After an incredibly hectic and stressful week studying for midterms, I’m finally getting to post again about life here in Peru. Last week, I spent almost four days straight reading scholastic articles in Spanish to prepare for midterm exams. Reading in Spanish takes a lot more focus and concentration for me, as well as the occasional assistance of Google Translate for words I don’t know yet. My first day of studying was incredibly frustrating, because it was so difficult for me to understand a lot of the scholastic vocabulary, but by the end of third and fourth days, I found myself reading things and comprehending them much faster. Still, at times the studying could be really dull and tedious, so my roommate and I tried to find a few different study spots around Lima so we wouldn’t just be stuck in our living room. We ended up finding a cute cafe within walking distance from our house, with french pastries and free Wifi.
To reward ourselves for having survived our week of midterm exams, we visited a beautiful museum in Lima, Museo Larco. The museum hosts a collection of art and artifacts from before Peru’s colonization, showing the history that is often ignored in favor of the history of Spanish colonization. The works inside the museum are impressive, but equally so is the exterior of the museum. As soon as you walk into the museum gates, it feels like you’ve been transported to a new world. Outside of the museum is a beautiful floral garden, with bright red and pink flowers growing up and along the walls of the museum. It was the perfect little escape after our week of exams.
