School and Such

I have never had less of an idea about what is going on around me than the past two weeks of my life, but things are beginning to smooth out and fall into place. School has been a complete blur of me trying to comprehend classes like Advanced Physics 2... in SPANISH. dios mio.

However, starting monday I will be helping out in the pre-school and kindergarten classes with teaching english during the classes where I don't even have a remote idea of what's going on. San Jorge (my school) is grades k-12 all in one building, so I get to see the younger kids alot. They are so cute in their uniforms with little rolling Barbie and Ninja Turtle backpacks. I am so excited!

San Jorge is a British school, so it is set up a bit like... Hogwarts. Minus the castle and mail by owl. But there are 4 houses, prefects, head boys and girls, demerits and all that good stuff. The actual school building is intiresting because there is a center basketball court and all of the classrooms are built around it, forming a wall. After 8 when school starts the gates get locked and nobody can go in or out except through the front desk area - making it impossible for anyone to cut class. Oh! the most different thing from Ashland High School is that there are guards who stand around San Jorge in uniform with multiple guns and bats with metal spikes strapped to their belt. That was a bit intimidating on my first day.

On friday my class went on a field trip to a club in La Molina and we spent the day playing volleyball, swimming in a gorgeous pool and sun tanning. My kind of field trip :) Definitely beats the fourth time in one year of walking to Science Works or North Mountain Park...

I have been anticipating that I would begin to get really homesick by now, but to be honest I haven't even cried once since I arrived in Lima. But I do miss my family and friends in the states very much. I would give anything to be able to bring you all to Lima and show all of you how wonderful it is! But for now emails and blogs will have to do.

Finally...

I am blogging again! Now that I actually have to get up in the morning and do more than lie on the beach, my motivation has been lacking. However, right now I am sitting in a computer class that is very boring - especially because I don't have even a remote idea about what is going on (as usual).

School is not exactly what I had hope it would be so far. I am attending a bilingual school but I have come to find that this doesn't necessarily mean anything. Two of my twelve teachers speak english and so all of my classes are in Spanish. In addition, students in Peru have a much more rigorous educational path, so even if my classes were in English, I would still be sitting in the back trying to put on a facial expression that looks like I am not completely lost.

Life in general, though, has been great. I went to Argentina to visit Chad last week which was so much fun! There is so much to tell, so i will try and sum it up... I spent one day in Buenos Aires with Chad's parents and we took a tour around the city before leaving for Cincos Saltos (a small town about the size of Ashland, in central Argentina). I spent the week re-connecting with Chad and his parents, and meeting his 3 host families and many friends. It was great to get to see what his life is like, because it has seemed so far away for so long.

The first night I went to a Quinceañera. It started around 10 at night and didnt end until 4 in morning. Then Chad, his host siblings, friends and I went to a small club called Missa until 8 in the morning. People in Argentina seem to regard sleep as a plus, not a necessity. But it was really fun to go out dancing for the entire night :) Other things that we did included going to the lake, making pizza and empanadas, walking to the ice cream store a couple of times, eating lots of dulce de leche (I am in love) and drinking lots of Mate.

My last day in Cincos Saltos was hard because I was so happy to have spent a week with Chad, but also really sad to leave again. I couldn't feel down for too long though because my last night Chad's host mothers threw a going away party for Dave, Marge and I. They gave us various different Argentinian gifts, one of which was a flag with notes that everyone had written to me. we also had a bubble fight with spray espuma as the grand finale to the night.

Argentina was wonderful and I would love to go back to see Chad's families, more of the country, and of course to eat Dulce de leche again...