Weekly Report #2 Nov. 4-11

Sunday Nov. 4
Today the school that my host brother goes to had its family day, just like the one that my sister's school heldlast Sunday. Again, it was nice to spend some time with the family. I met one of my friends from the Universitythere and his girlfriend. We talked for a while and then I ended up going over to a friends house with him for anhour so. That's pretty much all that happened.

Monday Nov. 5
Had an exam in Communication today. I couldn't do most of the stuff on it because I hadn't been there for when they had learned it, but I still tried to do what I could. The thing about Communication is that it is pretty much a class that you take to learn how to speak in public. So some of the questions it was easy to come up witha couple of responses to questions such as "What must you do to make a good introduction" or "What is the objectiveof an introduction". Then I had math. That class always makes me happy. For most of the problems that we do I laugh and get my work done without any time at all. And today I got my calculator!! Finally the package came,I was dying without my calculator. I have been using my calculator for a couple years now, so when it comes time to use a different one... it doesn't work out so well. Now I should be able to get one of the best grades in the class. Shouldn't speak toosoon though. Went to Serena's house (exchange student from Wisconsin) where hung out, watched... can't rememberthe name but it is about cashiers and it has Jessica Simpson in it, and made chocolate chip cookies. I have beenhanging out with the exchange students a bit more lately. I like it and don't like it at the same time. They arefun to be around, but not people to learn Spanish with. I've been speaking all day everyday for a little over twomonths now and it definately shows. So that's about it for today.

Tuesday Nov. 6Normal day... I think. Sometimes I wait until a day or two after and then can't remember what I did. I think todaywas just a normal day... Oh except I had an exam in Physics. It definately sucks to start in a school halfwaywhen they are almost done. I couldn't do one thing on the exam. Nothing else worth writing here.

Wednesday Nov. 7
Today was a wonderful day. Today for the first time I was able to volunteer. I now have to make a schedule forwhat days I will be going, hopefully I'll be able to go everyday. I went to a place where very poor kids go toget help with their homework, get something to eat, and to have fun in a safe place. The first thing that I did there was help a couple of kids with their homework. One boy was doing some reading and writing practice, andthen I had to make him twenty math problems for him to do. The other kid that I was helping was a little girl doingher math homework. After that I practiced reading with her, which I liked very much because it not only helped her,it helped me too. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the best decisions that I have made to do thisyear so far. Then playing with them after their homework was done was fun too. I put one girl on my shoulders andwalked around with her for a while, but then once the other children started attacking her I thought it best to lether off. It's very gratifying to see the looks on their faces when a white person comes to help them. They allwant to sit in my lap and talk to me and ask me things. So this experience is not only good for them... it's goodfor me. Just from the first day I feel like that I am a part of something good now, like I am helping out and beinghelped out at the same time. I also met a girl from Australia, a girl from France, and heard that there was another girl from Germany there. How can this situation get any better? Oh yeah and there was a girl from Holland there toobut she was just visiting, she was here four years ago and has returned to see what it's like now. I already havethe facebook's of the girl from Australia and the girl from France, but unfortunately I missed out on the girl fromHolland. Hopefully she will be there another day. Oddly enough my host mother says that when her son went to Germany last year he met a couple of girls that were coming here to volunteer. So the girl from Germany could possibly be one of those girls. That would be so weird, but cool at the same time. My host father's brother arrived today. He is staying until Monday. I think I'll enjoy having him here because that means my family will spend more time together. I hope.

Thursday Nov. 8
Today was a pretty normal day. I went to class, the gym, and then home for lunch. Today we had steak with two eggs, rice, and french fries. That meal is one of the ones that most resembles what I could find in the US. Exceptfor the rice part. :-/I'm hoping that the arrival of my "uncle" means that my family will be doing some things together for the next few nights. I think that we are doing something tonight because my host mom made a cake. I think this would be a good opportunity to share the maple candy that my parents sent me from the US. Hopefully they will like it! Last year they had an exchange student named Brittany from Oregon. She brought maple syrup with her, and they DIDN'T LIKE IT!! The syrup that they use here is more along the lines of molasses. It's sweet and tastes good, butit's a heavier syrup than what we use in VT. Did I ever mention how much I love siesta? I think I'll be getting a lot less of it now because I've started volunteering but still, it's pretty damn amazing. Today I took a nap for about an hour. I could take one for twoor even three. But that would be getting a little excessive. It's perfectly normal to go to my room after lunch,shut my wall (look at the pictures from the first time I put pictures up on here), and just sleep for a while. Andnow I have my laptop hooked up to the highspeed internet in my room too. All I need is a little refrigerador and a stairmaster and I could live in here. Cable television, big bed, clothes, internet... and a window for fresh air,vitamin D, and a beautiful view of the mountains. Probably better than the dorm I'll be staying in next year. :-/

