LAST FRIDAY IN PERÚ

Today is our last Friday in Perú. I can’t believe how fast these last 5 weeks have gone by. I have met so many incredible people (Aida, Rosa, Sandra, Henry, Romeo, Abraham, and Eloy to name a few), seen parts of Perú I had only read about, and improved my Spanish to a level I never thought I would accomplish. I feel so lucky to have been one of the thirty two students chosen to be a part of this Dialogue. Although I will miss Perú, I am very excited to continue to study Spanish and explore other Latin American countries.  

As far as activities go today, some friends and I are will be going to the San Pedro Market in downtown Cusco to get the last of our alpaca sweater needs out of our systems. Afterwards, we plan on finally trying Chifa, a fusion between Chinese and Peruvian food. As a celebration of our last night in Perú, our whole program will be eating dinner together at a fancy restaurant that used to be a monastery. Hopefully, we can convince Monica to come out with us afterwards!

MACHU PICCHU

No words can really describe my time at Machu Picchu. It was an incredible experience and I feel so blessed to have been able to travel to such a sacred cite. Although it was fascinating to tour the city, my favorite part of the day was hiking up to el Puerto del Sol. It was from this point, the sun temple, that I was able to see a panoramic view of Machu Picchu and the mountains surrounding it.

VALLE SAGRADO

So far in Cusco, our days have been fairly short. But that changed today during our visit to el Valle Sagrado, or the Sacred Valley. Abraham and Eloy took to different areas of the valley, all of them providing beautiful views of the mountains. Our first official stop was at a llama/alpaca/vicugna farm, where we were able to feed and pet the animals. Another group of American tourists must have upset one of the llamas because all of a sudden one of the girls taking selfies was covered in llama spit. One can only handle so many selfies..

Afterwards, we traveled to another agricultural cite hidden in the mountains called Pisac. There, we got to hike to the top of the village and look out over the entire valley. We even saw some wandering Northeastern parents at the ruins.

Feeling rather ravenous, we headed to an all you can eat buffet!! They had just about everything one would want to try...even alpaca! After stuffing our faces and storing a few snacks in napkins for later, we explored the creek behind the restaurant. I didn't do so much exploring, rather I lay in the sun trying to digest the 6 plates of food I had eaten.

We continued the day with a tour of the temple of Ollantaytambo. Eloy pointed out many of the figures carved into the rock faces, including an Incan man with a feathered crown. Apparently if you were to hike up to the man, you could see that the territory of Ollantaytambo was built in the shape of a llama, one of the most sacred animals that the Incas sacrificed.

For the last stop of the day, we went to a traditional weaving market. We watched women clean, weave, and dye alpaca fibers. Everything was made with very simple wooden tools, llama bones, and natural dyes. After the demonstration, we had time to explore the market. Abraham and Eloy found a conch shell and attempted to blow into it to make different sounds. Eloy picked it up very quickly but Abraham on the other hand was struggling. Curious as to how to play the conch, Rebecca and I asked for a quick lesson. Much to our surprise, we were both able to make the sound on the first try! This really cracked Abraham and Eloy up. Mostly it just made Eloy laugh because Abraham still couldn't quite make the noise.

((Pictures to come when I have better wifi))

YO TE QUIERO CON LIMON Y SAL

Today we met our friends Abraham and Eloy outside the hotel at 8:00. We piled into yet another bus and drove 1.5 hours to see las Salinas de Maras, salt mines that predated the Incas. I was very excited for this stop because salt is one of my favorite foods. I had also heard that there would be free samples which is always a plus. When we got off the bus, we had to hike down to the salt flats. The only way down was through gift shops. Luckily, each gift shop had buckets and buckets of free salted corn nuts, banana chips, and my favorite, chocolate!!

The second expedition of the day was to an ancient agricultural cite called Moray. I had a lot of fun hiking around the upper terraces of the land and feeling the different microclimates that the Incas skillfully created. It was refreshing to leave the city bustle and explore Perú's mountain side.

