4th Entry – June 10, 2012

4^th Entry – June 10, 2012

Week three done and just one more week of Peru.  I stayed very busy last week, as usual, with school stuff.  We talked about teaching different skills like reading, speaking, listening, and writing.  Next week we take over a class and start teaching.  We had to draw names to see who got what time slot and what class level.  Unfortunately, my name was drawn last, and I got stuck with a night class from 7-8 in the evenings.  Really the time slot wouldn’t be bad except for the fact that we have class in the morning so I’m more than likely going to leave my house early in the morning and not get back until around 8:30.  The class level is Alto Basico, high basic.  The students are in their 5^th month of English.  The class has 13 students ranging in age from around 18-35.  There are good and bad things about teaching a lower level class like mine.  Generally speaking, I won’t have to teach anything that is too complicated so that will be nice, but I also won’t be able to do near as many activities as I could do in a higher level class. 

I wasn’t able to do a big trip this weekend, although I would have loved to, because of all the teaching preparation (anddddd I don’t have any money).  I did get to go to a place called Tipon yesterday afternoon though.  Tipon is an Inca site with some amazing engineering about 45 minutes by bus outside of Cusco.  The whole complex is much bigger than I thought and what make it so impressive are the water channels that are built throughout the entire site.  I took a bunch of pictures while there, but I’m not sure they do it justice.  I also managed to go to about 4 or 5 museums last week.  When I went on my trip to the Sacred Valley, you have to buy a tourist pass.  I got the 10 day tourist pass that includes entrance into numerous places in and around Cusco.  The 10 day tourist pass was the same price as the partial ticket that only lasted 3 days because I’m a student.  The museums and Tipon were part of my ticket so I’ve been trying to get as much out of it as possible.  Tonight I’m planning to go to “Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo” (Cusco Center of Native Art).  I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it is very close to our school and people are lined up to go there every night.  I believe they have some native music and some type of production to see.  It’s included on my tourist pass, so I’m going to take advantage of it. 

Also this past week was Corpus Christi which is a very celebrated holiday here in Cusco.  There is a big parade and everything in the city is closed.  Unfortunately, the TEFL students had class L  We were the only students in the school, and we were pretty upset about missing the procession.  We went to the main city plaza after class and there was still a bunch of festivities going on.  It was very impressive.  The statues of saints from the churches around town are taken out and around the city.  There were a TON of people everywhere.  It is very famous here in Cusco.  I’ve posted some pictures online to see.

Over and out.