Postcards, cool people, and a job offer!

First things first. So, there's this one person. Her name is Lauren Nelson, and she is super awesome. I miss her quite a lot. And this morning, I was casually sitting in class learning about violence in Peru, when Professor Zandstra waltzed in and plopped TWO post cards on my desk! And they were both from this Lauren Nelson person!!! There's nothing that can quite make a day like TWO post cards from Lauren! Thank you, hermana!!!

Yesterday was super super fun! I got to have conversation with Alonso for a bit, and also later on with David. Really, these people are so great. I have so much fun talking with them!! They have been such a blessing to me! After conversation group last, a group of people met at Pura Fruta to play cards!!! Alonso was there, as well as Jorge and Samir (hopefully I'm spelling that right... if not... I'm sorry, Samir!), Lauren, Scott, Sara, Fuller, Alex, and Adriana. We had a great time and laughed a ton!! I hope we can do this again next week!!!

This morning, I had the pleasure of teaching about triangles again at Colegio Claretiano. Once again, there were no solutions to these problems, and the problem set today was a LOT more complicated than it was yesterday! My brain was working pretty hard to figure the problems out AND manage the class at the same time, but it all worked out. And after class I got to talk to Profesor Aguilar a bit more. It has been such an honor to work with him this semester.

Oh yeah, and I got a job offer!!!!!!!!! For real--I'm not kidding--it's not a joke! The director of Colegio Claretiano wants me to teach math there!! Oh man!!!!!!!!

Today was the last day of regular classes here in Peru. Which means that it was also the last day of regular classes of my undergraduate college career. Next week is final exams, and then we head off to Lima for five days before returning to the States on December 15. It's pretty crazy to think that I'm DONE with undergraduate college classes. They are over. They were great! And now... who knows what's next, but it's going to be great, too!!

chocolate chips!

The past 15 hours have been absolutely wonderful! Becuase in the past 15 hours, I have eaten the entire 10 oz back of chocolate chips that my awesome parents sent to me. And 8 of those hours, I was sleeping. 

This morning, I led a review about special triangles at Claretiano. Profesor Aguilar had the problems prepared for me, but he didn't have any solutions. In general, this isn't a practice that I think I'll take into my teaching career. But, today it worked out pretty well. Most of the problems weren't too incredibly complicated, so I was able to calculate the answers pretty quickly. 

As I walked from Claretiano to the university, I gaped at Misti, hardly able to comprehend that I WAS UP THERE!!!! 

And then I got to the university and got to spend an hour and half doing one of my favorite things--MATH!! We had a quiz today, and it was quite lovely!

And now, since my chocolate chips are gone and I can no longer munch on those, I think I'll go read a book until lunch time! 

God, You amaze me! I come to You full of thanks and awe, God! Thank You thank You thank You! I don't have words, in English OR Spanish, to really express how awesome You are and how thankful I am, Jesus!

Anticucho

I just ate cow heart! Anticucho is a common Peruvian dish, and it tasted pretty good! After Didactica de las Matematicas today, our professor took us out to dinner! Today was our last day of that class, aside from the final exam that will take place next week. Miss Helena has been telling us for a while that she wants to take us all out for pizza since we've had such a great semester together. However, last night in class, she decided that anticucho would be better than pizza because I can easily eat pizza in the States, but anticucho is a Peruvian dish. So, anticucho it is!! And Miss Helena even ordered a pitcher of sangria for us to all share when she found out that I am going to be graduating in December.

It was such a fun class this semester. I learned a lot, and my 4 classmates are wonderful ladies!! We had a great time this semester, and this evening was no exception. It was fun to get to hang out with them all together. These women have been so special to me this semester. They have helped me and befriended me. I have felt looked after and cared for by them. I am so thankful to God for Dahil, Leyda, Gracce, Meda, and Miss Helena.

SERPOST

My alarm went off at 5 AM today and I energetically bounded out of bed! Okay... that's not completely true. My alarm DID go off at 5 AM, but my bound out of bed was quite lacking energy. I quickly showered and ate breakfast before leaving the house to go to... SERPOST! Serpost is the post office here in Arequipa, and last week I received a notification that there was a PACKAGE waiting for me there! Now, picking up a package is not a simple thing to do. Serpost opens at 8:00 AM, but they only accept like 8 people or something to pick up packages. Therefore, in order to get a place in line, you have to get there EARLY!! But... apparently not as early as I did. I got to Serpost at 6 AM and was the first one there. I sat myself down on the sidewalk and read my Bible for a good two hours before they opened the doors and let us in. It was actually a lovely morning. In the business of the past few days of climbing a volcano and coming back and going to classes, it was really nice to have a good chunk of quite time with God, in the heart of Arequipa.

Since I was the first person there, I was also the first person to get to talk with the customs agent. I had to fill out some form and show them my passport. I also had to open my package and show everything to the agent, and she  needed some copies of my passport, which I didn't have. So I went and made copies down the street. And then I got to take my package home! Thank you to my wonderful parents for the wonderful package and to the wonderful people at Serpost who were really nice and helpful!

And now I'm off to continue my wonderful Wednesday! Woo-hoo!

Happy Tuesday

This morning, I had the pleasure of teaching at Colegio Claretiano. I have enjoyed my time there so much! And I think today was actually the funnest day yet!

