El Dia Final

Wednesday was our last full day in Cuzco and a group of us went on a tour of Moray. Moray was a beautiful circular version of Incan terraces. Moray had 22 levels and was actually a type of laboratory for the Incans. Because of the way in which it was built going down into the mountain each terrace was a different temperature on which they could test the crops to see where they grow best. The deeper into the rings you went the warmer it got so by the middle we were all sweating. the cool part of Moray was that this was the first time we were able to climb down the terraces, we even got to uses the steps that were used by the Incans. After we got back we had a little time to finish up shopping and get ready for dinner!

  Dinner tonight was at the Hotel Monasterio a five-star hotel that had been converted from an old Spanish era Monastery. The menu was extremely expensive but the atmosphere was beautiful. For my appetizer I tried foie gras for the first time which is duck liver but I found it to actually be delicious. For my entree I got a roasted suckling pig with vanilla sweet potatoes which was also very good but the sweet potatoes were my favorite part. Lastly for dessert I had Gooseberry Ice cream and tasted Erika's Piquerones I loved both. 

After dinner it was a little bittersweet as we took our last group photo and returned to the hotel. We had big group circles and reminisced about our trip until early in the morning. I'll miss everyone and I'll miss Peru but this trip has been unforgettable. Thank you Monica!!!

Macchu Picchu

Yesterday was an adventure and sight filled day. We started really early having to get up at 4:00am to get on the bus by 4:30. The bus then took us two hours back to the city of Ollantaytambo to catch the PeruRail. The train was actually really nice and they served us a breakfast of pineapple juice a salami sandwich. The view from the train was the best part though was the view it was unbeatable.

 When we finally arrive in the small town at the base of Machu Picchu we went to a small plaza and took some pictures with the Inka and Peruvian hairless dogs.

 Then we still had one more bus ride up to the top of Macchu Picchu. It was a zigzagging road right on the edge of a cliff which was a little scary but we made it safely and got our tickets stampe and entered. 

  The initial view is a shock not of terror but of utter beauty. You're standing in the middle of the Andes mountains in a jungle with a beautiful stone city lying in front of you. 

The city itself is divide into three parts, residential, agricultural, and religious.We traveled to the religious sector first where they had a water temple with water from the mountain tops still running through the stone canals. Next we visited the Sun temple which has two windows one for when the sunlight directly aligns with one or the other on the winter solstice which is in a few day and one for the summer solstice in December. Next we visited the tomb of Pachacuti. Pachacuti was the Inka at the time Machu Picchu was built. He was a great leader that built the Incan infrastructure greatly and increased the power of the empire.

 Next we saw the agricultural part which was very similar to other ruins we have seen with terraces built into the side of the cliff. Lastly was the residential sector where we saw the three door palace which had a gorgeous balcony with a view of the mountains and jungle. 

 Then our tour ended and we had some free time to explore Machu Picchu. My group decided to go to the La Puerta del Sol or the sun gate which is a 1 hour hike up the side of the mountain. The trek was treacherous but the view at the end was worth it. Machu Picchu was so far away that we we couldn't see any of the tourist a that we knew were roaming the site. Since the walk up was so long we decided to sit up at the sun gate and eat some snacks before heading down. Slowly but surely almost our entire group showed up and we had a full blown group picnic 

 The walk down afterwards made us really appreciate the work we did on the hike up it was a long trail. But we finally reached the bottom and had to head back into town for lunch/dinner. When back in town we ate at a restaurant called Cenetario which sat right on the river and we had window seat with a great view.

 Unfortunately after lunch/dinner we had to catch our train back to Cuzco. On the train ride though there was a surprise authentic dance show and an alpaca wear fashion show. the dance show was cool to watch especially when he danced with our professor Monica.

  After a very long day we arrived back at the hotel and basically passed out. But I knew it was a day I would never forget.

 

La Granja, La Castilla, y La Lana

On Monday I finally back with the group and was able to take the trip to Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Chincheros. In Pisac we got to see a beautiful "staircase" of Incan era terraces. These terraces were used for three main purposes decoration, erosion prevention, and agriculture land. The terraces were absolutely gorgeous and they were cleaning the terraces in order to prepare them for the the next rotation of plants and tourists. The tour guide also showed us the Incan Tombs in the the side of the cliff. All of the Incan people were buried this way (a tomb in the cliff) but the more prestigious you were the more decorated your tomb was. Unfortunately many of the tombs were robbed during the early days of tourism to Peru.

  The next stop was Ollantaytambo where we saw the the "fortress" of the Incans. The story of the fortress dates to the conquistadors. After they conquered Cusco the Spaniards went after the Inka (king) who had run to Ollantaytambo. The "fortress" was actually a restful Incan town in the center of three valleys so the Inka was smart and had an artificial lake made in one of the valleys. When the Spanish arrived for the fight he released the water from the lake and wiped out most of the Spanish army and the rest were taken out by the slingshots from the walls of Ollantaytambo. 