FIRST AND SECOND DAY  IN CUSCO

Yesterday we left Miraflores on a 2:40pm flight to Cusco!! Although it was sad saying goodbye to Aida and Maya I was excited for the next chapter of our program.

Because of the EXTREME change in altitude (300ft to 11,000ft), we took the first day relatively slow. To avoid getting altitude sickness, I had a huge bag of coco leaves to chew on. They may have helped ease the effects of, but the taste that accompanied them gave me an entirely different kind of sickness.

After a much needed nap, some of us ventured out to find pizza and pasta! It was a huge success. It was nice to get back to my italian roots and indulge in some non-potato carbs :)

After a full day's rest (some of us) were ready to explore the historic capital of Perú. We started the day at 9:00. We met up with two Cusqueñan tour guides named Abraham and Eloy. They are a silly pair that like to threaten us if we don't move fast enough. Fo example today, one girl was taking too long in the bathroom and our guides told the bus to start to drive away. Little did they know, she may have had food poisoning!

Abraham and Eloy took us to five different archeological cites. These included; an ancient Incan sun temple; a Spanish cathedral; a spiritual cave; an ancient administrative site called Saqsayhuamán (sexy woman); and an ancient water temple. We also attended a brief lesson about the different kinds of alpaca wools. I quickly learned that all of the alpaca sweaters I have bought are not actually made from alpaca...but they still feel and look very nice so está bien.

That night, a group of us went to a club called Mama Africa where we learned some Peruvian line dances.

LOTS OF DÍAS

This past week has been very hectic so this will be a condensed (but thorough!!) post about my last week in Lima.

During our last week at UNIFÉ, we took a series of culture and history classes. We learned about Peru’s extensive food menu, churches in Cusco, and the influence of Latin on both Spanish and English words. Although each class had its perks (e.g., free food), my favorite lesson was on the small churches in Cusco. It was fascinating to learn how architecture during this time tied so closely with the city’s colonization.  For example, when looking at one of the churches from the outside, you wouldn’t think it had any Spanish influence as they were built with traditional materials of the region (Adobe and wood). However, looking inside the church, you could clearly see a European approval stamp with each renaissance painting of  blindingly white Jesus and gold leafed statue.

Each church was also built with a balcony in order for the pasture to preach to the “uncooperative” indigenous communities who refused to enter the church. Those who did enter the church, found ways to pray to their own gods instead of to those forced upon them.

After our lectures each day, we continues with our presentations and translations.

LAST DAY AT EL SOL AND UNIFÉ

For our last day of school, our history and culture teacher, Rosa, moved our classroom down the street to a restaurant called Crepes and Waffles. I ordered a beautiful waffle con frutas de la selva and ice cream, it was amazing!! Over brunch, we had a brief lesson about the Incas. The lesson didn’t last very long so we spent the majority of the class asking Rosa questions about her personal life. I think Austin was disappointed to learn that Rosa has a novio L

Heading back to El Sol, we were greeted with free sweatshirts and a fancy banquet. Yay, more food! It was sad saying goodbye to all of our professors, but after 4 weeks of  early morning classes, it wasn’t really that sad. In all seriousness, I learned a lot from each of them. I am very thankful for the care they put into each lesson and the extra time they took out of their schedules to help us understand the history and culture of Peru.

After a semi emotional goodbye, we headed to UNIFÉ. The remaining groups, including mine, presented their chapters. We then went to our graduation ceremony in the main meeting room of the university. As part of our cultural exchange, we taught the UNIFÉ students “Soulja Boy.” We were all pretty proud of ourselves until they followed our dance with some sexy salsa and a performance of the song “Contigo Perú.” Womp. All in all, it was a very sweet ceremony and I will definitely miss talking with the girls everyday.

