Life

So the title speaks for itself... I don't have anything incredibly important to talk about but I figured I would give you guys an update on Peru in general. Just a few observations and a commentary on everyday life... :) I've been here for eight weeks; hard to believe and yet very realistic at the same time. I feel like an expert but I am still surprised by little things everyday. A fact that I LOVE. I get to wake up every morning excited for something new and fall asleep thinking about how lucky I am to be here in Peru.

So here's a typical school day. I wake up sometime between 6:20 and 6:50 depending on which (of three) alarms is successful at dragging me out of bed. I have no trouble falling asleep but the getting up process is a bit more difficult. Still, I'm quite proud that I can wake up solo because at first my dad had to knock every morning. hehehe just like at home. :) Anyway, I get dressed in that loverly uniform and hurry downstairs. I can't say I love my uniform but I am coming to appreciate the simplicity of not thinking about clothes. It's always the same knee high socks, ironed blouse, jumper, sweater and black shoes. It takes away the visual expression of personality so you can't judge people by what they look like. Probably a good thing. The only difference between our cookie cutter appearance is hair, earrings and shoes.

So anyway, I eat a quick breakfast, fill my waterbottle with boiled water and jump in the car. We always have fresh bread in the mornings so I generally have a yummy roll with cheese or peanutbutter or some random leftover from the day before. Plus fruit... I am super spoiled because all of it is BUENAZO!!! Sometimes we drive to school but more often than not we take the metropolitano. My personal favorite. I get to sit (or stand if its crowded) and people-watch or eves drop on conversations in Spanish. Well sometimes I sleep a little too :) I say the metropolitano but really its quite an impressive commuter route. My dad drives us to the third stop to save a little time and we jump out of the car and hurry across the road. We swipe our cards (mine only costs .75 soles cause I'm a student :) ) and walk down to the loading platform. The buses run every three minutes so the timing is easy. The ride is about 25 minutes and if we are lucky we both get a seat and its very comfortable. By the time we ge to our station though it's standing room only and very crowded at that. So we get off, run up the steps and walk about 3 blocks to where we catch micro. Those are the little buses that are suuuuuuuuuuper crowded in the morning. We push our way on and ride for five minutes or so. Then its baja baja baja and we have about 5 blocks to walk to the school. The whole trip takes about 45 minutes so we leave around 6:50 and arrive just before the doors close at 7:40. Sometimes with time to walk leisurely and buy a paper on the way but sometimes its a mad dash. One day we were running up the steps so my mom could signin on time and she actually tripped and fell. OOOPS!

Hmmm how to describe my school. Its big and brick and connected to a church. It's built in a square around a huge cement patio where we have recess and PE. There are three floors and all of the hallways are outdoors because the weather here is incredibly stable. Never rains and the hot and cold are mild enough that there is no airconditioning or heating in the rooms. My room is on the tops floor so we do lots of climbing stairs... :) Oh and the classrooms have WINDOWSSSSS! Yup, thats right, I get to look out on this gorgeous green park across the street and I never feel like a prisoner. ehm WHS. Although we do stay trapped in our salon all day and the teachers are the ones who get to change rooms. We only leave during the two 20 minute recesses or for computer class and PE. Thus during the five minute breaks when the teachers are changing rooms our class goes a little bit crazy. Everyone jumps out of their seat to burn off a little of the pent up energy and MOVE! Our schedule changes everyday and I have 13 different classes during the week that repeat varying number of times depending on the subject matter. The biggest emphasis is definitely English and then math and communication. Some classes like geography and art we only get once every week. Basically we have 2 long block classes in the morning, tutoria, recess, block class, recess, block class. The blocks are an hour and half (tooo long) but sometimes we have two 45 minute classes instead (much better). My spanish is definitely wayyyyyyyyyyy better now and I can understand and participate in almost everything. We do lots of group work which is nice and all my teachers are GREAT! I know the names of everyone in my class and lots of the other class too. 75 in total. The kids here are definitely more "friends" with their profesors which is fun but there is also a lack of respect. The only time that everyone really listens and pays and attention is when we are being lectured and the professor is rather angry. Lately it has been a little bit ironic because sometimes they lecture us on focusing on school and doing the class work and other times its on eatting and sleeping enough to stay healthy. We are in the final 4 monthes of school and lots of my classmates are in acadmias to prepare for the HUGE exams to enter a university. Thus they go to school from 8 till 3 and then to a prep class from 4:30 till 9 everyday. Looots of homework and stress so lots of them are sick or aren't paying as much attention to their schoolwork... Anyway, one of the most interesting things I have learned how to do in school is write with pen. Everything is in different colors and super organized and the presentation is often more important than content. By the end of this year I should be a pro at taking notes and putting my tildes in the write place and using whiteout! haha

So we get home from school around four and eat a BIG almuerzo and then my afternoons vary a lot. Usually a combination of running, going to the gym, doing homework, laptop time, going to the store with my mom, playing with Adri, talking with my dad, or going out. Never the same and never boring. The only limitation is light. The sun goes down around 6 and it goes down FAST! Seriously, I walked to the beach with my mom the other day and we watched the sunset and it was pitch black 20 minutes later. Crazy... My sisters and Max get home around 9:30 usually and we talk and eat a little and then I go to bed around 11.

Gooooood Night!

Chelita Heladita (my rather ironic nickname)

PS. Chela is slang for beer which explains the irony stated above... But I promise the only coincidence is between the names, nothing to do with me actually drinking chela

PPS. Over here we say castellano... not spanish

PPPS. Did I mention the fact that peruvians are OBSESSED with crocs? Yup, it seems to be the national shoe of choice and everyone has a pair if not seven. From the littlist kids to the oldest great grandmas... CRAZY! I even have a pair now :) And... I actually get fewer stares about my five finger shoes here than I did in the US. Yeah, maybe its because I already stand out a ton but thats alright :)

PPPPS. My family has this awesome whistle that we use so whenever we are slightly lost in the market or metro or waiting outside we can find each other. It is super distict and an excellent way to find eachother accept for the small problem that I can't whistle. hahahha I'm trying to learn but the whole venture is a little bit of a failure...

PPPPPS. I'm teaching my Peruvian family to love peanutbutter!!!!!!

PPPPPPS. I know I never respond to the comments that you guys leave but I PROMISE that I really do enjoy reading them :) If you want to hear about something in particular tell me and I'll try to covor it..