed my connecting flight to Lima due to weather delays in Indy). I just bought some anti-biotics this morning (you don't need a doctor to buy 'em, but the people at the pharmacy wanted to sell me some really expensive thing that I didn't know what it was- I ended up with amoxicillin (sp?) which cost the equivalent of 3 bucks for 10 pills. My digestion is still healthy at the moment, if you were curious.
My familia, as you may know already, has two 'domestic employees' that do the cooking and cleaning. It's a bit weird to be served- I will have to describe the relationship between the family and the employees more as I observe it more- interesting. The familia, though, have all been very vocal about their interest in social equality and improving the condition of the poor in Peru (of which there are many). Oh- when we were downtown I saw in the distance a mountain (just one peak) kind of covered on one side with a bunch of tiny colorful houses, which Selma explained to be very very poor. Apparently, one needs to be careful when shopping downtown because the residents of that mountain come down into the city to pick-pocket.
School begins a week from Monday, with several introductory/and registration dates in the coming week. I'm looking very forward to school. The familia tells me Catolica (my university) has a very strong and reputable sociology program.