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.)
