Monday, May 23, 2011

Today was our first day of school(s)! This morning, at 7:45, we went to the Air Force School (FAP) to see their weekly Monday morning salute. The kids stood in perfect lines, singing the national anthem in their uniforms. A few people in our group got up and said a few words thanking the school for welcoming us.

We booked it back to Miraflores where we were a bit late for our first day of classes! We will be studying for two weeks at El Sol. My padres founded the school The day started out with a written placement exam and brief oral exam. I bombed the written part (grammar is the worst!) but rocked the oral exam. I was placed in an advanced language class with a great group of students. Both of my teachers, Carolina and Mili, are fantastic. Carolina, my grammar teacher, is very patient. Our first grammar lecture reviewed the subjunctive and imperative. Odio el subjuntivo y el subjuntivo me odia! Mili is my culture teacher and she is wonderful. It is very clear that she loves to learn and share her knowledge with others. We talked about what we would study for the next two weeks and then had a chance to tell Mili what we wanted to learn, too! She’s very talkative and I couldn’t wait to get our culture lectures started.

After school we went straight back to FAP to meet our language partners and have a small reception to meet the students and faculty. It was so much fun! The students were so excited to talk to us about Peru and practice their English. My language partner’s name was Leslie and she was so talkative and interested in life in the United States. She and her friends were surprisingly well versed in American culture and language (read: slang) and had a TON of questions. I was so excited to talk to everyone and for the first time, I really felt like I was using my Spanish!

We finished up at FAP around 4pm. It was tough to leave because the students wanted to keep talking. They’re fantastic! That night was a free night and I took advantage and went home to relax and do homework. I was still feeling a bit under the weather so it felt great to recharge.