Technology in Peru is much the same as in the U.S., with some added inconveniences. As part of my program here, I received a simple pay-as-you-go phone for calling and texting. I can easily add minutes at the nearby supermarket, and five soles (about $1.50) is plenty for one week. I could have bought a chip for my iPhone and had a data plan in Peru, but I opted not to for two reasons. First, I can still use my iPhone for calls and texts when I have wifi, and second, I do not like to bring my iPhone around town since there is a high risk of theft. Thus far, this system has worked really well. I can connect with family and friends in Lima and the States when I have wifi, and when I need to contact anyone in Lima immediately, I use my Peruvian phone.
Wifi here is hit or miss. My host family has two routers for the students, and they almost always work. Sometimes it can be spotty with Gmail, and calls to America are usually pretty poor. I have actually found that between FaceTime audio, WhatsApp, and Facebook, Facebook has the highest quality calls. Pretty surprising. The wifi at my university is also very good, and I like to make my calls home there.
My university has several computer labs around campus, which is great because I don’t need to bring my laptop to school. There are also printers on campus, though I prefer to use off campus printers. The street adjacent to my university is lined with copy shops, where students go to print reports and make photocopies. I pay S./ 0.30 per page I print (about $0.09), and S./ 0.10 per page I photocopy (about $0.03). Only one of my professors require his students to buy textbooks. The remainder encourage us to borrow the required textbooks from the library and make photocopies. I recently copied several pages for my Política Internacional Peruana class, and paid only S./ 3.00 (less than a dollar). It’s easy, efficient, and cheap. Perhaps time to make a suggestion to Northeastern? D: A girl can dream.
