I thought I would also give some more detailed information about my school!
My friends!
As my school is the school for high ranking navy officers there is also a group of kids who come from other countries and are studying and living in Peru while their parents finish their terms abroad. That's my group of friends really, obviously there are peruvian friends too! But my best friends at school are the Colombians, girl from Chile and some peruvian friends. We are a really nice group and I really do get to learn alot more about Latin America, hearing about the differences between Peru and Colombia, Chile and Ecuador! I sorta love it.
Also the concept of friends changes a little bit between exchange students. Through this exchange I really get to see that other parts of the United States really have their own little culture! Between us (the majority of the exchangies are American though there is one girl from Belgium, a guy from France and from Switzerland) we talk alot about differences everywhere, it's interesting to hear about! Also is that I am seeing honestly for the first time that you can be friends with people who you have large differences with, between the exchange students we are all very different but are sort of insta-friends which I love because I do get to see this side of the concept of friendship (my friends back home have mostly huge similarities with because that's how we met or bonded, and here it's purely experiances that unite us!).
About school system-
Here there is no middle school. there are six years of primary school and then there are five years of secondary. Also the school year, because they are in the other hemisphere have summer when we have winter. So their school year is ACTUALLY a year, it's an odd change! So we are ending at the begining of December, and our final quarter begins next week!!
Also something that I have noticed is that the learning/teaching methods are very very different. In my classes the majority of the distribution of knowladge is from copying powerpoints or the chalk board or copying down what the teacher says. At my school there is very little homework and very little actual work. To learn in the subject you really have to get it and remember it the one time it's been stated in class. There is also a general lack of respect I would say for the teachers, there is so much laughter, yelling and just talking during class, not to mention talking back to the teachers (big schock for me, totally different change in atmosphere for a class room).
Class Schedual:
Monday Tuesday Wednsday Thursday Friday
OBE COMMUNICATION MATH HISTORY BIOLOGY
eNGLISH COMMUNICATION MATH HISTORY MATH
ENGLISH RELIGION HISTORY COMM. MATH
PHYSICS OBE OBE OBE OBE
break
MATH BIOLOGY PERSON MATH ART
COMM. BIOLOGY PHYSICS MATH ART
COMM. HISTORY PHYSICS CIVICS RELIGION
break
HISTORY PE ENGLISH ENGLISH ART
PERSON PE ENGLISH ENGLISH ART
p.s. It looks like there is a very high chance I WILL be able to go to college in Peru!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Eating Habbits
Naturally food is a huge part of any culture, and even more so in this country- one of the most common questions that I get are what are the traditional food dishes of your country or more specifically of my state. Because here there are alot of traditional foods!
I am hoping that at some point during my year I will post a blog with pictures of the traditional dishes (which aren't just traditional, traditional dishes that you prepare on ceremony, they are traditional and staples of the country and the everyday life, it's what we all eat) with photos and descriptions of a selection!
But in the mean time I thought that I would write about some general eating habbits. As many know here lunch is the largest meal, it would be our dinner. So the eating habbits are switched up a bit:
In the morning there is always a bag of fresh roles from the panaderia around the block and then there is usually cheese, slices of meats, and butter that you can choose between putting in the role. I usually just eat a couple of the roles, because they are really tasty (but I do it casually because eating plain rolls is kinda considered odd). OR I will microwave the roll with the cheese and ham.
Now, what you drink is a big deal with breakfast. My host mom is all about the milk, she was for it with me and my host sister, but I have never been a big fan of straight milk in the U.S. and it taste very different here (when you drink it people add sugar and always drink it warmed), so I had some for the first couple weeks... Which is when my host mom made orange juice! Which is utterly amazing! Because it's fresh squeezed orange juice!! Ofcourse its great! And so my host mom started making it for me instead of any milk, if we have oranges, we'll have freshed orange juice! Which is amazingly awsome! And I felt guilty at first for my host mom makng orange juice every morning, but then I sort of caught on that really is the sort of cultural norm.
Every morning when I go on the bus all the moms of the kids who get on in the morning will be waiting by the window and wave them off.
Lunch is the meal of the day, it's usually eaten early afternoon and is a large meal usually made up of mostly rice/potatoes and meat.
