Different School, Same Deal

My Northeastern professor told us we didn't have to go to class this morning, so that was a relief. I slept in a little, and then went on a long run on the cliffs. I did about nine miles this morning, which was more than I've done in a while. But I just can't get enough of these runs, and I know my time here is limited. So obviously I have to run as much as I can before I have to say adios. After my run, I had breakfast with Anna (my host mom's daughter) and we compared our trips to Sweden. She just spent three months there while I was only in the country for five days, but hey, we both had a good time.

This afternoon, we went the Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón (UNIFE) where we will be spending the next two weeks. UNIFE is an all girls, private, Catholic university in the La Molina district of Lima. The school had a welcome ceremony for us with music and dancing and more information about the school. They also gave us presents (notebooks and pens) which was so sweet!

After the ceremony, we broke into groups. It was supposed to be one Northeastern student with three UNIFE students, which was a little bit overwhelming. So my group was four UNIFE students and two Northeasterners. We were told to speak half in Spanish, half in English. But my girls were nervous about English and I was ok with practicing more Spanish, so we only spoke in Spanish. All four of the students were studying to be translators. They have to learn English, French and Portuguese as part of their college curriculum. They also taught us some Peruvian slang that I had never heard before, but now I'm eager to use. They were incredibly sweet and so excited to talk to us. They gave us a school tour and opened up to us right away. They offered to show us some of the sites in Peru that we haven't seen yet. Although we don't have much free time left, so I don't know if it's going to happen. Originally, I was nervous about the UNIFE school because the kids were much older, but these girls were great and I can't wait to go back.

Otras Cosas

• In the United States, we always say English is so hard or English is such a difficult language to learn. But people in Peru have said otherwise. They all say that English is very easy to learn and Spanish is such a hard language to learn. I think that's like an ego-tistical culture thing that I didn't realize existed. Every culture likes to say that their own language is the most difficult to speak.
• The taxis in this city are very aggressive. In Boston or New York, it can be impossible to hail a cab. Here they pull over for you even when you don't want one. If you're walking down the street most cabs will stop or pull over for you even if you made no gesture implying you needed a ride.