Kiki's Crossing

10.22.2015 Thursday Hello friends! All is well in South America! Though I still feel as if I’m dreaming, my Peruvian life is starting to feel more and more real every day… But I still often need to remind myself that I’m living in a foreign country – takes my breath away every time! It’s been over a month since I last wrote and I feel the need to explain. So, why haven’t I written? To be completely honest, I’ve been somewhat avoiding it for various reasons. On the one hand, I have been busy… in the mornings at least! Every day I teach three to five English classes. For all but two of my classes, I walk into the room when the bell rings, am handed a book and markers, and told to start teaching. Constantly I’m kept on my toes because I can never properly prepare lesson plans. Instead, plans I’ve never seen before are thrown at me and I must present grammar and vocabulary on a whim in a way that the students will remember.  Needless to say, this proves frustra...

9.11.2015 Friday I love Peruvian food.  I feel obliged to mention this as I don't think I really have written about the amazing-ness that is breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but the cuisine definitely has it's moments. Beautiful, shining, mouth-watering moments.  I have tried so many new foods and culinary creations. Day-to-day meals are usually pretty consistent - chicken, rice, potatoes - but each meal is embellished with different seasonings and sauces and it's so fresh that it's just incredibly tasty. The fruits and vegetables are the freshest and juiciest you could ever eat. The juices and smoothies are made fresh every day. The meat is bought at the market moments before it's prepared.* The combination of spices is tantalizing. And, the desserts, naturally, never disappoint. I could list everything I've had the pleasure of tasting, but half of them have super bizarre names that you've never heard of, nor can p...

9.2.2015 Wednesday People, you can jinx yourself. Beware. As fate would have it, though I predicted my Peruvian life to be routine and mellow, the last week has proven it to be the opposite, in a very good way. Last Friday, we had the opportunity to visit downtown Lima with Daniel for the first time. Though we weren't there very long, it was still great to get our first glimpse of the world's second largest desert city (the largest: Cairo, Egypt). We walked through the plazas, saw the Palacio del Gobierno, and even tried Emoliente, a traditional medicinal Peruvian drink served hot that dates back to the colonial times. It's basically fancy tea served in a plastic cup from street vendors. I approve. While walking, Daniel explained to us that in the "tourist zones" we need to be cautious as many vendors will try to sell us drugs as they expect that is what all white people want. So that was fun. I mean, it's not like we don't have those things i...

8.25.2015 Tuesday Week one: check. Cheers to many more to come.  Surprisingly, I survived the first week with few crazy stories and embarrassing moments. Though I'm sure that will all change with time.  Honestly, my life is a bit mundane and low key so I can't promise that I'll be updating my blog too often. Unlike my non-stop life in Chile, here I don't have as many activities and trips planned which means day-to-day I don't have much to write about. Not yet anyways. That's alright. Some down time is much appreciated.  During my first week, school days have been pretty consistent. I wake up in the morning, eat breakfast at Daniel's, teach from 8;45 to 1:45, and then return to Daniel's for lunch. In the afternoons Kelsey and I lounge around the apartment, swim, workout to online exercise videos with Jillian Michaels, and/or, like today, walk around Callao, our neighborhood.  I've been thinking about attempting to do some self-studyin...