Just Your Casual Tuesday. Oh and There Was an Earthquake

Today, I had class at El Sol for the first time since Thursday. I'll be honest, it was a little difficult to sit through the lessons. And my history class was kind of brutal. But I am here to learn, so I did my best to focus and pay attention.

After school, we headed back to the UNIFE. We got in groups and played pictionary for a little bit. It was English and Spanish pictionary which was great for all of us to learn. Plus it was a great ice breaker for some of the girls to warm up to us. Pictionary was followed by a movie. It was about a comedian/motivational speaker in Peru. The parts I could understand were pretty funny. There were other funny parts too that I didn't understand, but I just laughed when the Peruvians laughed. At one point, I dozed off accidentally. But I was abruptly awoken by some shaking and screaming. There was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Peru. And I definitely felt it. I've never been in an earthquake before and it was a little scary. I think I was more scared by the reactions of the students who got up and ran out of the room screaming. All us Northeasterners casually sat there and watched the commotion. It was definitely weird.

Anyway, we finished the movie and broke into discussion groups. I was with three UNIFE students who explained the premise of the movie a little better in more basic terms. Then, we talked about fun stuff like music and traveling. They complimented me on my Spanish which has definitely improved significantly since I've been here although it's nowhere near perfect. 

I am definitely more confident speaking and I can get around the city. It's weird because in English, I will talk to anyone and I enjoy talking to strangers. I'm a lot more nervous speaking here, but I'm starting to branch out and talk to strangers more. I've noticed too that when I got here, I would not eat meals with my host mom without the other students. Now, I'll sit and talk to her about anything. Usually she does most of the talking and I just listen. But hey, it's something. Honestly though, I think I've learned more living here for two and a half weeks than I have in my classes in high school and college. There is something so different about being completely immersed in the language and I really appreciate my opportunity to learn in this manner.