Teaching Is In My Genes, So I Should Be Good At This...

After the usual morning of school and learning, we headed back to the Air Force school for our first day as actual teachers. Myself and three other students were assigned to Señora Alegre's class. Alegre means happy in Spanish, so she told us to call her Ms. Happy. My class was an upper level class with 14 and 15-year-olds. We were supposed to teach our class about crime, which I think is a pretty bleak topic. Instead, we decided to break up into groups and just practice English. My group was shy at first, but they warmed up to me and we had a great time. These kids are incredibly intelligent and it was so fun listening to them practice English. They all said they were nervous to speak to a native speaker, but they were awesome! I made them feel a little better by showing them my Spanish and letting them know they had nothing to be embarrassed about!

Some of the students in my group

I came back to Miraflores and skyped my family for the first time since arriving in Peru. (I was kind of obligated to since it was my sister's graduation and my brother's birthday) I took my first bag of laundry in too and went for my second run of the day. That sounds a little crazy, but I really can not get enough of the runs in this city. At night it's great running along the cliffs above the Pacific because you can see so many beautiful lights and light displays in the distance. Plus you can hear and smell the ocean which is always a bonus. Morning runs on the cliffs are great because it's so peaceful and the ocean is calmer. Plus it's dewy and calmer and just absolutely perfect. Tonight I went running with my friend Michaela and her host mom just got a puppy, so I got to play with the dog before the run. Seriously it was the cutest thing ever!!

Reflexiones Finales

• Peruvians are very short. The doors and ceilings are shorter in most places than in the United States. It's funny watching the tall guys in our program ducking under doorways.
• People don't put milk or creme in their coffee.
• The identity of the city is very unique as far as buildings go. My host father is an architect so he likes talking about this sort of stuff. In Lima, there are very modern buildings next to some classicly beautiful older buildings next to run down shacks. It's different than the United States or Europe or any where else I've ever been.
• I've figured out that the Peruvians have been able to preserve all of these historical sites because it never rains here. The Incan and Pre-incan ruins, the Nazca lines have all survived because there isn't any rain to wash them away or erode the buildings.