Overwhelmed meets tranquility

I´m normally an independent person, doing stuff on my own, but at the moment I am feeling overwhelmed. The first week that I arrived in Lima I was by myself and met people along the way and just kind of flew by the seat of my pants. I was ok with this and knew from previous travel experience that I had to be flexible and go with the flow. Since I have started my program I have started to feel a little claustrophobic. Don´t get me wrong I get along with the people in my group well, but with being in the city all day, not really leaving our house, day in and day out the same routine I am kind of going a little crazy. I felt very stressed and needed to get out of the city for some fresh air.

For this trip I wanted to take in all the sites and do what I could while here. I teach my kids about Peru and the Nasca lines and was hoping to go there for myself. Well the other group members had the same idea, so we bought our bus tickets on Wednesday. The original plan was to buy our tickets and then head to the center for a ´birthday´ dinner, a few days late, to celebrate; however that is NOT how it panned out. After our class finished at 1 pm we met up with our director and at about 2 I finally tried to book my tickets, but met a dead end. Each time I tried, 3 times, I was met with an error page and we finally went to the mall to buy our tickets. I asked the lady at the mall if my card would be charged, she told me that if I received a code yes, but otherwise no. I felt relieved until I checked my bank account. I had been charged for those attempts and now had 3 extra tickets. I contacted my bank to see if they could stop the charges, but was told they couldn´t. Hopefully they will realize that it was an error and not charge my account, currently pending.

We finally made it to Nasca after a stressful Friday, one teacher didn´t show up, miscommunication. As we got to Nasca our agent at the hostel picked us up and we were now able to rest and get ready for the tour of the Nasca lines, Palpa lines and the museum we had just booked. Our experience in Nasca will be my next post as it will take some time to fill in.

After Nasca lines tour we traveled to Paracas, coast town, and finished our trip. This city is such a welcome and a break from our city life that I do not want to leave. We got to Kokopelli hostel, HIGHLY recommended and just relaxed. Slept like a rock, welcome after Nasca trip, and spent Sunday reading and having time to myself to think and reflect. Love waking up to the ocean! Nothing better as of now. We are off to Lima and back to work in the morning. Stay tuned for our story of Nasca.

Better day

With all the nerves I worked up on Monday night I was relieved that I was not met with frustration and or any animosity feelings when I arrived at school on Tuesday. I got there about 930 and I got to teaching about 10:00 am. I was planning on doing a quick review of the alphabet and then going through our 8 words we learned and playing a pictionary game to add to the review. I also had planned a mini lesson of numbers, which they already knew, and we were going to play a game: bizz buzz. This didn't go very well because the students were gone after 45 minutes. I had mentioned that the material we are supposed to cover in our short time would be too much and all of us are on different pages on what to teach and when. After this lesson we ate lunch and then headed to our meeting with the teachers, since we had a short day. 

View from outside my school

Our meeting with the teachers went better and we actually worked on a basic conversation for them. We went through it together and had them repeat after us and then we broke up into small groups to practice together. For me this worked very well, worked with my cooperating  teacher, fourth grade teacher and another teacher (not sure what level).  Each of them practiced the conversation with me where I lead them into it and then they took on the role themselves. It was cool to see them doing this with each other. For the hour we were there we practiced this and I tried to phonetically write out the conversation in Spanish to help them on their pronunciation. When they went back and reviewed it, it worked well! I did not add vocabulary as some others did because I didn't want to overwhelm them and wanted them to feel comfortable with one thing first then add to it to make it more complex. Also that afternoon at our afterschool program I made a song with our conversation that we will use next class with our teachers. I used the tune of a song I taught to my 7th graders this year!

