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.