I feel like it is getting repetitive starting off each blog post saying something along the lines of "today was an awesome/amazing/great/spectacular day." Everyday so far has been just that, and I don't doubt that every day the rest of the trip will be as well. So, from now on, that each day was superb (just to add another adjective to the list) should be assumed. Classes today were fine; we continued learning about el estilo indirecto and other preincan cultures of Peru. Today we learned about Paracas, where we visited yesterday on the way back from Ica.
After school we went to the Air Force school to meet our language partners for the next three weeks and get a tour of the school. I was paired with Brandon, another student on the dialogue, and a girl (whose name I actually forget) who is thirteen and in her second year (of five) of la escuela secundaria (high school). She was really cool and it seems like the three of us will definitely get along and have fun. Then we met with some older students from the FAP school (Fuerza Aire del Perú). We then returned to Miraflores and now here I am, writing this blog after another day here in Peru. ¡Hasta mañana!
Monday, May 26, 2014
El Viernes, Sábado, y Domingo - 5/23-5/25
Our weekend in Ica, a city in the middle of the desert, was spectacular. We were there for less than 48 hours but we did so much. Friday night, while exploring the city with a group of other kids on the dialogue, we entered a little room off the street where some old Peruvian men were singing songs and playing the guitar and drums. They invited us in and we sang and danced with them for an hour and it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. Human unity, no matter the color of one's skin, the language of one's words, or the culture of one's country, is entirely possible. There was such pure happiness in that room, in the middle of the desert in Peru - one of the most genuinely happy environments I have been in in my life I believe. Friday night we went to a Karaoke club, something I had never done, and that was a blast and a half. I sang Teenage Dream by Katie Perry and Love Shack by the B-52's.
Saturday was an unbelievable day. By 12 noon, I had gone on a dune buggy ride through the sand dunes outside of Ica, climbed the sand dunes outside of Ica, front flipped off of the deserts outside of Ica, played frisbee on the sand dunes outside of Ica, sand boarded the deserts outside of Ica, and sprinted shirtless down the sand dunes outside of Ica into a beautiful oasis. There wasn't much else to do on those sand dunes by the time we left. The rest of Saturday we took a bus tour of the suburbs of Ica, watched Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League Finals, then I took a three hour nap, and went to another club, this time a dancing club, with the whole group - which was again a blast.
Sunday we woke up bright and early, and drove to Paracas, a peninsula off the coast of Peru a few hours south of Lima, but north of Ica. We took a boat tour to some beautiful rocky islands off the coast where we saw seals, sea lions, penguins, star fish, crabs, and the most beautiful colored ocean water I have ever seen. Then we drove back to Miraflores, stopping for lunch along the way, got home and promptly went to bed after an exhausting, yet gratifying weekend.
Saturday was an unbelievable day. By 12 noon, I had gone on a dune buggy ride through the sand dunes outside of Ica, climbed the sand dunes outside of Ica, front flipped off of the deserts outside of Ica, played frisbee on the sand dunes outside of Ica, sand boarded the deserts outside of Ica, and sprinted shirtless down the sand dunes outside of Ica into a beautiful oasis. There wasn't much else to do on those sand dunes by the time we left. The rest of Saturday we took a bus tour of the suburbs of Ica, watched Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League Finals, then I took a three hour nap, and went to another club, this time a dancing club, with the whole group - which was again a blast.
Sunday we woke up bright and early, and drove to Paracas, a peninsula off the coast of Peru a few hours south of Lima, but north of Ica. We took a boat tour to some beautiful rocky islands off the coast where we saw seals, sea lions, penguins, star fish, crabs, and the most beautiful colored ocean water I have ever seen. Then we drove back to Miraflores, stopping for lunch along the way, got home and promptly went to bed after an exhausting, yet gratifying weekend.
El Jueves - 5/22
Today was another good day, our sixth here in Peru. We had a full day of classes and continued professing in grammar class learning about the estilo indirecto. In English this would be turning me saying "My favorite dish in Peru is Carapulcra con Sopa Seca" into "Elan said (past tense) that his favorite dish in Peru is Carapulcra con Sopa Seca." In English we don't think twice about making that transformation but when learning Spanish, it is necessary to study the grammar rules that don't come naturally like they do in our native language.
After school, we went to Pachacámac, ancient ruins 31 kilometers outside of Lima. This was awesome. First of all, the first thing we saw when we got there were five llamas just chilling. Then we went on a guided walking tour of the ruins. We saw el Templo del Sol, or the Temple of the Sun, which was the holiest part of Pachacámac, which means creator of the world.
After school, we went to Pachacámac, ancient ruins 31 kilometers outside of Lima. This was awesome. First of all, the first thing we saw when we got there were five llamas just chilling. Then we went on a guided walking tour of the ruins. We saw el Templo del Sol, or the Temple of the Sun, which was the holiest part of Pachacámac, which means creator of the world.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
El Miércoles - 5/21
As I write this post, I am laying in bed trying not to fall asleep... it's only 7 PM. It was a long and exhausting day with a lot of walking and a lot activities. We only had three hours of school because we left at 12 to head to El Centro de Lima. There we took three guided tours at three extremely important buildings/museums in Lima. First we took a tour of the Peruvian Congress, seeing the rooms in which they all gather to draft and revise legislation and the beautiful architecture of the 78 year old building. I am very interested in politics and political systems and enjoyed learning about how the peruvian political system is set up, specifically about the unicameral legislature.
