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.