Week 2, Part 1: Wiracocha Spanish School

On Monday, June 7, Jennie and I woke up bright and early for our first day of classes at the Wiracocha Spanish School.  Senora Marcela prepared fresh juice, café, and cheese sandwiches (with a strange type of white cheese we dubbed "squeaky cheese" because it squeaks when you chew).  After breakfast, we met two of our classmates on the corner of our street and walked down a cobblestoned hill to our school (less than a 5 minute walk away).  We learned very quickly from our fellow Rockhurst travelers that Jennie and I were fortunate to live so closely to the school.  Some students had to take a 20 minute commute by taxi each morning.

Jennie checks out the view from our bedroom window.

Cuesta San Blas: The street we walked to get to school.

My first class of the day was a conversation class with la profesora Erica, where we learned the expectations for the four weeks of class.  Throughout the weeks, that conversation class helped better my Spanish more than I had expected.  Erica did a fantastic job of engaging my small class in conversation, and I felt more free to speak in Spanish than I had ever before.  Erica also made the class interesting by creating discussion over controversial topics, such as gay marriage, capital punishment and euthanasia.  We took field trips to local markets and learned to speak with the locals.  Erica also helped us with our grammar, which served as a very useful refresher.

My Spanish conversation class with Erica, our professor, in the middle.

Abby and I explore the spiral staircase at school.

My second class each day was la historia del Peru with la professora Kendy.  The Peruvian history class turned out to be a lot more complicated than I would have thought.  We plowed our way through information on how the Peruvian natives may have crossed the Bering Strait from Asia, down through North and Central America, and finally settled on the northern west coast of South America.  The history class then delved into the various festivals and feast days of the Peruvian people .  Believe me - there are a lot of festivals in Peru!  There seemed to be celebratory fireworks and music coming through my window every night.  We studied the culture of the indigenous people: their legendary creation story, climates, trades, architecture, agriculture, textiles, and caste system.  The tale of ancient Peruvian history ends with the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors in 1532, who were in search of gold.  

Each day, after the two classes, Jennie and I went home to eat lunch, which usually consisted of soup and vegetables.  Sometimes we would notify Senora Marcela in advance and have lunch at a local pub or café.  There was also a deli two doors down from our school that sold delicious ham sandwiches and pastries.  Oftentimes we would spoil our lunch by stopping by the deli to pick up a giant, chocolate-covered croissant. 

Jennie and I also became accustomed to the everyday functions of life in Cusco.  We had easy access to the laundry mat (called a "lavandaria") across the street, which charged three soles per kilo (about one dollar), and we utilized the internet café down the street.  Internet cafés are typically where the Peruvian youth hang out after school, but if you could often catch a computer before the schools got out for the day.  The internet cafés usually had webcams, so we were able to Skype with our friends and family at home in the United States. 

On the afternoon following classes on our first day of school, we all returned to Wiracocha for a impromptu music lesson.  During the lesson, we learned how to play the pan-pipes, or "zamponas", to the tune of "Hey Jude." 

Practicing on our zamponas.

 That night we had a meal of carrot and cheese tortillas, but after dinner we met up with our friends to go to the McDonalds on the Plaza de Armas to study.  Many people may scoff at travelers going to McDonalds in a foreign country, but it was interesting to see the differences between the McDonalds in Peru and the McDonalds that is so familiar to us at home.  The menu was limited, and the food tasted a little off, but other than that, it was pretty much the same.  Good ol' American capitalism!