natco two

Unfortunately, I was still down for the count come the second morning at the conference. I stayed in bed all day and drank a water/electrolyte mixture that tasted like the sea. But I'm not complaining, I felt better and better all day until my only problem was weakness and the tiniest bit of nausea if I moved around long. The others were absolute dears and made sure I had everything I needed. They slept in and then headed to breakfast in the Roman Warrior outfits we'd rented for the second party night (which they hadn't worn because they'd been too tired to change after the Gala dinner). They apparently got quite a reaction from the other sleepy AIESECers straggling into breakfast. Mostly "Whaaaaa..." When it was time to go back, we piled onto a bus to Lima. I'm pretty sure most of us conked out. The others hadn't gotten much sleep that weekend. 

The silver lining that I can take away from that experience is that I no longer have the urge to buy Sublime chocolate bars every time I pass a stand (which is like every twenty feet here) since it was the last thing I ate before I got sick. Sublime bars are a pretty sweet variety of chocolate bars with some nuts mixed in. They were actually one of the specific examples we used in one of our Saturday classes about knowing what's in the food you eat as a part of respecting your body and making yourself feel beautiful by your standards. 

natco

First night costumes

The beach in front of the pool

The weekend of the first through third was my first AIESEC conference abroad. All of the trainees piled onto a huge bus with the AIESECers from Pacifico and headed to el club de la Marina en Ancón, Perú (some sort of Marine family or training retreat I believe) for three days of AIESEC, AIESEC, AIESEC. We taught classes on Friday, but took that Saturday off so we could attend the conference. When we stepped off the bus that night, it was to the sound of shouting and chanting. Different LCs were hanging off of the balconies welcoming us as energetically as possible. That night, we watched every LC present their roll call. I might be biased, but CLPA definitely killed it. The trainees then presented our own (awesome) roll call. This apparently hasn't been done before in Perú conference history... so everyone was pretty impressed. We had choreographed it that afternoon, so it was a bit rough, but I think it went relatively well. We all knew the moves, even if we had to look to Alena fro timing. I'm pretty sure that even though it wasn't perfect, everyone loved that the trainees took the time to make up their own roll call.

The view of our hotel/resort from the lighthouse island

After the plenary, we searched in vain for food. It was around midnight and most of had only eaten an early lunch. Luckily Fio came to our rescue with a cardboard box of Inca Corn and Tampico. Mmmmm. Delicious *ahem*. But we barely had time to worry about it. That night, there was a themed party. And we hadn't come unprepared. The trainees all dressed up like pirates (we all had matching costumes that we rented in Chosica). We all had our share of struggling with understanding slang spanish over blaring music, but by then, my listening skills had sharpened a bit, so I made it through with minimal "Más despacio, por favor"'s. A patient AIESECer from Lima even taught me a little more salsa. 

Los trainees

After the party, we were beat. We all passed out on top of our sheets and tried to grab a couple hours of sleep. The next day was chock full of sessions. Although most of the trainees are decent with spanish, we learned very quickly that sitting listening to hours of spanish on end was extremely draining. So we spent part of the day roaming around. We were situated right on the beach, so Jose took a dip, then we walked across a board walk to the faro. The faro (lighthouse) was on a rock island with steps leading to the top. The view was beautiful, but the smell was awful. The island is home to a rather large bird population, and you can imagine why the island was almost unbearably smelly unless you were on top where the wind kindly took care of the odor. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. 

Gala dinner

That night was a gala dinner and another themed party. Everyone cleaned up and brought out the dinner jackets, ties, dresses, and heels. I must say, we didn't look too shabby. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too well, but I didn't want to miss the festivities, so we all headed down to dinner. It was held on the covered outcropping in which we always ate meals. This room was special because it was entirely windows except on the part that directly connected to the building. From there we had an unobstructed view of the beach and the ocean. I can tell you that the first course looked nice, but I wouldn't know after that because I apparently looked as bad as I felt, and it was deemed necessary that I take a little trip to the doctor. I can only guess it was a combination of the foods I ate that weekend. Whatever it was, it was not getting along well with my stomach. 

last week before work starts

Chri Blanco

Over the Río Rím

Before we started classes, however, we spent a week touring Chosica and planning for our two months of work. As far as I've been told, Chosica is settled in the shadow of the foothills of the Andes Mountains- which look more like actual mountains for someone who has lived in Flattsville, GA her whole life. We saw the Cristo Blanco, some beautiful mosaics, the central park, and walked through a mercado. We also crossed the Río Rímac, stopped for Inca Cola (the bubble gum tasting yellow soda), and generally got to know one another. Besides myself, two of the students here are from GT, so I knew them to some degree already, but this trip has proven to be quite the bonding experience. 

El Calle San Jose in Chosica

On the thursday of that week (24 de Mayo) all the trainees went to Lemmy's host family's house to hang out and jam. Lemmy and some of our Peruvian friends can play the guitar, I can play a few songs as well, Ben played piano, and Binita played the cajon. Here's a link to a video of us playing wonderwall (Yeah yeah yeah, original I know. It was an easy song for us all to pick up) if you'd like to witness the perfection of our voices and instruments. 

chosica

Meeting the teachers

 The 20th of May, we took a colectivo to Chosica, almost an hour outside of Lima. Our first stop was the school at which we'd be spending the rest of the summers working. San Carlos is a charming colegio that consists of a three story building with four or five classrooms on each floor, a one story building with a couple classrooms, a two story building with one classroom on each floor, and three offices. Outside, there are a playground and basketball court/concrete soccer field, both nestled amongst the buildings.

