Weekly Report #1 Oct. 28- Nov. 3

This is the first entry to what I intend to be my weekly report. My host brother from here is in North Carolina right now, and he writes a weekly report that my family here sits down and reads together every Sunday.
Sunday 28
Today was a good day. There was a family day at my sisters school, where there were lots of different types of food, games, and where each class of the school performs a dance. The weather was beautiful, but very hot. The sun here is so strong. Sometimes the difference in temperature from heat to shade is quite alarming. I could be a little chilly in the shade, and be sweating in the sun. Today everywhere was hot. There was a huge tarp over tables overlooking a restricted area for the performances of each class. Since my sister goes to a school that teaches German, there was a yellow/orange section, a red section, and a black section. Most everyong was crowding to the black section because it provided the best shade. At first we sat for a couple of minutes because my little sister's dance was about the fifth act in. Then when my sister's performance came I went with my mother to the side of the restricted area to see if I could get some nice shots of her dancing. The sun was so strong that within that nine or ten minute period I was sweating just from standing. For the rest of the day I was sitting with my father and a couple of other people just talking and relaxing. We got something to eat a couple times throughout the day, including ceviche, a traditional Peruvian dish that has pieces of raw fish in some sort of lemon juice with onions, spices, a piece of a sweet potato, and dried corn curnals. It was pretty good but I couldn't finish a whole thing. We had a couple of other things too including a little hand-sized pizza, pieces of steak with potato, and these things that resembled fried dough just more in the shape of a donut. At around 1:30 or so we headed out. We stopped at a little restaurant called Capricio's for sandwiches on the way. I had a sandwich with onions, lots of melted mozzarella cheese, and BBQ chicken. It was great. When we got home my mom said that she and my sister were going for a walk with the dog. I've been going on walks with the dog for the past week or two everyday, trying to find as many ways to stay active as possible. So she asked me if I wanted to go and I said sure. Usually when I take the dog for a walk I just go to the corner from my house, about fourty feet, turn right into the gated urbanization that is The Girasoles, and walk for a minute to the little park that they have there. There I just walk around with the dog, maybe walk around the park a time or two, and then head home. I didn't know if I was allowed to go further with the dog because there are stray dogs everywhere here, and it could be a bit dangerous to bring Fiona (the dog) to far. But we went further down this time past the corner, probably around ten minutes walking. Then we turned into another street and just walked around for a long time into a few other Urbanizations. It was nicer than usual because my mother knows when and when not to let the dog off of the leash. So Fiona got to run around a lot more and have a lot more fun. Throughout the day I got to talk to my parents a lot more than usual. It's hard because they are very busy people,especially during weekdays. My brother is always doing his own thing and I never really get a chance to hang out with him either. So sometimes it feels like I am just supposed to do my own thing. It was really nice to have a day that the family spent more like one unit. Last night my parents were home too, so at dinner I was able to talk with them about a couple of things that I did that day, and then after dinner I watched TV with my dad for a while. Days when I really get to spend some time with my family make me feel a lot better. Sometimes they are just so busy that it's hard for me to feel comfortable. But whenever we do spend time together it is time well spent. I enjoy it very much.
Monday 29
Today was just an alright day. I went to school, where I had an exam in math. I probably could have aced it but I had no calculator, which made it a little more difficult. I think that I did alright, but there were things like graphs that I couldn't do without a calculator so... I probably didn't get a very good grade. But anyway, after class I hung around with some friends like I always do, just kind of sitting around and talking. Gym after that for a little over an hour. Today worked triceps and back. I do abs everyday, so whatever I say just add them. Not much else going on today, pretty quiet. Came home, ate lunch, slept for a few hours, (I-love-siesta), then fooled around on the computer for a while. I really need to find a costume for the Halloween dance. I'm going with some friends and they said that I need to dress up, but I don't know what to be! Tomorrow I need to go to the Center to find something because the dance is Wednesday. Tomorrow should be a busy day for me. I need to find more things to do afterschool. My host mom said that I can just go to any hospital and ask if I can do work for free. That is the kind of stuff that I am looking for, ways to volunteer, to fill my time. That is something that I decided a long time ago that I wanted to do in Peru. I think it's a good way to fill time, get a little experience in a hospital setting (since I could work in a hospital as a Physical Therapist), and a chance to learn some more spanish.
Tuesday 30
Again, just kind of a normal day. Didnt go to the gym because I was feeling sick. We think now that I don't have something like the flu, I just have allergies to something here. Most likely it is the air here, because the contamination from vehicles here is incredible. There is actually a hole over Arequipa in the Ozone Layer because the polution here is so bad. I put sunscreen on every time I go out, usually even if it is overcast. When there is sun it is very strong. The difference between the shade and sunlight never ceases to amaze me. Had an exam in Chemistry today. But the things that they are doing are difficult and it has been a long time since I have done them, so I opted not to take the exam because, quite literally, I could not do one thing on it. I sat next to a friend, went outside and sat in the sun, just kind of relaxed.
Wednesday 31
