Catching Up

3-22-11 & 3-23-11 & 3-24-11

Well it happened again. I didn’t write for days and days and now I don’t even remember what I did. This blog, however, is less pressing than my work journal. I have to turn it in in about a week and I’m two weeks behind. Oh well, nothing earth-shattering has happened in that time and I can summarize.

Tuesday the 22…. Well, my host family really wanted me to ditch to go see Ollantaytambo, Pisaq, and another arqueological site, but we had a pretty important Spanish class in the morning that I didn’t feel like I could miss. Our homework had been to interview our family about any topic, then transcribe their answers in class. Transcribing in another language is really difficult! Especially when you’re transcribing the words of someone who mumbles as much as my host mom does. I don’t like listening to the recording again and again in order to write it down because I hear the mistakes I made and they grate me! I interviewed my mom about her career. Did you know that there is a law in Peru that women cannot work at the same job for more than 25 years? It’s the same for me, only extended to 30 years. It was unclear to me whether it’s work in general or just a single career path. She used to teach kindergarten and retired in 1996! That means that she’s been retired for almost the entire length of my formal education. Whoa, weird. Though I didn’t want to miss Spanish I would have been fine with missing the conference in the afternoon. It was a bit boring!

Wednesday the 23….Today was really busy because I’d let a large pile of homework and projects pile up around me. Procrastination! I had homework, an exam to study for, a presentation to prepare for, and a short paper to write. It all worked out in the end. I actually really enjoyed it. I slept really well, perhaps the best that I’ve slept in months. I suspect that the reason is that I went to sleep feeling exhausted, yet accomplished. I don’t often remember my dreams, but I dreamt that I was making pancakes with my host dad. Whether they were American or Quinoa pancakes has yet to be seen. Quinoa pancakes are really good – just a little bit crunchy. In the afternoon they finally gave us the details for our trip to Iquitos. We have to wear long sleeves and pants while we’re there to prevent bug bites as much as possible since Dengue is a potential danger. I hate humidity, so I’m not super thrilled about this aspect of our trip. For my project I researched Sacsaywaman, the “ceremonial fortress” located right above Cusco that I visited on Saturday. I definitely got a burn that day – my shoulders are peeling! I’d better ask my host mom to borrow that silly straw hat again before I go to the Amazon on Friday. I asked Farina how you say “to ditch class” in Spanish. I thought I’d learned “fumar clase,” but no one seemed to know that one. She said that it’s “tirar la pera.” Don’t know how often I’ll use that, but it’s always fun to learn idioms. That reminds me! A week or so ago Papa Angel taught me the word for Brassknuckles and I wanted SO BADLY to remember it, but of course I forgot. Too bad! Oh, in other news, I finally bought my round-trip ticket to Lima for ISP. Tickets are half the price for Peruvians as they are for foreigners, but it makes sense when you think about the average Peruvian salary (or lack thereof).

Thursday the 24…The Spanish exam went really well this morning, although the listening segment was a disaster owing to the terrible speakers available to us. I think my paper went really well and though my public speaking in Spanish halters a bit, I think I said everything I needed to say. Before lunch we played soccer and I once again learned that I’m a terrible goalie. I took over the goal from Matt for about one minute, in which time they other team scored a goal. He quickly took over his former position. Soccer just isn’t my game. I hope rugby is still my game when I get back…I think I’ve forgotten all of the rules. After lunch I met up with Rebecca to walk all the way up Avenida de La Cultura to meet the rest of our Spanish class to do interviews. This is the beginning of our practice for our ISP interviews. Once everyone arrived, we walked farther to the Facultad de Medicina of the University. We were then left on our own in a plaza full of students to go approach them and ask them questions that we’d formulated in class on Tuesday. Nervous as I was, it was actually a really pleasant experience. One girl, Liliana, was particularly nice and wanted to know about me just as much as I wanted to know about her. We interviewed them about their opinions on Peruvian education and their expectations for their future careers. Everyone we interviewed studied either Psychology or Dentristry. Personally, I think Denistry would be a really boring field to embark upon. Then again, I have my dentist’s office in mind when I say that and I would never want to spend my professional career in that one building. Some people went out tonight, but I took it easy and watched a movie I’d bought with Rebecca at Molina called Never Let Me Go. Oh, that reminds me. Rebecca and I tried to use up the rest of our places on the boleto turistico since today is the last day we can use it. After class we went to the Pachacutec Monument and it was startlingly disappointing. They were painting and entire levels were barren with nothing to learn about. The view wasn’t even that great! I’d hoped to learn a little about Pachacutec at the Pachacutec Monument…..but I can’t say that I did. Oh well!

I’m off to Iquitos tomorrow and I won’t be back until Tuesday or Wednesday.

xoxo,

Claire