Friday Nov. 9
For the morning it was a normal day. Went to class, went to the gym, came home for lunch. In the afternoon I went for a walk with two of my fathers brothers, a friend of my father's brother, and a little later we met my father. We walked from my house to the center; probably a half an hour walk but we were doing a little sight seeing along the way. We went into a a couple of places called Tambos. They were places where merchants would stay on their wayto the city. The city obviously didn't used to be this large. I live in Cayma, what I thought to be a part of thecity of Arequipa. Now I know that Cayma used to be its own village. Along with Yanahuara, and all of the other districts of Arequipa. They all have their own plazas, their own mayors house and office, and their own church.

Saturday Nov. 10
Today was... tiring to say the least. Last night I went out with some exchange students to the house of someone from the University. It was really boring so I ended up going to the center until about 1:30, meaning I was getting to sleep at about 2:00-2:15. That made this morning more tiring than it should have been. I got up at 6:30 am to go to the gym... Getting to bed late and getting out of bed early made for a tiring rest of the day. It didn't really hit me though until about 5:00 o'clock. After an hour or so after getting home from the gym I went out to see some of the "countryside" with my host father, his three brothers, and a friend of one of his brothers. The weather was beautiful and I was excited to spend some time with some family. All I knew was thatwe were headed to a few different locations that were very beautiful, filled with history, or both. Within the first fifteen minutes we had stopped at around five different stores looking for cold beer, and finally at a localpharmacy we found what we were looking for. The first :chshkpop!: of a beer opening took place at 11:00 am... :)
Isn't family wonderful? I only ended up having two over the course of about seven hours of driving around the countryside stopping at churches, village centers, and shops to restock our supplies. The route that we took woundthrough the desert to several small villages surrounding the city. The sights that we saw were quite pretty. Churches, views of the mountains, of streams, of village centers, all were very pleasing to the eye. On our way through the desert we saw a couple of sandstorms. It was my first experience actually seeing the swirlingof the 100 foot sand column, consuming anything that happened to get in its path. It was pretty cool. One thing that was kind of weird but cool was that we sort of rented a taxi driver for the day. I've seen this driver a few times; he brought my brother, cousins, and me home a few times from school. But for today, he parkedhis tiny little taxi in our garage, and became our driver for the day. That allowed for a few things... one it allowed my host father to be able to pay more attention to his family and the converstations going on in the car,two it allowed him to drink, and three it allowed him to sleep on the way home. The cab driver also knows pretty much every road in the entire city so there weren't many navigation problems. Tonight I think I'm going to an exchange student's house to play poker. That should be fun. The other exchange students are actually able to speak a little spanish now too, so occasionally I can actually speak the language with them. But still most of the time they speak in English, and it is way too frustrating for me to try to speakin spanish to them because they either don't understand, or they take ten minutes to respond to a question such as"Are you tired?" (i.e. yes or no question)I think that's about it for today. Overall it was a very good day. I got to spend time with family, see some niceplaces around Arequipa, and take some photos. Note to self: When you have enough money buy a) A lense with a good zoom b) A wide angle lense c) Email UVM and ask about photography classes as electives.

Well that's all folks. Another week down. Its hard to believe how fast time is going already. I don't even feellike I am to the really great part of the exchange, and the weeks are already seeming like they have less and lessdays in them. I've got Machu Picchu soon, so that is ten days that will seem like one right there, plus there is a month long trip coming up soon, so that's even more than that will go by in a flash. Before too long I'll be boarding my plane back home. Scary, but right now that also sounds relieving. At this point in the exchange is whenmost exchange students experience some of their lowest time. I think for me the first couple of months were like that instead of now, and now is when things are starting to get better. Christmas will be hard. I don't think thatThanksgiving will be hard for me because I will be very busy with my trip. But I think that Christmas will be muchharder. My host mother said that they switch each hear between her family and my host father's family coming to the house for Christmas. She said that Roberto's family is bigger and much more fun to have in the house. Her motheris very strict and... how should I put it... she's just old and doesn't like to have much energy all around her. Little kids running around or being really excited for presents and things like that apparently upset her. So Christmas will probably be a lot harder for me, seeing as I have the most amazing party on Earth with my actual family. :)
I hope that everything is going well for everyone back home. I'm thinking of you all too often here.
Love,
Jack