I eat lunch after school because you don't eat lunch at school. So I don't eat until four fifteen ish during the school week. Though that is not to say that there isn't alot of eating during school, because there is! The kids around my grade level eat alot of cookies, crackers and lollipops all day long. What's more is there are three places where you can buy snacks- all sorts of cookies, chips, candies, drinks, ice cream, donuts, sandwhiches, all sorts of things. I always try and bring crackers and fruit if we have it to eat at school!
Then there is or there isn't dinner. Usually after I eat it's early evening and so if i get hungry later in the evening I just get a snack and I am all set. But if someone's hungry or I say that I am really hungry while my host parents are home we will have dinner but we won't eat until late (usually it will be pollo a la brasa or pizza, something complete that can be ordered in because at that point my host mom is not cooking)
Also some generalizations about restaurants in Lima, Peru; there seem to be select few types. There are ALOT of Chifas which is the Peruvian Chinese food. It's good, though it's not exactly chinese food. Anyway they are all over the place, we live next door to one, and across from two. Then there are Chicken places which serve pollo a la brasa, which is basically a heavily seasoned chicken which is served with french fries and some salad on the side. Then there is some other smaller restaurants which serve things that are more typical like anticucho and other things. Basically there are three main types of places where you will eat. Then there is the fourth area which would be fast food restaurants from America: KFC, Pizza Hut (which somehow became a sit down, classy, wait in line restaurant here), Papa Johns, Dominoes, McDonalds, BurgerKing... there are also some other specialized restaurants, lke italian or what have you, but those four sections are really the most common (at the very least in my generalized experiance!!) This no doubt factors in my local neighborhood and such!
I am hoping that at some point during my year I will post a blog with pictures of the traditional dishes (which aren't just traditional, traditional dishes that you prepare on ceremony, they are traditional and staples of the country and the everyday life, it's what we all eat) with photos and descriptions of a selection!
But in the mean time I thought that I would write about some general eating habbits. As many know here lunch is the largest meal, it would be our dinner. So the eating habbits are switched up a bit:
In the morning there is always a bag of fresh roles from the panaderia around the block and then there is usually cheese, slices of meats, and butter that you can choose between putting in the role. I usually just eat a couple of the roles, because they are really tasty (but I do it casually because eating plain rolls is kinda considered odd). OR I will microwave the roll with the cheese and ham.
Now, what you drink is a big deal with breakfast. My host mom is all about the milk, she was for it with me and my host sister, but I have never been a big fan of straight milk in the U.S. and it taste very different here (when you drink it people add sugar and always drink it warmed), so I had some for the first couple weeks... Which is when my host mom made orange juice! Which is utterly amazing! Because it's fresh squeezed orange juice!! Ofcourse its great! And so my host mom started making it for me instead of any milk, if we have oranges, we'll have freshed orange juice! Which is amazingly awsome! And I felt guilty at first for my host mom makng orange juice every morning, but then I sort of caught on that really is the sort of cultural norm.
Every morning when I go on the bus all the moms of the kids who get on in the morning will be waiting by the window and wave them off.
Lunch is the meal of the day, it's usually eaten early afternoon and is a large meal usually made up of mostly rice/potatoes and meat.
I eat lunch after school because you don't eat lunch at school. So I don't eat until four fifteen ish during the school week. Though that is not to say that there isn't alot of eating during school, because there is! The kids around my grade level eat alot of cookies, crackers and lollipops all day long. What's more is there are three places where you can buy snacks- all sorts of cookies, chips, candies, drinks, ice cream, donuts, sandwhiches, all sorts of things. I always try and bring crackers and fruit if we have it to eat at school!
Then there is or there isn't dinner. Usually after I eat it's early evening and so if i get hungry later in the evening I just get a snack and I am all set. But if someone's hungry or I say that I am really hungry while my host parents are home we will have dinner but we won't eat until late (usually it will be pollo a la brasa or pizza, something complete that can be ordered in because at that point my host mom is not cooking)
Also some generalizations about restaurants in Lima, Peru; there seem to be select few types. There are ALOT of Chifas which is the Peruvian Chinese food. It's good, though it's not exactly chinese food. Anyway they are all over the place, we live next door to one, and across from two. Then there are Chicken places which serve pollo a la brasa, which is basically a heavily seasoned chicken which is served with french fries and some salad on the side. Then there is some other smaller restaurants which serve things that are more typical like anticucho and other things. Basically there are three main types of places where you will eat. Then there is the fourth area which would be fast food restaurants from America: KFC, Pizza Hut (which somehow became a sit down, classy, wait in line restaurant here), Papa Johns, Dominoes, McDonalds, BurgerKing... there are also some other specialized restaurants, lke italian or what have you, but those four sections are really the most common (at the very least in my generalized experiance!!) This no doubt factors in my local neighborhood and such!