One of my favorite things about teaching is interacting with the students. So far, I've spent about 10 hours teaching at the colegio, but I haven't really been able to get to know the students very well. Sure, I've observed them a lot, but I haven't interacted with them a ton. Even in the 10 hours that I have spent teaching, I haven't actually gotten to interact a ton with the students. As a guest teacher in a different country and culture, I have been trying to keep a low profile. Basically, I'm not sure what is normal and acceptable, so I haven't known how to go about getting to know the students better. I have decided to just follow their lead a bit, and they weren't offering any opportunities for conversation, so I didn't push that.

But the more I've been teaching, the more the students are getting comfortable with  me and asking questions and joking around. Teaching today was just super fun!! I got to talk with a few of the students--they bombarded me with questions about the States and it was really fun talking with them.

I also got to hang out with Ana for a few hours today! We're both taking Algebra Lineal y Geometria Analitica, though we're in different classes, so today we met for a few hours in the afternoon to do math together!!! One of my favorite things with one of my favorite people! Yay! There aren't many better ways to spend an afternoon than doing math with a friend in Spanish.

This evening after dinner, I spent some time watching television with mi familia, and now I'm about to go to bed!

Thank You, God. Thank You for being with me, for mi familia here in Arequipa and in the States. Thank You for this day and for Colegio Claretiano and for Ana. And God, I surrender my time to You. Use it however You want, Jesus!

five loaves and two weeks

I woke up this morning a bit sore. Why? BECAUSE I CLIMBED A VOLCANO YESTERDAY!!!!!!!! I CAN'T GET OVER THAT!!!!! SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I also slept like a ROCK last night. It was great. And after class today, I went to Totus (it's like a grocery store) and bought a bag of chocolate milk and it tasted delicious.

I also realized today that I only have two weeks left in Arequipa and three weeks left in Peru. It's going to be hard to leave this place that has begun to feel so much like home. But God is so faithful! Minutes after making this painful realization, I read this passage (Matthew 14:53-21):

And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.

But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.

And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.

He said, Bring them hither to me.

And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

Immediately after reading this passage, God whispered parts of the passage back to me, but He changed some of the words...

Hannah said to Him, "I have only two weeks here in Arequipa."

"Bring them here to me," Jesus replied... Taking the two weeks and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. And He did great things with them.

God, I thank You so much for the time that I have had in Arequipa and in Peru. I give You the time that I have left. It isn't a lot. But I give it to You to do with as You want. I know that You don't need a lot to work with. You can do very big things with very little. To me, two weeks seems... way too short. If it were up to me, I would spend these weeks dreading the goodbyes to come and rushing to do all of the things that I want to do before leaving. But, God, I give You these weeks. They are Yours, not mine. They never were mine to begin with, Jesus. Take these weeks, God, and do what You want with them. I trust You and I love You, Father. And thanks for helping us climb a volcano!!!

Climb up, RUN down!!!!!!!!

There are three volcanoes in Arequipa. How could we possibly spend four months living here and NOT climb one of them? The simple answer is... we can't let that happen. So, that's why I, along with 7 of my Calvin friends, climbed Misti yesterday and today!! That is also why I am currently covered in a fine coating of volcanic dust!!

Our adventure began on Saturday morning when we went to the outfitter place. We packed our back packs, and then packed ourselves into a large vehicle and drove off to Misti! Getting to Misti involved driving on a very rugged road for about 30 minutes. I'm impressed (and relieved) that our vehicle did not tip over. We were very close a few times.

Here we are getting our stuff ready!!

This is Misti. Misti is over 19,000 feet tall.

And this is the vehicle we rode in to get to the volcano!

And this is my backpack!! It was a bit heavy. It had to hold 5 liters of water (1.5 for cooking, 3.5 for drinking) , plus food and warm clothing and a sleeping bag.

Here's our Calvin group!! It's Scott, Sydney, Fuller, Maria, Mary, Adrianna, me, and Alex!

Here we are right at the beginning of the hike.

 Once the vehicle took us as far as a vehicle could take us, we got out and began to hike! In addition to the 8 of us Calvin students, our group contained 11 other people and 3 guides. We started hiking around 11 on Saturday, and the hike was strenuous. We hiked for about 6 hours on Saturday, from the place where the vehicle dropped us off to about halfway up the volcano. The going was pretty slow. Not only did we all have pretty heavy backpacks, but the trail was also very steep. I learned that going up steep trails with a heavy backpack is quite difficult. Thankfully, our guides had us take short breaks about once every hour, and those were always very much needed.

Here we are, relaxing during one of our rests.

This is what much of the trial looked like on Saturday.

This was a very tiring day. I was exhausted by the time we reached camp. I had never felt so physically drained in my life. At camp, we pitched our tents and did some exploring before the guides gave us a dinner of soup and spaghetti! By the time dinner came around, it was dark out and very very cold, so we put on all of our clothing. In total, I was wearing a t-shirt, sweat pants, snow pants, a long sleeved shirt, two hoodies, and a thick coat. And a hat and headlamp.

Here is Sydney and I with our tent! I'm not sure how we both fit in there, but we did! 

It's Alex, Scott, and Sydney! Hmm... Alex Scott... that name sure sounds familiar.  Even here in Peru, I am constantly reminded of my wonderful family in the States! 

We saw the MOST MAGNIFICENT sun set that I have EVER seen in my ENTIRE life! OH MAN, it was amazing!!! This picture does not capture well the beauty of what we saw, but it's cool because you can see some colors and the lights of Arequipa as well.

See our campsite on the left? 