Because we had the next day (Friday) off, we decided to go to a club called the Help. Sounds promising, right? Well it was! Walking into the club was like stepping onto “Step Up” set. The whole first part of the night consisted of 2 minute dance offs between all kinds of people. The winner got to take home 500 soles! Unfortunately, none of us had the moves to take home the dough.

FREE FRIDAY

On the last day of school, some of us had been asking our grammar professor, Romeo, if he knew of any good hiking trails not too far out of the city. In the process of asking, we managed to convince him to come with us. So, for my free Friday I went hiking with my professor and a few other friends!

We met Romeo at 1:00pm to drive to Pachacamac. The park we wanted to go sneakily had two names! Therefore, whenever we asked someone for directions to Cerro Verde, they brushed us off as stupid tourists and went on their way. It took us a half hour to realize that we needed to be asking for directions to Lomos de Lucomo.

The driving back and forth was worth it! We spent over 2 hours exploring the different paths. At the top, we had a cloudy view of the ruins of Pachacamac, the ocean and the small village below. We also saw a lot of cool rock formations which is always a plus!!

PRESENTATIONS

My classes seem to be getting more creative each day at El Sol. Today for example, we made clay replicas of tumis. A tumi was used by the ancient civilization, Chimu, during sacred rituals and sacrifices. My partner Ralzaly and I, spent at least thirty minutes making our tumi...and then class was over..!

Per usual, we then went to UNIFÉ as part of our cultural exchange. We broke off into small groups to talk about the theme of the day: dating. As a group of ten or so single women, we quickly decided to change the topic. Instead, we asked the girls about the night life in Lima. Apparently, our program has been taking us to all the "old people" bars. This makes sense when I look back on the places we have gone. The girls told us to go to: The Help, Muaw, and Bizarro. They all sound like they could be part of an SNL skit.

After chatting with the students and learning about the Republic of Perú, it was time for us to give our own history lesson. One by one, we presented various aspects of Peruvian history and culture based off our findings from the program's assigned readings. As we presented in Spanish, translation students translated our words to English. I didn't actually present today, I'll be in the last group to go.

You know what they say, save the best for last!!!

((Also PPK won the presidential election))

LUNAHUANÁ

Another Sunday, another early morning. We woke up at 5:00 to beat the morning traffic. Surprisingly everyone showed up on time and we were able to make the trek to the small town of Lunahuaná in under four hours. We all poured out of the bus and into the water for a white water rafting adventure. Because Peru is currently in its dry season, the river was relatively low. Although the water was low, the rapids were still pretty strong, strong enough to knock one of the girls off our raft! Luckily our guide, Jorge was able to pull her back in by the life vest.

After rafting, we took a walking tour of the town. Everything was going fine until all of a sudden these invisible bugs started attacking everyone's legs. Luckily, I was wearing pants so only my feet got bit, but it was still pretty painful. By the end of the day, some people's bites swelled to the size of cherry tomatoes.

The best cure for bug bites is of course...pisco! We walked to a large bodega to sample various wines and piscos. On the ride home, we stopped at a small honey farm right along the river. The area is definitely in my top ten most beautiful places I've seen!

Beautiful!

GOVERNMENT PALACE

I was happy to be visiting La Plaza Mayor again today, this time to see the government palace. We were only able to tour 5 of the rooms because the president lives there and could not be bothered by the tourists. Understandable. After the palace tour, we went next door to explore the Cathedral of Lima. I usually don't find churches to be that interesting but this one was pretty cool! Because Lima is located on the ring of fire, it experiences very strong earthquakes. Therefore, much of the cathedral is made of wood, but is painted to look like marble or stone. This was also due to the fact that marble is much more expensive than wood. I wasn't able to spot the difference until our tour guide pointed it out.

In other news, the presidential election is tomorrow! Although the race has been 50/50 between Keiko and PPK, it seems that most people believe Keiko will win. Stay tuned!