Interesting Peruvian Activities!
I have several updates to make, and I am not certin where I should begin with them, so I thought I would go over some of the things that I have gotten to do that have everything to do with cultural exchange. Basically all the stuff that's totally normal in Peru but seems completly bizaare to Americans because we are... American!
Naturally part of these have to do with food! What I have gotten to try:
-Anticucho= cows heart
they prepare it sort of barbecue style (but not with bbq sauce or any of that) and i have only ever seen it served in thinner circular-ish slices skewerd onto a wooden stake. These are very common, you can find them all over the place, and they can be prepared on outside carts and any level of restaurant- and they are! And they are prepared everywhere because they are delicious! They are not too chewey and if they aren't over salted, are just really really good!
-Pancita=linning of cow stomach
I only had this once, not as common, definitly not as good. It's really really chewey to the point of being hard to eat and has an uncomfortable texture, with no real redeaming flavor to be worth eating (in my opinion obviously!)
-Cuyi=Guinea Pig
I know that those who have pets will not be happy about this commentary, so you may want to look away now! ...It taste kinda like fried chicken. hahaha. It sounds so cliche, but it's sort of true. It was good! Not as tough or dry as chicken, infact it was a little too oily, but in general it was tasty! (sorry my vegetarian and pet owning friends <3 )
The other things include:
-Seeing a Marinera
Marinera is the typical northern peruvian dance which is really cool! I got to see a full out version with a woman dancing barefoot with a man on horse back as her partner. What makes it really cool is that the horse dosn't just trot around, it really seems to dance with the music and the woman! I have some videos, I will post them if I can figure out how...
-Bull Fight
I got to see a bull fight aswell! It wasn't really a fight, so don't worry! There was no sword play or harm done to the bulls. It was really interesting though, they had four bull fighters and each one his own bull. But inbetween each little show of them running around each other, there was something of interest. So there was the Marinera, there was a walk around of a bunch of young dancers, and most interesting I thought was the use of clowns. Inbetween the real bull fighters they had these two clowns come out with a scrawny little baby bull and they just do a bunch of stupid stuff, running around having the baby bull hit them and everything for laughs. It's a really an interesting atmosphere, when I got to go it was in a sort of amipheater with bleachers and they were all filled. Right behind us was the band, and they play play the time away. People are making noise and yammering and everytime the bull fighter swipes away his clothe coaxing the bull to run through everyone yells OLE! It's pretty fun. Also at events like these everyone has a reason to be drinking, so everyone is drinking, all the time. So down around the edge there is also all the people who are sitting on the brink trying to swat at the bulls as they run around inside, because... I don't know why... Or trying to spray beer onto the animal to get a reaction. It's really funny when the bull jumps over the fence out of the caral and into the samller cirumfrance area they have cleared for that. The only thing is that area generally has quite a number of people in it. On the last bull, which was the most lively, it jumped over several times and ran around the circumfrance. It's funny because it sends up this general reaction from the crowd, as they watch the people down there scramble to get out of the way but also just laugh at the situation. It was pretty comical looking when the bull jumped out the first time and there was an entire band standing in the between area of the circumfrence! It was just like a cartoon, all these (I dunno) 24 peice set of men all dressed in the same official band suit start jumping out of the way holding their shiney instruments, and three seconds later charges by a bull!
-Cock Fight
I hadn't really decided if I wanted to see this or not because the sol purpose of the activity is to have two roosters fight until one kills the other. We, being my host parents and my host neice (who is six years old) just walked over and sat down. I was sitting there thinking, is this really just gonna happen like this, ubber casually, does my host family not see my general shock? Nope. None of that, it was just something normal for everyone. We sat down and there was every type of person there- really ealthy gamblers there to bet and win or loose their money, stretching down to very poor kids, because it's a free show. There are vendors filtering through: selling cigarrets, beer, soda, lollipops, and sandwiches. Everyone's just sittin around while the two birds were marked and each had these huge curved blades tied to the backs of one of their legs. And then they just let them loose each behind its own line and then it begins. It's surprising how quickly and casually it all happens.
