[Opening note: I'm going to change how I've been managing my blog - I'll be posting ~1-2 times a month with good, meaty content and a few pictures, instead of a bunch of pictures and little written content. This is done on the excellent suggestion of my parents.]
Daily Life: My daily life is the same as when I sent the last report - I'm having a great time with my family, and I've become so used to living here. It's really comfortable, interesting, and fun! I love adapting to other cultures - I can't believe I've already spent 2 months with my family! I have less than another 2 months before I will end up leaving to go live with another family. I've picked up a lot more Spanish - I can now communicate ideas with a very, very high quality (I've mastered all of the essential, and some of the more complicated verb tenses), my reading comprehension is pretty good, but my actual ability to pick words out of a quickly spoken sentence and perfectly understand it needs a lot of work. No worries - I still have quite a while to go.
School: The English teachers (and 2 Spanish teachers) at our school have agreed to teach all the exchange students at our school - all 4 of us at their own expense of time. We are taking 45 minutes to an 1h45min every day to learn Spanish - new words, verb tenses and modes, and we're also learning verbal communication and written comprehension. It's been a real privilege.
My last big trip: About a month ago, all of the exchange students in our district (and in the Lima district) went on a big trip to Arequipa, the Colca canyon, Cambaya, Ilabaya, and Arica (the northernmost city in Chile). We had a bunch of fun - toured all through the city of Arequipa (we went through Monasteries, old Cathedrals, toured around the outskirts of the city and past the city limits), up to 5000m at the Colca Canyon (up there we went to hot springs, toured around the Colca canyon and saw beautiful Condors), travelled around the province of Tacna (we visited Ilabaya and Cambaya - two relatively minute villages wedged in the foot of the Andes mountains - we hiked past Cambaya and bathed directly underneath the large "Cataratas de Panina" - the Panina waterfall), as well as touring around Arica and seeing important historic places.
My plans for my future stay here, in Tacna: I have talked to my host district president, Roy Cárdenas, and I will be able to attend a Peruvian culinary school here, after school (which ends on December 15th). So after school ends, I'll start attending the culinary school. I don't know whether to attend the 2-month (Summer only) program - (if I do, I will definitely get some kind of a diploma), or a longer program without the certainty of getting a diploma - but with a longer program, I would learn much more. It's pretty interesting, and I'm looking forward to what's going to happen!
Two of Arequipa's three volcanoes: Chachani, Misti, and Pichu Pichu
Alpacas grazing in the region of Colca canyon.
High altitude ponds on a plateau above the tree level, near the Colca Canyon.
"Mmm, that was a good meal." Really? Have you tried Peruvian cuisine?
An alpaca and a condor, native to the mountains of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
Colca Canyon: one of the most, if not the deepest canyons in South America. Frozen waterfalls are visible in the far background, with a white speck of cloud overhead.
No comments:
Post a Comment