Wow, so after 2 weeks of having to say goodbye (well, i like to think of it as a see you later) to people at work and the best job I've ever had, before I knew it tom and I were off on our 20 hour flight to Lima!

We knew the flight was going to be pretty horrendous - we had to see the annoying in flight safety video with a very annoying american lady who actually waggled her finger at you as she said smoking was a no no.......good old america. I've never been asked if "Y"ALL ALRIGHT MAM?" before hehe. although diaster struck.....Delta airline dont have TV's!! my dreams of being a couch potato and watching films vanished into thin air haha.

We had to buy a Esta each which is bascially America charging you $14 to sit in their airport for 4 hours. The security in American airports in mental! you have to do finger print scans, have a picture taken of you, stand in a proper boooth while it scans your whole body! I had a lovely little cultural difference moment - i was joking with the security lady because I had to check which was my right hand and left hand when she asked me to put it onto the scanner - she asked was that because we call it something different in enagland?"......embarressed pause on my behalf "errr, no....", made me look like a right simpleton haha.

anywayyyy....we finally got to Lima after the last bit of the flight which wasn't fun and our taxi driver was there waiting for us hurrah! we quickly found out that his english was sketchy and our spanish even worse so our borken conversation in the taxi ride was hilarious! As we drove through Lima you realise how massive it really is, 9 million people need room to live ey. And I swear London doesn't have that many lights, the whole place was lit up. It's so hard to describe, it was really exciting but also abit meanacing, tom called it the ghetto and i laughed but i tend to agree in some parts. There are definately parts of Lima you would NOT go wandering into.

we arrived at our hostel and the less than enthusiastic guy on reception informed us that the double room we booked wasnt free and he stuck us in a dorm room, not quite what we expected....anyway we moved hostels in the morning to a fab one called lazy dog, this place is lovely and so friendly.

yesterday we pottered to the beach, met a nice english couple, got quite sunburnt (roockie error, its cloudly but v. hot!), had a nap and went out for dinner with Abby and Darren. In the resturant we tried a fish dish each. Darrens had a bout 3 cloves of garlic on it, abby's had a whole baby squid, tom's looked the most normal and mine had cold (and i think raw) fish with weird looking vegetables. it wasn't a bad meal but it was a strange one lol.

we spent the last bit of the night wandering around to find the supermarket - the parks here really liven up at night and there was live music and markets and things going on. And there are sings everywhere saying "siclencio" for the traffic........they are so beep happy haha, the signs dont mean much.

oh and the banks are nuts, armed guards with ammo on display on each door! very friendly though. Loads of surfer dudes roaming around, the sea is cold and there is a peir that reminds me of Brighton haha. People here I've seen so far are generally very friendly and helpful which makes you feel more relaxed and not threatened. It's also nice that people don't automatically know that you're english, they all seem really happy when they find out (as most people that speak english and look like us are american).

One last note - its part of the trip so i dont want to miss it out but its not nice news. I didn't get into Reading Uni for my masters....so it all rests on Sheffield's news in April. To be honest I'm not holding my breath....so if anyone has any ideas of what I can do with myself for the rest of my life please let me know haha email, text, carrier pidegeon, smoke signals.....im open to any ideas.

Righteo, quick note to say I miss you all and love you lots

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