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I've got photos of Lima now but unfortunately my photos will not upload. The cathedral in the photograph isn't even in Lima.
27th November 2011 Lima, Peru
Well had another great day today. Rosa and Luis took me on a tour around Lima. It was an odd breakfast and was too much for me really in the morning. Had like a tuna and pork mixture like a slab of meat and then bread with something else. I couldn't finish it all as otherwise I would have been sick. As I was going out of the front door of the block of flats I was getting perilously close to small drop with shallow water in it. There was like a water feature either side of front door but I hadn't noticed it as it wasn't working.
Yesterday I had been surprised to see gym equipment in Lima outdoors- think one was weights and another rowing machine.
We walked to a new looking bus station and got on a modern bus to Lima. I think I probably got it wrong saying that Peru was less developed than Ecuador. That was my first impression but after staying in Miraflores and travelling on bus in Peru I wouldn't say that now. I really like Miraflores and Lima. I stood up for most of way and ear-wigged on what some Australians were saying. We then went to an opticians to drop off Luis glasses. All the opticians were gathered together on the same road but most of them were closed. We first saw Las Nazarenas and walked up the main street JR De La Union to the beautiful main square (Plaza Mayor). We watched the parade of the firemen as in Lima they were celebrating the anniversary of the bomberos. Most of the bomberos (firemen) are volunteers. We also went in the Catedral de Lima for a look and then we walked up to San Francisco church which was also beautiful and then into Parque de la Muralia. I was shown the remains of the old house and Luis talked about the history until we spotted signs in English. They were better as my spanish isn't really good enough to understand all the history. There were some bad translations on the signs though. Obviously the person who had translated was not completely ok with english. Me and Luis walked over a bridge to look over the Rio Rimac. From there you could also see the poorer neighbourhoods of Lima.
We then went back to plaza mayor to watch the changing of the guard in Palacio de Gobierno. There was a nutty lady skipping up and down in front of the crowds waving a red scarf. Some young people came by her and she swiped them with her scarf. Luis then took me back into catedral de Lima to see cathedral with lights on. The mass was just finishing and he said to wait and then take photos of the priest etc. I felt quite awful taking photos of the priest especially as he was nearly on top of me when I managed to get a photo of him. I had had to wait till someones head was out of the way and by that time he was so close to me. We then went on to have an ice cream in a cafe. I was trying to work out what flavours were which but I ended up with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. We then went to Santa Domingo and saw the convent. Down to a tomb the stairs down were very narrow.
We then went back picked up Luis glasses and got on another bus. It wasn't as modern as one we came in but was still quite good. We got on bus to go to supermarket. Was quite good seeing a Peruvian supermarket. Had a meat pastry and chiquita. Was really quite like being in a supermarket at home. The only difference I noticed were the potatoes weren't washed. They were still covered in soil.
28 November 2011 Miraflores, Lima
Met a new teacher (Luisa) for grammar class. She was 34 and spoke so fast. We were joined by two Germans and a Swiss but then they split the class up as there were too many people to the teacher. We learned about past tense today and begin by practicing present class. I could tell I had had the weekend in between.
In break I talked to a person in Spanish from South Korea. After that I had conversation class with Rocio (teacher from last week). As Dasha doesn't do the conversation class we were joined by the two Germans and the Swiss again. We learnt body parts in spanish and then matched up Dominos- pictures and words. The Germans were really good. What I want to know is why you would already know the names of body parts as a beginner.
Then a lot of us went out for lunch. Was amusing on way as we were walking along and I suddenly realised that I could see the end of a nose pointing out of a hedge/fence. I stepped back out of the way and was warned ahead of time as I had already seen it. I thought Adam had already realised I had seen something but he hadn't so when the dog began barking he screamed out. It was an ugly looking dog too!
As crossing road someone began muttering to me in spanish behind me. No idea what he was going on about. I still can't get used to crossing the road when traffic drives on the right.
29th November 2011 Miraflores, Lima
Well todays lessons were really hard. We started off with our grammar lesson and we were making up sentences in past tense using some words given in the book. It was quite hard but I felt I was managing. Alex got confused as there were some communication problems between him and teacher. He asked the teacher what a word meant and she said thief but in a Peruvian accent. He thought she said death so he was trying to write a complicated sentence using the verb to assault and death. Teacher thought we couldn't construct sentences well enough so went into all the rules with the different verbs in present tense and which article to use. I was a little impatient as I wanted to move on to past tense so I could stop sounding stupid in apartment using the present tense for past tense. I understand that you've got to get basics but it just seemed quite pinickity to me yesterday.
