Wow, I have been in Peru for four months. It seems like so much longer, but I am enjoying my time down here. My family is amazing and they love when I make cookies or cakes for them from the US. Sometimes they do not turn out perfectly because of the ingredients, but they are usually great. After four months, I can basically say that I can speak Spanish. I have grammar errors like any person learning a language, but I am speeding up my talking, and I am broadening my vocabulary every day. English class believe it or not, is the best class for me to learn, because while they are learning words in English, and I am sitting there bored, I can actually write down the spanish translations of the words they are learning and I do not know. This really helps to increase your vocabulary. I can take a taxi and a combis by myself and am able to tell them where to go and where I am getting off at. I am able to buy things at the stores, and baking without measuring cups is really helping me to increase my visual measuring skills. Also, because the oven we have is a gas oven and the temperature is really weird, I am able to tell when things are done by smell and look.
School is going really well for the most part. I think I have A's and B's in all my classes. I have A's in all the math and science classes, am getting A's and B's in my lenguage and literature classes. Trigonometry, which was my hardest class to begin with, is now my second favorite behind gym, and I am doing really well in it. Schoolwork is slowing down, but finals and final projects are coming crashing in. I now have two folders due in different classes and the one in Language is 30 pages minimum. The Fouth Semester's exams are this coming week and the final two placement exams will be in the next two weeks. The teachers are now correcting our notebooks and organizers, so I am rushing to fill in any missing gaps that I do not have completed. I am going to be really relieved when I finish school on the 21st.
This past week there was not a lot of stuff that I did different then other weeks. I basically did homework and relaxed after school every day. On Wednesday we had a author come in a talk about one of his books and then he offered the book to us at a discounted price with his signature. So I bought a book called "Zhamir Landre y Los Secretos de Los Lineas de Nasca". Zhamir Landre is a name, and secretos is a cognate for secrets. Los Lineas de Nasca are the Lines of Nasca or Geoglyphos. They are ancient lines in the ground that are really big, so you can not tell what they are without being in a plane or something. This book with his signature was 20 soles or around $7.50 in US money. The book is not too difficult to read, and it is only 200 pages, so I am excited to read it.
At the end of the school day on Friday, Claudi and I took home the clothing and food that kids had brought in for us to take to the poor kids in another town. There was over 20 kilos of clothing, and that is only from the first week. Kids are going to be bringing items this week, also. I was really grateful for their kindness to help us.
On Thursday, after school, we stopped to pick up stickers for Kristhel's album. Kristhel has this album for Monster High, a TV cartoon. There are about 220 spaces for stickers, and each pack comes with 5. The only problem is that you get a lot of stickers that repeat, so we found this one guy that sells individual stuckers, and so we go to him with the list of the ones we need and we buy them for 10 centimos each. It seems like a kiddie thing, but it is kind of fun to try and collect them all, so Lucía and I do that every once and while after school. We have a little over half of them right now.
Also, on Thursday, I made homemade peanut butter, which cost about 4 soles plus labor. First you have to roast the peanuts a bit to be able to peal off the thin brown papery shell. This is the hardest job. Then you roast the peanuts some more until they are a nice brown color, and then you can put them in a blender with a tiny bit of oil and after about 5 to ten minutes depending on how much you are making you have peanut butter that tastes the same and costs way less then the 22 soles jar at the supermarket. I used this peanut butter to make Peanut Butter Cookies on Friday which turned out great. Another ingredient that they do not have here in Peru is light or dark brown sugar. To make this, I had to find molasses which I guess they call Agarrobino (I think that is how you spell it). It might not be molasses, but it tastes the same. So if you mix a small amount of that with white sugar, you get light brown sugar (more molasses, dark brown sugar). So these cookies were truly homemade, the eggs were even from the chicken we have in our garage. The only thing I did not make is the butter, white sugar or flour.
This morning, after waking up late and taking a shower, Lucía, Mamá, y Papá left for Lima. I was invited to go, but studies took precidence, and I could not leave. Instead, I stayed at the house with Angela y Kristhel. We went to the zoo, which was really sketchy, but it was nice to see a Jaguar. However, it was really sad in some of the exhibits. The size of the cages for the animals is more or less fine, but the environment is not the greatest. In one of the fox cages, there was one fox and all that was in the cage was a little house to sleep in, and bowl for food and water, and a a big rock to climb on. Also, in one cage, there was some Monkeys, and one of the monkeys threw rocks at me. Wow, did that scare me. It just lept from one side of the cage and landed on the fence in front of me and chucked a handful of rocks at my chest. I do not think I want to go back to the zoo, but it was nice to spend a day with Angela and Kris.
One thing I have noticed is that Kris loves sweets like any other 4 year old, but Angela lets her have them. We brought jello and cookies along to the zoo, and before we even entered the zoo, Kris wanted ice cream, so Angela bought her an ice cream bar, and then we entered the zoo. While walking through the zoo, Kris ate two jellos and a cookie, and then when we left the zoo, Kris wanted another ice cream, so Angela bought her another ice cream bar, and then in the combis on the way home, Kris ate another cookie. Then after she ate a little bit of soup and a fried egg and left the rice and vegetables, she ate another cookie. I am not her dad, but it really annoys me that Angela lets her do this.
