Well yesterday my host mom and I went to Gamarra. Gamarra is a place to shop, but it is not a store. It is several blocks worth of shops, booths, food stands, people haggling and bustling about. It's not a black market, per say, but it is definitely quite sketchy, and apparently fairly dangerous. But it is also very cheap, so I wanted to check it out. Before we left, I went to put on my jacket and my host mom said "No, put on something old," because I had just recently bought the jacket and I said "someone will steal my jacket right off my back?" and she said "sometimes if you have nice shoes, they'll take them off your feet." So I left my phone at home, brought a small amount of money, and we went. I ended up buying two soccer tees for 16 soles. So, 8 soles each. 8 soles is approximately $3 USD. Can you believe that? I bought one Peruvian jersey and one USA jersey. They are super cool.
And then today, after school, we had plans to go to the airport to meet Victor, a boy from Belgium that will be attending our school. He is also in Emilie and I's rotary club. So we took a bus all the way to Callao, the far left side of Lima, and the ride took about an hour (keep in mind that this is all within Lima, that's how big it is!) and we were going to get pizza in the airport before Victor arrived, but it turned out that his plane had arrived early. So we waited with our poster for him to walk into the waiting area. I sat on Tami's shoulders and held the sign above my head (a lot of people stared at us like 'look at those crazy gringas' but it was awesome and was totally worth it when Victor walked out, saw us, and smiled ear to ear). It was a good thing we got there early, because Victor's host family hadn't actually arrived yet, so if we hadn't been there, Victor would have arrived and no one would have been there to receive him. So we met Victor, and since we had to wait for his family to come, we all went upstairs in the airport and got pizza. We can't really communicate with him because he only speaks french, but I think we'll be good friends all the same. I hope he had a good arrival (but I'm sure he's exhausted -- 7 hour time difference)
And then Victor's family arrived, some pictures were taken, and we all left. I'm not sure when Victor will start colegio, maybe the beginning of next week so he can get a few days rest.
 |
| From left: Emilie (Denmark), Victor (Belgium), Tami (Canada), Ginger (USA) and the sign I made |
Unrelated to Victor's arrival, yesterday at school we had a frustrating experience when a teacher decided to explain to us that Peru is located in South America. She then went on to tell us that the capital is Lima, as if we didn't know that about the city that we are living in... it made us so angry, and she kept repeating "do you understand? do you understand?" and repeating the simplest sentences and facts. How could we not know that Peru is located in South America? She then informed us what North and South were. At this point, we were beyond angry. It was extremely demeaning and kind of offensive, actually. We were treated like children--no, not just like children, like dumb children. People here think we're stupid, and constantly choose to say the most basic things like "thank you" and "goodbye" and "sorry" to us in english instead of spanish. We're actually having some problems with this in our school, and I also found out today that they will be separating us. As of now, two of us will be in grade quinto (the oldest grade, and the grade that we are all currently in) and two will be moved down to cuarto (the grade below quinto). I was very angry when I heard this because we are having a hard enough time making friends (most people don't talk to us at all) and the few 'friends' we do have are in quinto. Why they are choosing to separate us NOW, after a month of trying to fit in with our grade, is beyond me. And so now, most likely Emilie and I will be moved to cuarto because we are the youngest. We do not know anyone in cuarto. I almost started crying when I was informed of this. I am so frustrated with my exchange sometimes. It is really hard to be here sometimes. So far I have only posted about the happy experiences, the fun outings and trips, when in reality a lot of my time here is not sunshine and daisies. While I am happy quite often, I also miss my family and city, think about what it would be like to be back, and wish I didn't have to go to such a terrible school every day. I'm hoping that I feel more positive tomorrow.
-Ginger
No comments:
Post a Comment