OUR SECOND FREE DAY

A free day? How unusual! Even more unusual, we took shots in our culture class today. We spent the last part of class preparing and drinking Pisco Sours. Our professor Rosa, told us that she likes her drinks especially strong and then proceeded to add a whole cup worth more of the called for pisco. To my surprise, they were the best Pisco Sours Iv'e tried yet.

After class we went to Papachos, a famous hamburger restaurant in Perú. I got a classic American cheeseburger with avocado and onion rings (on top of the burger, not on the side). It was so big that I had to cut it into to quarters to eat. After eating there, I think Papachos may do an American burger
better than any restaurant I've been to in America.

The rest of the day I walked around the city with a few friends. Later tonight, a bunch of us are going bowling. We may even get a surprise visit from Monica! I wonder if heeled bowling shoes exist. If they do, she definitely needs a pair.

SALSA AND FRIENDS

 We had a great day at UNIFÉ today! It was finally sunny in Lima so we all sat around outside and  talked with the students. The first 20 minutes we spoke in Spanish, which was not as hard as I  thought it was going to be. Yay, improvement! The last 10 minutes we were able to speak in English.  We talked about Peruvian nightlife, boyfriends, and politics. An interesting mix, but still very cool to  learn about. After chatting with the girls, we went to our culture class. Today's topic was Peruvian  Independence. Each day, I'm able to understand about ~10% more of our lecture. So I think I'm at  about 75%...a solid C...

Solid C face

After Class, we took the stage for a salsa lesson! We were all feeling pretty confident until the UNIFÉ students gathered to watch us. As soon as we moved past the basic step and attempted to do a spinning move, the girls began to video us. Many laughs were had. We pushed on! Some even joined us! Maybe out of pity? Regardless, it was a fun time.

Later that night a group of us went to a bar in Barronco called Ayahuasca. We then proceeded to do Ayahuasca!! Just kidding. The place was recommended to us by a lot of professors/UNIFÉ students and I can see why. Once a colonial mansion, the bar had three stories and over fourteen rooms. Each room had some aspect of ancient Peruvian culture in it. Therefore, every walk to the bathroom was a little history lesson. So fun and educational!

BRINGING FRISBEE TO PERÚ...?

Frisbee is not very popular here :( . For the past 2.5 weeks, I have been stopping in every sports store trying to complete my quest for a frisbee. After the first few failed attempts, I started to ask my host mom, my teachers and random people on the street if they knew where I could buy one. My favorite (but also the most painful) answer I've received so far was, "try the pet store." I haven't actually looked yet, but I highly doubt a frisbee at a pet store would be up to regulation standards. Might have to settle for a cloth one or something...

I did bring one frisbee to Perú to give to my host mom. Although it was a gift, I've been using it. That's how presents work, right??

As part of our exchange program at UNIFÉ, some of us volunteered to talk about an aspect of our lives specific to the states while a student translated what we said into Spanish. When Monica asked for volunteers, I was envisioning a very laid back exercise in which we spoke to a small group of UNIFÉ students. So I volunteered!

Upon arrival, we were shuffled into a large conference room with a podium and microphone aka not a laid back setting. Turns out, each of us were going to speak in front of the entire college of translation. I was the last of the four to speak. I was getting a little nervous as I saw that some of my peers stood behind the podium with notes and that I had barely thought about what i was going to say. As they presented, I brainstormed a few of the things I would talk about. Things like; the tryout process; spirit of the game; the rules; tournaments; social aspects etc..

However, when it was my turn, I somehow managed to talk about none of these! Instead, I went on and on about a Halloween tournament in which all of us dress up as bananas or cows and play frisbee. I tend to kind of black out during presentations so that's about all I remember saying. At the end, I threw a frisbee to my friend Lexi who was sitting in the audience. Although we were only a few feet apart, she proceeded to rocket the frisbee straight toward the woman who was translating my speech. 

Overall, a very inaccurate representation of ultimate frisbee...