   Lastly we went to Chincheros to see a demonstration of how they made dyes from natural products. We watched the indigenous woman cut the wool, wash it and then use the juice from a bug to make a beautiful red dye. The demonstration was actually really interesting and then we were served mate de coca during it which was nice because it was freezing out. Lastly I end on a good note with the US World Cup team beat Ghana 2-0!

La Copa Mundial

So I accidentally put my blogs a little out of order but either way on Thirsday we started just as any other Thursday with classes at El Sol. We continued with the subjunctive learning about when to use it when giving recommendations. This was something that I had done before already in my Spanish classes at Northeastern so it wasn't that bad of a lesson for me. Then in culture class we went over briefly the fight for Independence of Peru which involves a lot of military men arguing over who gets to rule.

  The unusual part of this Thursday was that it was the start of the World Cup in South America. So we actually had the afternoon off to go watch the first game in Parque Kennedy. The people and bars around the park were all very excited and decorated.

 The game was Brazil vs. Croatia and the first goal was by Brazil but against themselves! The Brazilan team made up for their mistake though and came back to win 3-1. Not only was it a great game to watch it but it was also a great cultural experience to see all the Peruvians get as excited as they were when their team wasn't even in the cup!

La Cena en el mar

Today was our final day of classes which was really sad because we had to say goodbye to Andres and Romeo. They still taught one last clas though which was how to use superlatives such as when you want to say someone is the most beautiful or more intelligent than. It was a useful final lesson and helped clear up some of the little issues we had especially how a major mistake that everyone makes is saying muy mejor which sounds right but translates to very better and make no sense in either language. In culture class Romeo taught us about more modern day Peru and specifically the terrorism that occurred during the 1980s and the early 90s. This was really interesting to me because I had heard of the Shining Path in our book a lot but this is the first we actually got to go in detail about what they stood for and why the war started. After class we took pictures with both our teachers before we had to say goodbye and take a big class picture outside. 

 Then we headed to our last day at UNIFE we had a small closing ceremony there before we got to take another dance class with the girls. After the dance class we got to play sports for a little before we had to head home. I had a lot of fun playing volleyball with the girls again. One girl named Gracia was really good and she was showing us all her skills. Unfortunately the fun did have to come to an end because  we had to get ready for our goodbye dinner at Rosa Nautica.

La Rosa Nautica is a a very nice restaurant built out on a pier  in the middle of the Pacific. We got a three course dinner of delicious corn chowder, Andean Fish and quinoa, and then a caramel creme dessert that was very similar to suspiro de Limeña. Also during the dinner we were able to present our gifts to Monica and Henry. I really hope they liked them! 

The dinner was a great way to end a wonderful month in Lima.

Un Dia de Presentaciones

Yesterday we continued with the subjunctive and espressing opinions. So you could say I'm worried that the pollution in the city is affecting peoples health. In Spanish it's a little bit different because you have to change the conjugation of the verb but it's hard to remember since subjunctive is not a tense that really exist in the English language. In culture class we did something a little different we dida fill I'm the blanks for the lyrics of a song called Latinoamerica by Calle 13. I actually already had this song on my Iphone because I had heard it in my Intro to Latin American Culture class but this time I was really excited to see that I was able to translate the lyrics and understand what the song was actually saying!

 At UNIFE we had a long day. It started with a pretty interesting lecture about how the architecture of Peru has changed starting all the way back with PreIncan city's and temples. Then we even got to see some projected plans for the mall in the cliffs of costa verde to make it bigger and go all the way to the beach. After te lecture we continued with our presentations of the subjects from the book. I thought everyone did a great job especially the girls from UNIFE translating on the spot. I learned a lot and the group six was actually very helpful for my essay because they provided some extra information which I was able to use.

  Later for dinner my host mother told me I was able to invite a friend over for dinner  because they had made Chupe de camarones a Peruvian dish similar to a chowder.

It was absolutely amazing and very delicious probably one of my favorite dishes I have had this far. But at dinner the conversation was great too because I had my friend Erika there so converstion was a little easier since it wasn't all directed towards me and we had some wine and delicious dessert called salami de Choclaye which is a delicious dessert from Argentina kind if like a fudge cake with cookie bits and nuts inside.

It is moments like that dinner that'll I'll miss most.

Oro! Oro! y mas Oro!

Yesterday was a pretty easy day at school. We returned to learning about te different times we need to use the subjunctive. In this case we learned about using sunjunctive when displaying emotion like when you say you like something or something makes you nervous. This topic is something I had worked on before in my classes at Northeastern so I was able to comprehend all of the lesson easily but the refresher was nice. In the culture class we talked more about the colonial structure of government. For example in the colonies themselves the viceroys ruled with the nobles just below owning economiedas and the slaves and indigenous working the land. What came from this is a mix of culture.  Races such as the mestizos and the mulattos came to be from the mixing of cultures but with this so did prejudice. For lunch I tried papa rellena for the first time which is a potato stuffed with meat and cheese and then fried it was delicious but for dessert I had a canchita which was very similar to the pastry "lobster tails" which I love in Boston but here they use custard rather than cream which I actually prefer.