The view from our campsite was pretty cool!

And this is the view looking down the mountain--we started WAY DOWN THERE!!!

After dinner, we all went to bed. It was early, but it was dark out and quite cold. And we had to rise and shine at 1 AM to continue our ascent. 1 AM came, and we hadn't really slept much. The wind was loud all night, and I think that even though we were exhausted, we were super excited and couldn't sleep. We didn't have to bring our backpacks, today. We just left them at the camp and headed up the volcano. It is VERY good that we didn't need our packs. The climb this morning was even more intense than the first part. The path was incredibly steep, and the altitude made everything harder. We hiked for a few hours in the dark, by the light of our head lamps. We were all physically exhausted. But the sunrise was really pretty!!

SUNRISE!!!!

 We took a lot of breaks to rest for 10 minutes or so before moving on. After the hike on Saturday, I didn't realize that I could become MORE exhausted! But it's possible! This morning's hike was even more draining than yesterday's.

We were all bundled up on our hike this morning. It was quite cold.

 Eventually, we could see the summit! But the entire hike there was incredibly tiring!!!

It's the summit from a distance! See the cross in the middle? That's the summit!!

The closer we got to the summit, the more incredible the view became.

WE MADE IT TO THE TOP!!!! And immediately laid down to rest.

 19 people started out in our group, but only 12 made it to the top. It was hard - by far the hardest thing I've ever done. But the view was so very worth it!!!

This is the crater of the volcano!!!!!!

From the top, we had a great view of Chachani, another volcano.

 We arrived at the top of the volcano at 7 AM. Let's do some math here. We hiked about 6 hours on Saturday, and about 6 more on Sunday morning. That's a total of 12 hours to get to the top. How long do you think it took us to get down?

Instead of re-tracing our steps to get back to camp, we took a short-cut. Much of the face of Misti is sand. To get to the summit, we climbed up the rock part, because climbing up sand would be terrible. But going down sand... now that's quite easy. We literally ran down the volcano. It was like one huge sand dune, and we ran all the way to camp. It took us six hours to get from camp to the summit, but it only took us 30 minutes to run from the summit down to camp. Once we got to camp, we packed up our things and did some more running down a volcano, this time with our backpacks! At the very end, we had to scramble like mountain goats down parts of the trail that we had climbed up, but we ran down a majority of the volcano on the volcanic sand dunes.

LOOK AT THIS VOLCANIC SAND DUNE!!!!!!

When we got tired of running down volcanic sand dunes, we took little breaks.

I was back at home by 2:30, after climbing a volcano and running down a volcano. What a day!!! I climbed a volcano this morning!!! I still can't quite believe that!!!

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

 He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
 the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;
 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

                                                        Psalm 121

VOLCANO TIME!!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen... GUESS WHAT? IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS I WILL BE CLIMBING A VOLCANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I think that is pretty sweet!! There are eight of us going, and today we went to the outfitter place and got all our equipment ready! We leave tomorrow morning, tomorrow night we sleep halfway up the volcano, and on Sunday we go to the summit and then make our way down!! Prayers are greatly appreciated!!

I taught at Claretiano yesterday and today. Yesterday, the topic was special triangles, and today's lesson was about area and perimeter of irregular figures. Profesor Aguilar often is in and out of the classroom while I teach, but today he was gone the whole time, evaluating another teacher. But class went really well!! I had a lot of fun teaching and interacting with the students. And, after class today, I got to talk to Profesor Aguilar for an hour or so! It was really great to talk to him about the school and education in general.

God, I pray for Your protection as we climb Misti tomorrow! Thank You that we get to do this, and please keep us safe and I pray that we would have a great time!!

Giving Thanks!

Oh God, thank You!

Thank You for this amazing semester in Arequipa. Wow, seriously, this has been great! I can't get over how great it is, God! Thank You! Thank You for mi familia here in Arequipa, Jesus. And thank You for all of the people that I have met and gotten to know at the university. I have made some cool friends, God. Thank You for Ana, Jorge, Danery, Alonso, David, Dahil, Anthony, Leyda, Grace, Medaly... I am so continually in awe of the way You have placed these amazing people in my life, God. Thank You! I don't understand WHY You have chosen to bless me with these people, but God I thank You so so so much for seeing fit to do so! And the professors that I have had here in Arequipa, God, they are great! Thank You! And, Jesus, thank You for Colegio Claretiano! I have enjoyed being there so very very very much!!

And thank You for the Calvin Crew!!! Oh, God, they have been such a great group. I couldn't have imagined a better groups! Really! As much as I like to have my way, thank You that I am not in charge of... anything! Because You come up with things that are WAY better than anything that I could ever come up with!! Like volcanoes and palm trees and stars!!! Really, God, how did you THINK OF THOSE??

Thank You, God, that my computer has continued to work this semester and has not completely died! And I thank You for my health, too. This semester, I haven't been sick at all! There is no logical explanation for that, God! Thank You for not being logical... or for being beyond my severely limited logic!!

(AND GUESS WHAT??? Today the Calvin Crew had a Thanksgiving Feast!! We all contributed, and we had a TON of DELICIOUS food!! It was a super fun celebration. We had a great time! The Calvin Crew is quite wonderful.)

Presentations

Hey Happy Wednesday, everyone!! And what a wonderful Wednesday it has been! I spent this morning doing some final preparations for a presentation that I had to give about the education system in Peru. It was a fascinating investigation for me, and the presentation went well!

