Second Host Family

So I have moved to my second host family!  I've moved south--still in Lima, and technically still in the same district of Lima as before (San Isidro) but quite a ways away.  Before, I was living at the very top of San Isidro, and now I have moved down to the very bottom.  And like I said, I'm technically still in San Isidro, but I'm basically on the edge--just about a block from Miraflores, a whole other district.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Residencial+Santa+Cruz,+Lima,+Lima+Region,+Peru&daddr=Castanitas,+San+Isidro,+Peru&hl=en&ll=-12.100256,-77.03124&spn=0.045571,0.084543&sll=-12.101515,-77.0333&sspn=0.04557,0.084543&geocode=FeZFR_8dlVZo-ynHklmlScgFkTE86F-h2u6T6Q%3BFVZ6R_8diMJo-ynZsQ8je8gFkTGhB9AjHJ13wg&oq=Residencial+San&mra=ls&t=m&z=14

That would be the link on google maps to see the distance.  In normal traffic, it is about a 50 minute bus ride (plus a few blocks of walking to get to the bus stops).  In bad traffic, I don't even want to know how long it would take...And I still haven't figured out how to go in bus (where to get on, which bus to take, where to get off).  So, anytime I want to see my friends, they'll either have to come here or I'll have to take that 50 minute bus ride (because all my friends live around the same area, where I used to live, near my school).  Or I could pay 15x the price of the bus to go in taxi (50 minute bus ride sounds better and better). Hopefully the distance won't be too much of a challenge.

Today a friend did make the trip in bus and we went to Costa Verde (beach).  Well, we didn't go to the beach exactly...I'm not quite sure how to explain it, along the coast there are nice parks and gardens, biking and running trails, a skate park, and then off the side of the cliff, down below, is the actual beach (but people don't swim there I think...it's pretty rocky, it is primarily a surfing area from what I understand).  That's one of the advantages of where I'm living now--it is a really nice area of Lima. It is literally just a few blocks from the beach, close to the nicest (and most expensive) residential areas of Lima. 

And so we just walked down the coast, through all the parks and gardens and stuff, and stopped for a little while to watch the skateboarders in the skate park.

It's a really nice area, and luckily today it wasn't as terribly hot as it has been recently--and little sun so I didn't get burned! Yay!

So tonight will be my 2nd night at my new host family.  It's been hard--I feel a bit like when I first arrived in Peru and got to my first host house.  I felt uncomfortable, missing familiarity.  Here it's the same--I miss feeling comfortable in my old host house.  It has been a hard week...switching families is stressful.  I had to pack away everything I had accumulated in my room in my old house, and was definitely short on space (I'll have to buy a second large suitcase when I return home, without a doubt) and had to lug it all to a new house and somehow store it in my new room, which I share with my little host sister (I think she is 10 or 11).  We have bunk beds, not sure how I feel about that haha...but at least I'm on the bottom so I don't have to climb up and down haha.  But it's okay. 

Here I live in a residencial area called Santa Cruz...it's a really big residencial area, with tons of these buildings that look EXACTLY the same, the only way you can tell which are which is by their lettering (I live in P) and I could easily get lost within the residential area haha.

Well I'm bored.  I'm going to watch TV.

Byeee.
-Ginger