By the time we got to school we were already about 45 minutes to an hour late. Rosana and I ran around the school trying to find our group but it seemed as though everyone was scattered in different rooms taking either the written or oral placement tests. Finally a woman helped us out and we filled out a registration form along with a 2 page placement test. A lot of the questions were really easy, especially the multiple choice questions and surprisingly the mini writing section. However, the sections that asked us to conjugate irregular verbs into their past tense was the most difficult for me. I haven’t taken a Spanish course in about a year and even before those courses I was still having problems remembering vocabulary and tense changes. After the written test I was asked to hold a conversation with one of the women working at El Sol. I thought I did pretty well seeing as to how I understand and answered everyone question correctly although I did not expand my answers in ways that they were probably expecting. Anyway, I placed in Basic Level 1 with 7 others in our group and went to class after receiving my activity book for the course.
My Professor, Andres Garcia, was very nice and welcoming when I walked into the classroom late. We were going over the answers for the first activity in the textbook so he allowed me to listen and then join the group in answering the rest of the activities. We refreshed our memories with infinitives, irregular verbs, and gerunds. I was nervous at first to answer some questions but our Professor is super nice and made the classroom a comfortable atmosphere for everyone. I felt bad since there was 1 other girl who did not belong to our group in the class and I’m sure she was probably intimidated since all 7 of us knew each other and were friends who traveled to Peru together. She tended to shy away from answering questions when she could and sounded very doubtful whenever she did provide an answer. Still, our Professor carried on in the curriculum until about 11am when we were sent to our culture class.
I arrived to my culture class to find that Andres was my Professor again and the majority of us in our first class were placed together again. Our new additions were Jennifer, Dana, Caitlyn, and Kim. Culture class today focused on the history of Prehispanic Peru. We examined a timeline dating back to 1500ac (antes de Cristo) to when the Chavin, Paracas, y Pukara cultures dominated. We spent the majority of the class reading an article about Chavin culture and answered some questions our Professor handed out. The assignment was actually pretty easy with most us getting the gist of the sections we were assigned. My group was given questions pertaining to Chavin architecture. What I learned was that the most important building to the Chavinenses was “el Castillo (Templo de Chavin)” which was located in the Huari province and destroyed in 327ac. Also, Chavin advances included their great acoustics that allowed someone various meters away sound as if they were standing right by your side. I enjoyed the lesson a lot and Andres was very patient with everyone when they did not understand a word or sentence. Before culture class let out around 12:30pm, we were given an article on Paracas culture and asked to read and study it so that our lesson tomorrow could go by quicker. In other words, our homework was to read and retain information on Paracas culture.
While waiting for the bus that would take us to the Air Force school, I thought about how much I enjoyed my two classes. I have a great Professor who I understand clearly and completely along with a determination to study hard and learn Spanish as best I can while I am here immersed in the culture. I also thought about the fact that I always wanted to master the Spanish language but never really had time to dedicate to the subject. I took Spanish courses in High School and College, of course, but I never really gave the classes the time and effort it required since my main priorities were political science courses or the math class I was struggling in. Being here in Peru, focusing solely on improving my Spanish, is doing wonders for me. I actually notice a greater comprehension in my listening skills as well as a spiked confidence in my speaking skills. The writing skills I probably would have had difficulty improving had we just been traveling and speaking to the locals is being taken care of now that we are taking formal classes at El Sol. Simply put, I have all the right resources to master the language and hopefully by the time I return home I can consider myself almost fluent in Spanish.
After our classes in El Sol, a bus picked us up and dropped us off at the Air Force School where we would be teaching our partner students English for the next 2 weeks. The students were eagerly awaiting our arrival outside and as soon as we got off the bus we were greeted and given our name tags as a means of finding our partner students. My students, Alyssandra and Leslie, were very friendly and excited to meet me. They are 16 years old and speak fairly good English compared to what I was expecting of them. Alyssandra told me she had been studying English for 11 years but was still not too confident in her ability to speak or understand. I assured her that I had been taking Spanish courses for about 6 years now and I was still horrible at the language. We talked all the way to the cafeteria where we separated from our partner children to have lunch which consisted of salad, potatoes, bread, and spaghetti. I thought we were going to have an authentic Peruvian lunch but I believe the school wanted to accommodate us by preparing an American dish.
Once lunch was over we were led to the room where the welcoming ceremony was being held. There were chairs lined up against the wall for all of us and the teachers and administrators recited speeches welcoming us and thanking us for participating in this program with their school. One of the chief discipline students gave a speech with another student acting as the translator. They took turns reciting parts of the speech in English followed by a Spanish translation. After they were done they welcomed our Professor, Monica, to the floor who said her thanks and made us introduce ourselves to the students. When the speeches and greetings were over, we had the opportunity to mingle with the Air Force students. I found out that the Air Force school is not for students aspiring to join the Air Force but the sons and daughters of active soldiers and veterans. In fact, I asked the chief discipline student if she wanted to join the Air Force and she told me that when she was younger she wanted to but as she grew older she realized that she did not want to have to wake up 5am for physical training. I told her that I actually want to join the Air Force after college and would have joined straight of high school had my dad not been so against the idea. Anyway, we had fun meeting and mingling with the students and finding out about their lives and the structure of the school.
After the Air Force School, Henry and Monica gave Tess, Karlayne, and me a ride into the city since our houses were really far away. We got dropped off near the supermarket so that we could change more of our US dollars into soles since we were going to need it for the taxi every day to and from the Air Force school. Anyway, when I got home I conversed with Nicole and her mother for a little bit and even played futbol with William outside. I started blogging until dinner time around 8pm. We ate chicken and rice, pollo y arroz, which you can never go wrong with. Again, there was a salad prepared with freshly cut avocados, tomatoes, and lettuce. We had tea made for us, as usual, and bread and spreads. I really enjoy the way they prepare food here. It seems like everything is made fresh and nothing is processed. I even watched a woman who rents out a room in the house make her own yogurt using some kind of milk and mixing different oats together. Everything homemade is always good.
I’m really happy that I stayed and talked to the woman (whose name I should probably learn). I asked her if she’d ever been to the parque de agua, or water park, here in Lima since the taxi driver recommended I go visit when I have the chance. She said she heard a lot about it but never actually went. She did, however, encourage me to go before we leave for Cuzco and also promised to take me to go see an oprah. Apparently one of the top 3 oprah singers right now is Peruvian and will be in Lima this week or next. Tickets are apparently sold out but she said we can go see any oprah and we’d enjoy it. Both she and I have never been to one so I am pretty excited. Anyway, tengo mucha tarea. Buenos noches, readers! PS bug bites are slowly taking over my body. Aye aye aye!
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