At UNIFE we started off our day playing a really fun trivia game in teams. The questions were about the World Cup and the history of it and my team got second! After the game we had a special lecture about the politics and economy of Peru which was also quite interesting because for example we learned that a large part of Peru's exports are raw materials like cotton and minerals.

  After UNIFE  we went to a private museum called el Museo de Oro or museum of gold. This museum was really cool and had a lot of interesting artifacts. Like a colecction of Napoleon's weapons including his guns and swords and they had the sword if Francisco Pizarro but underneath the building there is actually a vault filled with the golden artifacts of the ancient cultures of Peru. These artifacts exist because they weren't found by the Spanish. Some of the coolest artifacts were the Tumi knives which I had seen everywhere in Peru at souvenir shops and on the street. It was nice to finally know it's importance and the mythology behind the god that is usually put on top of the ceronial knife. I wish we had more time at the museum to explore some of the other artifacts but what we did see was amazing!

Una Pelicula en UNIFE

Today at school we learned about the expression para que which essentially means "in order to" in English. The tricky part about this is that you can also use only para without the que and it changes the sentence structure. If the que is used you need to use the subjunctive and without a que we need to use the infinitive. Also a fun fact we talked about words in English that were translated incorrectly  like R2D2 in the movie Star Wars it names Arturito here. Then in culture class today we had a very interesting class on colonial life in Lima. I finally feel like I understand what an economienda really is and we learned how the government was set up under a viceroyalty who answered to the king. Also the viceroyalty was a lot larger than I thought it covered parts of central america and almost all of Ecuador and Argentina.
 At UNIFE today we had a full two hours to talk with the girls and it was a really great conversation today. We started off talking about our weekends and how we spent ours in Lunahuana and they actually had gone to the Help which is a club where La Pena is located but changes from day to day. Also we talked a little bit about our familys and our favorite foods here in Peru. Of course mine was aji de gallina and causa rellena but the one girl told me to try chupe de camarones which is like a seafood chowder so I'm excited to try that before I leave. Then we got started talking about Peruvian slang. It was really fun learning how some of our slang translates and it was still good practice because since they were slang word we had to find ways to explain each of them so we still got to practice a lot of Spanish while  learning new words.

Loca Lunahuana

Sunday was a day trip to Lunahuana. It's a touristic city southeast of Lima. They have all sorts of adventure sports there including zipling,four wheeling, and whitewater rafting. When we arrived in Lunahuana we got off the bus and started our city tour. Our first stop was a famous haunted house called La Casa Encantada. One of the ghost stories from this house is that a couple driving up to the river saw a party happening at the house and then went in to check it out. When they walked in though everything went dark and tere was no one there they ran out screaming during which the girl tripped on a rock and died from hitting her head. There are also other stories about the floors moving like waves and this it because supposedly this house was built over a Chilean burial ground.

Our next stop was a beekeeper's store where we got to taste test 4 different types of delicious honey. The four types were clover or normal, avocado, grape, and eucalyptus. These are made by the bees pollinating these different flowers as then collecting the honey at different times of the year. My favorite was the avocado honey.  Our last stop on the Our of the city was at Vina del Reyes which was a vineyard that made it's own wine.  Like the pisco restaurant they showed us how they make the wine and it was a little different because it wasn't as natural and a little more modernized but it was still very interesting. After te small tour we got to taste test the wines. In fortunately I don't like wine so I gave mine to my professor.

Then it was finally time to go rafting! We met the boat captains at the restaurant and then drive to the start we we loaded into the rafts. I was in the front which in my opinion was the best seat because you had a clear view of the beautiful landscape with the mountains surrounding you and the beautiful clear blue water in front of you. Plus you got the most wet as we splashed through the rapids. It was an amazing time and the perfect day for rafting. 

After rafting we got lunch which was also delicious. I got a traditional plate of the region called "sopa cholo" which actually isn't a soup but rather pasta with a spicy tomato sauce and chicken. I liked it a lot and I was really hungry so I ate it extremely fast. The dish is called a soup because when the dish was originally presented to the Spanish by the "cholos" or indigenous of the mountains there was a little but if broth in the bottom. After dinner we finished with the four wheelers at night driving through the mud and dust it was really cool but I needed to wash my mouth out after from all the dust. After that very busy day we did unfortunately have to get back on the bus and return home.

La Plaza Mayor

Saturday we headed back to see the famous Plaza Mayor in the center of Historic Lima.  It started off ealry because we had a busy day ahead. We started in the Government Palace of Peru where Ollanta Humala the current President of the Republic resides. It was their equivalent of the White House. The Palacae was gorgeous and we got to see the gold room modeled after the French palace in Versailles and the Tupac Amaru Room which is where the president gives most of his public speeches.

