Peru Week 1

So it´s been not quite one week since I have arrived here in Peru, but it feels like much more time has passed. I guess this is what happens when each day is filled with so many new things that it feels like I have already been here for much longer than I actually have. Time is passing very quickly. At the moment my head is head spinning with ideas and emotions but I have had very little time to actually process what has been happening around me because I have actually been very busy.

I arrived in Cusco on Sunday afternoon. Elise and Nina (the two teachers I work with) picked me up at the airport and the first thing we did was take a taxi to central Cusco for lunch. Of course being with locals, they know that in order to pay the best price for the taxi you have to leave the airport parking lot, go out the side exit and get a taxi on the street for 3 soles ($1 USD) as opposed to the 20 soles (about $8 USD) it would cost from inside the airport grounds.
Arriving in Cusco was very familiar as I already spent 2 weeks there last August, so it was familiar in a nice way. And surprisingly I only felt a little bit of breathlessness from the altitude (Cusco is 3300 meters or about 11 000 feet).

After lunch, we went to the bus station to get on the combi van to take us to Urubamba. After strapping my luggage on the roof, we set off in the minivan for the one hour ride to Urubamba, cumbia music playing on the radio. The van was full and we stopped a couple times to let some riders off at various points along the way. The road is winding and climbs to an even higher altitude than Cusco at one point. If you are easily car-sick it could be an uncomfortable car ride. It was late afternoon at that point and I think this is the prettiest time of day here. The earth is reddish-orange and makes the reflected light from the setting sun feel warm and comforting (during mid-day the sun is very strong and sunglasses are absolutely necessary). This warm light casts dark shadows from the adobe brick houses and scattered trees along the road and the rolling hills. Eventually, from the rolling hills the cool, snow-capped, mountains appear in the distance and the cool blue and white from the snow is welcome relief from the harsh sunlight.
We arrived in Urubamba which is a small town compared to Cusco and for the first two nights I stayed with Elise and her husband Helard at their home just 1km outside of Urubamba. Most of the houses here are made from the earth, adobe bricks (mud bricks) which give a really rustic look to the architecture.

I began teaching on Monday morning at 8:30 am and it was the most nervous I have ever been! Contrary to what I thought, just because you may be a teacher, doesm´t mean you naturally know how to teach your own language to people who do not speak your language. At times this task actually seems too overwhelming to me and I think this may end up being my biggest struggle; learning how to convey what I take forgranted in my own language and deciding what is important to know and what is not as important to know. Already, I am learning a lot from my students and thankfully, Elise is good at teaching me what and how to teach my new students. The cost of the classes is a lot for these people and learning English is absolutely necessary for their career so I want to make sure I am doing the best I can for them.

I teach a conversation class in the morning from 8:30 to 9:30 am, an intermediate level 1 class from 5:30 to 7:00 pm and another conversation class from 7:00 - 8:00 pm. My students range in age from 13 years old to 45 years old and their level of proficiency in English is just as varied. They are lovely people and we have already had some good laughs. One student told me that she has 2 pets: a dog and a monkey.

For the sake of brevity here I will list my observations both sensory and otherwise.

• dusty, dirt roads that leave a fine powder over everything
• the polluted smell of the exhaust from the moto-taxis and combi vans
• music playing at all times coming from inside shops, homes, taxis, restaurants
• women carrying their babies on their backs, tied on with colourful, woven fabric
• the old, dusty, run-down soccer field with two young boys attempting to score on each other
• fleshy, over-ripe papayas in the market waiting to be used for fresh jugos
• stray dogs everywhere
• clay tile roof tops
• wide-spread poverty
• the woman picking up strewn garbage while her small child lays on a dirty blanket beside her
• the billowing skirts, the wide-hipped women, with long, black braids tied together at the ends, with a bowler hat
• being called ´teacher´by my new students
• cold, cold showers and cold, cold nights
• appreciating everything that I have back home
• wondering why I came here and what I am doing??!!

Well, I think this is enough for now. Thanks for reading!