Where are the clocks?

Here are some things that I have noted about life in Arequipa:

1. I have yet to find any kind of clock in the entire building at Universidad Catolica San Pablo! And so far, I have only found one clock in my house. There are not many clocks here.

2. There also aren't many shorts here. People don't wear shorts. Ever.

3. And the paper here... is a couple inches longer than paper in the U.S. It sticks out the end of my American folders.

4. I should also say a word about the weather. It is very warm here during the day. The sun is fierce here. Actually, Tita told me that Arequipa is the second city in the world in terms of strength of the sun. Everyone must wear sunscreen when they are outside, even for a short time. And sunglasses are important. There are a couple holes in the ozone layer near here that make the sun especially dangerous. As soon as the sun goes down, though, it gets a bit chilly. It's good to have a hoodie or jacket to wear at night.

5. When a student is speaking to a professor, they must use formal language (Usted instead of tu), and when a professor walks into a classroom, all of the students rise together until the professor grants them permission to sit. This took my by suprise on the first day of class--I wasn't sure what was going on, but I decided to stand with everyone else. I'm glad I did.

6. Many people speak English! My family speaks English quite well. Andrea speaks English better than I do, an so do all of her friends. A few of my classmates at the university have spoken in English with me to practice. Students start learning English here very early and it seems like in the middle and upper-middle classes, it is expected that you speak English. When I'm in the car with Tita, we listen to a Spanish radio station that plays all English songs from the U.S.

7. Everyday, after lunch, we rest. Everyone just finds a place to plop themselves and reads a book or takes a nap. It is part of life. I think it's a good thing to learn how to do--to make time for rest everyday. Rest is not, I don't think, something that the American culture values very much, but here in Arequipa, it is important.

8. In our Calvin classes, we have been talking a lot about culture. We've talked about good things and about bad things in American culture. One of the good things that I have realized this week is that we read a  lot in America. That is not so here in Arequipa. On the first day of class, my professor in Didactica de las Matematicas talked about how in Peru, no one reads in the parks or on the planes or on couches in the univeristy, but in America, people read all the time in public transportation and in public areas. That is good!! Keep reading, people!