Wednesday, June 1, 2011

This is going to be a short blog. After our classes at El Sol today, we taught English at FAP again and played sports with the kids afterward. I had really cute shoes on so I didn’t play sports and instead just chatted with some of the girls and practiced my Spanish. My favorite part about going to FAP is the conversations I get to have with the students. I’m incredibly impressed by their knowledge of English and their desire to practice. Often times I find them asking me questions in English and I would respond in Spanish. My favorite is Kimberly Vivas. She reminds me of myself. She is a beautiful, fiercely independent young woman and a brilliant conversationalist. How much trouble would I get in for smuggling a 17 year old Peruana home to Boston in my suitcase?

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Today after school we toured Pachacamac, ancient ruins about 30km from Lima. On our way, we picked up some of the students from FAP! (They are so adorable. I miss high school. Also, they are in love with Yianni and I though it was hilarious. To be young again!) We started out with a tour of their archeological museum. My favorite part of the museum wasn’t even an artifact! It was a step-by-step photo tour of how textiles are salvaged and reconstructed after being discovered. They use this liquid to relax the fabric and then try to piece it back together very carefully. That must be a super cool job. I wonder what I would have had to major in….

Next we toured the actual ruins of Pachacamac. It was a brief tour but the ruins were beautiful. We climbed up to the tallest pyramid and saw a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean and these remote islands. Once the civilization was taken over by the Incas, they built an even higher temple, closer to the sun to exert dominance and superiority. I was super bummed today, though, because I forgot my camera!

Monday, May 30, 2011

After school at El Sol today, we went to FAP for another session of teaching English. Since we again had a different classroom, we used our same lesson on foods and holidays. It was a bit difficult to teach as I felt Kris somewhat monopolized the classroom. But she warned us before that this might happen so I was quick to interrupt and throw my two senses in. She explained to the class about how controversial Thanksgiving is because of how the Native Americans were slaughtered. She told them many people in America don’t celebrate Thanksgiving because of this. I felt this was a bit off topic and quite incorrect. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. I let it slide, though. After teaching, we had a history lecture about the emancipation and independence of Peru. Jose de San Martin proclaimed Peru’s independence in 1821, but after a rough encounter with Simon Bolivar, fled the country. Bolivar’s presence made sure Peru gained independence in 1824. After breaking from Spain, there were several different transitional governments, regimes and presidents. My favorite part of the lecture was sitting with a group of students that were whispering me the answers and forcibly raising my hand. I really do love the students at FAP.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Today, we woke up at 6:30am to head to Caral, the oldest known civilization in the Americas. We rode about two hours down a highway and then turned down a dirt road, which, after 45 minutes, lead us to Caral. We then walked about twenty minutes to the actual archeological site that seemed to appear out of nowhere. First stop was the bathrooms. These were probably the nicest bathrooms I have used thus farin Peru. I seriously didn’t want to leave them! Beautiful bathrooms in the middle of nowhere; who knew!? Our guide explained that Caral was discovered very recently, within the past 20 years. When Caral was first discovered, it was basically ignored because archeologists hadn’t found any ceramics. It is thought to have existed among the same time as Mesopotamia. It is located in the Supe valley, which allowed for irrigation and a wealth of agriculture. An enormous mudslide had caused the demise of the city and made the valley appear to be full of hills. Underneath these hills were the ancient ruins of Caral. There was almost no evidence of human remains, and it was believed that Caral was mainly used for religious purposes and festivals. I really enjoyed this tour. I felt so privileged to be touring the oldest civilization in the Americas – and before today I didn’t even know it existed! I found myself falling back from my group to really take in the scenery.

Friday, May 27, 2011

After classes at El Sol today we went to FAP again and I was excited to go because I was sick for our last visit. My teaching group was myself, Kris, Rachel and Kelsey. We had a great lecture planned out to teach them about holidays and their respective foods. About halfway through our lecture, the professor interrupted us because the students had prepared about six typical Peruvian dishes for us to try. Many of the dishes were potato and egg-based. My favorites were the homemade papas fritas! Muy fresca! We used the rest of the class to eat and converse with the students. The students would ask us questions in English and we would respond in Spanish (or Spanglish). It was a great way to practice and the students had some fantastic questions. When we left class to head to our history lecture, students asking for our Facebook bombarded us. “Cual es tu face?!” I felt like a rockstar signing paper after paper so these kids could find me on Facebook. (I still have about thirty friend requests).

That night, we went to a pena called Rompe y Raja. SO MUCH FUN. Live music, live dancing and muchos bebidas! Monica ordered a few plates of lomo saltado (sautéed beef, onions and tomatoes over rice and papas fritas.) Looking back, this was the best lomo saltado I had eaten in Peru. After a few hours of dancing and watching performers, I was pulled on to the dance floor with Leslie to participate in a traditional Peruvian dance called Alcatraz. The dance involves one person dancing with a rag or napkin in the back pocket of your pants while your partner tries to light it on fire. The point is to shake your booty so they can’t light the napkin on fire. It was really tough! I could NOT catch that guy! I am, however, an expert booty shaker thanks to my years of dance training so he couldn’t catch me either! After catching our breath, everyone flooded the dance floor and they dropped balloons from the ceiling and I danced until about 1AM. I can’t remember the last time I danced so much. What a fun night! Why don’t we have penas in The States?! I plan on writing a formal letter to President Obama demanding the implementation of mandatory fun at penas!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Today we visited El Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru. The museum housed artifacts and ceramics that were from the Chavin Empire to the Incan Empire. I was incredibly excited to tour this museum and was looking forward to our hour and a half walk through. Our guide, however, was the worst in the world. We blew through the museum in 25 minutes. Her tour was miserable, as she seemed incredibly angry that she had a group of Americans. When we first were grouped with her, I saw her roll her eyes and get disgruntled. The tour continued as follows: “This is a statue. These are Chavin ceramics. This is a piece of pottery. Next room, chicos. These are textiles. These are pictures of how they restore the textiles. These are tools. These are some more tools for textile work. Next room. These are models of mummies. Mummification was important. Next room. This is a model of Machu Picchu. The lights don’t work so we’ll skip this. These are ropes with knots. The End. Goodbye.” She spoke so softly and quickly and didn’t wait for our group to fully gather around her before she started explaining things. I found myself falling back and taking it upon myself to read everything. Our guide clearly didn’t give two hoots about our experience so I made my own.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

In grammar class today, we continued with the subjunctive. I had a really tough time paying attention as I was getting really run down. I still hadn’t fully recovered from being sick in Ica and was feeling awful. In our culture class, we started learning about the pre-Inca civilizations Chavin and Paracas. Each culture was incredibly innovative. The Paracas empire, for example, created aqueducts to access ground water. These aqueducts are still around today.

After class, we had our second day teaching at FAP. I was feeling really run down and I didn’t make it. Instead, I went back to my homestay and slept for eight hours, woke up for dinner, and then slept through the night. I was really sick and run down so it felt wonderful to rest.