[And, I know you're dying to know what the education system in Peru is like. The best thing about the Peruvian education system is that there is hope that it can improve. Honestly, right now, things aren't very good. But there is a lot of potential, and I pray that people with vision and passion would step up and take a whack at making some changes.]

After class, I went to Colegio Claretiano to observe an English class!!

And then I had a bit of time at home to do some final preparations for my presentation for Didactica de las Matematicas where I had to give a mock 5th grade lesson about... Prime Factorization!!

And now, I'm at home, and I'm currently taking a break from preparing for a presentation that I am going to give tomorrow about my time at Colegio Claretiano. As I type this, I realize that it sounds like all that I have been doing lately is give presentations! But, it really hasn't been as much work as it sounds. The presentations have been quite enjoyable to prepare for, actually! Horray!

THE PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM!!!!!

OH MAN!!! I just walked into my bedroom, and it smells AMAZING IN HERE!!!!!!! WOW!!! I think it has something to do with the enormous bag of FRESH FRUIT that I have! But really... wow it smells good. Maybe I'll just always keep a bag of fresh fruit in my bedroom... Anyway, Thanksgiving is Thursday and the Calvin group is having a little feast and I am contributing fruit salad because the fruit in this country is absolutely awesome. Today, Tita came with me to the market to help me buy the fruit, and now it's sitting in my room!! Horray!

I taught this morning at Claretiano! Pythagorean Theorem!!! YEAH!!!!! Profesor Aguilar really keeps me on my toes. The PowerPoint for today did not have answers, so I had to do the problems as the students did them and collect their problems at the same time. But it was fun!!

I'm learning all about ellipses, circles, and parabolas in Algebra Lineal y Geometria Analitica!!! And that's fun, too!!

Also, I should tell you about last night!! Well, first, yesterday afternoon I got to spend a few hours with part of the Calvin group. We just plopped ourselves on the lawn and talked and laughed for a while, and it was time very well spent. After that, I had to meet with Dahil to work on a presentation for Didactica de las Matematicas. But she found out at the last minute that she had to be at work (she's actually already a teacher!) for a meeting. So, I got to go to her school with her!! We hoped in a combi and went somewhere in Arequipa... honestly, I don't really know where we were. But we got there and I worked on our presentation while Dahil was in her meeting, and after the meeting we wrapped things up. Working with her is really fun. She's an English teacher, so we talk in a wonderful mix of Spanish and English.

The most exciting part of the day was definitely the ride home. Dahil told me what combi to get on, and I got on a took a seat. There weren't actually very many people on it. There were empty seats. But by the time I got off the combi about 40 minutes later... oh man, there were VERY many people on that vehicle!! Once all of the seats in a combi fill up, people stand in the aisle. This gets very very cramped, especially when more and more people keep getting on and no one gets off. It is especially complicated when the person in the very back needs to get of the combi. This involves lots of squeezing and pushing. At one point, the lady who was standing right next to my seat was actually sitting in my lap because there was literally no where else to go. Eventually we got to close to my house, so I squeezed my way out of my seat and SOMEHOW made it to the door of the combi. It was kind of an adventure.

God! Ah! I thank You so much for all that You're doing here! I love being here so much! Thank You for my family, for my friends, for every moment, Jesus!

futbol and life!

Sundays are great days! Well... so are Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays and Saturdays. But since today was Sunday, I'm mostly thinking about Sundays. This afternoon I went to play soccer and frisbee with some cool people! Playing soccer and frisbee on Sunday afternoons with friends from Calvin and from San Pablo is one of my favorite things. We have a lot of fun and laugh a lot and run a lot. Today, my soccer team won, in spite of me (sometimes I just kick... and completely miss the ball!! I'm not sure HOW... but it's a relatively common thing for me! But really, I think I'm getting better.) We play soccer and frisbee for about two and a half hours, so by the time we are done, we are all... pooped. But it's such a fun fun two and half hours!!

Today, after playing, I got to spend some time with Sydney and Scott. We just outside in the Club Internacional and talked and sang some songs until we got too cold to keep sitting still. One of the things that I have missed while I have been here in Arequipa is the accountability, the sharing life and thoughts and feelings, that I have with friends in the States. And another thing that I've missed is praying and praising God with friends. And, now, God has really used Scott and Sydney on a few different occasions now to provide opportunities for the deeper friendships, prayer, and accountability that I have missed. Our God provides just what we need when we need it!! Thank You, God!!!

so many great things!!

1. This has been a great week!! But, I just realized that I haven't really posted very much this week, so I should probably tell you WHY it has been wonderful!

2. Yesterday, I got to learn another Peruvian dance!! It was super fun!! But... I need some practice. A lot of practice, actually. In theory, I learned the dance. But, executing it is a bit more difficult.

3. Dahil, one of my friends from Didactica de las Matematicas, and I are working on a presentation for Tuesday. I've worked with her on a few different partner projects in that class, and she has been a wonderful classmate!! She has helped me so much and been so patient with explaining things to me! Ah, man, I'm so grateful for her!!!

4. Speaking of being grateful, Thanksgiving is on Thursday! Our Calvin group is going to have a feast, which will surely be quite fun!! Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, which is why we are going to do our own thing.

