Final Weekend in Lima

   Saturday marked our last full day in Lima, and unfortunately I was a little behind on the reading and had to spend half of the day catching up. Afterwards though, a couple friends and I went to one of the most amazing sushi places I have ever been to in Larcomar, the mall on the cliffs in Miraflores. Afterwards, I had a lot of packing to do before our final dinner at Rosa Nautical. It is a restaurant 50 yards out on a dock in the ocean, and served gourmet Pisco Sour, appetizers, cheese stuffed chicken with pasta, and a Peruvian dessert.

   Our time there was enhanced when Monica, our teacher, recognized one of the other people at the restaurant as ex-Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo. He gave a not-so-brief speech on the importance of traveling and visiting the world. And I quote, "the problem with America back when I was president was that the minister of foreign relations never had an f---ing passport." He did congratulate us on getting out there and seeing other cultures. In addition he had some serious words to say about Trump. He is the first ever president of Peru from Andean decent, but he has three citizenships, and studied at Harvard and Stanford. This is a common theme for all the presidents of Peru: Princeton, Harvard and Columbia are just some of the schools the last three have attended. Still not quite sure if I got a good or bad impression of him, but it was cool of him to agree to talk to us. Finally we ended our last night in Lima by going out one last time.

   Its funny to phrase it this way, but in the month that we've been in Peru, Friday was the first truly "free" day. No classes, no activities, no group dinner, nothing. That meant that we visited Barranco the night before, a small district adjacent to Miraflores that is known for nightlife. We had a fun time dancing and socializing with Peruvians and other exchange students our own age. Through classes at "EL Sol," or because of rooming situations, we have met a bunch of other non-Northeastern students as well. For me, the best part of the trip has been meeting all the other laid back, adventurous people. For breakfast, I met up with two friends and had crepes and waffles before walking to the school to meet our teacher, Romeo.
   From there we headed outside the city to a small mountain (more like a hill in comparison to the Andes) called "Lomas de Lucumo." We took a two to three hour hike that was filled with switchbacks and inclines. It was the first time we were nowhere near a road and the silence was amazing. The only downside was that the misty fog that hangs over Lima all the time obstructed our view from the top of the hill. Regardless, we had a good time and were all exhausted by the time we returned to the city. Talking to our teacher was fun too, because outside the classroom, we found that he understands about the same amount of English as we do Spanish. Therefore, he would say something to us in Spanish, we would respond in English, followed by him responding in English and us ending in Spanish. While confusing sounding, it was a very easy way to communicate when you both only understand 75% of the others language. Today was also the last dinner I had with my host family because a group dinner is part of the itinerary for tomorrow.

Final Week in Lima

   Thursday marked our final day at "El Sol" and we cut class a little short to have a goodbye ceremony. In addition, we received gray hooded sweatshirts with the "El Sol" logo. I really enjoyed the school, as it was not about what grade you got on a test or how much homework you had but focused solely on teaching the Spanish language. In high school, with a little knowledge, it was easy to fib a written Spanish test without truly understanding the content, but here there is none of that. Its all about what you want to get out of it, and my speaking and listening is much improved thanks to "El Sol." The teachers were also amazing and a couple of us made plans to go on a hike with one of them on Friday.
   Afterwards we boarded the bus one final time to make our way to UNIFE. The trip there normally takes 20 minutes or so but because of the traffic problem in Lima, it takes an hour or more to get back. Once we arrived there was a lecture on Latin influence on the Spanish language. While Latin is really dry the professor did a decent job of comparing Latin to Spanish and then to English to keep us engaged. Afterwards we finished up our Peruvian history presentations before participating in a ceremony commemorating our final day at UNIFE. There was a couple short speeches from both schools followed by a dance lesson of "Soulja boy" an american dance. Finally a girl from UNIFE sang a couple of songs and had everyone up and dancing with her. It was a great way to end the two weeks we spent there.

   Wednesday was another day at "El Sol" taking Spanish classes in grammar and conversation, as well as culture. Directly afterwards we took a bus to UNIFE. I made a short presentation on tailgating that was then translated into Spanish by two students. There were also presentations about gymnastics, soccer and rock climbing. In addition, we listened to a lecture about architecture from one of the professors at UNIFE. While interesting, the architecture in Peru is pretty much just churches and all are no more than a few stories tall because of the earthquakes. Finally, there were more Spanish presentations of Peruvian history by the Northeastern students, thankfully I could sit back and watch having already finished mine yesterday.

   Tuesday brought us one step closer to the end of the academic portion of the trip. Classes at "El Sol" were followed by another trip to UNIFE. Today involved a current events presentation, that focused mainly on the election, which by the way, the winner was finally officially announced after two days of slight uncertainty. PPK, the economist/gringo won by a very slim percentage. Afterwards there was a lecture on Peruvian foods, which included some sampling at the end. The influences on the food here are from India, China, Japan, Spain, Italian and the indigenous people. There are also large differences in the food when Peru's three major regions, the coast, the mountains, and the jungle are compared. Varying crops, influences, and levels of spiciness separate the regions. Finally, we ended the day with Northeastern presentations about Peruvian history, to be translated by the UNIFE students. I was up today and made my presentation of the emergence of the Creole conscious pretty smoothly. The main idea of the presentation was how being treated as second class citizens and having their country used purely to supply Spain ultimately led to thoughts of independence, not all too different from the American colonists mentality.

   Our final week in Lima began on Monday, and we started up class at "El Sol" for one last Monday. Afterwards we headed to UNIFE to begin our final week there as well. After an hour of conversation on the lawn, we headed in for the second to last history class, where we talked about the many presidents of the country and how power shifted from San Martin, to Bolivar, to the establishment of a true democracy. Finally we ended with presentations from the Northeastern students in Spanish, to the translation students of UNIFE about a section of history from the novel we have been reading "Lima, A Cultural History" by James Higgins. I will be presenting tomorrow on the emergence of the Creole conscious in colonial Peru.

Weekend 3

   Sunday was election day for the Peruvians, and voting in Peru is mandatory. Also, they know who the winner is by 4 o'clock, which gives them a narrow window to get out and vote. The two candidates are Keiko Fujimori and PPK (PedroPablo Kcynsky), and while I only know Peruvian politics through word of mouth from teachers at school or my host family it seems that I would vote PPK. Keiko is the daughter of now imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori and she has been accused of trying to buy votes from the poor community with the embezzled money that her father is currently in jail for. Her last name still holds good standing with a lot of Peruvians due to her fathers hand in ending the crippling terrorism here in the 80's/90's. PPK has been labeled as a gringo (he is the son of Polish immigrants and spent a lot of time in America as a World Bank economist) and plans to sells oil rights to foreign businesses to try and reap profit through taxes. Thats my best analysis anyways. PPK ended up winning by 0.5%, which I would assume calls for a recount, but we will see.
   While the Peruvians were hitting the polls, we were headed to Lunahuana for some river rafting and other activities. The rafting was fun, and reminded me much of the river in western Mass we went on at Camp Fuller. Afterwards was a quick ATV ride and then lunch. I had fried trout that was presumably caught in the river. The sun was beating down hard, and it is tough to think about this as Peruvian winter. We had a quick walking tour through the town, we couldn't visit the church because it was their polling center, and finally had a wine tasting at a vineyard. Before heading back to Lima we stopped at a rope bridge with a picturesque view of the river and mountains and sampled some locally made honey. Its crazy to think this is the end of week three, time has been going pretty fast and we are about to begin our last week here in Lima.