Next we moved on to the Cathedral of Lima. It was gigantic inside and we we learned a lot on the tour of the cathedral too. For example the cathedral only has mass twice a week once on Sunday and once on Saturday morning and does not hold any other sacraments other than Eucharist .Baptisms and weddings are only done in the side chapels. The Cathedrals also had many stations along the sides which depicted many Saints of Peru and the Holy Family. One of the station actually had the finger of one of the saints encased inside a cross. Then we got the see the burial ground beneath the church which held the bodies of many of the Archbishops of Peru and even one Cardinal. The Cathedral was beautiful with beautiful artwork all over the walls and ceiling and all of it extremely detailed and ornate. My favorite part was learning about the Saint Martin de Porres who was a mulatto man who had to overcome many obstacles in his life to move up through the Church and then eventually reach sainthood. Also what was really cool was seeing where Francisco Pizarro was "buried" and the story of how they found his head and the story of his death.


Next was the changing of the guards outside the Palace, because it was flag day in Peru they had a special concert for us. The band of guards played a show of classic marching band songs and and it was really interesting to see and watch. After that we had lunch and moved on to the Convento of San Francisco. This ancient church was built over a catacomb holding over 36,000 remains. The church and convent itself was beautiful with a Harry Potteresque library where the monks would write their books in the daylight because candlelight was too dangerous in the library. Then upstairs they had a very cool choir area with a giant rotating music stand so the whole choir could see the music. Then we went down to the catacombs which were enormous. It was amazing to see all the bones that lie below the church unsuspectingly.

Lastly we moved on the Casa de Aliaga. This house was built in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro's friend Jeronimo Aliaga. Aliaga's family had lived there ever since and it is one of the oldest houses in Lima. Inside the house is gorgeous styled in the Spanish style of the times when it was built it has Sevillan tiles and an amazing Patio with a fountain. They even had there own chapel for the family marriages only for family use. The house is located just to the side of the Government Palace and had been remodelled and rebuilt multiple times due to earthquakes but the always try to keep to the original blueprints. The matriarch of the family is actually going to be turning 106 soon. How interesting is that?

Dia de Los Deportes

Its Friday our last day of classes for the week and we had a pretty easy and interesting class today. In grammar class we learned how to use the preterite perfect progressive tense which is what you would use when you're trying to say what you have been doing. It was easy enough to learn because it was kind of like just mixing to other themes we have already learned and using in way that is very similar to the "llevar + infinitive" phrasing. The more interesting part of today though was the discussion we had in or conversation class. It was almost a debate but completely in Spanish comparing the children in today's day and age to those from an older generation. It was really surprising how much more we were able to comprehend and talk about I feel like at the beginning of this trip there is no way I would have been able to have had that detailed of a conversation it was a bit of a confidence booster to say the least. After classes at El Sol I had a delicious lunch from the small restaurant next door where I got one of my Peruvian favorites, Causa Rellena. I was very happy with that lunch haha.
After lunch we headed over to UNIFE where we had almost two hours just to talk with the girls about anything we wanted. The girls I was talking with were telling me about how wonderful Machu Picchu is and some good markets to go see while I'm there and also they even told us a ghost story of Peru. Apparently in the forests of the Sierra if you get lost and are surrounded by trees there is a goblin that will first whistle to you and then call your name and if you follow the voice he will trap you and kill you. It's a bit morbid and scary but it was a cool story to here and just another part of the culture. After our conversations with the girls it was time to play!. We had a full game of volleyball going which was great because it's my favorite sport and all of the girls that played with us were really helpful and taught us some words to use on the court like "Buen Trato" for good try. I had a lot of fun and it was great because we got to play for almost two hours! Then back in Miraflores I had a delicious dinner of ceviche and arroz con camarones which was just so good I had to put it in the blog today.

Aprendemos bailar Salsa

Today in class we learned a completely new topic called "Perifrases Verbales" they are basically phrases starting with verbs when you did or will be doing something. For example we learned how to say I returned to playing the piano or you should quit smoking before you die. They are hard to explain in eniglish but they have their own special rules with some of the phrases being follow by the infinitive and the others by the gerund of the action verb. I'm not feeling to strong on it but hopefully tonight's homework will help and our teacher said we would review more tomorrow. In culture class we continued with the Incas and got to finish watching the video about the bridge making. The reporter got to cross the bridge when she was finished and she said it was a thrilling experience. I kind of want to try now maybe when we are in Cusco.

  Back at UNIFE we had a lecture about Peruvian Gastronomy which is one of my favorite subjects. The lecturer a chef himself went through eighty slides of food photos all of which looked amazing. one I really wanted to try was Chupe Langostina and one that I know I liked and wanted to try again was the causa rellena. His lecture was actually really interesting because we go to learn a lot about which foods are actually Peruvian rooted and which ones were brought over from or influenced by countries in Europe like Lomo saltado which is influenced by the Chinese.

After that lecture we had a brief period where we able to talk to a few of the students about the differences in education between the US and Peru. For example in Peru they finish high school at 16 and all of their public schools require uniforms which the parents have to buy and some can't afford. It's very different and kind of sad because many kids can't go to the school then because they can't afford the uniform.

