Vida en Distrito 12

I've talked a lot about the differences in Lima like the culture, the food, and the people but not so much about the differences of lima as a city. When I first spoke to my first host family they said id be living in "San Borja" and I was surprised because I had been assigned to Lima not San Borja. My host sister then explained that Lima has 43 districts within it. This is like how Oakland county in Michigan has several cities within it, Lima being like a county.

 I am currently living in district 12, la molina. That's right Hunger games fans, I'm living in district 12. La molina is kind of far from everything which is a drawback but it is also, very luckily, where all the exchange students have to go to university. I have about a 10 minute walk to the campus everyday which is a lot better than a 2 hour bus ride that some of my friends have to take, especially when classes begin at 7. La molina is known as one of the richer districts and there are a lot of nice apartment buildings here, but we are also nearly in the mountains so it's very hilly.

My first house was in San Borja which was great because it's right in the center of everything. It's also know as the earthy district because there are so many parks there. I went to celegio in Chorrillos which is aaalllllll the way at the bottom of Lima and where there are a lot of military training facilities and buildings. This is like the outskirts of Lima so it's not quite as nice but it's also on the coast and has some really popular and beautiful beaches. My second family was in Surquillo, right below San Borja. That was nice because I already knew the area and I was a 15 minute walk from a mall and a bus stop that could get me anywhere I wanted to go. 

So now I'll tell you a little bit about every district that I know:

Lima- center of the city, plaza de armas, great place to go shopping but also a great place to get robbed, lots of tourists, lots of police, if you visit just go in the daytime and you're good

San Miguel- went there to stay with a friend last weekend and my mom nearly died when I showed her outside the window, very close to Callao, lots of rundown buildings with tin roofs and stray bricks broken off of the walls, friend who lives there calls it the land of stray dogs. (apparently we were in the bad part of it and most of it isn't so bad, we went to a pretty awesome mall to see Divergent and it was actually in a nice part)

Madalena del Mar- little costal district, a place that gets passed through more than visited but it's really a very nice like place, nice people, lots of spanish style buildings, not so typical peruvian

Lince- district where i go to pick up my packages and deal with the incompetent postal service here (the exchange students have so much trouble with the postal service here because they know we are from out of town, expect we can't speak spanish, and if we list items of value in out packages they will make it nearly impossible to track it down so that hopefully we will forget about it and they can sell off our stuff.)

San Borja- beautiful district in the center of everything, lots of parks, the street Aviacion runs right through it (giant monorail train system above this road) mostly residential 

La Molina- out in nearly the mountains, very nice buildings and lots of hills

Surco- very residential district, lots of houses and not so many apartments, borders all the good districts (miraflores, barranco, san borja)

Surquillo- food market district with lots of people in them, everything here is a lot cheaper than in the supermarkets, kind of like organic markets but super cheap, normally the poorer people will go here but rich people will too if thats how they prefer their food (but they often said the maids to do the shopping)

Miraflores-Gringo district, all the foreigners are here, lots of people selling hand crafted objects, pinkberry and starbucks are here, lots of nice hotels for travelers or cheap hostels for backpackers, a park in the center where the cats are like squirrels in Michigan, on the coast but above it on a cliff so there are amazing views

Barranco- party district, super tiny and jammed full of night clubs and bars, this is where the foreigners who are in miraflores all day go at night, considered a very cultural artsy district with museums for during the day and a few decorated pianos around town that literally ask you to play them. 

Chorillos- where my military school is, there's a villa where all the military families live along with government offices and training facilities, if you go down off the cliff to the coast there are some beaches that were pretty cold when I went with my school friends

Callao- not technically a district of Lima, where the international airport is, detroit-esque, lots of run down buildings and stray dogs

Terremotos y Temblores

 So recently there has been a few tremors and earthquakes going on in and close to Peru. The biggest ones were 8.0's and more in Chile and although we didn't actually feel a thing here in Lima we were still issued a Tsunami warning. I knew with coming to Peru that earthquakes were a major risk and in our first few weeks here all the exchange students had to go to a weekend camp where they taught us all about earthquakes, tsunamis, and any other natural disaster that can occur here. We learned that these things are serious and watched some pretty scary videos that showed us that these things are really dangerous. Apparently there's a giant earthquake coming (according to the experts) but I feel pretty prepared. All the buildings here are built in the most stable way possible to ensure they won't fall in the case of seismic activity, and also there are marked safety zones in every room of public buildings so that if you can't get outside in time, there is a place that you can go where you know it is safe. In addition to the safety zones, a lot of public places like hotels or museums have marked meeting places, so that if you are separated from your family or friends you can find each other easily. Also if you are in an area that you aren't familiar with when an earthquake strikes and you aren't sure if you're in the danger zone of a tsunami, there are signs that will tell you if you are and the direction that you should go to get to a secure area.
All of my time here so far I have felt two earthquakes, one in colegio, and the other in my house. In colegio it was fairly weak and I only felt it because i was leaning on the wall on the second floor, and I immediately thought to the training we received and how we should get outside as soon as possible but everyone else decided it wasn't strong enough to make a big deal out of. While I was wondering why people weren't moving towards the door everyone else just was sitting there shouting "temblor" (tremor) so that everyone was aware. After they were all laughing at me a little bit because this is totally normal to them all and they were surprised when i said it was my first time feeling an earthquake. I told them that in Michigan we don't know anything about earthquakes but we are exerts at tornados, which also seemed to surprise them.
The second time was pretty soon after; I was in my room and I had been sitting on my bed but I stood up and was walking to go get something when it struck. I felt it at first and heard my host mom shout temblor like they did in colegio. This time I took a breath and was like "ok Hannah, just stay calm and it's gonna be fine" but then something scared me this time. I could hear all the windows beginning to rattle and shake in their frames. It made me pretty nervous so I started to go look for my host mom who had disappeared from her room and then I headed to the door. I found my mom freaking out with the empleada and telling us to go outside. She was more scared than me!! Anyway, I think the strangest part was that I definitely felt these two earthquakes but the other exchange students all who lived pretty close to me didn't feel them, and actually felt others. We were super close geographically but we all felt different ones. That just kind of surprised me a little. Soooo the point of all this is mom, don't freak out, im gonna come home alive. The people and the buildings here are built to withstand earthquakes, even if this supposed "big one" is coming I think we'll all be ok.