After Tuesday things went well and we came into Wednesday ready for classes. I was excited to have another one of our previous classes because I really liked one teacher and got what he was saying. Today I was kind of sad that it did not go as well. However our 2nd class today was new and very interesting also. Our teacher took more of a sociological/philosophical approach to the material and drew us in. His main focus was to ask ourselves and challenge ourselves to see the problem in front of us, narrow it down, find out who exactly is involved and face the reality that is in job. I got myself asking questions about this program that I have asked myself before and while on this trip: who am I?, why?, what am I doing this for?, by asking these questions I can come to a conclusion and hopefully get all of what I desire instead of parts and bits/pieces. We were asked to think about what is actually possible to do in what's left of our program, after we opened Pandora's box. So I am going to gather some information from my teacher, from above questions, and bring it to class Friday to add to our focus. 

Besides this I have now booked tickets to Nazca, Paracas and back to Lima for this weekend. We leave Friday after class!  Also I got to talk to my professor and work on a research project of his, self-efficacy of teachers traveling abroad. Finally I found out yesterday that one of my friends is coming to Lima in about 2 weeks and he'll be here for a week, Santiago for a week and Cuzco for a week too. I was glad to hear it and also I gave him some contact information of a good friend of mine in Santiago who can help him out!! 

Tonight we are going to celebrate at 12 for our mom's birthday tomorrow. We bought her flowers tonight! Chau chau for now. Nos vemos mañana. 

Overstepping a little?

Today as we got to the school I was not sure what was planned for me to do. I got there when they were doing mathematics class. They were doing multiplication tables and writing down the numbers that Miss Norma, teacher, was dictating. This was surprising challenging for some of the students even in their own language. After the dictation we wrote sentences to figure out multiplication. 

The students have to copy a lot of stuff down into their notebooks and then do the same problem with different numbers in order that they can relate the formula to different numbers and sums. We taught them the trick with multiplying by 9s, using your hands. 

Today was a shorter day and they left at 12:00, which actually ended up being closer to 1:00. After class we had a meeting with the teachers in our school to discuss the possibility of a mini study session with them in English. We talked about what they wanted us to teach them what would be the most beneficial. Different teachers had different opinions on what to teach and I actually think the majority of them do not have the desire to learn English. I personally would love the opportunity to practice a new language if given, but I don't know when these adults would use the English so I can understand their hesitation. They want their kids to learn some vocabulary, pronunciation and basic sentences, but with only 8 school visits left I don't know how much we can really do. They cannot expect their kids to learn the language, but to only get some repetition in speaking and listening as well as reading and writing through activities with us. 

The thing is, similar to what I mentioned in an earlier post, we do not have a lot of time to teach English as their schedules are already filled to max as it is. It was mentioned that the teachers should suspend their lessons and take advantage of having us here for the kids and get the most out of it, but I don't know how I'd feel about that if I was in their place. As a teacher I love teaching my content area and it is a little difficult to give up my students to someone else, even a sub. I understand we are only here for a total of 12 class days and originally thought we would be teaching everyday all day, but not what we found out and now our schedule is a little confusing. 

Today we talked and I kind of felt we had the same conversation with multiple people and that we were talking in circles. Not everyone is on the same page in our program. Everyone has different expectations of what we are to accomplish here, even us volunteers. We are taking classes and have to do two projects for that and then go to school and teach English for however much time given and whatever theme given. I did try to clear up my schedule with my teacher today; Mondays 9:30-11 and Thursdays the same, because the other day we are there is busy with computer class where kids are in and out if the classroom. I was ok with this because it was more than 1 hour 1 time a week and I am flexible with what teacher has to offer. This changed this afternoon after a conversation again. So now I am supposed to be teaching for I am not sure how long and the teacher is supposed to go along with it. This is the part that I am a bit sketchy about. I would feel like someone is trying to step on my toes and that as the home teacher I am getting told what to do in my own room. So I'm nervous for tomorrow to what will happen. I have a good relationship with the teacher and hope that this change doesn't upset people. Oh by the way all our kids leave early again tomorrow and have tests Wednesday-Friday and need to study in class...so?

Tonight I finished my cards to teach numbers tomorrow and am going to review our activity from last class and then go on to the new material and play activities to keep then engaged!! I hope we can figure this out and do or best for this community while we are here. A ver. Tomorrow will tell. Off to bed. Wish me luck!

