I know I said this before, but I can't believe that another week has already flown by! Although I have much fewer obligations here than while in Kearney, I still feel like I never have enough time in a day to get everything done. Soo.. here is my late attempt at catching up with this blog!
Now that I have been living in Lima for 25 days, I feel like I am finally starting to find my groove of how to live in this huge city. (FunFact: Lima has an estimated population this year of nearly 10million people) After moving three times already, I am finally feeling settled and more comfortable with my surroundings. My first host family experiences were not-so-great, but my new host family has welcomed me into their home with open arms and I am ever so grateful. My host parents, Victor and Heidi, are both lawyers and work during the week. Their nine year old daughter, Andrea, is on summer break from school right now so they have a housekeeper/nanny, Susanna, come each day to take care of everything while they are gone. This woman is simply AMAZING! Every morning as soon as I wake up, she makes me breakfast. All of my breakfasts have included what they consider jugo (juice) but is really just fruit and condensed milk in the blender so it has more of a smoothie consistency. My favorite so far has been the jugo de platano, aka banana juice. Along with making my meals, Susanna also cleans my room everyday AND hand washes my laundry... SUCH a weird feeling! (I don't know if I'll ever get used to someone else washing my bras and undies.. haha) If you know me at all, you know that my room is hardly ever clean so this has been quite a change for me. It has also helped me to actually keep my things organized and put away since I know that if I don't do it myself she will do it for me and I don't want to be a burden. Hopefully this new-found trait will stick once I am back in the States :)
Most days my classes begin at either 3 or 4 in the afternoon and true to Peruvian form, Susanna makes sure I eat a gourmet lunch before I go. Seriously.. she makes me a three course lunch e v e r y day. This woman is an angel, I tell yah! I feel so very pampered and incredibly lucky that I ended up with this family that takes care of me so well.
While it may seem like living here has been all fun and games (well let's be honest, it really is mostly fun all the time :)) I am actually here for a reason-- to study the beautiful language of Spanish! I am taking classes at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. I have one class everyday for 3 hours each. Monday is Conversation, Tuesday is Peruvian Literature, and Wednesday is Grammar. All of these classes are taught completely in Spanish... and it has been the biggest challenge so far, to say the least. It is difficult enough to focus on a single subject for three hours straight, let alone try to focus, translate what they are saying, and attempt to retain the information as well. Our professors expect a high level of Spanish comprehension and effort from us and while this will be best in the long run, it definitely has not been easy. However, I feel as though my Spanish abilities have already improved greatly in the amount of time that I have been here. I have slowly gotten used to only fully understanding about half of what people say to me and trying my hardest to have conversations even when I know that I probably sound like a kindergartener trying to talk. At first I was very self conscious of using my Spanish, but now it literally is what I have to speak in at all times unless I am with the other American students. Although it has gotten much easier, I keep holding out a little bit of hope that maybe I'll have a Buzz Lightyear moment and my English-- Spanish switch will get flipped on.
Now that I have been living in Lima for 25 days, I feel like I am finally starting to find my groove of how to live in this huge city. (FunFact: Lima has an estimated population this year of nearly 10million people) After moving three times already, I am finally feeling settled and more comfortable with my surroundings. My first host family experiences were not-so-great, but my new host family has welcomed me into their home with open arms and I am ever so grateful. My host parents, Victor and Heidi, are both lawyers and work during the week. Their nine year old daughter, Andrea, is on summer break from school right now so they have a housekeeper/nanny, Susanna, come each day to take care of everything while they are gone. This woman is simply AMAZING! Every morning as soon as I wake up, she makes me breakfast. All of my breakfasts have included what they consider jugo (juice) but is really just fruit and condensed milk in the blender so it has more of a smoothie consistency. My favorite so far has been the jugo de platano, aka banana juice. Along with making my meals, Susanna also cleans my room everyday AND hand washes my laundry... SUCH a weird feeling! (I don't know if I'll ever get used to someone else washing my bras and undies.. haha) If you know me at all, you know that my room is hardly ever clean so this has been quite a change for me. It has also helped me to actually keep my things organized and put away since I know that if I don't do it myself she will do it for me and I don't want to be a burden. Hopefully this new-found trait will stick once I am back in the States :)
Most days my classes begin at either 3 or 4 in the afternoon and true to Peruvian form, Susanna makes sure I eat a gourmet lunch before I go. Seriously.. she makes me a three course lunch e v e r y day. This woman is an angel, I tell yah! I feel so very pampered and incredibly lucky that I ended up with this family that takes care of me so well.
While it may seem like living here has been all fun and games (well let's be honest, it really is mostly fun all the time :)) I am actually here for a reason-- to study the beautiful language of Spanish! I am taking classes at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. I have one class everyday for 3 hours each. Monday is Conversation, Tuesday is Peruvian Literature, and Wednesday is Grammar. All of these classes are taught completely in Spanish... and it has been the biggest challenge so far, to say the least. It is difficult enough to focus on a single subject for three hours straight, let alone try to focus, translate what they are saying, and attempt to retain the information as well. Our professors expect a high level of Spanish comprehension and effort from us and while this will be best in the long run, it definitely has not been easy. However, I feel as though my Spanish abilities have already improved greatly in the amount of time that I have been here. I have slowly gotten used to only fully understanding about half of what people say to me and trying my hardest to have conversations even when I know that I probably sound like a kindergartener trying to talk. At first I was very self conscious of using my Spanish, but now it literally is what I have to speak in at all times unless I am with the other American students. Although it has gotten much easier, I keep holding out a little bit of hope that maybe I'll have a Buzz Lightyear moment and my English-- Spanish switch will get flipped on.