A Little Relaxed

Hello everyone!

So as of the last post not too many different things have occurred but I will entertain you anyways. As reported, I have been teaching at an institute close to my home in Miraflores. So far I have about 18 hours a week teaching adults and I am really enjoying it! My students are incredibly enthusiastic and excited about learning, which makes my job much easier. I spent most of my days during the week running home between classes and preparing. The first week I found fairly overwhelming as I didn't feel I had any idea what I was doing. That Monday I had a teacher's meeting with three other teachers at Langrow Institute where I found out that they had all gone through weeks of training before being allowed to pick up only five hours a week until passing a review. On one hand, I was flattered that Langrow was impressed with me enough to make me a teacher without training. On the other hand, I really would have appreciated knowing what the heck I was doing. I still have trouble with the administration part of the classes, such as timesheets and canceling classes, but I'm slowly figuring that out with time. The actual teaching part of my job is fantastic; I have never felt so respected as an intellectual in a working position before. People really listen to me here and are appreciative of the language and where I come from. I wish the hours were a little different (i.e. I do not always enjoy waking up at 6am for a class at 7am) but I love the flexibility. Eighteen hours a week is also enough to pay my bills as well as have a little spending money on the side which is an extra bonus. I enjoy my Speaking and Listening class during Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings the most, as it is a class of about 7 people who just love to chat and gives me a chance to hear English in a casual situation. Also, they all enjoy talking, meaning less preparation on my end :)

This past weekend (July 17th-19th) was fairly lazy. I went out to lunch with Lucia on Friday to San Antonio, a great little place with amazing salads. I dropped off the laundry to be picked up later that day and while I waited for it I walked around the city for almost three hours just discovering parts I had not seen before. There are some amazing bars and clubs walking distance from our house, one of which is a wine bar that we are planning on going to tonight. I haven't been feeling too great lately having a bit of a cough and stuffed nose from the change in the humidity that I am not used to, so I did not teach my Friday night class that day. Unfortunately, the secretaries at Langrow do not speak excellent English so I had Pedro call them for me to let them know I headed to the clinic. People are absolutely terrified of swine flu here, with good reason, so when Pedro told them I was tested for swine flu and was told I was negative, all they heard was the word "swine flu." That single conversation created quite the legend at Langrow over the weekend. When I headed into work on Monday, they had already replaced my morning classes with alternate teachers and everyone who saw me was gasping and covering their mouths while they scurried away. After quite a long meeting with some of the staff it was finally understood that no, I do not have swine flu and yes, I am okay to work. You should have seen me trying to explain to the administrative staff in choppy Spanish mixed with English that I am not possessed with "el gripe de cerdo" and can work that day.

Saturday morning I headed to spinning class and met up with the nutritionalist at the gym to work out my personal training and nutrition schedule they offer as a part of my membership package. Afterwards, I headed home and proceeded to watch as many Harry Potters movies as I could before 11pm that nigth when Pedro and I planned on going to the late show. We made popcorn the old fashioned way, with oil at the bottom of the pan, putting the kernels in and watching them explode over the kitchen until we found the lid. Our fridge is broken, and continues to be broken, so most of the weekend we ate at restaurants. Chifa, or Chinese food, is cheap and good here and arroz chifa, or fried rice, is now a Peruvian staple. We ate Chinese food for dinner and walked around the city and through the parks until about 9:30pm. Parque Kennedy always has interesting shows or art sales going on at all hours of the day, with Saturday being no exception. After arriving home, we passed out before ever making it to the movie at 11pm.

When we woke up super early the next morning and realized we missed the movie, we ran to Jockey Plaza, one of the malls, and caught the 11:30am show. Meh, wasn't missing too much if we didn't see it. We also dropped off my ipod touch at the istore, which wouldn't turn on after a water bottle spilled in my purse on it, before heading to his Uncle Raul and Aunt Lucia's house for an amazing lunch. Their cook is ridiculously good: they sent her to culinary school to learn their favourites so I don't understand how they aren't huge by now. Dessert? Brownies with ice cream, I was in heaven. After lunch, which was really around dinnertime, we headed back to the mall to pick up my ipod and go home. Somehow they were able to turn it on and it worked, but when we brought it home it refused to charge so since then Pedro has brought it back to the store and they have shipped it off to be fixed. It is still under warranty so I am crossing my fingers for a new one! Brand new Ipod Touch 32g... come on, don't fix it!

Since the weekend I have been pretty relaxed. Almost all of my teaching shifts are cancelled for the next two weeks because of Fiestas Patrias, or the Peruvian Independence Holidays, next week on Monday and Tuesday, the 27th and 28th respectively. It is traditional for people to travel for these holidays and so no one is around for me to teach. We are also travelling this weekend to a place called Huayllay (Why-eye), a little mining town five hours drive from Lima. It is renouned for its 'rock forests', natural rock formations covering miles, and impeccable hiking and rock climbing. There is a big group of us going: me, Pedro, Lucia and a friend, Raul and a couple of friends and Roberto, Pedro's best friend from highschool. I'm pretty excited! We are staying in a mine; how amazing is that?!

I will update when I return. I hope you all are doing well. Sending my love from South America!