First impression: Lima

New continent. New country. New language. New time. New mentality.

Lima is so different. Different from everything I have seen so far.

After flying for 5 1/2 hours to Bogota on Sunday and then another 3 hours to Lima, I arrived at Lima airport at 4:00 pm (local time).

The flight to Lima was great. I got something to eat for the first time. On the flight from Bogota to Lima, a 24-year-old from Venezuela sat next to me and had a very nice conversation with me.

Since Bogota, hardly anyone speaks English anymore. That naturally makes everything a bit more difficult, but I didn't expect anything else. So far, I'm getting by pretty well with gestures and some Spanish.

For South American standards, my room in the approximately 50 sqm apartment is almost luxurious.

The couple I live with is between 30 and 35 years old. Unfortunately, she speaks very little English, but she makes an incredible effort and uses Google Translator. He, on the other hand, speaks relatively good English, is a tour guide (limabike) and has already offered to take me on a tour with him.

My school is quite small. I estimate about 15 students in the entire school. The disadvantage is that it is relatively difficult to meet many new friends. Also, in my regular classes, there are only two other people, so I have to be fully concentrated and constantly participate in the discussions.

The regular classes consist of about 90% Spanish and 10% English. At the moment, I understand about 75%.

I noticed that I can derive many words from Latin when reading. My individual lesson is entirely in Spanish and really exhausting, but in my opinion, very effective.

Today, in my regular classes, I played TABOO in Spanish and I was surprised that it was already possible on the third day. But of course, I still can't speak Spanish.

However, the four hours of classes are quite exhausting because I have to concentrate continuously and additionally do homework and study a little bit at "home" because I would like to learn the language.

I was very proud of myself today when I could explain to the laundry in Spanish that they didn't give me back my gym bag with the dirty laundry and that I would like to have it back. I'm pretty sure my Spanish was really bad because I used the word "yesterday" and the present tense in the same sentence, as I have only learned the present tense so far, but she understood me.

Every other day, there is an activity organized by the school. On Monday, we visited a small old monastery, and today there was a Pisco workshop.

I learned how to make "Pisco Sour," "Pisco Maracuja," and "Pisco Ginger Ale." The latter tasted the best to me. I just can't decide whether I find tequila or pisco worse.

I can't say much about the city. "Plaza de Armas" is beautiful but also quite far away from me. In "Miraflores," where the apartment is located, I feel safe, and the couple also told me that I can stay in Miraflores even after sunset.

Taking the bus is completely crazy. A bus looks like a 9-seater in Germany, only that about 35 people sit in the "bus." There is always someone at the door who jumps off at every stop and shouts for people to get on. I have now figured out how to take the bus to my school, but I'm not sure yet how to get from A to B because there are no bus schedules, and you can't find bus connections on Google Maps. But I am optimistic.

Just about everything is so much cheaper here than in the USA. Taking the bus costs about 25 cents. 3GB Internet + 30 days of WhatsApp + 5 days of free calls + 3 days of Facebook & Twitter cost €7.50 per month.

I bought a whole week's worth of groceries (fruit, vegetables, cookies, cake, bread, yogurt, meat, pasta, sauce) and only paid €14.

So far, I have a lot to do every day, but I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the 10 million inhabitants of the city since the traffic is unimaginably chaotic and it's difficult to do things on my own.

I think I need a little time to adjust, but overall, I love it here. I am thrilled with the natural friendliness and kindness of the people in Peru and I am simply impressed by the first impression in Lima.