TALKS AND ROCKS

Today during our grammar class, we spent less time focusing on sentence structure/vocab/conjugations and more time on discussing the relevant issues in Lima and the US. The two hour class flew by!! We spent the majority of the period talking about environmental issues which I was very happy about. Unfortunately, Perú doesn't have many environmental policies or regulations in place. I think I've seen a total of 4 recycling bins in the past 2.5 weeks. Our teacher, Romeo, says this is a result of poor education and the fact that Perú faces more eminent problems than climate change. Hopefully, the next president (election day is on Sunday!!) will focus more on environmental issues. 

After class, we headed to UNIFÉ for a lesson in Peruvian Literature. I had been feeling pretty sick in the morning from accidentally drinking the water or something so I honestly didn't catch much of the discussion. I spent most of the lecture planning out various escape routes in case I was going to puke. I found that my best option was to just lean my head out of the window next to my desk (although we our classroom was on the third floor). Luckily, I didn't end up throwing up!

Still feeling a little strange, I boarded the bus with my program to explore El Museo de Oro y Armas (museum of gold and weapons). I'm not a huge fan of guns and knives so this museum was así así.

Around 6:00pm, our program's activities came to an end. A couple of us decided we wanted to continue the day with a visit to the rock gym. Although it took us a little over than an hour of walking in and out of the back alleys of Miraflores, we all had a great time climbing. It was especially cool because the entire gym was outside! I guess they can do that here considering it hasn't rained in Lima in 47 years.

UNIFÉ

Today was our first day at la Universidad Femenina del Seguridad Corazon (UNIFÉ), a private women's college in Lima. At UNIFÉ, we will be helping students studying English/Spanish translation as well as taking a culture class with one of the college's professors. Much like the Air Force school, we were greeted with a welcome ceremony and traditional dances such as La Marinera del Norte. FUN FACT: my host mom won a national Marinera competition last year! After each performance, the dancers made their way to the audience and pulled students up on stage. My favorite part was when the lead hombre in La Marinera grabbed my roommate Ally to teach her a few moves. La Marinera is a very sensual dance so it was pretty silly to watch my classmates attempt to move in a similar manner to the peruvians.

La Marinera del Norte

Work it

PUERTO DE CALLAO

Today was the first day so far that we got to sleep in. And by sleeping in, I mean 9:00. We met at the Mirabus kiosk at 10:00 for a mysterious seven hour bus ride. Once aboard the big beautiful vehicle, I was informed that we were going to Puerto de Calloa, Lima's main seaport. We made a few stops on the way. The first was to the Lima's naval museum. There we learned about the war against Chile and the importance of the Peruvian Navy. We then took a tour of a submarine. The sub was out of water so I didn't think it would be so scary...until we got inside..

There must have been at least 30 of us in there at one point and let me tell you, submarines are not very spacious. They're also not yellow (in case you didn't know). I thought the tour was going to be a quick in and out type of thing but no, it wasn't! I usually don't get seasick, but standing in a small, dark, metal box that is constantly lurching side to side for 20 minutes really takes a toll on el estomago. For some reason, the museum thought it would be a good idea to simulate what an underwater attack was like. I can safely say that dying in a submarine is probably one of the worst ways to go.

Our last stop of the day was to el Fortaleza Real Philipe, the fortress that was built to protect the port. It was exciting to walk through all the different tunnels of the fortress, although some of us did get a little lost towards the end of the visit. The architecture of the fortress was very similar to the one built in Thessaloniki, Greece. How interesting!

CARAL

Today we drove a total of ~nine~ hours to see more ruins. But not just any ruins! These were the special ruins of Caral, the second oldest civilization in the world! Caral hits at just about 5 thousand years old. That's older than Ancient Egypt! So old! Caral is located in the province of Barranca, 184 km north of Lima. That probably does mean much to anyone who is reading this. Essentially, Caral is located in the desert. This seems to be a reoccurring theme in Peru. Why are all major ancient civilizations here found in the desert? This just doesn't seem logical to me.

