It's been five days here and I'm still wrestling with the Spanish keyboard, and as you can see, I think it's winning, since I'm still copy-and-pasting my (at) symbol to log on.
In the past few days, I have:
- eaten trout and alpaca meat on a pizza, which is delicious! It tastes like tender steak with the after-taste of lamb
- riden by myself on one of those small buses, more like vans that drive with the sliding door open. If you've ever been to Hong Kong, it's like a siu ba, but more van-like and cramped to the last standing room. Costs 60 cents Soles, which is 20 cents American.
- eaten Chinese-Peruvian food, which is actually pretty good. Better than Panda Express.
- gone to the black market, Molina, which sounds scarier than it actually is. Hong Kong reference: think Shenzhen or Guangdong.
- gone living through two days with water on and off. It is currently off.
Having hosted international students before, this experience is definitely switched, awkwardly placed in a household. The house and family are lovely, and we have a little terriar guard dog, Aldana; what she can guard I don't know but she is adorable. I'm currently trying to win over the little six-year-old, Abigail, with the colorful hairties I brought for her. It's a work in progress.
I currently live with another college volunteer, an educator-volunteer, and a Spanish professor from Ireland, teaching in the program. Along with the three kids and parents, we surely make a big table for dinner. It's quite a hodge-podge of personas in one household, but in the midst of the Spanglish thrown around the table, we somehow all understand Ricardo's (my host papa) jokes.
Having Spanish at 8:30AM to 10AM Monday to Thursday, one on one with a teacher, is really improving my Spanish. I think now I have improved from dramatic telenovela one-liners to speaking like a four-year-old, struggling with suvject-verb agreement. I think Aldana, the dusty grey terriar, understands more Spanish than me.
P.S Gringo/a means foreigner or American in Spanish. I have yet to be gossiped about on the street with the word, but the professor sure loves to call the volunteers that.
Are the at symbols on a key with 3 symbols on it? Because I will never for the life of me understand how to type the freakin 3rd symbol.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a really lively household there. Maybe you can trying winning Abigail over with a crocheted frog. Or a beret. At worst, the dog could wear it instead and you can name it Amelie and try to speak french one-liners to it.
Have fun and be safe at those molinas! And remember, you've got 4 months left. Clock's a'tickin and you're only getting older.
P.S. If you told me the pic was a college campus, I would believe it.
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