I Wish I looked more Peruvian

So my mom would always take a picture of me on my first day of school, all the way through high school. So here's another one to add to the collection!

Today was the first day of classes at la Católica. Which means that all 20,000 students where on campus. Wow. Thats a whole lot of people!

I had two classes today, both through CIEE. First up was Peruvian Social Reality. The course seems like its going to be very interesting. We have 5 major topics that we are going to discuss. For each topic we have to do a blog entry, I'll put up the link to my blog for anyone who is interested. (It will be in Spanish, by the way) The topics are

1. Cultural Diversity in Peru

2. Race and Ethnicity

3. Poverty, Marginalization and Social Distances

4. Identity and National Image

5. Gender in Peru

Sounds pretty cool, right? I think so. In the afternoon I had Spanish class - Advanced Syntax and Composition. Doesn't sound quite as interesting. But its with the same professor from my 2 week intensive Spanish class, who I like very much as a professor. And its a small class (5 students) which is always nice. So tomorrow I'm going to attend my first direct enrollment class with other peruvian students. Scary. I'm going to go to Musical Appreciation. My friend Caitlyn said that it was a pretty easy class, which will be good for me. I don't want to completely overload myself. Then I'm going to go to an Anthropology class in the afternoon with Amelia. This week all the international students can go to whatever classes they want to kind of test them out, its like a trial period. Then next monday we have to choose and pray that the classes we want haven't already filled up.

So it was a bit strange for me to have so many students on campus, since I'm used to cute little Gordon College. The class sizes here aren't wicked large, so it's not so overwhelming all the time. But I definitely wish that I looked more Peruvian sometimes. But I don't. And there really isn't anything I can do about it. The other students may be staring at me because they can obviously tell I'm a foreigner, but I've decided to just let it go and not worry about it. I can't try to be something that I'm not, or in this case try not to be something that I am. Besides I'm hoping that the other students have some respect for us as exchange students. We're coming in here and don't fully know the language and are studying at the best university in all of Peru. Thats legitimate.

On another note, I had a great Sunday. I was able to go to church with some of my friends and I think I'll continue going to that church. There is also a youth group on Saturday nights that my friend Laura attends that I'll probably end up going to as well. After church on Sunday I took a micro over to the church where my peruvian family goes to mass on Sundays. I waited in a park behind the church that overlooked the ocean and took some pictures.

This part of Lima is called la costa verde (the green coast). There are some beaches, but they are mostly rocky. But people still go. There are also people surfing and parasailing. It was such a beautiful day yesterday as you can tell from the pictures. (Sorry to everyone back at home who is drowning in rain.) Then in the evening I met up with some of my christian friends in the group and we hung out in another park down by the ocean and watched the sunset.

These are the real colors. No photoshopping. Absolutely beautiful. And it makes me think of this song:

I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you're beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful

"You're Beautiful" - Phil Wickham