Oooooh boy, it certainly has been a while… sorry for the stagnate blog! I’ll have to kick things up a notch if I ever want to get my travel writing career off the ground, haha.
Anywho, I’m back, and I’ll try to make posting a more common occurrence. ( I think twice per week would be a nice goal J )
Life in Lima has been great. I have been enjoying my time at the school, and my classes have been going well. I was leading larger and larger portions of the 9thgrade biology classes and I thought that by April I would be teaching all of the 9thgrade biology classes solo. However, two of the teachers just went on maternity leave so I will also be taking on four 6th grade science classes and two 7th grade science classes! I’ll definitely be busy, but it will be a lot of good (and varied) experience.
In addition to teaching at the high school and middle school levels I also gave tours of the zoo last week to four different 2nd grade classes. It was a much different experience from the older students (obviously), but I had a good time with it! The kids were really excited to have someone from the United States in their class. They asked me all sorts of questions, for example, if I was from Hollywood, haha. During the tours they were so excited to see the animals and to be out of the classroom that it was hard to keep their attention at times, but overall the tours were fun and I was glad to have met the ‘youngsters’ at the school.
Outside of the classroom, life has been pretty tranquil at the school. However, that’s not to say it hasn’t been busy! I’ve been happy to get caught up on a lot of university work, and I’ve also had some chances to explore the city a bit and to ride some waves on a surf board! The bus system is more chaotic than a bee hive and it’s a monster to become familiar with. However, I can now find my way to a few different locations in the city and it’s no problem for me to travel 3 miles to the beach :). A bit of a bus ride and catching some morning waves is a nice Saturday morning option!
To give you an idea of how the buses work…. You might imagine that a bus stop is an organized and ordered area where the buses come to a smooth halt and give prospective passengers a leisurely moment to decide which bus they need to board. That’s not quite the case here. It’s more like a lone blue sign surrounded by a bustling sidewalk where the buses swing in at full speed with a man hanging out of the side yelling into the masses. The “announcer” will then usually jump off of the bus before it stops and yell the final destination as fast as he can, 5-10 times before the bus starts moving again. The announcer will then run to catch up to the bus, jump on and shut the door as it accelerates down the crowded street and out of sight.
Other than the beach, I’ve also been out to see the night life a few times with Alejandro and his friends. One of the places that we visited was a retro Beatles-themed club called “Sargento Pimiento”. You guessed it, “Sergeant Pepper’s”, haha. I prefer the sound of the name in Spanish! I’ve also visited downtown to see the “Plaza de Armas” which has the main governmental buildings and the largest cathedral in the city. From the plaza I ducked down into the catacombs at St. Francisco’s cathedral and went to a delicious Chifa (Chinese Peruvian cuisine) in China town. I even went to see a group of my students perform a rock show in town. It was cool to be able to support their band and to see them outside of the classroom environment.
Hope all is well in the States, and I shall be posting more faithfully from here on out!
Saludos a todos.
Pictures:
Parque de la Muralla - Peru's original defense wall
Me buying ceremonial incense! (For what ceremony I'm not quite sure...)
Plaza de Armas
Student Band
Catacombs
Beach in Mira Flores
Be careful with not knowing what incense you're buying. Before you know it you'll be cursing yourself with a dozen children. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I hadn't thought of that. They burn this in a lot of the churches/cathedrals, so I should be safe, lol.
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