5. OH!!! And this week I signed up to climb El Misti! Nine of us are going to climb the volcano this coming weekend. The elevation of Misti is over 19,000 feet!! Granted, we won't be climbing 19,000 feet because Arequipa is not at sea level, but we're still going to climb a lot!! The last time El Misti erupted was in 1985. We've talked to a lot of people who have climbed. Some tell us that it is hard, but do-able. Other's just look at us and tell us they hope that we've been training. We're pretty excited about this.

6. Tis the season to be jolly! And to write papers!! This week, I have to have two papers written, and I'm giving three presentations. And then there's another paper due the week after. A lot of my classmates are... quite stressed. But I'm really enjoying these projects, actually. I'm learning a lot about the education system in Peru as I research for one of my papers and presentations. That topic should make up a whole post on its own. I'm also aware that my time in Arequipa is decreasing. My purpose in coming here (believe it or not) was NOT to lock myself in my room and do homework. So, even though there's a lot to do, I'm not exactly prioritizing all of these projects. I'm spending time with people, and to me that is more important than making these projects a work of art.

7. Speaking of spending time with people... oh man, there are so many great people here in Arequipa!!! I had a great time in conversation groups this week, I got to spend some time with my friend Ana at dance yesterday, and last night I got to walk around el centro with another friend, Jorge. These people are all wonderful. I wish you could meet them!!!

8. I spend some time few evenings a week watching television with mi familia. There are... all sorts of things on the television. A lot of programs are actually in English with Spanish subtitles. I've watched a lot of game shows and talk programs from Spain, and those are all in Spanish.

9. Until December 10, when we leave Arequipa and go to Lima, my desire is to make the most of my time in Arequipa. Which is why I'm going to go play some soccer now!!

Oh... Abba, thank You so much. I cannot thank You enough. God, I give You the days and weeks ahead. There is so much that I want to do before I leave... but Jesus, I pray that You would use these days for Your purposes, that they would be used to glorify Your Holy Name!

A day for the record books!

Oh, today was a record-breakingly fun day! The morning began at Colegio Claretiano, where (SURPRISE!) I taught about quadrilaterals! No, I was not told in advance that I was going to teach and I had not ever seen the material, but I have learned from the past few weeks, so I wasn't suprised this time when I found out that I would be teaching. And it went quite well!! One of the things I should probably do over the weekend is think of a joke. Because they kept asking me to tell "un chiste en ingles!!" (a joke in English). So... if anyone has any good jokes... I need some!!

From Colegio Claretiano, I went to the university. I had to go to a meeting about taking the Oral Proficiency Exam, and then I had about 45 minutes until class started, so I found some friends, Fuller and Scott, and chilled on the lawn with them for a bit singing Christmas songs!

And then we went to class, and it was quite interesting!! The class is Analisis de la Realidad Peruana. There are only five of us in the class, but I wish more people were able to take it, because it has helped me understand so much of how things work her in Peru.

Later on, in the afternoon, I met Fuller at Starbucks and put dreadlocks in her hair. She has wanted dreadlocks for a very very long time, and I explained to her that I have absolutely NO experience with dreadlocks, but she still wanted me to give it a try.

And then, after dreadlocking, I met my friend from conversation groups, Alonso, at the university because tonight was the night that I got to be on the radio!! This is a nightly program, and Alonso occassionally is the host of the show. And tonight I got to be a guest!!! It was super fun!! We talked about Arequipa (food, places, people...). During commercial breaks and while the station was playing songs, we decided what we would talk about durin the next segment. It was such a fun night! Before and after the program, I had a great time talking with Alonso. Sydney and Amy were going to join us, but, sadly, they are both a bit under the weather.

Oh God, thank You so much for today! I had so much fun!!

THIS IS SHORT. READ IT.

Tune in to this radio station (www.radiosanmartin.pe/radio) on FRIDAY night between 10PM and MIDNIGHT if you want to hear me and some cool friends!!

QUADRILATERALS

The topic for today was... quadrilaterals!! I wasn't planning on teaching at Colegio Claretiano. But, when I walked in, Profesor Aguilar told me he had a PowerPoint prepared and that he wanted me to teach about quadrilaterals. He told me to just follow the PowerPoint and explain stuff and let the students take notes. I am beginning to realize that I should probably enter Colegio Claretiano everyday with the awareness that I might be teaching, even if I don't know WHAT I will teach. This still seems a bit strange to me -- I can't believe that I have been asked to teach without having prepared anything at all.

But today went well!! I learned the Spanish words for lots of quadrilaterals as I taught about the qualities of kites and trapezoids! Again, I was pleasantly surprised and pleased to realize that I was able to teach these things, without preparation, IN SPANISH. Describing concavity was a bit complicated, but I think that they caught on pretty quick.

On the second slide of the PowerPoint, there was a figure like this one:

And it was labeled... "trapezoide". Hmmmm, I thought. That sure doesn't look like a trapezoid to me. What's going on here? And then, a short time later, there was a slide about trapecios, and on THAT slide, there were lots and lots of trapezoids. So... I learned that trapecio (not trapezoide) means "trapezoid".