Chau

Teaching English for the 1st time

Well it's been a few days since I've posted, so I'll get right on that. Thursday was our 2nd day with the kids and it was very different than the first. We decided to leave a little later from the college and arrived about 930 at our school. As soon as we got there I got to my classroom and the teachers told me that it was time for English and that I was going to teach the alphabet. They already had the alphabet on the board and I just added the end of the song; now I know my ABCs..., and I was off. 

The students I have are about 8 years old and some know some words in English/ numbers but cannot actually relate it to something when they see it. For example I have a girl in my class that can count to 30, but if I showed her a number more than 10 she probably wouldn't recognize it. I am so excited to teach these kids a bit of my language, but the fact that I came here and only have 11 days with the kids and of those days we get 1 day a week and 1 hour that day to teach English. 

So Thursday I got to my class and taught the alphabet song, they took out their alphabet cards and we constructed words that I dictated letter by letter. We did some 3 letter words and I would walk around and monitor (something I haven't seen a lot of here) and we did a few challenging words that were longer. We went through the pronunciation of each word and the translation into Spanish. Something that was a review for me was to write in cursive! I did a good job though. I wrote words we did in English, Spanish, and tried to write the pronunciation. It's a bit difficult to think of pronunciation when there isn't a sound like it in their language. 

After I did this in my 3rd grade room I went upstairs and did the same in one of the two 4th grade classrooms. Look at that good cursive!!

I didn't mind this too much and liked having kids motivated and energized to learn, but the structure and organization of the classrooms and lessons are a little bit frustrating. We were told that we would be teaching English to our students at this school, but we were not told that it wouldn't be a lot. These teachers already have a schedule and are  fitting English into their schedule now , so we have to work around this. My teacher is working with me to kind of take advantage of having us here and getting the most out of us as she can. However she is telling us what we are teaching without much planning time. I would love to plan a lesson to teach to my kids and use in my class, but with some disorganization the ideas kind of just come up whenever. For example we taught the alphabet last time and will be teaching the verb "to be" next class and not sure what else. Now I would probably do it a different way; alphabet first, colors, numbers, and probably a basic conversation, but I'm going with the flow.

 

So as this next week approaches I have been talking with the girls in my group and we have all come to similar conclusions. This is not a US school and the organization isn't entirely there, but they do mean well. We are going to hope to give some input on our teaching as well as get an idea/schedule of what we will be asked to teach and when so we can be a little more prepared. 

Besides our English teaching classes we have been taking classes at the college and they have gone well. We just finished our teaching English class and have had one class of the history of Peru and one class dealing with the social change and education in Peru. These classes have been very informative and interesting. For our TEFL class we are asked to do a project that we will work on with our kids at Villa Salvador. I chose to practice numbers, colors and already know we are doing the verb to be, so I will have my students do a self portrait when I'm done with the course and describe themselves with 3-4 sentences. It doesn't seem like a lot, but with 9 more class days and not sure of how much time it is more than enough. The rest of the week we spent doing some sightseeing. We went to the centro and the girls did some souvenir shopping and I maintained control!! Oofdah that was a bit tough, now I would like to go back and buy something now. 

So our food we have been eating mainly consists of rice, bread and other stretches. I am pretty sure that some clothes might not fit on way back home. :) Well anyway I am not sure what happened but myself and the 2 girls I am staying with had an interesting Saturday. I had eating some Domino's pizza the day before and was thinking that it wasn't setting well with me since I woke up 2 times to go to the bathroom Friday night. I got up and still didn't feel the greatest, but before class I felt better. When we got to class I asked the girl I shared the pizza with how she was feeling and she said never better and I was stumped. Ok so the crazy part was, after class we wanted to get some supplies for our classes so we all walked to the mall to grab some stuff. This is about a 5 minute walk from campus and 10 minutes from our house. The girls that I am staying with and I eventually got our stuff (longest time in a grocery store EVER!!) and walked home. I was wearing a sweatshirt and was swearing profusely. I had to go to the bathroom and the girls told me they did also. Well we had to walk home and the whole way back while swearing and trying not to think of this, all I thought about was Bridesmaids. I was saying please make it home, don't have an accident like that! Hahah embarrassing no?! Well we all did make it home, ran to the bathroom ( I ran downstairs and other 2 upstairs: 1 had to wait) and felt a little relief. Afterwards we had a laugh on how it affected us all at the same time ( but not me, I had it the night before)! We took some medicine and were all cured by that night. This picture sums up how we feel and how the rest of our group feels too. Admit it, it's real life. 