Anyways, after a long drive back to Miraflores, I took a big nap. Why didn't I just go to bed you may ask? Well, I didn't go to bed because our day wasn't over! Monica planned a field trip to a traditional Peruvian club called La Peña Carajo. The club featured live performances of Peruvian song and dance. After the performances, there were small competitions in which tables could win free beer and esnacks. We had many winners in our program including; loudest table; tallest girl; first boy wearing blue pants to get on stage; biggest boobs etc..

Ally and I didn't get back to the apartment until 4:00 in the morning, which is honestly early for the peruvians. Tomorrow should be fun seeing as how we have to wake up at 8:30 for a seven hour Mirabus tour. We have already taken so many tours with Mirabus that I'm not really sure what else we could possible see from the second story of a double decker bus. Stay tuned to find out!!

UN DÍA LIBRE

Today was our first free day! Other than our regular class schedule (9:00-12:00), we had the rest of the day to explore. A bunch of us went to "Punto Azul," a restaurant recommended to us by our host mom, Aida. Feeling adventurous, I ordered fetuccine with octopus ink sauce and seafood. It was delicious! At times, the ink also provided me with a deep, alluring lip gloss color. Food that looks like makeup..wow..great job Punto Azul!

Fooooooood

I think we were all very excited not to be eating rice and as an outcome, ate very quickly. Feeling v full, we walked around the city. A couple of people wanted to try paragliding on the coast, so we all went to watch. It was a little scary to see my friends strapped to large Peruvian men running off the city's 100ft cliffs. But they all came back in one piece! Except for Kate. Kate left a chunk of her butt on the park as she dragged along the grass trying to stop her parachute. Afterwards, we played a 4v4 game of frisbee! Yay frisbee!

Today was a much needed day of relaxation. Tomorrow will be another early day. Ally and I have to leave the house at 5:30am to travel with the rest of the group to Caral, the oldest civilization in South America!

HOKEY POKEY EN PERÚ

Today was our last day teaching at the air force school. The theme of the lesson was American food and dance. When we got into our teaching groups to discuss the topic, we made a list of potential talking points. Here is what we came up with: hamburgers, hotdogs, mac n' cheese, and the hokey pokey. Yikes! Not much to work with. "It'll be okay," we naively thought. "We can google pictures of food, everyone likes looking at food," we thought. We also weren't necessarily too worried about needing to teach for the whole hour allotted to our class. Given Lima's traffic, we had been getting to the school later than expected and were teaching for 20 minutes or so.

But of course... today was the first day we got to the school on time!! So after talking at the kids about America's extensive menu without photoswe had no other choice but to do the hokey pokey for..too long. The kids favorite body part to throw into the circle was of corse the butt. Many of the little boys proceeded to twerk and crump into the circle. The girls weren't having it.

Because it was our last day at the school, 10x the amount of the usual selfies were taken. We also had a small ceremony with the director of the school! I was lucky enough not to trip during high school graduation, but somehow I managed to bump into a lot of chairs/backpacks/feet as I walked 10ft to receive my certificate. 

After school, some friends and I went to a restaurant in downtown Miraflores for Ceviche! It was very squishy! 

Selfie?

One of the many group photos taken that day

FÚTBOL

Today was filled with sports! Sports! Instead of giving a lesson at FAP, we joined the students for their P.E. class. P.E. is very different here compared to the states. We started with a 400m jog/sprint and proceeded to stretch. We circled up and followed the P.E. instructor in some deep breathing, lunging, and scissor kicking. Although the activities were widely different, it seems that P.E. instructors are pretty universal. I'm talking about you, Daniel Miller! Some of our activities included: jumping over horizontal bodies, zig zagging between squatting students, and crawling through small children's legs! they may seem silly but I was honestly feeling pretty winded afterward.