 Lastly for today we finally learned how to salsa. They had the classes outside which was a welcome surprise because it was beautiful outside and the sun was shining. So they had us in one of their quad lined up in columns with two instructors at the front. They taught us step by step and all of the students at UNIFE watched and laughed as the gringos tried to shake their hips. Our group may not have a lot of rhythm but we know how to have fun. When out favorite song "Vivir Mi Vida" came on we all sang along as we danced salsa. It was so fun and apparently its on the schedule for next Thursday too so I can't wait.
 

Una clase a UNIFE

  Today in class we went back to a topic I know and love, the conditional tense. Though this time we started using a little more complicated version. We learned when to use the conditional when expressing a recommendation. It doesn't always translate too well into English but I did learn a few new phrases in Spanish today that may be helpful because of it. For "yo que tu" means "if I were you" without having to use a verb or "si". It was a little different but easy enough to pick up. IN culture class with Romeo we talked about the network of roads the Incans created. They had roads running from Ecuador to Argentina all along the Andes mountains. What was most impressive was the bridges they were able to make to make the road continuous. They had small stone ones made of one large slab of rock and other long ones made of grasses woven together to make one strong hanging rope bridge essentially. We even got to see a video of present day citizens remaking the bridge it was amazing to watch how they were able to weave the so tightly to make something so strong.
    After classes I got another delicious pollo a la brasa sandwich as was recommended by my teacher Andres but then it was back on the bus to UNIFE. Today we got to experience an actual class at the university. We had the choice between Literatura and Castellano Grammar. I chose the grammar class and found it to be a good choice. I wasn't able to understand all the words because this was an actual class for the students at UNIFE that we were sitting in on but I got the jist of it. We learned about how both English and Castellano words have Latin roots and the professor showed us how each language took different parts from the Latin word. For example school in latin is schola which looks both like "school" and "escuela" which is school in both English and Spanish/Castellano. It was a pretty interesting class that I enjoyed a lot. After the class we started our group presentations. Basically how they went was the students in the Dialogue group would present the information in Spanish and then the students from UNIFE would translate that back into Eniglish. All of the presentations were great and very informative. Now I know that Peruvian Independence Day is July 28th specifically in the year 1821.
Also on a side note last night after wrting my blog I went to Manolo's a cafe here in Lima with some friends and had the most delicious churros con chocolate which is more of  Spanish food but they were so good I wanted to show you.

Regreso a clases y una pelicula peruana

Today we returned to classes after out little four day vacation. It was nice to see Andres again and we spent a good portion of the beginning of the class just explaining all of the exciting things we did over the weekend. But then we had to get back to work. Today we learned about the using the subjunctive when you are looking for someone or something or don't know if someone or something exist. It was a I topic I had learned before so I was comfortable using it today in class which was a nice change of pace because I noticed that I was more able to focus on the new vocabulary then. After grammar class we got to see Romeo again and talk about our weekends again and even heard about his and how he like heavy metal music. He did a really good job of incorporating today's topic into the conversation a lot which was really funny because whenever we got even a little off topic he would reel it in somehow. After conversation class we moved onto the topic of the conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro. This was pretty interesting as we learned about how Atahualpa was captured and then escaped an it was explained by saying he turned into a snake and got away.
  After class today we headed back to UNIFE but along the way our professor taught us a fun new song called Limon y Sal. She had a competition between the boys and the girls later on an the boys definitely won. Anyway back at UNIFE today we met with the English speaking club and played pictionary with them which was a lot of fun but also kind of hard because it was in both Spanish and English. After we watched a movie called Asu Mare.

It was a difficult movie to understand completely because there was a lot of slang used but the general idea was clear. The movie showed the live of Carlos Alcantara a comedian in Peru and how he grew up. The parts that I could understand were funny and it was still good practice listening to the Spanish and trying to understand. After the movie we broke off into smaller groups and they helped us understand more of the details of the movie. My group today spoke less English which was kind of nice because this way it was a better learning experience for both sides.  The girls were really inquisitive and it was a great conversation they said they would be there tomorrow too so I will definitely have to look for them.

UNIFE y Ingles

  Today classes were cancelled again so I was able to catch up on some homework but then we had a trip the Universidad Feminina de Sagrado Corazon or UNIFE to begin our language partners project there. When we first arrived  they had a small welcoming ceremony prepared for us. The director spoke to us and told us a little about the school and what they aimed to be and stood for. Then a few of the students came up and spoke in English to welcome us to the university and we reciprocated in Spanish. After the welcoming ceremony the had an interactive culture class with some of the typical dances of Peru. Each of the dances was great my favorite was the coastal dance which featured two very good cancers one male and one female telling the story of forbidden love. After they had completed all their dances they invited our entire group up to dance with them. It was a dance usually done at festivals and it was a lot of fun with everyone getting involved including Monica my professor. Everyone was holding had dancing in a circle and then they even led us outside in a type of dancing train. When we finally returned to our seats it was time to break off into our language partner groups.
   We each had a group of about three students to work with. They started by taking us on a tour of their campus. I was a lot smaller than Northeastern for sure and they only have about 3 thousand students but it was really nice and pretty. They even have ruins on the campus! Only in Peru! After the tour we sat down and talked for awhile mainly about our foods and what we all wanted to do with our lives all the girls we were with were translation majors so there English was very good and they were really helpful with teaching us vocab and other things like that. Today was a great start and I feel like I'm going to learn a lot here so I can't wait to see what the next two weeks bring!