And right now... I think I'm going to eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Because Ann Webster is AWESOME!

my cup overflows

I have less than one month in Arequipa. This fact brings a mix of feelings. Part of me is excited about what is to come in the next few months. Another part of me is reluctant about what is to come in the next few months. Mainly because I DON'T KNOW what is to come in the next few months. In any case, I am looking forward to being back in Lansing and to seeing the family and friends who I have only seen on a computer screen for the past few months. But the biggest part of me is the part that is feeling like less than one month in Arequipa is definitely NOT ENOUGH. It is going to be hard to leave. I feel at home here now.  There are so many wonderful people that I have met in the past few months -- people whom I want to get to know more, but time is now limited. It is sad to think that I don't know if or when I will ever see these people again. It would have been easier (as in, less painful to leave) if I hadn't made friends and shared life with people. But the pain is completely worth it! I wouldn't change a thing. In a way, it's a good pain. Yes, it could have been avoided if I had simply not allowed myself to get to know anyone. But I would choose to have experienced the richness of meeting these great people and having to say "goodbye" to them over not having ever met them at all.

In light of these feelings, God has really spoken to me through Psalm 37 for the past few days.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
 Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:
 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.

 Be still before the Lord
    and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
    when they carry out their wicked schemes.

 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
    do not fret—it leads only to evil.
 For those who are evil will be destroyed,
    but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

God is calling me to delight in Him, to trust Him, to commit my way to Him, to be still before Him, to not worry, to wait for Him. Even though there is a lot ahead of me that is unknown (What's going to happen to all these new and precious friendships that I have made in Peru?), I can trust God. He has a plan, and it is infinitely better than anything that I could ever come up with. My friendships are in HIS hands, not mine. And that's really good. I want to know what's going to happen... if I'm ever going to see these people again, if I will be able to keep in touch with them... but instead of worrying about what will happen, God is reminding me to trust Him. I need a lot of reminders sometimes. And God keeps providing them.

This time in Peru has been such a blessing. Really, I don't have words to express how awesome this has been so far. God has taught me so much about so many things and he has put so many wonderful people in my path. When I think of what I have experienced so far in Peru, I can't help but praise and thank God, and rejoice with the psalmist: "MY CUP OVERFLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (That's my version of the last bit of Psalm 23:5).

FUTBOL

Yesterday was a super-duper fun day! It began when I woke up and ran (ok, walked quickly) to the grocery store to purchase the ingredients for FUDGE! And then I came back home and made the fudge!! Is there a better way to start the day? Yes, actually, probably. But this was a pretty great way to start the day! After making fudge, I went to church and we sang this song:

After church, I went home for a bit, ate lunch, and did some math! Eventually, I went to the hospital to visit a friend who had her appendix taken out recently. She's a trooper.

After that, I went to play soccer!! We had an awesome group of awesome friends from Calvin and San Pablo! After playing soccer for a while (I am getting better!), we played taught our San Pablo friends how to play Ultimate Frisbee! They caught on very quickly, and we played that for a while, too! It was such a fun fun fun (and tiring!) afternoon of running and kicking and laughing. Really, it was super-fun. I know I keep saying that. I'm just trying to emphasize how fun it was! It was REALLY fun!

I came home and watched television for a bit with mi familia, and then capped off a great day by going to the movies with some friends!!

what great days!!

Some days are just so good that I wish I could repeat them!! Yesterday was one of those days!!

Last night I went to cooking class and made some yummy food with some cool people!

See? Look at all these cool people that I got to cook with!!! Actually, this photo is from the first cooking class we had. But since it was most of the same people... I think that's okay.

This picture is just too good to not post.

But, before cooking class, I got to spend some time with my friend Ana. It was really fun to hang out with her. We had some great conversations about our families, our dreams, and life in general.

And after the cooking class, I got to spend some time with Tita! She showed me some pictures from her photo albums and I got to hear lots of neat stories! It was a great great day!!

And, today was a really good day, too! I went with a friend of mine, Jorge, to the taller de danzas that he is a part of. It is a class at the university that learns and performs Peruvian dances! They are really good, and it was super fun to hang out with them and begin to learn a bit of the dances!! And then after that, we went and played an intense game of Super-Bingo! I call it Super-Bingo because we each had AT LEAST 6 cards, and instead of having to get five in a row, we had to make a letter. One game was O, one was L, and one was N. And none of us ever won.

And now I'm home, and I had a lovely dinner, and tomorrow morning before church I am going to make FUDGE!!!

God, I thank You for all that You're doing here. I pray that You would be glorified in the time that I have left in Arequipa, Jesus. Every thought, word, and deed... God, may You be the center. Thank You for being with me and for all of the amazing people that I am getting to know. God, I'm having such a great time here.

More Triangles!

Oh man!! I taught again today! I did NOT see that coming! Though... if I thought about it, I should have known that it might happen. When I got to Colegio Claretiano this morning, Profesor Aguilar told me that I would pick up where I left off yesterday, but with a different group of students. He also decided that he was just going to... leave. Instead of being in the class with me, as he usually is, he left with one of the students to work with him individually (which I was very happy to see, because this student has been struggling a lot lately). So, I was left on my own, teaching in Spanish. I had to hold back some laughter, because the situation just stuck me as a bit comical. I had not prepared at all to do these problems because I knew that yesterday we would not get that far during class. So, I had never seen these problems before. Moreover, Profesor Aguilar usually makes a PowerPoint that contains all the problems AND solutions. But it didn't take me very long to discover that the solutions to most of these problems... weren't in the PowerPoint. So I had to wing it a bit.

For the first short bit of class, Profesor Aguilar taught the students a few formulas about how to find the measure of an angle formed by the angle bisectors of a triangle. I'm VERY glad he did this, because, I did NOT know those formulas. I would have solved the problems very differently, but it's probably good that I was able to help the students do the problems the way Profesor Aguilar wanted them to be done.

