Month: November 2018

Every Thanksgiving before this year, I’ve celebrated Turkey Day by stuffing my face with mashed potatoes and green bean casserole surrounded by family and friends. But this year, I found myself flying to Northern Peru, near the equator, to celebrate the weekend on the beach. My friends and I got to spend three days laying out on the beach, watching sunsets, and exploring the cute little beach town we were staying in.  We even got to swim with sea turtles!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was strolling through the craft market the last night we were there. Each table we visited had a selection of handcrafted jewelry and souvenirs we could purchase, usually for less than 15 soles or $5 USD. I even got to purchase a few Christmas gifts for my family to bring home next month. (They’re not pictured below because I don’t want them seeing what I got them just yet.)

There was a moment when I was bargaining with one of the vendors to purchase to get a better price for one of the things I was buying when this wave of pride came over me. Being able to interact with people on an equal level in Spanish is something I never thought I would be able to do when I first got to Peru. If I was buying something I would just mutter a common phrase, “Cuanto cuesta?” to ask the price and hand over the requested soles. I knew I was likely being given a higher tourist price, but I didn’t have the confidence or vocabulary to bargain. Now I can ask about the object, what its made of, where its from, and know what a fair price is to ask for. It may not seem like much, but to me it’s a sign that I’ve been able to adapt to living in Peru and feeling comfortable interacting with people in Spanish.

I realized today that even though I have been posting study abroad updates since July, I have so far left out a significant part of my experience here: the part where I actually study.

So over the past few days, I’ve stopped in between classes to take pictures of my school and reflect on some of the differences between going to school here in Peru versus going to Holy Cross. My university, officially known as the Pontifical  Catholic University of Peru, or PUCP for short, is one of the largest and most highly accredited universities in the country. The college grounds themselves are beautiful, with intricate floral landscaping and modern architecture spread throughout the campus. The size of the school is a little smaller than Holy Cross, but it feels much larger as PUCP is a commuter school so there aren’t any dorms. The school’s population is actually about 5 times Holy Cross’.

My classes here are all taught in Spanish, so I’ve gotten a lot better at listening and comprehending Spanish while studying here. The classes are also taught a little differently. In each class, there are semi-weekly reading quizzes over the material, and the midterm and final are also heavily based on the readings. This was a little frustrating towards the beginning of the semester, when I spent more time studying class notes than readings and ended up doing poorly on my exams because of it. This was the norm at Holy Cross, however, many students here do not even take notes in class and study only the reading material. Now that I understand how the courses work, I have been able to do a lot better. (Unfortunately, I do still have to take notes.)