After P.E. we went to our history class. We learned about Perú's independence, the guano era, and some of the political/economic problems the country faced during the 1880s and 1890s. What is the guano era you may ask? The guano era was a time of economic prosperity and political reform between 1841-1870. Essentially, the peruvian government began to collect bird/bat/penguin poop from offshore islands to make and sell agricultural fertilizers. Unfortunately for Perú, the Spanish gained control over some of their biggest guano producing islands during the 1860s, which greatly slowed the country's production. The Chilean war did not help the situation. The period that followed took a toll on Perú's economy, which was already in serious debt.

Finishing up our history class, we took the fields again to play a game of fútbol: Americans vs. Peruvians! Us ladies went first. For those of you who don't already know, the last time I played soccer, I broke my wrist. Feeling a little bit of PTSD, I tried to stay as far away from our goal as possible to avoid being hit by any possible shots. My strategy must have been a good one because I actually ended up scoring one of our goals! Incredible! My goal wasn't enough to bring home the W...we lost by one. At least we did better than the guys who I think took a four point loss. Womp.

"Who runs the world? GIRLS."
          -Beyoncé

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BLOG POST

This morning, Ally and I left the apartment at 8:10 in order to drop our clothes off at the Laundromat and still get to school on time. The place was only a few blocks away so when we got there it was closed. We weren't sure of when it would be open so rather than risk it, we decided to continue to school. Unlike the wise Alexandra, who put her dirty laundry in a duffel bag, I put my dirty clothes into a see through plastic bag. Not wanting to schlep the bag around, I decided to go back to the apartment and drop it off while Ally went to exchange money. Silly me for thinking I could be independent!! I got very lost, for a very long time. I'm not quite sure what happened --I tend to blackout in times of distress-- but I somehow managed to find a different laundromat, drop off my clothes, ask my way to the right street, and find the school! My only concern now is finding the laundromat again tomorrow....

After an already stressful morning, our grammar class began to learn new material that I had never been exposed to in high school or college. It was hard to pick up on some of the sentence structures at first, but by the end of class I think I was beginning to get the hang of things.

Although our school day was over as students, but was just beginning as teachers! Hungry for redemption, we arrived at FAP only 15 minutes late as opposed to the 30 minutes we took yesterday. Again, there was a band of school children waiting to escort us to our classrooms. As we walked across the playground, all of the children poked their heads out of the class room windows to greet us.

Each day, we change class rooms and topics. Today, our group focused on the major tourist attractions found in the United States. Before we started, five of our students gave us a quick presentation on Machu Pichu. Much to our surprise, none of them had actually visited to the cite. After their presentation, we talked about New York, Disney Land, the White House, etc.. We then broke up into small groups and answered their questions regarding the US. My favorite question one student asked one us was "Do you know of the Mormon religion?"

Tomorrow instead of teaching, we will be playing a game of fútbol, us vs. the students! Stay tuned...

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL AT FAP

Today was pretty low key in comparison to the past week we've had. But Monica's low key is an average person's high key. Our classes at El Sol went by fairly quickly. We reviewed when to use oraciones relativos and how to form the appropriate sentences. In our culture class, we talked about the various ceramic pieces from the ancient civilization, Chavín. For lunch, we had the usual peruvian dish "papa a la huacaina" (potatoes and yellow sauce) and chicken con pollo. I use to consider potatoes to be my favorite food but after living in Lima for one week, I'm not sure if my unconditional love for them still stands.

After school, we went to the city's Air Force academy to meet our students. As our bus pulled through the base's gate, a line of children were waiting to meet us. They showed us into a room where we were fed traditional peruvian snacks (or "esnacks", as many people here say) and given gifts. The students then performed a series of songs and dances. I think its safe to say that I now know what it must feel like to a be a member of the royal family. After the festivities, we split up into different classrooms to give presentations about life in the states. Our group's topic was national parks. We had about 20 minutes to prepare and no wifi, so our presentation was a little dissapointing. But tomorrow is a new day! #redemption

Traditional peruvian dance