Hey everyone! I´ll give a short update today because its a bit late and I´m going to get to bed.
Today was the first day of school at la universidad de la lengua española. We arrived via taxi after breakfast at 7:45am and we got oriented and sorted into our classes. I started off with a class on Andean Culture and I will continue to take this class for two weeks from 8:30 to 12:40. I am in this class with 9 other Rutgers students and six students from other places (Marquette x3, USouthCarolina x1, Tennessee x1, New Mexico x1) and we seem do be doing pretty well. The Marquette students seem a bit elitist as they are here on spanish honors society scholarships and they seem to think they are much better than all of us and think they can talk during class in english under the teacher´s lecture. I have heard, however, that this particular professor takes note of that and it will be reflected in their grades.
Our professor´s name is Erwin and he is very good at what he does. He is young (between 22 and 25), Andean by race, and very happy to share what he knows in a way that is great and includes everyone in a way that is very good and promotes group learning for everyone. We will be watching some movies aside from the lectures and we will even get to take some walking trips to museums around the area.
After school we went to a little restaurant where they offered a menú diario or daily menu where we were able to get some potato soup, a choice out of five plates with meat, rice, and beans on each, and some tea for 3 soles 50 which is about $1.15 US for each meal. Melody and I then got to walk some streets to look for some artesanías or local handcrafts for a few hours until we made it back to the hostel. I ended up with a nice reversible "peru hat" which is a wool beanie with ear flaps for 6 soles ($2) and Melody got a green necklace with matching earrings for 12 soles.
When we got back me, four guys, and one girl got outdoors and played soccer for the second time (fútbol here) on the field here at the hostel and we had a great time. The air is still a bit hard to take in when you are doing anything active and we get pretty tired faster (we take turns with the goalie and those running out) but we are getting a bit better.
Finally, we went out, ate at a vegetarian restaurant with the same type of prices and menu as we had at the restaurant after school. After that we meandered down to the grocery store and I picked up some produce at ridiculously cheap prices (15 cents for a cucumber, 40 cents for four apples, 13 cents for two tomatoes) to make sandwiches for a snack at the school.
Ok, thanks for reading everyone, I´ll get some more pics up tomorrow of the school and the area. ¡Ciao!
I am so glad you are having a good time. I like reading your blog. We will be n Cuzco between August 3 and 6.
ReplyDeleteKeep blogging,
L.