Tuesday was more classes at El Sol. Following we headed back to UNIFE to take a class in Peruvian literature. Poems in English are hard enough to figure out, so one can only imagine how our interpretations of Spanish poems were pretty far off the mark. After the class we visited the museum of gold and weapons. The museum included the sword of Francisco Pizarro, the first conquistador in Peru. In addition there was rooms and rooms full of Incan and pre-Incan gold. Everything from lip piercings, to cups, to large headdresses covered the walls. Afterwards, a bunch of us climbed at an outdoor rock gym nearby Miraflores. One of my teachers showed us an amazing video about a group of famous Peruvians traveling to Peru, Nebraska to share their culture. Everything in the video is similar to what we have been trying/experiencing, from the hairless peruvian dogs to the bubblegum tasting soda, Inca Cola. The video is 15 minutes long but worth the watch, as it is filled with "cultura de peruanos."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL9gsVy9gfU

   Monday started week 3 at "la Escuela del Sol." This included a change up of teachers. We now have a man named Romeo teaching our grammar class. Quite the change as he is the first guy I've had teach Spanish. It is good because I have become better at understanding women than men in Spanish due to the lopsided amount of time spent talking in Spanish to my previous teachers. After classes we headed over to UNIFE, an all-girls private university in Lima, Peru. There was an opening ceremony and some guest speakers from both UNIFE and Northeastern. We talked with the students studying translation for a little while, in both English and Spanish. Finally there was a performance of traditional dances in the courtyard. Over the next two weeks we will be working with the translation students in both languages to mutually improve our language skills. A coupe of us finished the day off at a local crepe shop near the school.

Weekend 2

   Sunday was a short trip to the Callao, the port of Lima. It is also the first district we visited, as the airport is located there as well. The visit included a tour of the naval museum and a Peruvian submarine. The Peruvians can label on a map, the amount of battles they've fought in over the years. All of them are in or very close to Peruvian borders and makes you wonder how America got so involved in other countries. Following the museum we took a tour of an old military fort. It reminded me a lot of Fort Adams in RI. The lavanderias here are not open on Sunday, and I am in desperate need of my clothes I dropped off a couple of days ago. Hopefully pick up will occur sometime tomorrow.

   5 am wake up call started our day trip to Caral, the second oldest civilization in the world (After Mesopotamia, and before the Egyptians). The ruins were four hours away, so I was able to catch up on some sleep. After a brief hike, we arrived at the archaeological site. It is located in a valley in the middle of a bunch of mountains which provided sanctuary. Still except for the one river flowing through the valley it was a dry desert. The ruins were either crumpling or restored, but that could only be expected for 5 thousand year old buildings. Following lunch there was of course, the long ride back. At midnight we went to a show/club that involved local Peruvian dancers and singers, as well as regular club dancing. They would do an hour of the show, followed by a free hour and then bring back the show. It was quite the experience and our group provided plenty audience participation. We are often called "gringos" here, but its not a negative as it can be in other countries.

   Friday was classes per usual, followed by a free afternoon. Some friends and I spent it visiting local shops and having an amazing lunch at the sandwich place "La Lucha." Afterwards we took a quick dip in the ocean, which was warm despite the warnings from our host families that it was too cold to swim in. A couple of us ate dinner out with another kids host father, who had lived in Miami for bunch of years and spoke really good English. It was interesting talking to him (we all started in Spanish and quickly switched to English), while conversation is much easier, there is more learning with my family who speaks none. We called it an early night on account of the early hour we had to wake up the next morning.

Our Week at the Peruvian Air Force School ("FAP")

   Thursday was our last day at the Air Force School in Lima (after the normal classes at El Sol), and we were sad to leave. Today a group of five of us talked about food and dance in America. For food it was tough to pick stuff that was truly American other than hamburgers, hot dogs, and mac and cheese. The same can be said for traditional dances, but we had the whole class do the hokey pokey, which was fun for all. The kids were only 11 or so and gave a presentation about food and dance in their country. This included samples of the food, and of course plenty of pictures before we left. We had our final history class at "FAP" as well, which included the past couple decades. There was a serious terrorist problem in Peru in the 80's and the country has made an incredible turnaround and currently has the most improving economy in South America. Our time their was wrapped up with a short ceremony where both sides expressed their thanks to one another for the opportunities given.

   Wednesday was made special by the soccer games played at the Air Force school. We started out at El Sol, per usual, but instead of going to a classroom to have conversations with the students, we visited an elementary school phys. ed. class and played with the kids. Afterwards, there was our history class followed by games of soccer with some of the older students. The boys ran circles around our team but it was a good time all around. There was much cheering for both sides from the sidelines that gave the game energy and made it special.