Piedras Importantes y Viejas

This weekend started early when we had to catch the bus at 6:30am on Saturday to Caral. We had a guide for the ride and she gave us a lot of of interesting information about the ruins we were going to see on Saturday. Caral had been built over 5000 thousand years around around the year 3000 B.C. Also because they were not able to find any weapons of war anywhere near the site they know that it was a sacred place where many of the smaller tribes and towns around would come to worship. When we arrived at the site we had to walk about ten minutes just to get to the start of the tour because Caral is situated north of Lima in the middle of mountains. The view was amazing but I could understand why they didn't find Caral until 1994 now.

  When we began our tour we saw many archaeological tools as they we still working on the site. They had blue flags that would wave to scare the birds and plastic tarps over parts of the ruins to help protect the stone from the elements. Also we got to see the two pyramids (Major and Minor) which served different purposes during there time. There was also a small area believed to be built by the Chancay civilization later on in time when the came to use the fruitful valley that lay just below Caral. The site was beautiful and hot and it was hard to believe that over 5000 years ago people lived there and that this was the oldest civilization in the Americas and yet still looked so organized. After Caral we headed back to Lima but stopped for lunch at Hotel Kajaca where I tried duck for the first time because the region is well known for it. It was very good but tasted a little bit like dry chicken still it was really good. Later that night back in Lima our Professor took us to La Pena, a club in Barraranco featuring traditional Peruvian dance shows. It was a lot of fun especially since some of our group was pulled up on stage and had to dance in front of everyone to show off the US. It was a great time with great music and a lot of fun people.
On Sunday I took the day to do some things in Lima that I hadn't yet had the time to do. I went surfing in the Pacific for the first time and was able to stand up for at least 2 runs which was awesome. It was a lot more work than I thought to get out to the waves though. Later that day though a group of six of us went paragliding. So basically we got strapped in with an instructor and his parachute and then ran off a cliff flying high into the air. The experience was magical. We went flying above the Marriott hotel one of the biggest buildings in Lima and from there you could see the whole city. It's amazing how big it is when you can see it up there. I was sad when we had to come back down though.

Los Ninos!

Friday we had off from classes which was a nice break from the daily grind and allowed me to catch up on some of my work and finally finished my Lima book in the morning. Then we went to the Air Force school for our last day there. They had put together a closing ceremony for us filled with cultural dances and music. The ceremony started with a presentation of flowers and much deserved gift for our wonderful teacher Monica. Then they called us each up in our speaking partner pairs to receive a very nice gift of  a t-shirt and hat. Then the show began with the students playing traditional music from coastal Peru with students playing traditional cajons and even and instrument made from a donkey's jaw which was really cool to see. They had some of the students do a traditional dance from .the coast as well. Then they switched to music from the jungle region of Peru and a traditional dance from that region as well and they even pulled a few of the students from my group up on the stage. All the performers were amazing and it was a really nice send off. Unfortunately after the performance it was time to say goodbye but of course we had to get a few group pictures together first and we even got a "fluye" one with a few of the girls who taught us that. We did eventually leave and at this point 10 of us headed to Buckingham Colegio de Ingles.


The Buckingham Colegio de Ingles is a elementary school teaching Pre-K through 6th grade and when we arrived we had no idea what to expect but we got more than we could have imagined. It seemed like the whole town had come out to meet us and and they had prepared a show with the kids about the history of Peru and surrounding the front area was foods galore from all the areas of Peru. They then started the night with a surprise parade that they threw just for us . They even had a banner with our picture on it from the airport that they led the parade with. There were balloons and noisemakers as we made our way around the Plaza de Dos Calles and back to the school.
 
 Back at the school we started the show with the Pre-K students who taught us about the three different regions of Peru, Coastal, Sierra, and Jungle. I was able to escort two of the little girls up to the stage which was a really cute and memorable moment. The Sixth graders who presented to us a few of Peru's historic heroes and then it went back to the First graders who taught us about the sea and Lima's dependence on the sea. The second graders came next and they taught us about the Chavin civilization putting on a fake offering ceremony which was well done especially for only being in second grade. The third graders put on a play about the pirates that use to ransack Callao. These kids were born to act and they were very invested in their part of the show. Next were the fourth graders who taught us about the ancient civilization of Paracas and how they did brain surgery during ancient times. Then the fifth graders came on and taught us about colonial Lima and gave us some delicious food like piquerones which are basically donuts covered in honey. Lastly the sixth graders came back out and led a group song for the end of the show which was absolutely adorable.
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What I forgot to mention was that during all of this they we showering us with food and gifts. I had emoliente, chicha, tamales, causa rellena, pantillas, and so much more food along with a flag and handmade boat, a keychain and a few other things. The party did have to come to a close with some picture taking though. I felt famous with all the parents and the kids that wanted to take pictures with us. I tried to learn most of the names but there were just so many. We did have to leave at some time though no matter how much I wanted to stay but I can say that without a doubt this was one of the most fun and amazing experiences I've ever had in my life and I'll never forget it and I hope I get to return one day.

