In Spanish there is not translation of the English word "procrastination" so really the creation of this blog two months after leaving the US might seem untimely inside the US, it is at the very least not procrastination here (as that doesn't exist here). So with the unneeded excuse done, I now would love to debrief all the outside world who has forgotten about my presence, or at least only briefly until reminded with those pesky update emails that keep getting sent from time to time.
The tales I will spin craftly with my clicky keyboard keys are really only a view into what I've been doing the last two months but won't be applicable too much longer. I live in Chaclacayo, Perú about 45 minutes east of Lima, which is a town that is much sunnier and nicer than Lima as Lima is always gray, enormous, a bit dangerous and to date has nothing to earn my heart's fickle affections. I understand that after being here a year or so Lima will grow on you and you'll look forward to it. Now I somewhat avoid it except to go to Starbucks. I don't buy the coffee though. I might go with that intention but I end up just staring longingly through the windows at the coffee in the hands of people that have real jobs and can afford Starbucks in Lima.
We've been in training for the last 7 weeks. Language classes in the mornings and tech training in the afternoons with occasional other random sessions here and there (like health issues and safety and security sessions). The language training is surprisingly applicable. Gone are the days of worksheet after worksheet of grammar. The focus is more on survival- how to get yourself around, how to ask questions in professional setting, country history, culture, slang, how to barter, discussions on every type of robbery you have ever possibly conceived and then more that could happen to you, etc. We do work on grammar too because at some point in the day there are no more ways to discuss the ways you could get robbed and so it's time to practice different tenses or something. Then we eat our host family prepared lunches together, comparing, deciphering and trading bites along the way. Then it's tech training time in the afternoon which is really more like half game playing, with bits of our whining on how we don't want to play any more little kid games, then our tech trainers explaining when we'll use these games at site, and us giving in and a few weeks later realizing they were totally right. Lives outside of training are somewhat limited because there isn't currently a whole lot of free time but there are good times had and nights out and all that.
That's a good opening entry, no? I don't want to bore you and you feel like you are reading a novel every entry. But there's going to be a lot of free time to be had here after training so no promises!!!!