The lesson went pretty well! I learned from yesterday to not let all of the students shout out answers at the same time. I really enjoy teaching and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to teach at Colegio Claretiano!! It struck me again today how difficult it is to jump into someone else's classroom sometimes. For example, today, about halfway through the lesson, the students started asking me for motivation. Profesor Aguilar often shows a funny youtube video or something during the class to animate the students and give them a short break from math. I... had nothing like that prepared. So, instead, I told them about hyperbolic geometry!! I don't think they appreciated it quite as much as I do... but they did seem slightly interested.

Also, you probably thing I'm spelling "professor" wrong. Sort of. I've been writing it in Spanish without really thinking. But yes, I am aware that in English, there are two 's's in "professor".

Hey I'm going to cooking class today! Yay!

Oh God, thank You for the opportunity to teach and learn at Colegio Claretiano. Thank You for mi familia here in Arequipa, for the Calvin group, for the friends that I have made at the university. Jesus, You have blessed me so much through these people. Please pour Your presence upon them and fill them with Your joy!!

all you need to know from this post is that I got to TEACH AGAIN!!!!!

Today I have lots of unrelated things to say, so I have made a list!! If you don't have a lot of time, just read number 3.

1. I was walking to the university this morning, I realized that I no longer find it strange or terrifying that crossing the street is like playing tag with a bus.

2. I had a quiz in Algebra Lineal y Geometria Analitica today! Quizes typically take the entire class time (90 minutes). I quite enjoy quizzes!! Because on quiz days, I get to spend 90 minutes straight doing math!! It's so fun!! I don't know WHY I never realized this before! Maybe I'm just feeling academically free since I sort of but not really already graduated.

3. I TAUGHT AGAIN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today's lesson was about triangles! Today is Thursday. On Tuesday, Profesor Aguilar asked me if I wanted to teach on Thursday. Of course, I said YES. I told him that I would stop by on Wednesday to get a copy of the stuff that he wanted me to teach. There are many differences between my experiences in Peru and my experiences in the States. One of those is that every time I have ever taught in the States, I have known far in advance and had a lot of time to prepare. Also, in the States, the teachers that I have taught with have all wanted to know more of what I'm going to be doing. Profesor Aguilar, however, doesn't seem to have any problem with handing his class over to me with little time in advance and without knowing what my plan is. So, today I taught all about triangles!! Things went alright. It wasn't easy. Right now, the way I'm feeling is that I really hope I get another chance to teach, because there are definitely some things that I want to do differently. The main thing has to do with classroom management. Every time I ask a question, I'm pretty sure all of the students respond, at the same time, very loudly, using different words. That is really hard to understand, no matter what language it is!! No one raises their hands. They just... talk. Loud. Because each individual wants me to hear HIS answer the best. Oh man. The class is just always very loud. Everything is loud. And, I'm not a huge fan of that. I don't want to have to talk over students or quite them down every 14 seconds. It is hard to teach (and learn, for that matter) in that atmosphere. However, at the same time, as a guest teacher from a different country, I don't really want to change anything either. I don't want to change the students' routine or the expectations. But right now, I'm thinking that if I get another chance to teach, I'm going to try to have them raise their hands to talk, and we'll just see how that goes. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to teach here in Arequipa!!

4. On Wednesday evening, I got to have conversation group with Danery! We went to a performance of the San Pablo dance team that was going on at the university! It was super cool! They did about 10 dances, all traditional dances, mostly from Peru, but a few from other South American countries. It was REALLY cool!!

5. On Wednesday, I observed an English class at Colegio Claretiano (FINALLY!! I got to go to one last week, too, right before we left for Cusco!). After the English class, I spoke with Profesor Aguilar about the lesson that I was going to teach today. We talked for a little while, and one of the things that he told me was that when I enter the classroom, I should greet the students, and that when I leave, I should say "good bye" or something. I have not been doing that because when I arrive they are in the middle of class, and I don't want to interrupt. I quietly enter and take a seat. Also, when I leave, they are in the middle of class, and, again, I don't want to interrupt, so I quietly sneak out. But Profesor Aguilar said that it is more important to greet the students than it is to not interrupt the class. This is different from my experiences in the States. My instinct is to try to not distract as much as possible. So, today when I arrived, I greeted the students. And I told them "good bye" as I left. And it was a little weird. But that's okay! I'm learning!!

6. Today was a day that I realized... I speak Spanish!! This was an awesome realization!! How did I realize this? Well, at lunch, as I was talking with Andrea and Tita, I realized that I was having a real conversation. I was understanding everything and I was able to express myself. And I realized that I've been doing that for a while now!! And I realized that I actually TAUGHT in Spanish!! Really!! This means thinking on the fly - there's no way to practice everything that I am going to say during teaching. I understand what people are saying, and I can talk back! I realized that I am confident to talk to anyone in Spanish at any time!! I didn't feel like this at the beginning of this semester!!

7. So, Barack Obama is the new president of the United States of America. It has been very eye opening to be in a different country during election season. Only American citizens vote for the President of the United States of America. But our decision affects the rest of the world almost as much as it affects us. It's almost as if the entire world should vote on the president. The elections were one of the top news stories for the past few weeks. It's as if the whole world was holding it's breath, waiting to see who we would decide would determine their future.

8. Today was a really good day! After getting to teach AND take a math quiz, I also got to each lunch with my family and have TWO conversation groups!! One with Anthony and Alonso, and the other with David! Conversation groups are neat. I like them a lot.