 Teachers and traines 

That night, we met our host families. I have two host sisters (one is three years old and the other attends the colegio at which I am teaching), a host grandmother and grandfather, a host mother, and various other family members that live kind of in our house. I say kind of because the house I'm living in is a really cool combination of buildings, rooms, and hallways. I think it was originally two houses. I have my own room on the first floor with adjoining bathroom. The other trainees live with other families in Chosica, and we have our HQ at Dante's (our boss) house. This is where we spend most of our time if we're not at the school.

Aleno y yo teaching at San Carlos

Monday through Friday, we have one to three classes a day, where we focus on teaching the children English. These classes are regular grade level classes that we divide into beginners, intermediate, and advanced, and teach in groups of two. We mix it up so all the trainees get a chance to teach with each other as well as a chance to teach each level of student. It's very different from beginners to advanced. The advanced students can usually carry on simple conversations in English, while most of the beginners need to hear a fair amount of spanish. Then, on Saturday, we teach four classes which have been mixed between the grades so they are divided into pre beginners, beginners, intermediate, and advanced. These, we teach as one group. These classes are focused more on taking care of yourself and your world, which is fundamental to our project (English Impact). There, we use more spanish than during the week because getting the message across is really important.

agua, carros, y tonos

Con Ale, the wonderful VPICX GDCP! 

Friday evening, the AIESECers (@ers) took us to a parque de agua in Lima. This park had a many different fountains shaped in cool designs lit up with lights (that may have been redundant). It was so beautiful. At the end, they had one huge fountain that had projections of samples of different traditional dances from Perú. You could see the ladies and gentlemen in their beautiful outfits twirling away in the jets of water.

At the race track

I spent the next day at a race track with Gaby and a bunch of kids from the Best Buddies program at Pacifico. We drove an indeterminate number of hours (probably two or three, but I spent a lot of it dozing) and ended up at some track in the middle of who knows where. I was confused for a long time because I thought we were going to watch a race, because, you know, we were at a race track and stuff. I found out about six hours later that we were just hanging around the track while they set up and practiced for the race that was the next day. Which explained why they were literally constructing part of the building we were in. While we were in it. It was a very relaxed atmosphere because the people in our group made up the only people that weren't constructoin workers, drivers, the teams of the drivers, or officials. We were able to go down and walk on the part of the track where the cars pull off to refuel. While we were down by the garages we looked at the cars and meet the drivers. One of the drivers we took a picture with is apparently very famous in Perú. I think he did some sort of advertising/modeling or something in addition to being a good driver. Racer. Conductor of the automobile. Not sure what they're called.

Welcome Party. There are lots of guys. 

That night brought the last trainee and the welcome party/birthday party for one of the AIESECers. Most of the trainees had their first ever salsa experiences, and of course, we learned a few roll calls. Btw, Latin American roll calls are so much faster and fancier than American ones.

first week

Under the plátano trees

The second thing I noticed was the driving. I have to hand it to Peruvians. They know how to drive. It may be fast and it may look completely insane and unsafe to an American, but I have not once seen a single wreck since I've been here. And in all honesty, a 3 cm margin is really all you need between cars, right?

View from the farm in Mala

The first week I spent in Perú, I stayed with Gaby, met the other AIESECers, saw Lima, and waited for the other trainees to get here. Gaby took me to Miraflores, Larcomar, and many other places around Lima. We saw the beach at sunset (how romantic haha) and I learned about taking taxies and micros (busses), which is how most people travel. Soon enough, Ben and Mathilde showed up and we had a few adventures. La madre de Renato was our personal tour guide around Lima, Mala (where she has a farm/fruit plantation/house), and everywhere in between. She even took us to to buy cute little cuyes (which she raises to eat). At her farm in Mala, we tried every fruit known to Peruvian mankind. We also tried a lot of traditional Peruvian dishes. They're all delicious. Rice, potatoes, and chicken are favorites here. And also fruit.

Ice cream at Larcomar con Gabyta

Forgot what it's called, but includes
macla (corn), shrimp, rice, potatoes,
eggs, and DELICIOUSNESS

After touring, we got down to business. The latter part of the week we attended talks about Perú, teaching others, and the project that we were about to start. These were held at Universidad Pacifico, where we were joined daily by a couple of other trainees and a lot of AIESECers. This week served to prepare us for the two months we'd be teaching. 

arriving in lima

W'll pick back up on that Saturday (May 12th).  I was on a plane heading to South America for the first time. Until then, I'd only been to Canada a couple times, Mexico, and the Bahamas, so going to another continent was really exciting. I love flying. It feeds that global-minded, travel-loving side of me that yearns to be in far away places immersing in other cultures. I landed in Lima after a sixish hour flight and found my 'buddy' and her mother waiting for me.

This seems like a good place to explain what a buddy is and how I came to have one. The proyecto that I'm working on this summer is called English Impact. The five other trainees and I were sourced for English Impact through an organization called AIESEC that I joined at the beginning of my freshman year at Tech. It's a fantastic organization that helps students develop into globally minded individuals with the confidence, experience, and skills set to make a difference in our world. A lot of this growth is realized through conferences and internships abroad. That's what I'm doing, and AIESEC is facilitating the exchange.

Welcoming flyer for the trainees made by AIESEC Pacifico

So that's how I got here. I basically told Daniel (my VP OGX at @GT) that I wanted to go abroad to work on my spanish and learn about another culture, and here I am! Our AIESEC partner in Lima, AIESEC Pacifico, has done an incredible job of welcoming and working with the trainees from Georgia, Indiana, and France (via Canada). We were each assigned a buddy to stay with while we were living in Lima, and a host family to live with in Chosica, where we would be spending most of our time.

My host sister from Lima, Gaby, and her mom met me at the airport and took me to their home. My first impression of Perú was the airport parking lot. More specifically the billboards. Most specifically, their huge size.