Peruvian life is I guess a bit more dangerous than ours, because Lucía, Angela, nor Charleys have ever had a friend over when they were growing up. Mamá said it was because she does not know how the kids are, and she does not want to risk the safety of anyone in the house. I think this is really weird because I do not know how she has not known any of the friends of her kids well enough to have them at her house, but it is fine I guess.
School is going really well for the most part. I think I have A's and B's in all my classes. I have A's in all the math and science classes, am getting A's and B's in my lenguage and literature classes. Trigonometry, which was my hardest class to begin with, is now my second favorite behind gym, and I am doing really well in it. Schoolwork is slowing down, but finals and final projects are coming crashing in. I now have two folders due in different classes and the one in Language is 30 pages minimum. The Fouth Semester's exams are this coming week and the final two placement exams will be in the next two weeks. The teachers are now correcting our notebooks and organizers, so I am rushing to fill in any missing gaps that I do not have completed. I am going to be really relieved when I finish school on the 21st.
This past week there was not a lot of stuff that I did different then other weeks. I basically did homework and relaxed after school every day. On Wednesday we had a author come in a talk about one of his books and then he offered the book to us at a discounted price with his signature. So I bought a book called "Zhamir Landre y Los Secretos de Los Lineas de Nasca". Zhamir Landre is a name, and secretos is a cognate for secrets. Los Lineas de Nasca are the Lines of Nasca or Geoglyphos. They are ancient lines in the ground that are really big, so you can not tell what they are without being in a plane or something. This book with his signature was 20 soles or around $7.50 in US money. The book is not too difficult to read, and it is only 200 pages, so I am excited to read it.
At the end of the school day on Friday, Claudi and I took home the clothing and food that kids had brought in for us to take to the poor kids in another town. There was over 20 kilos of clothing, and that is only from the first week. Kids are going to be bringing items this week, also. I was really grateful for their kindness to help us.
On Thursday, after school, we stopped to pick up stickers for Kristhel's album. Kristhel has this album for Monster High, a TV cartoon. There are about 220 spaces for stickers, and each pack comes with 5. The only problem is that you get a lot of stickers that repeat, so we found this one guy that sells individual stuckers, and so we go to him with the list of the ones we need and we buy them for 10 centimos each. It seems like a kiddie thing, but it is kind of fun to try and collect them all, so Lucía and I do that every once and while after school. We have a little over half of them right now.
Also, on Thursday, I made homemade peanut butter, which cost about 4 soles plus labor. First you have to roast the peanuts a bit to be able to peal off the thin brown papery shell. This is the hardest job. Then you roast the peanuts some more until they are a nice brown color, and then you can put them in a blender with a tiny bit of oil and after about 5 to ten minutes depending on how much you are making you have peanut butter that tastes the same and costs way less then the 22 soles jar at the supermarket. I used this peanut butter to make Peanut Butter Cookies on Friday which turned out great. Another ingredient that they do not have here in Peru is light or dark brown sugar. To make this, I had to find molasses which I guess they call Agarrobino (I think that is how you spell it). It might not be molasses, but it tastes the same. So if you mix a small amount of that with white sugar, you get light brown sugar (more molasses, dark brown sugar). So these cookies were truly homemade, the eggs were even from the chicken we have in our garage. The only thing I did not make is the butter, white sugar or flour.
This morning, after waking up late and taking a shower, Lucía, Mamá, y Papá left for Lima. I was invited to go, but studies took precidence, and I could not leave. Instead, I stayed at the house with Angela y Kristhel. We went to the zoo, which was really sketchy, but it was nice to see a Jaguar. However, it was really sad in some of the exhibits. The size of the cages for the animals is more or less fine, but the environment is not the greatest. In one of the fox cages, there was one fox and all that was in the cage was a little house to sleep in, and bowl for food and water, and a a big rock to climb on. Also, in one cage, there was some Monkeys, and one of the monkeys threw rocks at me. Wow, did that scare me. It just lept from one side of the cage and landed on the fence in front of me and chucked a handful of rocks at my chest. I do not think I want to go back to the zoo, but it was nice to spend a day with Angela and Kris.
One thing I have noticed is that Kris loves sweets like any other 4 year old, but Angela lets her have them. We brought jello and cookies along to the zoo, and before we even entered the zoo, Kris wanted ice cream, so Angela bought her an ice cream bar, and then we entered the zoo. While walking through the zoo, Kris ate two jellos and a cookie, and then when we left the zoo, Kris wanted another ice cream, so Angela bought her another ice cream bar, and then in the combis on the way home, Kris ate another cookie. Then after she ate a little bit of soup and a fried egg and left the rice and vegetables, she ate another cookie. I am not her dad, but it really annoys me that Angela lets her do this.
Peruvian life is I guess a bit more dangerous than ours, because Lucía, Angela, nor Charleys have ever had a friend over when they were growing up. Mamá said it was because she does not know how the kids are, and she does not want to risk the safety of anyone in the house. I think this is really weird because I do not know how she has not known any of the friends of her kids well enough to have them at her house, but it is fine I guess.
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