Last post about Cusco

Now I ought to tell you about Machu Picchu! Once we climbed down from Huayna Picchu, Jesús showed us around Machu Picchu!! Oh man!! That place is cool!!!

It was such an awesome day! Machu Picchu is an amazing place. I really can't find words to explain what it was like. On one hand, there are these absolutely mind blowing ruins. And on the other hand, there are these mountains all around that are covered in thick jungle. It's unlike any place I've ever been to in my life. It was just super cool to be there and to share that experience with such cool people!!

This is part of Machu Picchu!!!

I don't actually remember this picture being taken. But... here it is! And there I am with everyone at Machu Picchu! 

Okay, before I post some more Machu Picchu pictures, I should tell you about this place. Oh man! Okay, so the Incans built this place a long time ago. How long ago? Well, the Incan Empire lasted from . The people who lived here evacuated while the Spanish were destroying Ollantaytambo, and the Spanish never discovered the trail to Machu Picchu. And, at the beginning of the 20th century, a fellow named Hiram Bingham "discovered" Machu Picchu. I say "discovered" because he didn't actually truly discover it. Local people knew about it, and there were actually some people living there, but the rest of the world had no idea that it existed. Hiram Bingham was looking for a city of gold when he "discovered" Machu Picchu. A little boy in a nearby town told him that there is no city of gold, and he offered to take him to see Machu Picchu. Hiram Bingham eventually did some excavations at Machu Picchu and took thousands and thousands of pieces of pottery and stuff to Yale to put on display. Technically, the stuff belonged to Peru, but the president of Peru had a son who wanted to go to Yale, so they made a little deal: President's son gets to go to Yale, and Yale gets lots of Incan antiques. But in the past few years, Yale has returned the entire treasure to Peru.

When we got back from Machu Picchu, we ate lunch at a buffet and had about 2 hours  of free time in Aguas Calientes before we had to get on the train to go back to Cusco. We walked around Aguas Calientes, and did some shopping. I'm a bit tired of shopping, though,  so I was thrilled when Don told us about a waterfall that he had found! So we went and found it, too!! And here we are at the waterfall!!

I took this picture from the train. It took about four hours to get back to Cusco, and it was a beautiful ride!! And the company was lovely, too!! We had some good conversations about the Peace Corp and Dutch tourists in Peru, and of course we laughed a good bit.

By the time we got back to Cusco, we were all quite tired. It was getting late, but I went to a restaurant with Amy and Sydney and ate a really great pizza! And then we went back to the hotel and slept. The next day, we got up and went to Saqsaywaman, which are some Incan ruins very close to the city of Cusco. This place was a religious place for the Incans, and quite a bit of it was destroyed by the Spanish. In fact, historians and people think that much of the structure is actually underground because the Spaniards came and covered a lot of it with dirt and ground.

Okay look at this. See how there are indention-type-thingies at the bottom of these rocks on the second row? Well,  those are there because the Incans used tree trunks to suspend these rocks a bit above the rock beneath so that they could make sure that the rocks would fit together PERFECTLY. Once they knew that they would fit, they removed the tree trunks that were holding the rocks up and set the rock on top of the one beneath it. Cool!!!

That big rock is THE biggest rock used by the Incans. It weighs approximately 250 tons. I know this because.... our guide friend told us.

After spending some time at Saqsaywaman, which was a super neat place, we went to Qenqo, which is where the Incans did mummification. They didn't mummify everyone--only royalty. The picture below is of a table made of rock. This is where they mummified the bodies of dead royal people. This is a good table for that kind of thing, because for some scientific reason, the rock is super COLD! I touched it (yes, I touched the table where dead Incans were mummified) and it is a LOT colder than I expected. In fact, if a person who is alive laid on that table for 30 minutes, they would die. It's cold. And, I guess that makes it good for preserving dead bodies.

This is just a beautiful view of part of the city of Cusco from up in the surrounding mountains where the ruins were.

This place is called Pukapukara. It was a pre-Incan fortress, but after the Incans defeated it, they made it into a check-point place for the messengers who ran messages around the empire. Each messenger would run 10 kilometers. After 10 kilometers, they would get to another messenger who would take his turn. This way, the message never stopped and never slowed down until it got to where it was going.

Hey look at these cool people! Here I am with Emily, Amy, and Sara. I like them.

And this is a picture of the valley from Pukapukara. Look at it!!!!!

After our morning at Saqsaywaman, Qenqp, and Pukapukara, we had a free afternoon. I ate lunch with most of the group, and then went to a few museums in Cusco with Emily, Lauren, and Fuller. One of the museums had a bunch of stuff about the history of Peru from the pre-Incans to today. And the other museum... it was a Chocolate Museum. And it smelled SO GOOD there. They made chocolate. Unfortunately, it was quite expensive, so I didn't eat any. There really isn't much chocolate here. That's a sad thing. Later on, I went to one of the markets with a couple other people. I was tired of shopping, so I didn't get anything, but it was fun to look around and hang out with cool people.

We went to bed on Sunday night, and then Monday morning we took a plane back to Arequipa. The bus ride from Arequipa to Cusco was 10 hours long. But the plane ride back was less than 45 minutes. Planes go faster than buses. I sat next to a woman from Oregon, and she tried to convince me to look for a teaching job in Texas. We got back to Arequipa, and I went to the university for classes!

It was a great great great time!!!