Halloween! Halloween is funny here. They don't actually celebrate Halloween here, but when people heard of this holiday where everyone gets dressed up and goes from house to house asking for candy they thought it a good idea to adopt it. Little kids, about ninety percent of them Spider Man, were running around the streets with their little sacks in hopes of getting as much candy as possible. My old school had a dance that I thought my friends and I would go to, but we ended up hanging out for a while and then going to a club instead. I heard that the party wasn't very fun so I'm glad that I didn't go. My family doesn't exactly celebrate Halloween. They don't give or get any candy, but do enjoy dressing up. My sister went to a dance/family thing at her school. She dressed up as a princess. My brother dressed up as a hunter and went to the party that my old school was having. It was a good night, apart from still having the symptoms of the flu from whatever allergy I have.
Thursday 1
My two month anniversary. I can't believe how fast this month went. It scares me to think of how fast the rest of the year is going to go. Every week something gets a little better here and time moves a little faster. Before I know it I'll be calling my parents again on the first day of my fifth month here, then sixth, seventh... My spanish is not as good as I had hoped. My comprehension is great, I love where that stands. But fluid conversation is still difficult. I'm not worried, it will come. I'm beginning to talk more and more with my family here as I become more and more comfortable with how the household is run. There were no classes today because of the holiday. I thought that it was because of the "holiday" Halloween, but my host mother told me that today being a holiday has nothing to do with Halloween. There is another church related holiday today that just happens to be the first day of November, the day after Halloween. Today my host brother had a bowling tournament and the International Club. This club has all sorts of things to do. There are a couple of pools, there are tennis courts, basketball courts, volleyball, soccer, and the list goes on. I would get a membership there but it would cost me fifty US dollars a month to go, an amount of money that I am nowhere near able to afford. But anyway my brother had a tournament there today, so I went with my family, including my host uncle Jorge to watch him. My brother is the best bowler in the International Club, so when he has an event we all go to watch. He played four games competing against bowlers from Chile, Bolivia, and Lima. They then combine all of the points from the four games to see who wins. I honestly can't remember how many points he got, but when we left his place was sixth among all of the competitors. There were still more people to play after him so I'm not sure if sixth was where he stayed. My brother is only sixteen years old though, competing against bowlers that must have been well into their fifties, so he did just fine. I believe that his best game was a 209. At about 10:30 that night I was saying goodnight to a friend that I was talking to on MSN Messenger. I said, "I should really get to bed because I'm tired and we have class at 7 tomorrow." He retorted with, "Class? No, there are no classes tomorrow." Haha I wasn't exactly heartbroken to find that out. I didn't remember to buy a phone card early in the day, and it was a holiday so most of the stores were closed, so I thought that I was going to be unable to call home. Fortunately there are many phone promotions here, and it just so happened that for this week I could call after 8:00 o'clock for 100 minutes for just seven soles. That amounts to about two dollars and change. So I was able to call home like I always do on the first of the month. It felt very odd talking to my parents again, just because it seemed like I had just called them a week before on the first of the preceeding month. Still, it was nice to hear their voices, even though I always seem to miss Mike as he is in bed by the time I call. I tried to call Allison too but she wasn't able to pick up.
Friday 2
No class again today. Went for a walk with the dog at about nine o'clock to buy a phone card so I could make a fewcalls again. The temperature was perfect then. Sunshine, little breeze, not too much traffic, just perfect. Planned on calling Allison but I guess I can't call cell phones with the kind of card that I buy so I'll have to try to catch her while she is home or something. Didn't do too much today. Went to the gym, walked the dog in the morning, ended up going for another walk with my sister and the dog after lunch. At night I went over to a friends house. Her name is Serena, from... Wisconsin. There I met up with a couple more exchange students just to chill out and have a quiet night. We were all pretty tired and didn't want to go out, so we stayed in. Her brother has his own little apartment above the house so we went up there and listened to music.
My brother had another bowling tournament that day. He bowled a 232, winning first place. There were still more heats after his though, so again I'm not positive if he remained number one.
Saturday 3
Not much to do today. I want to go to the gym but since it is Saturday there are going to be a million people there.The gym isn't that big so when there are a lot of people there it is uncomfortable and annoying. I plan on going every weekday after class, because there aren't too many people, meaning that there isn't much waiting time for machines, and the trainer there has more time to spend on me and is in a better mood. Tonight I plan on going out, that's why I'm writing this now, because I doubt I'll be here tonight to finish. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do but hopefully I'll find something.
I hope that everyone is doing well at home. Also I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes in this report. I did the best I could in corrected everything. I'm finding that speaking and thinking in English is becoming more and more difficult as each week passes. I stumble on words or phrases quite often. I also have begun to translate things from Spanish to English. For example, to ask What is it like? In Spanish it is Como es? But directly translated it is "How" is it? Occasionally I will want to ask what something is like to a friend in English and ask How is it? Or when I don't hear something properly I'll ask Como? "Pardon?"

To everyone from the Fam at home to the Wynnes in Ireland and everyone in between, I hope that you have a great week and I look forward to hearing from all of you soon. ::hint hint:: (Comment on my blog)

Love,
Jack