So went went to Lima monday afternoon for language class. We visited a part of Lima called Miraflores, which I think may be the Manhattan of Lima. It was nice, and clean and beautiful. We were there do to interviews to practice our spanish, so first we had to haggle with a Taxi driver. Apparently a taxi to our neighborhood from Lima should be about 30 soles, whenever we asked a taxi driver how much, they would tell us anywhere between 70-100, were stupid Americans, they think they can rip us off. Then we had to go to the Indian Market and interview people there, and they just had all kinds of touristy junk, and I got sucked into buying something! We also just had to ask random questions to people about where things were and how things worked, just that kind of stuff. The interesting part of Lima is how so much of everything is in english, we saw many "gringos" and people kept trying to talk to us in english. There were a mcdonalds, burger king, pizza hut, kfc and STARBUCKS everywhere! My partner and I actually cheated on a few of our last questions because while we were in starbucks a peruvian women behind us overheard us talking and asked what we were doing. Once we told her, she directed us to her husband, turns out her husband is also peruvian but speaks PERFECT english, so he answered a few questions for us!
After our interviews our teacher told us about a few options to get home, the one we were most comfortable with was just taking a taxi. So she helped us get an affordable taxi. The taxi back to my neighborhood was about an hour drive, and within that hour I seriously saw my life flash before my eyes over and over again. Basically there are no traffic laws in Peru, and the drivers do as they please, and if they feel like making a lane in between two lanes then they do. If they feel like making a right turn across 3 lanes of moving traffic, then they do. All goes on the roads in Peru! The only good part was the the taxi driver had american oldies on the radio, so we sang a lot of the way home.
Tuesday night I went to the movies with a few friends. Turns out most of the movies they were playing at the theater are all in English with Spanish subtitles, so we went and saw Going the Distance. I don't even like going to the movies, but to be able to get out and not worry about speaking spanish for an hour or so was fantastic. The movie was GREAT and the theater was really nice, I felt like I was at home. Except at the end when I kept thinking I would go get in my car and drive home to my nice warm bed and go to sleep, reality set in when I got up and was hustled onto a combi with a million people hanging on to the bars with both hands and walked about a mile back to my house. Then I remembered that I am in Peru and life is VERY different!
The rest of this week has been quiet, I usally have 4 hours of language class a day and they added an extra 45minutes of only conversation to that at the end of the day because our interviews are coming up next week and hopefully we will all move up a level. Tonight I was speaking with my host parents and they told me how much better my conversation skills are coming, and we can actually talk and laugh, as compared to the first week when I just looked at them after they spoke to me. She laughs because the first week she asked me if I like avocados and I said no, yet we ate guacomole for breakfast on saturday and I ate it and told her I really liked it. I told her that I just didn't understand spanish that first week, which was partially true. But really I thought I didn't like avocados, yet it turns out that I do. I'm just learning to eat so many more foods here that I would have never attempted in the U.S. and I REALLY like a lot of what I'm trying, which is GREAT!
Saturday I'm going back to Lima to study organic farming at a local college, and then we get to spend the rest of the day exploring! I can't wait!
After our interviews our teacher told us about a few options to get home, the one we were most comfortable with was just taking a taxi. So she helped us get an affordable taxi. The taxi back to my neighborhood was about an hour drive, and within that hour I seriously saw my life flash before my eyes over and over again. Basically there are no traffic laws in Peru, and the drivers do as they please, and if they feel like making a lane in between two lanes then they do. If they feel like making a right turn across 3 lanes of moving traffic, then they do. All goes on the roads in Peru! The only good part was the the taxi driver had american oldies on the radio, so we sang a lot of the way home.
Tuesday night I went to the movies with a few friends. Turns out most of the movies they were playing at the theater are all in English with Spanish subtitles, so we went and saw Going the Distance. I don't even like going to the movies, but to be able to get out and not worry about speaking spanish for an hour or so was fantastic. The movie was GREAT and the theater was really nice, I felt like I was at home. Except at the end when I kept thinking I would go get in my car and drive home to my nice warm bed and go to sleep, reality set in when I got up and was hustled onto a combi with a million people hanging on to the bars with both hands and walked about a mile back to my house. Then I remembered that I am in Peru and life is VERY different!
The rest of this week has been quiet, I usally have 4 hours of language class a day and they added an extra 45minutes of only conversation to that at the end of the day because our interviews are coming up next week and hopefully we will all move up a level. Tonight I was speaking with my host parents and they told me how much better my conversation skills are coming, and we can actually talk and laugh, as compared to the first week when I just looked at them after they spoke to me. She laughs because the first week she asked me if I like avocados and I said no, yet we ate guacomole for breakfast on saturday and I ate it and told her I really liked it. I told her that I just didn't understand spanish that first week, which was partially true. But really I thought I didn't like avocados, yet it turns out that I do. I'm just learning to eat so many more foods here that I would have never attempted in the U.S. and I REALLY like a lot of what I'm trying, which is GREAT!
Saturday I'm going back to Lima to study organic farming at a local college, and then we get to spend the rest of the day exploring! I can't wait!
1 comment:
Jillian, I'm sure when you mother read this she was thinking, "I hope that taxi had seat belts!"
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