Next we went to the museum of Congress and the Santa Inquisition. Here we went on a tour learning about the persecution of all non-catholics in Peru and saw the torture devices they used against the religious prisoners that the Peruvian theocracy took. Lastly, we walked to the Museuo de Sitio Bodega y Quadra and took a tour through an underground archaeological dig of Historical Lima. It was awesome to get a sense of what the houses and streets looked like back in the day. Now I will relax the rest of the night and get ready for another good day tomorrow.
Next we went to the museum of Congress and the Santa Inquisition. Here we went on a tour learning about the persecution of all non-catholics in Peru and saw the torture devices they used against the religious prisoners that the Peruvian theocracy took. Lastly, we walked to the Museuo de Sitio Bodega y Quadra and took a tour through an underground archaeological dig of Historical Lima. It was awesome to get a sense of what the houses and streets looked like back in the day. Now I will relax the rest of the night and get ready for another good day tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
El Martes - 5/20
Today, I woke up bright and early for my second day of classes here in Peru. In my grammar class, we continued on from cuando and its contribution to sentence structure, and began to discuss the Préterito Imperfecto del Subjuntivo, or the past subjunctive. We learned how to conjugate it and began to go over the many uses for it. For me, learning and remembering the different scenarios isn't that difficult, and neither are the conjugations... when I have time. In the classroom setting, it is low pressure and the scenario is already set for us to have to use the past subjunctive. In conversation, out in the streets, it is tougher because you have to think on your feet. I try to talk to as many locals as I can, whether it's asking directions or whether it's just starting a friendly conversation.
In our culture class today we talked about the Caral civilization, which was the earliest known cultured (having tools, religion, agriculture, etc.) civilization in Peru. Caral was only discovered though in 1994, by a woman named Ruth Shady. Caral was a theocratic society that had a sustainable agricultural system that allowed them to control and farm the land, as well as systematically and efficiently hunt animals, specifically fish (they made the first fishing nets from cotton strings and pelican bones).
Ater class, we ate a quick lunch and headed to El Pueblo Libre to see the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru. This museum was awesome - it had a ton of visual exhibits displaying the pre-Incan Peruvians' way of life and we also got a guided tour that explained a lot of the lesser known facts about Peruvian history. For example, way back in the day, some Peruvian societies experimented with cranial surgery and cranial reshaping. There were recovered skulls that showed the results of these experiments: very strangely shaped skulls. I bought something from the gift shop, but in case my mom reads this before I get home, I won't say what it is ;)
In our culture class today we talked about the Caral civilization, which was the earliest known cultured (having tools, religion, agriculture, etc.) civilization in Peru. Caral was only discovered though in 1994, by a woman named Ruth Shady. Caral was a theocratic society that had a sustainable agricultural system that allowed them to control and farm the land, as well as systematically and efficiently hunt animals, specifically fish (they made the first fishing nets from cotton strings and pelican bones).
Ater class, we ate a quick lunch and headed to El Pueblo Libre to see the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru. This museum was awesome - it had a ton of visual exhibits displaying the pre-Incan Peruvians' way of life and we also got a guided tour that explained a lot of the lesser known facts about Peruvian history. For example, way back in the day, some Peruvian societies experimented with cranial surgery and cranial reshaping. There were recovered skulls that showed the results of these experiments: very strangely shaped skulls. I bought something from the gift shop, but in case my mom reads this before I get home, I won't say what it is ;)
El Lunes 5/19 - El Primer Día de Las Clases
After an awesome first weekend in San Isidro y Miraflores, I woke up today at 8 A.M. for the first day of classes. Our school, El Sol, is about a 35 minute walk from the apartment Darek and I are staying at in San Isidro, and we walked to school this morning with four other students from Northeastern who live near us. My first class, for grammar, was small, with only four students including myself. We studied the rules of grammar pertaining to the word, cuando (when), and how that one word, depending on where in the sentence it falls, can drastically change the sentence structure and the verb tenses (subjunctive, imperfect, preterite, indicative, etc.). In my conversation class we - you guessed it - conversed, and in my culture class we began to learn about pre-Incan history of civilizations in Peru.
After school, we walked to the Ricardo Palma museum, which is now located in his old home. The museum gives insight into the life of Palma, a highly influential Peruvian non-fiction author who wrote over 10,000 books! He documented the history of the Spanish Inquisition and he wrote for a politically satirical newspaper in Peru to name a few works he is known for. After getting a tour of the museum, I won a book called El Hombre Peruano En Su Historia for correctly saying how old Palma was when he died, eighty-six. After leaving the museum, I walked back to our apartment with Derek, had a nice dinner that our host mother Ceci left for us, and relaxed - content with my first day of classes in Peru.
After school, we walked to the Ricardo Palma museum, which is now located in his old home. The museum gives insight into the life of Palma, a highly influential Peruvian non-fiction author who wrote over 10,000 books! He documented the history of the Spanish Inquisition and he wrote for a politically satirical newspaper in Peru to name a few works he is known for. After getting a tour of the museum, I won a book called El Hombre Peruano En Su Historia for correctly saying how old Palma was when he died, eighty-six. After leaving the museum, I walked back to our apartment with Derek, had a nice dinner that our host mother Ceci left for us, and relaxed - content with my first day of classes in Peru.
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