Saturday we went out with our family and chilled and then tonight we did the same. We watched the USA play in the copa mundial and I was so excited when we went up 2-1, but not excited that with 1 second left Portugal tied the game. Argh!!! Hopefully we can stay ahead of them, sorry Ronaldo. Also the girls and I made tacos for our family with homemade guacamole! Scrumptious. 

So I am on my 3rd week here and off to 3 days of teaching and 2 of classes this week. Keep on reading and I'll keep in track of updating! Chau chau

New word for Peruanos...oofdah

Yesterday was out first full day at our school in Villa Salvador. We arrived at about 8:45-9 am and we were there until 6 that night. When we arrived at school I was the first to go into my room because it was right by the door, first room you walk to. I am in the third grade classroom and I have about 21 students with a few that were absent. As soon as I got there I was greeted by the children with "Buenos Días" and I took a seat. I didn't really speak anymore in the class for awhile but more observed. I told the two teachers in my room, Norma and Paula, that I teach Spanish and that I'm ready to teach English and help out where needed. They were pretty surprised that I could speak Spanish and that I was a teacher because they are used to volunteers that don't speak good Spanish and do not have an education teaching background. 

As I observed the classroom flow I noticed that these ladies were very affectionate with their students and wanted what's best for their kids. This is the last of 3 schools that once existed in this area and they have had to do a lot of cuts and are down to their last school. It is only for grades 1-4 with 3-5 year olds there also. One thing I noticed that is different than school in U.S is the classroom management styles and amount of discipline. Besides the disorganization and lack of resources, which are kind of inevitable in this area, the major things I noticed were the latter two. I know my classroom is not perfect by all means, I am still learning and trying new things all the time, but it was difficult for me to sit by while there was chaos going on in the classroom and when asked by the teacher the students would either not do their work as asked or ignore the teacher completely. The students are a lot more rowdy and loud this the teacher has to be louder in order to give directions or what not. OOFDAH. 

Now I understand that this is not my classroom and that these teachers have been doing this for a while with success, children love coming to school, but as a group we have talked to try to come up with some sort of PD for the teachers to explain classroom styles in management and behavior, etc for these teachers and hope to get something in return from then to use in our room. I did not do much yesterday in the room besides listen, chime in every once in awhile with my opinion of answer, walk around and help kids read or what not, as well as raise my voice at a few because they were hitting each other on heads with notebooks and fighting in general, but I would like to help out with some ideas as well as make sure that they don't come off as trying to change their teaching style. My teacher seems pretty open to me teaching English for a bit tomorrow so we will go from there; I'm pretty excited with ideas on what to start with and how much I'll get to do. I understand it is hard to open up your classroom to someone else who just arrived and is expecting to teach, so I'll be flexible and work with my teachers cooperatively. 

After our hour drive to the school and I spent about 3 hours in the classroom and finally couldn't hold it anymore and had to go pee. I realize that this area is not well off and that the idea of running water is new to them, some kids do not have any at home still, but the bathroom was an experience. With about 100 kids or more and multiple staff and adults one can imagine the bathrooms. The pictures show the "baño de los profesores" which is actually used by all and the water to wash your hands, from garbage can filled with water. 

