Don't judge a book by its cover

Okay, okay. I'll admit it. I didn't like Lima all that much when I first got here. It sort of felt like people were trying to show me how much the city was like the US. At first it bothered me, I just wanted it to be like a Peruvian city. I mean come on I've been here for two days and been inside an equal number of malls (and boy do I love malls). But then, through talking to some faculty from a med school here I began to realize something. One of the really great things about Lima is that it takes little parts of other cultures and makes them its own. Take chifa for example. It is the Peruvian take on Chinese food, and they are very proud of it. A woman today told me that I had to try it because that stuff we call Chinese food in Los Estados Unidos is "atrocious". Chifa she said, is like no other food in the world. And so I will try it just as I tried a drink made of purple corn this afternoon. I read online that Peruvians are also obsessed with Japanese culture and food. So much so that they once elected a president of Japanese descent (Alberto Fujimori). I took a little walk by myself tonight and tried to appreciate Lima for what it is: a melting pot of cultures with Peruvian flavor. I'm coming around, I still don't think it will ever be my favorite city in the world but I also think I'll be able to enjoy it a bit. Some other exciting news is that next week I will be traveling to Chocos, a village about 200 miles south of Peru that was practically destroyed by an earthquake last year. Roche Pharmaceuticals has a project there to help build earthquake resistant homes and a dam to collect rain water. I still don't know what study I'll be working on with the instituto and Kirk says if things fall through I may be able to get involved with this one. It is a good thing I don't need to have a plan, I think I would go insane.