installment two: the chacra

several, several weeks ago now Gillian and I were invited to visit the chacra. what is the chakra you are now asking yourself? well... a chacra is more or less a family farm. our friends Omar and Jamesson invited us to visit the chacra for a day. they are brothers, although... unless i had been told i would have never guessed, they are very very different both in personality and in physical appearance in my opinion. but, they both take classes at SALI and are both an incredible amount of hilarious fun to hang out with. they have an uncle who owns a farm, about two hours ish away from Trujillo. so.. one saturday gillian and i prepared for a visit to the farm... chickens and cows and hay here we come? no. not so much. haha i think that mostly the farm is made of rice fields, although... i am no expert on what blade of grass is different from another... so there maybe be much much more there, and i also heard jamesson tell us that they have avocado trees somewhere... so our future holds fresh guacamole! (gillian and heather make amazing guac) 

the day at the farm was wonderful, to say the least. we went with omar, jamesson, and their uncle, who may be 50( or+..) but he definitely has the heart of a 20 year old. it was fun just to watch them all interact together. the view on the way there was beautiful... mountains and towns and flowers and people and lake and... just everything. here are some pictures, i hope you enjoy:

to me this is a perfect picture of the personalities of omar, jamesson and their tio (uncle) they like to joke around a lot, and make everyone laugh. 

yes, yes this lady is crocheting along the road. she is awesome. 

omar thought we were taking a serious picture.... 

there was mud... everywhere... and of course by the end of the day we all had mud all over ourselves either by accident, or on purpose because they guys thought it was funny to throw it. okay maybe gillian and i joined in. there wasnt anyone else around! we could act like kids! the funniest part is a story that their uncle told one of this friends when we arrived back in town... he told his friend... i came with four girls... and the two peruvians fell in the mud! (both jamesson and omar fell into the mud.. gillian and i were a little more graceful)
rice fields... yes they really were that green. they were beautiful
in peru its common to see more than one person on a one person bike... it doesnt look that comfortable but we see people on the streets of trujillo all the time like this. so... there was a bike at the farm.. and gillian and i gave it a try... i think we laughed more than we moved anywhere. and yes, it was uncomfortable. especially on a dirt road. 

chocho

is hothot.

today i bought my first little bit of food from the street. are you scared?

along the streets in trujillo there are vendors everywhere selling this or that, food and everything else. they set up along the street and are there in the mornings or at night. usually in the mornings you can find carts with fresh juice being made, which is nothing short of DELICIOUS. theres also always someone with some sort of food, kind of like ceviche. also, on good days, there is a man with baskets and baskets of baked goodies, including this awesome cookie that goes very well with coffee ;-) ive only tried the habas before, which are a roasted bean. and also the cookie that compliment coffee. but today i stepped out and am trying chocho. and it is hothot. maybe because there are bright red peppers surprising you every now and then with the seeds still intact. but its good nonetheless, (actually... the more i eat the more its growing on me... and the peruvian teachers here are pretty excited that i am eating it... not sure exactly why..) and full of cilantro which is my favorite herb. its made of a type of bean mixed with cancha which is a corn that gets popped but doesnt fluff up like popcorn. one good thing about it... it only cost me one sol. so one bowl full of healthyness for less than a dollar for lunch. i'll take it. we'll see how my stomach feels later about it... haha luckily i have not gotten sick yet from eating anything here. and its been three months. im not sure how this has happen, i am very lucky. i tell everyone that it must be the meat that they are eating, because i am the only one that hasnt gotten sick and i am also the only one that doesnt eat meat. haha

new cycle new classes new weather

A new cycle has started, yesterday actually... and yesterday began not only the first day of the last cycle for the year... but the first day of the last cycle before Christmas!!! It is incredibly hard to comprehend that Christmas is coming soon. The weather instead of getting chilly and miserable like i hear all my friends complaining of back home... is getting more beautiful with each passing day. Not your typical leading into Christmas kind of atmosphere. For a few weeks the sky was too indecisive for my liking... raining one moment.. sunny the next... cold... hot... sweater and scarf weather one hour and t-shirt weather the next hour. But this week it seems to have settled for peaceful rays of sunshine and wind that blows the dust from the streets up into your eyes if you aren't strategically careful. Also this week... Thanksgiving is coming!! For our students that means an excuse not to have classes... and do.. whatever they do when they aren't at SALI. haha. also for us it is a day away from teaching, and a day of gorging ourselves with food food and more food just like it happens back home. or so that is what i have been hearing. Gillian has been telling me that i need to prepare for the massive amounts of food that i will be consuming in the approaching thursday.. another intern was telling us that he couldnt remember it being so huge.. to which gillian, in an ever so gillian tone, responded with... 'you were in a food coma thats why you cant remember eating so much' haha

with the new cycle this month i am also getting to meet some new students, i am teaching two classes which i haven't before. and well, i havent met them yet. yesterday was the first day of classes... but its very very common for peruvians to skip the first day of classes. so... my 3:45 class... im there on time... 4:15... nada. then my 5:30 class... 6:00 rolls along and nada. finally in my conversation class later i got to meet a few students. im excited and a little nervous about this class. it's a basic conversation class... what does that mean? im going to be laughing at all of my cheesy jokes by myself. thats what that means. because right now my spanish is as basic or more so than their english. but i am excited, the three students that did come yesterday were full of smiles. 

