La Palma de Palma

Today we spent our afternoon at La Casa de Ricardo Palma. He was an important figure in Peruvian history as a writer, librarian, journalist and politician. He was exiled to Chile during the Pacific War which made things difficult as all of his books were destroyed, but after the war he came back to Lima and created the National Library of Peru.

During his life, he also wrote a number of novels, poems, history texts and other things. In his house, there is an x-ray of his palm because he wrote so much and people thought the only way it was possible was if he had an extraordinary hand. (He didn't)

Other fun facts. Palma was married to Christina Román, and they had three kids, two of which went on to become prominent writers. He died in 1919 at the age of 86. And there is a ceramic statue of his dead face on display in his house.

Some of the volumes Palma published

Palma's "creative room"

Tambien...

Today was also the first day of classes for all of us. I am taking a Spanish language class and a Peruvian history and culture class. Both were interesting and both went by pretty fast. We reviewed the present subjunctive verb form which I really needed. And then in the history class we learned about the pre-historic civilizations of South America like Caral, Chavin, the Paracas and more.

Otras Notas

• My host family is amazing and my mom is an incredible chef. (She studied at Le Cordon Bleu)
• The people in Peru are incredibly friendly, more so than I could've imagined.
• My favorite thing so far has been long runs along the cliffs that overlook the Pacific Ocean.