-Dance of the scicorss
This is a traditional dance of the Incas where the dancers are wearing traditional clothes and are dancing with scicorss. They dance and jump about cutting the air and traditionally, the rain. It's really interesting to see and an incredible age range of who can perform and how many moves they can perform while keeping to the tradition!
Naturally part of these have to do with food! What I have gotten to try:
-Anticucho= cows heart
they prepare it sort of barbecue style (but not with bbq sauce or any of that) and i have only ever seen it served in thinner circular-ish slices skewerd onto a wooden stake. These are very common, you can find them all over the place, and they can be prepared on outside carts and any level of restaurant- and they are! And they are prepared everywhere because they are delicious! They are not too chewey and if they aren't over salted, are just really really good!
-Pancita=linning of cow stomach
I only had this once, not as common, definitly not as good. It's really really chewey to the point of being hard to eat and has an uncomfortable texture, with no real redeaming flavor to be worth eating (in my opinion obviously!)
-Cuyi=Guinea Pig
I know that those who have pets will not be happy about this commentary, so you may want to look away now! ...It taste kinda like fried chicken. hahaha. It sounds so cliche, but it's sort of true. It was good! Not as tough or dry as chicken, infact it was a little too oily, but in general it was tasty! (sorry my vegetarian and pet owning friends <3 )
The other things include:
-Seeing a Marinera
Marinera is the typical northern peruvian dance which is really cool! I got to see a full out version with a woman dancing barefoot with a man on horse back as her partner. What makes it really cool is that the horse dosn't just trot around, it really seems to dance with the music and the woman! I have some videos, I will post them if I can figure out how...
-Bull Fight
I got to see a bull fight aswell! It wasn't really a fight, so don't worry! There was no sword play or harm done to the bulls. It was really interesting though, they had four bull fighters and each one his own bull. But inbetween each little show of them running around each other, there was something of interest. So there was the Marinera, there was a walk around of a bunch of young dancers, and most interesting I thought was the use of clowns. Inbetween the real bull fighters they had these two clowns come out with a scrawny little baby bull and they just do a bunch of stupid stuff, running around having the baby bull hit them and everything for laughs. It's a really an interesting atmosphere, when I got to go it was in a sort of amipheater with bleachers and they were all filled. Right behind us was the band, and they play play the time away. People are making noise and yammering and everytime the bull fighter swipes away his clothe coaxing the bull to run through everyone yells OLE! It's pretty fun. Also at events like these everyone has a reason to be drinking, so everyone is drinking, all the time. So down around the edge there is also all the people who are sitting on the brink trying to swat at the bulls as they run around inside, because... I don't know why... Or trying to spray beer onto the animal to get a reaction. It's really funny when the bull jumps over the fence out of the caral and into the samller cirumfrance area they have cleared for that. The only thing is that area generally has quite a number of people in it. On the last bull, which was the most lively, it jumped over several times and ran around the circumfrance. It's funny because it sends up this general reaction from the crowd, as they watch the people down there scramble to get out of the way but also just laugh at the situation. It was pretty comical looking when the bull jumped out the first time and there was an entire band standing in the between area of the circumfrence! It was just like a cartoon, all these (I dunno) 24 peice set of men all dressed in the same official band suit start jumping out of the way holding their shiney instruments, and three seconds later charges by a bull!
-Cock Fight
I hadn't really decided if I wanted to see this or not because the sol purpose of the activity is to have two roosters fight until one kills the other. We, being my host parents and my host neice (who is six years old) just walked over and sat down. I was sitting there thinking, is this really just gonna happen like this, ubber casually, does my host family not see my general shock? Nope. None of that, it was just something normal for everyone. We sat down and there was every type of person there- really ealthy gamblers there to bet and win or loose their money, stretching down to very poor kids, because it's a free show. There are vendors filtering through: selling cigarrets, beer, soda, lollipops, and sandwiches. Everyone's just sittin around while the two birds were marked and each had these huge curved blades tied to the backs of one of their legs. And then they just let them loose each behind its own line and then it begins. It's surprising how quickly and casually it all happens.
-Dance of the scicorss
This is a traditional dance of the Incas where the dancers are wearing traditional clothes and are dancing with scicorss. They dance and jump about cutting the air and traditionally, the rain. It's really interesting to see and an incredible age range of who can perform and how many moves they can perform while keeping to the tradition!
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