the following pictures are from a few weeks ago... there are a few markets here in trujillo where you can find a little bit of everything. everything. i wanted to find some buttons to make some more earrings with and when we happened upon the vender selling buttons... why i stopped in my tracks, eyes glazed over, and basically just standing in awe, my friend cynthia exclaimed "julie!!! what a good housewife you will be!!!" ohhh cynthia. thats her new joke with me now.  

also in this market... mangos. fresh oh so fresh mangos. yum. i think you need to come to peru and experience just how fresh fruit and vegetables can be. then you won't want to move away. ever. because you will realize that the flavor you thought you experienced from your kroger or publix natural and organic produce is practically bland in comparison to the party that your taste buds experience here. 

installment one: something of students

my students.... 

are amazing! each of them have their own awesome qualities and personalities that they bring into the classroom. usually i am constantly in laughter. other days ...like the ones where they seemed to have declared it speak in Spanish during English class day... i need to remember my laughter from the day before to keep smiling. each day is a new experience with them, and i wouldnt trade it for anything. 

each class we have at SALI goes in a cycle. a cycle is about a month long, give or take. so far i am into my third cycle, and one class i have been able to teach since i first arrived in Peru. they have truly helped me to adjust to teaching English. some of my other classes have been a little more difficult, as far as connecting with students and keeping on track with lessons... speaking English instead of gossiping in Spanish. this class in particular is at the end of my teaching day, and they have been a breath of very welcomed and needed fresh air to end my day with. they laugh at my jokes, at least when they understand them.... and tell me i am strange to my face instead of keeping it in whispers amongst themselves. haha. im not shy about telling them they light up my life. they arent shy about laughing at how funny that sounds to them. we have a very well rounded relationship. it works. 

this is a student from one of my advanced classes. advanced 3. they all speak English very very well. actually, i am in awe sometimes at their skill. but sometimes fun mistakes catch up with them, and we all laugh about it. and... sometimes those laughs get recorded... 

most of our students i would say are college age. 18 to mid 20s. but every now and then there is a student much older... or much younger.. one of my students was 14. it was fun to watch her interaction ...or lack thereof... in class. and after class. she draws very well and is in love with anime. and everything japanese. and loved to draw all over her tests as such:
our weeks are split up with a different kind of test each week. a writing test. a reading test. a listening test. and oral test and a final. what do we watch during listening test week you ask me? bring in on zach morris. we are in love with your innocently cheesy 90s humor. 
the boys of my advanced class:
the girls of my advanced class, minus one:
these students blow me away with their smarts most days. not just with english, but in general. they are smart cookies. and have big dreams for their future. i admire a lot in them. i am so glad that i get to be in just a small part of their lives. to me, this is one of the best parts of teaching at SALI. i don't just teach them english, i get to be a part of their lives. and learn about them. and laugh with them. i think that we laugh just as much as we breath in our class. there is always something... from laughing at small english mistakes that sound funny... to hearing one girl say what??! you are a vegetarian?? are you sure? ...but.... the vegetarians here are ... so... skinny... (thanks i thought... thanks...haha, this turned into a big joke)... to me pronouncing one girl's name, mercedes, like the car. which is wrong.....to me making a deal to drink milk like a cat if one student passed her driving test (i drank the milk...)... to laughing at one of the guys because he loves motorcycles and talks about how safe they are but that he has had... oh 8 wrecks. haha... to laughing at the other boy for how many girlfriends he has (i dont think he does for real but we like to pick on him because he makes it funny). 

these are my students. we watch 90s sitcoms. we laugh. we learn english. they light up my life. ;-)

installments

according to my macbooks dictionary... installment has three meanings:

• 1. a sum of money due as one of several equal payments for something, spread over an agreed period of time
  
• 2. any of several parts of something that are published, broadcast or made public      in sequence at intervals
• 3. the process of installing something

what can we gather that i mean by telling you the available definitions of this word??

there are installments to come!! 

i and my heart are very heavily aware that i have left you in the dark. void. without words. alone to only imagine for yourself what is going on in Peru and in my life. 

therefore. the time has come my friends. if there is anyone anywhere still checking from time to time to see if i have written a letter or two in some sort of informing and understandable order... then your day is here!! yay!!

here you are my friends... my overdue gift to you...