As you can see the toilet doesn't have a seat like we do back home and I don't believe that flushing was an option. So one can imagine with that many people using this and the other bathrooms that the smell and conditions are not what we are used to. I will admit it wasn't horrible and I just squated and was fine and had to do my best to ignore the smells, but this is something that is a kind of new thing for them; a porcelain toilet and a door to go to the bathroom in. Out in their recess area the children's bathroom do not have seats, only holes in the ground. So that was probably the thing that I had to take into consideration our location and resources and understand them to realize it's not a big deal. 

Another thing that was different about this school and I saw a lot in Chile is the amount of dogs that populate this village. The dogs are strays, not neutered or spayed, and keep populating the community with more and more lots. These dogs are all over, search and scavenge for food, their waste is not cleaned up, and they come into the school whenever possible looking for food. Since my room was right by the main entrance we had to let a few people in and then I heard a noise that sounded like people trying to get in, but was told by a kid that it was actually a dog trying to get in. We had a few walk into our room yesterday for a visit and then shooed away by the kids or me. 

After classes ended, about 1:30-2:00 we ate lunch and got ready for the afterschool portion of our day. About 2:30-3:00 the students arrive to get help on their homework and then they can go play whatever or join in on the big group activity (Monday and Wednesdays is futbol days, Tuesday andThursdays are volleyball days). I helped out a girl with her math problems until she kept getting so distracted by others thoughts/ideas that she got up and left and never finished with me. Also I helped a boy out with his English and Colby helped out a girl on her reading. 

After doing that for about 1.5 hours and drawing pictures for a big to color I went and joined the group to play volleyball. We played for about 1.5 hours in different teams and this was the most enjoyable time for the kids. I even had a girl from my class that I had to redirect a few times come and give me hug and so excited to see me. So cool! 

So all in all it was an interesting day and I learned and observed a lot. As a group we have talked about doing so much to help them out and I hope we can actually go through on our ideas!! We have about 11 days to be with them which isn't much so we will have to do or best!! 

Finally to today we started our classes and they were so awesome. We learned a little about teaching English and then had a class about the history of Peru dealing with racism and the cultures which holy smokes I loved it. I am such a nerd and soaked all the information up like a sponge!! Our class was in Spanish too which was awesome and it's sad that we only have one more day of that class, but our other modules should be great also. For our class we need to do a final project and I really hope to soak up a lot of information about education and culture to use in my own classroom/community and have even thought of having my 6 or 7th graders doing a pen pal project over internet. We also are looking at finding ways to inform people of this schools and fundraise or do something to give these kids and teachers more opportunities for learning!! Got to love brainstorming, meeting challenges head on and giving back and making it a lifelong learning process! Loving good ol Peru. 

Things are looking good here and tomorrow will be a new day at our school. Chau chau 

Ps crazy pants no?!! Like a real Peruvian now, blending in. ;)

Seeing is the real thing

Well today marks the end of our "vacationing" time during the week. We went and visited our school where we will be volunteering and the afterschool one also. I was told that this was a very poor district and found out they just got running water 2 years ago, but you don't really know what to expect until you see it. It was a tough area for sure. There were no "real" roads with pavement rather sand everywhere; hence the name for our school: Arenitas del Mar (little sands of the sea). 

As one can see in the pictures it is not a high class area, rather very poor and in need of some TLC. We have been told by our program director as well as the people in our school today that we are not to travel outside our school area as it is dangerous and something bad could happen. This barrio doesn't see a lot of Gringo looking people and that could run us into some trouble if we were in the wrong spot. We just went to the school and got our barrings today on what we would be doing, I'm starting out with 3rd graders!, and we officially start tomorrow morning. We will get in our van at 7:30 am and head out for the 45-50 drive and leave at 6 for the 1-1:30 drive through rush hour. 

That is one thing that just baffles me about Latin American countries (more in South America), the driving. It is incredible that there are not more accidents than there are. These people have to have some intense form of training to drive because it's a mess out there. 6 lanes of traffic on main roads, people swerving in and out, cutting people off, ahh unimaginable driving. I even saw people using the shoulder as a lane and you can get so close to a vehicle that you can shake hands with people in other vehicle!! Kudos to the drivers that get us from place to place in this insanity of driving.