Agua, Agua, y Mas Agua

   Thursday was our last day of classes for the week and we learned a little bit about when phrases or "cuando frases" ins Spanish. I found them to be pretty difficult because we had to switch between tenses depending on what tense the the verb was in following the "cuando". I didn't really get it the first time but when I do the homework over the weekend I will check my answers online and hopefully figure it out or ask Andres on Tuesday. In culture we continued on with the Incan civilization and learned a lot about their economy and how they conducted trade.  A lot of their economy was based on trading of favors nothing was ever done for free. Also there society was run by a pyramidal hierarchy with the Inca or king on top and the workers in the different groups called allyus on the bottom with advisors relay information in the middle.
   After class we spent our last day in the classes of the Air Force School. Today we did the same where we broke up into groups and talked with the kids this time it started with shoplifting in America but that was hard to talk about and we had a shy group so me and Jessie moved on to another topic. We mainly talked about sports with the kids because we had a group of boys and they loved talking about soccer but shockingly enough I found a boy who didn't like soccer that much and preferred to play volleyball like me! Even though they were quite it was still a great experience and I think it really helps both us and the kids even if its just a little bit.
   After classes today we had a fun trip to the Magic Circuit Water Show in the center of Lima. It was a really cool place that had fountains all over this huge park. We were taken there in a Mirabus and had tour of the park with them too but the best part of the night was the actual water show. Using lasers that were able to make all sorts of shapes in the water including these really cool videos showing all the amazing styles of Peruvian dances from the coast to the jungle. It was a really cool experience that I was glad I went on.

Miercoles al colegio

Wednesday in class with Andres we learned a lot about agreeing with opinions and how we need to use different phrases of agreement depending on how the original opinion was presented. For if the opinion started with "Creo que" then you could respond with "Yo tambien lo creo". It was a little strange at first because I was having trouble relating it to how we speak in the English language but then I realized that it is the same because if someone stated their opinion saying "I believe" or "I think" you would return with a response matching the way they presented their opinion. After I figured that out it was a little easier for me. In culture class Wednesday we finally started on the Incan civilization. We on;y had time to just start on the topic but during that time we learned mainly the geography of the Incan empire and how they spread from Chile to Ecuador but were never able to spread into the jungle because they didn't have the resources to survive there. Also I learned how the king of the empire was called the "Inca" and the people of the Incan culture believed that he was closer to the gods.

  After classes we once again headed to the Air Force School and got to talk to the kids and teach them in English . Many of the kids were really interested in fast food of America because they thought that fast food is all we have to eat which is a little sad but true. I told them that we do have some different things depending on where you live like clam chowder in New England but when in came to Buffalo talking about chicken wings didn't help my case against fast food in America. After teaching English we headed back to the library to learn about the Independence of Peru. We got to do all types of activities with the kids like making a flag and a word scramble. It was a really fun way to learn and a nice change of pace.

 After the lesson came the fun part. We had some free time to go play sports with the kids. There were two groups the soccer group and a volleyball group. I went to the volleyball group because I'm not a huge fan of soccer which is crazy in Peru. But we still had a lot of fun and we got to teach our professor how to throw a frisbee it was great! I hope we get another time to do this this because its a once in a life time experience that was great fun!

Ellos quieren me ensenar Ingles!?

Back at El Sol today we learned another completely new topic in our grammar class with Andres. Today we learned about using llever + gerund phrases to express a duration of time that you've been doing an action. It sounds complicated but it's not that bad because all you really have to do is conjugate llevar in the present tense and then add then gerund of the action verb you are using. For example llevo trabajando means "I have been working". I think that it will come in very handy in conversation because Andres actually said that this phrasing is actually very common in the streets of Peru. Then Romeo came in and we had culture class where we learned a lot about the culture of Huari or Wari. This culture is considered to have built the first Empire in Peru spreading outwards to Pachacamac and the area of Tiahuanaco near Lake Titicaca. The Huari were influenced by a lot of the cultures they had conquered and had a very mixed culture because of it. The Huari were also a very military based with those in the military being higher up in the class system and not the priests which was more common in the other cultures.
 After classes I had a delicious lunch from the restaurant next to the school. I got " Bistec a la pobre" which essentially just a piece of steak with a fried egg on top and its delicious. The meal also came with a fried caramelized plantain which was delicious as well. But with the days packed as they are I was actually eating that on the bus to the Air Force School . Today was the first day we were suppose to teach English. My group was given the lesson plan of food and traditions but we didn't really know what to expect when we got to the class. When we got there though it was set up really nicely with the kids all separated into groups of desks and then each one of the people in my group was sent to a group to meet with the kids and get to know them all. This time it was a lot easier for me at least because it was in English. I was so much fun getting to know all the and I got to talk about my favorite food, chicken wings! I also learned from them and found out a new dessert to try called picarones which is kind of like a doughnut with honey drizzled over the top so I'm really excited to try those.

