Living in Lima
I have finally settled into one of my top-of-the-list bucket places and have already learned so much about this country. Although having studied in Madrid before, I knew this was going to be a one of a kind experience where I would be working up close and personally with the people and students of Peru and I couldn’t wait! The first leg of our flight went smoothly, my friends and I had some fine dining on the flight, and I listened to Spanish reggaetón hoping it would kickstart the Spanish in my brain. Luckily no one sat in the middle seat, so my friend Grace and I spent the last 3 hours of our flight talking about the meaning of life and denying the fact that we were seniors. We had a short layover in Panama City, so my friends and I snapped some photos and slapped on a Panama Snapchat filter to prove that we had totally spent more than a whopping 15 minutes there. Then, we were finally off to Lima!
We arrived around 1am, grabbed our luggage, and were greeted by our driver who would be taking us to our host family. In the car I was half asleep, but like definitely happened to notice that our driver and other cars were not driving in their designated lanes and were kind of all over the road. Should I have been concerned? Probably. But I took it as a cultural difference and that moment was the beginning of my realization that traffic in Peru is 10x worse than LA traffic (and that is saying something!). As the driver pulled up, an adorable, elderly couple was outside anticipating my arrival. I was greeted with open arms and Carlos, my host dad carried my luggage like a complete gentleman. My host mom, Chela, was in her late 60s and the sweetest lady who reminded me of my old host mom in Spain. She helped me settle in and we conversed in Spanish for a bit as I asked her some basic questions (like the Wifi password to text my parents so they would chill out, and where the bathroom was). I was exhausted from the flights, but I was so happy to finally be in Lima with the cutest host parents and living with other cool chicas from Marquette!
After getting 5 hours of sleep, I woke up to the humid air that permeated throughout my room. I got ready for breakfast and went into the bedroom of my other roommates, Caroline and Gabrielle, who had arrived a day earlier than me. Chela brought us our breakfast which consisted of pan y jamon, and fresh cut frutas. A giant water bottle sat in the middle of the table that reminded me I could not drink the tap water here unless I wanted to be sitting on the toilet for days. We then took my first walk to the university where we would be taking classes: la Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (try saying that 5x fast), which was only about 10 minutes from my house, but I became very aware of my surroundings. The traffic moved fast with no cars in their lanes, there were no pedestrian signs so we had to stealthily make our way thru the streets, and there was a dog park on the way which totally made my day knowing how many dogs I would get to pet on my way to class every day.
The university itself was tiny, but beautiful with its lightly orange tinted colored buildings and open terraces. We began the day with a brief presentation about Peru and a tour about the university itself which is a Jesuit institution, so a lot of their core values about faith, service, and education were similar to Marquette’s, but also a lot stronger. We then had lunch in the open area cafeteria where the Director of Education joined us. Our lunch was delicious as we were introduced to Peruvian cuisine for the first time. We tried a dish called causa which tasted like mashed potatoes and had an interesting sauce poured over it, then our main dish: arroz con pollo, and dessert which tasted like a marshmallow lemon cake. Also, we learned that Peru apparently has over 4,000 types of potatoes so I clearly had chosen the best place to live this summer 😊 Who knows, maybe I’ll start a bucket list to try them all!
After lunch, there was a panel of Education students that came and gave their experiences and reasons for wanting to become teachers. Most of their native language was quechua, a native language of the Incans, and many of them learned Spanish later. They gave incredible insights on the impact education has on the youth in Peru, the reality of inequality and divide between classes and schools, and how they wanted to be the change in Peru’s future thru education. I was completely inspired and in awe of these students who were so dedicated and wanted to return to their rural hometowns someday to make a difference in students’ lives. Some even commuted 2 hours just to get to school and had classes that went as late as 10:30pm. They saw teaching as an art rather than a profession, were passionate about being the change they wanted to see in the world, and saw teaching as the basis of what it was to be a human being. It was a breath of fresh air for me and changed my outlook on what it meant to be a teacher, as the profession is not viewed as critically or is really respected in the U.S. Their statements made me proud to follow this career path and made me excited for the future.
After a full day at the university, a student, Cristine, took us on a tour around Pueblo Libre which was the area that we were living in. It’s a middle class residential community and is one of Lima’s smallest districts. She took us to the plaza which had small, colored buildings and houses stacked next to one another and a grassy area in the center. We then ended our day at one of the oldest tabernas in Lima and most of us tried our very first pisco sour, the popular alcoholic drink of choice by the locals in Peru. It was refreshing as we reflected on the day and anticipated for the next. Te amo ya, Peru and I can’t wait for what else is yet to come!