So yesterday we went to the beach in Callao, separate province, with our bro/sis and just spent time walking and talking. I of course had to skip rocks. What better way when instead of sand there is a mountainous supply of rocks. The water was very clear, cool/not cold, and I got quite a few 5 skippers from some rocks. We made our way back to our district and bought our lunch containers and came back for dinner. It's nice getting to know our host family. The daughter is Carla, 29, brother is Cesar (Curro), 31, mom Rosa. Cesar actually is dating an American, from good 'ol Minnesota, so I'll be giving him a list of places to see and do the next time he is in Minnesota! 

Yesterday as we walked on the beach and I got some fresh air and had a good conversation I felt better. I was feeling blue yesterday and now am better. I am feeling so cooped up. I arrived a week early in Peru to travel and get to know the city, as well as do things independently. I got used to going down to the beach in the morning to relax, walking around to Barranco, taking the buses to go sightseeing on my own, going up to the plaza at night and listening to the musicians or having a night time stroll. Since we have moved to our families, which are AMAZING don't get me wrong, we have been told to not go out at night as it is not safe for us and not much to do and the place our school is located in is not safe for us to venture out so.... I am starting to feel a little claustrophobic/restricted on what I can do now and I might be getting a little crazy for some countryside. I am super excited to get started volunteering and meet the challenges it offers don't get me wrong but some fresh air outside the city would be Chevere. 

We went to the mall today to kill some time and look around before we went to or school. I went to Casa de Ideas where I was looking for a pair of slippers that I had bought in Chile, 3 years ago, and hoped they had then but didn't find them. I waited too long. :) 

I bought a pair of pants that I would not buy in the states for sure, but was feeling them today, kind of jegging style. I am so impressed with myself. I have only bought those and one dress, besides food I've spent no other money! Good for me! 

Well here is to tomorrow and our first full day. I will be back soon to share the details!! Oh by the way, good job USA!!!! Gooooolllll! Crazy futbol lovers here in South America! Chau chau for now. 

Enjoy now

"Enjoy now. If I can't enjoy the present, I don't need to count on happiness that is (or isn't) waiting for me in the future." The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. 

My reason for taking this trip has seemed to slip my mind a few times. I went through a few strange months back home where I dealt with stuff I hadn't before and was ready for a change. I made some big decisions and decided that this was going to be my opportunity to do so much with my goals: practice and improve my own Spanish to help my students, immerse myself in the culture of Peru, and take time for myself to ponder and remind myself that I just need to be me. I am not here to find a guy, of course there are quite a few that are attractive and have the qualities I like (traveler, willing to learn new language, willing to go somewhere with me or visit, etc) but that's not my mission here. Too often I forgot to be myself and not worry about my outward appearance or how others thought of me. In the last few months I've thought a lot about this and I can say that my views towards myself have changed. I'm not going to be able to change my body to be someone else's or have the same opportunities that someone else does, so why not make the best on what I have. 

I've noticed in the last few days that a little part of me has been worried on what others think of me and whatnot that it even had me feeling blue this morning. I felt as if I was going backwards and not forward as I had planned. So today I am setting a goal to turn this around. 

Before I left Omaha I bought 2 books at target for my trip: Mindy Kaling's book (HILARIOUS) and The Happiness Project. I finished the first book on my plane ride and have given it to another traveler so they can have a laugh! But the second book I have been reading for a week. This is a book that I don't want to rush through, but rather take each month (book divided by months) and think about it before going on to the next one. I have underlined and reread a few parts that were notable to me and have tried to do a few actions in the book. 

At the beginning of this post I put a quote from the book that I just read last night. This is what got me thinking, am I happy? am I enjoying myself right now or waiting for the action to be done to enjoy myself? I have to sit and reflect on myself and do believe that, like the author, I am happy but not as happy as I could be if I was living my life to the fullest. I worry to much about what I will do in the future and what will be fun that I lose sight and forget to enjoy things now, but this trip is helping me do just that. 