  After teaching the class we went back to the library to talk with the second group of  kids from yesterday. The one girl whose name is Cindy doesn't speak much English but loved talking with us and she even taught us a new word for cool, "fluye"  and apparently it always has to be done with a wave type hand movement haha. Again it was a great time at the school I can't wait to go back tomorrow!

Revuelve a la escuela

Today we were back at school and learning a new topic. It was the direct and indirect styles of writing which was a new topic for me. Basically these styles of language are common in interviews with direct being what the interviewee says themselves and then indirect being used when someone is repeating what they said later in the day. It was a little complicated because you have to change tenses depending on what tense the direct sentence was in. But once you memorize which tense goes with which in the indirect style it's not too bad. Then after grammar class we started back with preincan cultures and the cultures of Tiahuanaco and Chimu which were both coastal cultures. The culture of Tiahuanaco was actually very influential on the much bigger Huari culture that came a little bit later on in history.  The Chimu civilization was best known for their beautiful metal work and monochromatic art. Tiahuanaco has very famous architecture like the "Gate of the Sun"
   Later that day we had our first day at the Air Force School where we met our student partners and they gave us a tour of the school. The school was a lot bigger than I expected with over 2 thousand students and multiple buildings for classes it was basically a small college. It was much different than my high school that's for sure because at my high school there was no going outside for different classes there was too much snow in the winter. So that alone shows how the climate can change the way schools work here. After our tour we changed partners and got to talk to a new group of students. The girl I was talking to was 15 and she really liked books so she told me how she wanted to see The Fault in Our Stars and how her favorite movie right now is Divergent. It was very interesting and I had a lot of fun. We then had just a little bit of free time and were able to go play volleyball with the students which was a lot of fun because volleyball is one of my favorite sports. We played for a half hour during which I was able to teach one of the girls how to serve overhand she didn't like it though because she said it was easier underhand. We have a planned time to play with them on Wednesday so I can;t wait for that!

Paracas y Pinguinos

 So after that very long day before in the desert and Cachiche we had to wake up early one more time for our trip to Paracas the place where an ancient civilization thrived. We took a boat ride thorugh the "Islas de Ballestas" and saw penguins and sea lions which was really cool because it isn't too often you get to see such marine life in the wild while on a beautiful boat ride. We also saw the candelabra a mysterious marking in one of the islands of Paracas. It looked very similar to the Nazca lines just to the south of Ica but no one actually knows how it got there or what it represents.
    
 During the tour of the islands we also saw many other animals such as different types of birds and a specific type of crab native to the region. After our morning in Paracas we had to return to Miraflores. To our surprise though we made one more stop on the way back in Chincha. In Chincha there is a very large Afro-Peruvian population and its here where we were able to witness the  most amazing cultural experience. The Ballumbrosio family is a very famous family of Zapoteros dancers that put on on a show for us with their amazing dancing. I was amazing to watch how even the little kids moved so well with the music like they were born to dance zapoteros. One of the best parts was when the family grabbed us all and taught us to dance. It was a unique experience that I was glad to have because its not everyday something like that happens.

 After the show we returned home to Miraflores for a much needed good night's sleep. It was an amazing weekend but we had school in the morning on Monday!

El Desierto Divertido

After a long night dancing and singing at Karaoke we all had to wake up early for our trip to Huacachina the oasis in the middle of the desert in Ica. We were a little surprised in the morning because it was so cold but thankfully I listened to my host mother and had brought a few sweaters for the weekend. So we arrive in Huacachina and first we see the dune buggys and as we all strap in we are really excited. The engine starts and and we are of climbing the mountains of sand until we reach the top of one of the bigger dunes and the buggy stops to let us out and see our surroundings. Honestly I can look back on this and say it was one of the coolest moments of my life to be standing on top of the world it seems just surrounded by sand with civilization off in the distance.

After a little while on top of the world we got back in the buggys and went riding off into the dunes where we stopped again at the top of a different dune this time to sandboard. Now I have been snowboarding for awhile now and I can tell you that they are very different sand boarding is a lot harder to turn with but nonetheless it was a great time and I would love to go again. Sadly our trip in the desert did have to end but it ended with the beautiful oasis of Huacachina below us I was able to take a really cool picture of my friend while here.

 After returning to the town of Huacachina we got a brief tour where we learned a little about the history of Huacachina and the legend of the princess of the oasis and her mirror. Then back on the bus went to take a really cool and interesting tour of the sites of the witches of Ica in Cachiche. Here we heard the tale of the seven headed palm tree and then were able to see the tree for ourselves also we were able to visit the park of Julia the good witch, the most famous of the witches of Cachiche. I even tried the drink "Orgasmo de Bruja" which despite the name was very good. After all this we went back to the hotel and got dinner. Me and my friends returned to Plaza 125 because it was so good the night before. But then later that night we got to experience an authentic discoteca in the heart of Huacachina. Again this was si much fun to be able to dance with all of my friends in the group and just relax for a little.