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A Typical Day in Calca and my time here so far
Ok, I dont really know where to start but the aim of this blog is basically to tell how about what im doing, what my Spanish is like, how I get to school, what the food I am eating is like, etc etc.
School
The school that we teach at is in a town roughly 40 mins ride in a smallish coach or collectivo minivan from Calca. Both forms of transport cost 1 peruvian sole which equates to about 40 Aus cents. If we are feeling rich we can pay for a taxi but this is normally 2-3 soles - still dirt cheap... Once we arrive in Urubamba we then have to catch a mototaxi (exactly the same as Tuk-tuks in Thailand) and this costs 1 sole for 2-3 people to the school we teach at.
There are 10 people teaching at our school which means we are split into two groups of 5. My group of 5 is me, Shaun, Alex Kalfas, Tom Gormly and Jenna Campbell. We teach years 1, 2, 5 and 6 some for only English or Sport and some for both. The English we teach is pretty basic (numbers, greetings, etc) and depends alot on how bigger smartasses the kids are and how keen they are to actually learn.. Next thursday we have a test for our yr 5 kids so it will be interesting to see how much they have actually taken in. All of us also have our favourite students so when we play games like Bingo we sometimes rigg them. Sport is usually soccer but we also play bullrush, duck duck goose and stuck in the mud. Sometimes we also do other activities like hokey pokey and head, shoulders, knees and toes.
Food
In one word the food we have at our house is AWESOME!!! Breakfast is normally fresh bread with jam or creamed honey and either tea, cafe. and / or fresh juice. Often we also have eggs and these small sausages which are tasty. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and is almost always rice and some sort of meat. I am eating about 5 times as much food here as I did in Aus (maybe that says something about your cooking mum -- just joking) and are usually still hungry an hour after lunch. If we have something on in urubamba we get lunch for 10 soles which is a toasted samwhich of our choice with hot chips, a coke and then a chocolate brownie after. Dinner is often similar to lunch but still tasty. Probably the best food I have had here was 8kg of pork - so crispy and tasty.
My Family
My dad is called Herbert, my mum is called Patricia and my two brothers are Bruce (13) and Geraldo (10). They are some of the nicest people I have ever met and they are constantly making sure that Shaun and I have had enough food and are healthy (I have not been sick yet at all so they must be doing a good job). My dad is also really funny and we have some good conversations over the table. As the disco they own has a projector TV they are also nice enough to let us have friends over for movie nights. In a few weeks Shaun and I are also going on a trek for 2 nights with our dad which should be fun.
Spanish
My Spanish has definately improved 10 fold since coming to Peru and it is still improving. I also have a 2 hour lesson every thursday with a really good teacher which helps. What I need to do now is review what I have previously done and learn more and more vocab - which Shaun and I are trying to do every night.
Whats happening in the near future...
Well there are a few birthdays coming up so we will be going into Cusco to celebrate for them. On top of that I am thinking about doing the Lares Trek (look it up on the internet) and I am also planning to go to Arequipa, Colca Canyon and Nazca Lines. At the end of the placement all of us are also planning to spend a week at a beach up north near Equador with our Peruvian tour guide which should be awesome fun.
Thats about all I can think of writing for now.. ill post again soon
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