A few other things that I took from this book:

         *People don't notice your mistakes as much as you think

        *You don't have to be good at everything

        *One can't change others, but work only on themselves 

        *Don't expect praise or appreciation (this one spoke to me quite a bit)

        *Pursue a profession that comes easily and that you love, the more eager you are to practice the less it will seem like work (is it teaching? Traveling? Spanish?)

       *Do what I want to do, ignore options that aren't right for me no matter how enticing

      *Enjoy the fun of failure; it's part of being ambitious; it's part if being creative. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly

This is as far as I have gotten in the book (May). There is much more that I have noted, but these are the ones that have stuck out to me the most so far. I am taking each day as it's own and need to just remind myself: enjoy now and breathe it all in. 

We didn't do much yesterday besides going to a kids festival and the guys came and hung out. We told ghost stories and watched Mulan. The only thing that bothered me was that they told me how far away they lived and drove to hang out with us and we didn't do much. I think next time there needs to be more of a plan for them to come that far out of their way. 

Tomorrow we start at the school Arenitas del Mar in VillaSalvador in the after school program. I believe we are headed to centro today. I am just itching to get outside of Lima. I have only been here for about 10 days but I know there is so much to do outside the city that I just want to go. I'm pumped to go to Cuzco and see some more of Peru, especially the history buff in me is pumped. 

Today will be a relaxed day and tomorrow is when it all pretty much starts. Ya vamos. Oh btw Go ARGENTINA!! #mundial

Pullkantay festival

Today the girls and I attended a children's festival at our university, católica. We did quite a few crafts that made us feel young again. We played charades and made some art! 

Last night Julia, Danielle and I got to our house and spent some time with the family. We had some dinner and then we went out for some dessert. Holy smokes it was sooooo sooooo good. I ate some chocolate cake with manjar in the middle and Danielle had some tres leches with Lucuma, I LOVE lucuma, it was so great. It was nice of them to treat us to this and get to know them a bit more. 

We came home and met the brother, Cesar, and had some lunch again such good food here. He has a girlfriend that is from Minnesota so it's kind of cool to share that with him! We came up and napped for a few hours after a big lunch and I went and watch a bit of Mundial, Costa Rica beat Uruguay and last I checked Italy and England had just started. We just spent a few hours upstairs in our apartment and the other girls are coming over and I think Fernando and Jordi too, to hang out this evening. 

That's about it. Until tomorrow. Chau chau. 

Training day

June 13th. 

Yesterday we met with our liaison of our group, Marion. Super cool spirited and chill. She is bilingual and originally from Maine. 

Above is our group for the program. The girl on the left is Nina, helper of program, and Marion is in the middle back. I'm living with the two next to me, on right, and the other two are staying in the house of a host family. We are too hit on the top floor so it is like an apartment. 

It was great to finally get to know a bit of information about this trip and where we would be staying as well as what we'd be  doing. After our meeting we went to La Quinta in Miraflores because Alice's luggage was lost on a flight and needed some clothes. (FYI we got a call that night that her luggage arrived!!)

Kolby and Danielle got phones and we just hung out. I tried speaking Spanish with them only because I remembered my experience in Chile where I regretted speaking too much English. Of course it felt weird at first but it will benefit us all. We even made signs for our apartment. We are doing good. 

I am comfortable in my own abilities and have got quite a few complements but it takes practice and I can't slack on it. 

My friend Anni went to Paracas and Ica and is continuing her trip in South America. She is such a sweet girl and I wish the best for her!!

I do like it here and I take the mornings for some time to myself to reflect and plan out my day. I just sit still, doing nothing but taking it all in. Then the day begins!! Hasta pronto!

June 11th

The last few days have been kind of interesting. Tuesday I went an got my ISIC card which will hopefully help me out in my costs in Cusco and elsewhere. 

