Lunes Felices

Today I woke up pretty well rested considering I got a lot of sleep yesterday. I wanted to dress up for school but it’s starting to get a bit nippy here so I was fine with just wearing pants. I went downstairs for breakfast, as per usual, and had eggs, cereal, bread and tea. I went to hang outside for a little bit with William and my host mom since I had some time to spare while Rosana was getting ready. He is the cutest little boy in the world! In his little child/broken English accent he played with his toy cars and screamed out “taki taki (taxi)” which apparently is his favorite game. I was so happy to hear him recognize me with an “Hola Kati.” Anyway, I spoke to my host mom a little more after about which stores around Miraflores would have good deals for souvenirs and gifts for friends/family. Then we cabbed it to El Sol for class, and for the first time ever we were 10 minutes early and not late.

Today’s lesson in class dealt with “esto, ese, aquella, etc.” which basically explains the variety of uses for “this” and “that” according to distance. I learned that the neutral/safe words to use are “esto, eso, aquella” with esto pertaining to items closest to you and the rest referring to items further away. We also learned that “aqui” and “aca” are interchangeable although in school I never learned “aca.” We always used “aqui” to mean “here” but it seems that in Miraflores, it is more common to use “aca.”

In culture class, we went over the culture of Lima and the different characteristics of the ceramics and technologies. We went over the significance of “Huacas” which were the temples, or archeologist sites found in Lima. A lot of the domestic architecture included simple designs, very light on detail, and different browns painted over the drawings. The ceramics were also very porous and fine in detail with orange as the main color. 

In conversational class, we talked mostly about different types of clothing and practiced conversing with hypothetical vendors. We had to show that we knew how to bargain and how to ask for specific clothing. It was pretty fun overall and we ended the day with a game we usually play that asks the first person to say a word in Spanish and the second person to say another word in Spanish that begins with the last letter of the first word.

We cabbed it to FAP to teach our second official lesson in English on clothing, clothing stores, and prices. We explained to them what a department store was, a plaza, an outlet, and a thrift store. We named some clothes used for sports like helmets and baseball gloves. The kids were actually just very interested in our lives and culture in general and didn’t ask many questions about the topic. After class ended, they all ran up to us asking for pictures. 

After English class we went to the auditorium for lecture. Lecture today was on the independence of Peru and a historical background on Chile and Venezuela. We talked a little more about Tupac before Jenny let us split into groups and discuss whether or not independence was a good thing for Peru. Vinny gave a valid point saying that independence was a good thing because it was unfair to tax countries the way they did with their other territories without including them officially.

Once class let out I went to the supermarket to pick up some laundry detergent and headed home to get some work done. I’m excited that we’re going to see Pachacamac tomorrow after school and even more excited to finally have access to the money my mom wired me through Western Union. Anyway, dinner is in 10 minutes and afterwards I plan on finishing my essay or going to the hookah bar, depending on the majority consensus. I will update later with photos if the latter does happen.