We then had our break and I talked for most of it in spanish to a person. I struggled as he was a more advanced spanish speaker but I think he was dutch or German or something. He had quite a strong accent so I couldn't really understand what he was saying on top of music in background and other conversations.
After that we had our conversation class which I found pretty impossible. My classmates from last week also did. We had been joined by three other people. We had to do role plays in front of everyone asking a local person about advice on restaurants, booking a hotel room, going in a restaurant, talking to an airport official, asking for tourist advice. Well one person in group was a much more advanced speaker which made us all feel quite demoralised. To begin with I was like this is really good as will know what to do in real life scenarios now but soon the enthusiasm drained as we hadn't been taught the vocabularly before the role plays. I caused some laughter in classroom. We were doing the tourist advice scenario. The other two in my group had been talking for ages and I didn't really get what they were going on about. The Swiss girl was providing advice on tourism in Switzerland. After talking for a long period I think one of them asked me was I going too and I just said "Si, Por favor". The boys burst out laughing and it was a while till I could stop chuckling. I asked where she would suggest for tourist sites and after she had talked for a while the teacher asked whether I was going. I said I was going to the mountains. She said aren't you going somewhere before. Well I knew Stephanie had talked about going somewhere before but I hadn't understood where. It was a word beginning with c and I knew it wasn't costa as Switzerland hadns't got a coast. I said well I couldn't understand-it sounded like costas but Switzerland hasn't got a coast. It turned out she had said lakes. After that we studied fruit and vegetables and the advanced speaker knew loads of them. I found it quite hard as I can't spell with the spanish alphabet. Me and the others from last week came out quite demoralised and one of the teachers spotted it and asked whether we were ok.
We then got the bus to Lima-me, Te, Adam, Alex and David and had a nice meal in Lima. When we were walking down to restaurant David got a bit freaked out as he thought there was a mouse near his leg. It was my long skirt that brushed against his leg as we were walking along. After that we went shopping in mall de Lima. It was a bit like a market with lots of stalls. At times it was a bit like going back in time as saw playstation ones for sale and old game boys as well as old arcade games. There were also rather a lot of stalls selling films and some had rather a lot of porn movies. I bought a 8GB USB stick for 32 nuevo sol. It was supposed to be 33 nuevo sol but that was the most that we could bargin. Afterwards I realised it hadn't even been worth bartering as it was probably worth the equivalent of 25p. Also bought some chocolate including some dairy milk. The chocolate is a lot more expensive than home. We then tried to get the bus back to Miraflores and ended up going in wrong direction to downtown Lima. You could see that it was a lot poorer area and we got off 3 stops before bus terminated. We got off at Los Jazmines and I am glad I wasn't on own there. We then had to do the long trip back.
We got back at 7pm and I then made a start on my homework then had dinner at 7:30. Luis and Rosa then helped me with my spanish alphabet and did a bit of verb testing with me. I then went back to my homework and I still had things to do at 11pm but I was too tired to carry on so getting up early tomorrow.
30th November 2011 Miraflores, Lima
Well woke up at 6am to do some extra sentences and learn my fruit and vegetable words. Went to grammar class and that was better than yesterday. Had a nice break talking to others.
Conversation class was hard again. Practiced past verbs to begin with and then did practice with fruit and vegetables. That wasn't bad but was quite funny. I managed to call watermelon sangria. I think I did originally call it something like sandia and teacher went to correct it and I said sangria.
We played pairs game with them but I was tired so couldn't remember where things had been placed.
We then went to a restaurant for lunch where I had ceviche and then spaghetti carbonara. Cost 11 nuevo sol. After that me, David and Adam when shopping for a few necessities. First we went to a place which was the Peruvian equivalent of Waitrose. Me and Adam talked about it and said why are we buying shampoo in an expensive supermarket. We went to metro instead but prices weren't that different. Imported goods like branded shampoo and branded chocolates are more expensive.
Main course was nice but dessert was a little odd. It looked like jelly but then was told to drink it out of a bowl. It seemed rich, thick and syrupy but it tasted quite nice even though it did slightly remain me of cough medicine. I talked to Rosa and Luis over meal even though did struggle at times to understand. Luis also tested me on a few things and I've just finished my homework to write in spanish what I've done over last week.
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