¡Holaaa!
After about 3 weeks in Peru here´s another update about stuff that´s going on here! I am slowly getting used to (some of) the odds and ends of Peruvian lifestyle which I thought would be fun to share:

- Every so many years, on a Sunday, ALL Peruvians must stay at home from 6 in the morning till 6 at night. This is because the Censo (government people) will stop by at EVERY house in Peru to check how many people live in Peru! They stop by and ask the head of the household exactly 120 questions (no kidding) about the family, how many kids you have, whether your parents are still alive, what you do for a living, whether you have brothers and sisters and what they do for a living, etc etc...!!

-When going to restaurants, expect waiters (I have seen no waitresses as of yet) to literally run to and for you when they want to take your order, serve your food, or get your empty plates!

-I was in kindergarten observing and playing with kids, teaching the basic English stuff like opposites (hot and cold, tall and short, etc) at the end we played a game. Usually, I would imagine, the winner of the game gets a sticker or a happy face written in his or her notebook, but I was quite surprised to hear that the winner of that game got to.... smell all the markers!! (see photo´s!)

Cheap
Life is really cheap here..I usually take the crazy combi every morning for 60 centimos (divided by 4 for euro´s, divided by 3 for dollars). I can also take a cab, but that takes about 3 soles (75 eurocts), or 4 if they try and screw me (the last time they tried that I told them in my most local attitude ¨nono, yo se, yo se, no es 4 soles, es 3 soles!!!¨).. But why pay 60 cents more if you can ride the crazy combi, which will guarantee you a morning full of surprises (in terms of seats -or lack thereof-, height of the van (remember, I am a giant here), smell, number of people that fit in the combi, number of people staring at you, arrival time & music (those who thought 2 brothers on the 4th floor were dead, come to Peru!!).)

Food (you can get a meal for about 2-3 euro, 6 if you want to go wild) internet (25 eurocents per hr), cabs and supermarket products are very cheap, although I was surprised to find things like soap and deodorant to be relatively expensive, as they are the same price in Europe. I wonder if that´s the reason for the interesting smell at the combi´s.

Last week I asked my Spanish teacher to show me the nightlife Arequipa has to offer..so on the first saturday that followed she took me out...first to some touristy pub named ¨Swedish Avenue¨, then we went to a different part of town, looking a bit less safe but that was all good, because I had a local with me. We went to this place where they played lots of salsa, merengue, reggaeton etc, which was great! But the people were dancing rather calmly (not the first sight that comes to mind when thinking of Latin people) and with lots of clothes on. In fact, almost all girls were dancing with their jackets on-now I must say it WAS pretty chilly out there, but what happened to the Latin warmth, the South American groove...? In any case, the whole night had cost me about 5 euro´s including taxi´s & drinks (I didn't go wild on drinks or anything, but still!)

A regular day
A regular day in the past 2 weeks looked like this:
7AM: wake up early and have breakfast while watching reruns of Melrose Place. Then I take a crazy combi around 8.30-8.40 to start my Spanish class at 9AM, or most of the time 10 to 40 minutes later, Peruvian time!.. For about 3 hrs it is all Spanish...the past week it has been nice, because I did not have a stomach ache anymore and we took our classes outside. While walking around at the Plaza de Armas or at the local market my teacher would point at things and name them, or we would sit on a bench in the sun to go over some ¨lektura¨ (which I really don´t like, so I took my own ¨lektura¨ -lyrics of Manu Chao!).

After my Spanish class I had class with Mark, to go over TEFL stuff till around 2PM. My lunchbreak (usually spent at an internet cafe) is from 2 till about 4PM which is when I head over to the kindergarten to play with the kids to teach them things like opposites (see video). Depending on the day, it ended at 5 or 6PM, which is when I either walked home or took a cab or combi, depending on the mood I was in (up for surprises or just really tired). I have recently discovered a gym, where I can work out for 5 soles (1.25 euro)- I am planning on going there on a regular base, so I will not go totally crazy here.

Then when I get home, I´d find my room all cleaned up- bed made and clothes fold...just the way I like it! A lot of time is spent in front of the TV in this house and usually when I get home I find each family member in front of the TV (each in their room) watching whatever. Dinner is also an odd one- lunch here is the big meal of the day, so dinner is usually something small. The food is always prepared by the maids in the afternoon and then put on 5 different ready-to-eat plates, into the oven. All Liliane (the mother) has to do is put the plate in the microwave and serve it. Dinner is not eaten together btw, Paula gets fed in bed (while watching her favorite TV show), Diego eats whenever (also in his room) Liliane usually eats later at night (when the kids are in bed) and Andrès...I havent seen him eat dinner at home yet! That leaves me usually eating my dinner with Liliane or alone in the kitchen (which sounds kind of sad, but I like the silence and peace to think over the day).

The weekends are saved for family time. On saturdays we go to Andrès´ parents for lunch, on sundays we go out for lunch, or Andrès cooks. (Liliane, to my surprise, hates cooking and told me she rather cleans & scrubs!! How could she..). Last weekend we went to a sportsclub, played pingpong and went bowling!

Over the next weeks my schedule will change, as Mark is leaving for the US for 3 weeks and I will have lots of time going to schools to observe etc. and working on my Spanish some more. I will observe some state schools in the morning (I have to be there at 7.30AM!! so no Melrose Place reruns for me the next 2 weeks), Spanish in the afternoon and kindergarten and/or orphanage teaching in the later afternoon from 4 to 6.

I feel comfortable in the family and am adjusting well, but I do miss some things..especially (healthy and tasty) food and getting some regular exercise. I can´t wait till I speak a decent word of Spanish and am able to apply it while traveling and becoming social around here. I already find myself speaking in somewhat of a singing tone when speaking English, so I guess that´s a good thing..

This is the end of update 2, hope you get some idea of what life is like here! And if not...see for yourself, I made a little video ¨2 minutes in the streets of Arequipa¨..it might take a while to upload, but be patient...enjoy!

Ciao y besos, besos!