This is an international student card that people can use while traveling to get discounts and other benefits on trips as well as many other things. I'll use it for my bus trip to Cusco and the company I book through. I am hoping on doing the Salkantay trek, most selected option besides the Inca trail. One has to book the Inca trail months in advance since it is high season for tourists now. 

I have been researching quite a bit for this trek in order to find the one that has the most to offer for the most affordable price which I will find! I'll post some links in the next few days with what I find. :)

I went out with my friend Gerardo, from Colombia, that was staying in my hostal. He and I walked up to a restaurant that was by a look out of the coast. After dinner we went and watched the last X-men movie. Gerardo left on Wednesday to head back home and he gave me a Colombia jersey for the World Cup, crazy futbol tournament in South America right now!! That was so sweet of him to do that. I'll wear it again when they play. 

I spent the day with another girl that I met in the hostal and we got an ISIC card for her and swam in the ocean. Afterwards we had lunch at La Bodega Verde, best little cafe in Barranco with best Lucuma shakes. 

Anni met up with her friend's brother and I went to go find the hotel that I was going to stay at for orientation. I lost two days at my hostal because I didn't know I had to stay somewhere else so I asked to see if I could switch a day or so at the end. So I get the hotel with my stuff eventually and meet a girl from our program and invite her out to hang out with Fernando, Jordi and I and go to the light show in el Parque Reserva. This was a super cool light show where the fountains were different colors and the music was cool!! We even ran through the fountains and got a bit wet. 

As one can tell from our pictures I think we enjoyed it! We eventually had some anticucho, beef hearts, and another platter for dinner and headed back to our hotel. Breakfast in am was sooo soo good! Hasta pronto!

First few days in Peru.

June 2-7th. 

I left Columbus Nebraska the 2nd of June to head to Lindsay's to take the bus from Omaha to Chicago. I hung out at the pool quite a bit before leaving as well as hanging out with my friends.

That's it. More about my trip. The day I left Omaha the bus arrived late and we left a half hour late and so I thought we would arrive that much later (ok with me) but that was not so. We arrived 2 hours late and I missed my flight, cried and thought about canceling my trip and finally went to the airport where a man from the airline helped me get on a flight for the next day with paying the cancellation fee. I got to Lima the 5th and to my hostal that night. I stayed in the district of Barranco and loved it. The hostal was super close to the coast where I spent a lot of time alone just taking it all in and whatnot. 

I explored Barranco by myself and with a girl, Ashild, that I met in my hostal. We got our feet sucked by fishes and went to a festival during the day which I returned with that night with some fellas I met from Texas. I joined the Tejanos for dinner and we hit it off right away. They were comical and I enjoyed their company. 

On Sunday I took them to the bus station, exploring myself, and we went to the city center to explore some catacombs. These were so very interesting, so many bones!! We walked to a little park are that had some events and Travis found out he got pickpocketed, but nothing taken. We got back to our hostal and had dinner at a horrible restaurant where the food didn't have any taste. I shared the Cuy with Kyle but was saddened that it was not more intriguing. Should have went to Javiers! 

That night we went back to the hostal, played some cards and I met the friends of my friend Nathan who he said could help me out if needed. They are super nice and have hung out a few times with them and the girls in my program. Well Monday I walked with the Tejanos to the bus station after heading to the beach and wished them luck in Cusco and I hope to see them again when they get back. Texas is not far away from me at all!! Well that was about it for this time more later. 

Hola de Perú

Bueno it has been a long time since I wrote, but as I am traveling now I thought it would be great to out it all down online here, that way I can share more than just pictures with my family and friends. 

Right now I am in Lima Peru. I am participating in a volunteer program for a month to teach English in a very poor neighborhood. I have been writing in my journal, but I cannot share that with everybody. Of course there are a few things that I might keep to myself, but for the most part it will all go here. So I'll quickly recap and get my posts uploaded here and I hope that I can share my experience with you all!