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| La Plaza de Las Armas complete with Arequipa's always blue skies |
Made it to Arequipa from Lima after a 16 hour bus ride, where we were picked up from the bus station by Maria who is the director of the Spanish school that we are going study at for the first 2 weeks--this week had only two other students. The school is the second floor of her house and we are staying on the 3rd floor. She has two daughters, one 11 and one 13, both are very talkative. I was incredibly happy as soon as we got there. I told Megano immediately, "vamos a aprender español" because it was so clear that if we stayed in this environment we would learn Spanish quickly.
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| View of the mountains surrounding Arequipa from a little patio bar |
I started trying to learn Spanish in about 2001. I've been desperate to learn, thinking that having the ability to speak and think in another language was close to a magical power. Along with taking the basic Spanish classes at UIC, I had my first trip to Ecuador and spent a month in a language school in 2005, and then I've been to Guatemala 4x, the first was the summer of 2011 for 2 months and then the last 3 Christmases for a month a piece. Last summer I was supposed to be in Nicaragua, but my stomach problems cancelled that trip, and that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
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| The little patio bar drinking a beer called Cumbre, which is weird because that is the name of the beer that Haley got me hooked on in Albuquerque. This one was made from quinoa and brewed in Lima. |
So I've clearly become obsessed with learning Spanish. And, I have been dreaming of this bank leave where I could spend a semester in a Spanish speaking country ever since I started teaching at BC. So I have a desperate hope that, by the time I leave, I will be close to some type of fluency (depending on how you define that term). So how do I get there? If I were staying here, I'd be fine, but I can't afford it, and I'd like to break out of the school setting. This is why we decided to stay in Arequipa because we hope to become friends with some Spanish speakers and learn in that way. If we were travelling around the whole time, it would be gringos, gringos, gringos. I thought that I might be able to find a tutor during the day, find a bartender at night who I can talk with, and then the rest would be talking to people I meet. Also, I've been reading YA literature in Spanish at a good pace.
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| Our new place |
If finding a tutor is one problem, the more pressing problem has been trying to find an apartment, a furnished apartment no less. Friday we solved both problems: two birds, one stone. We found a place that is 3 blocks from the downtown area where all of the bars are. The place is almost a hostel. It has 7 rooms and a shared kitchen and common area. We walked over to see it and met a Peruvian guy who was young and really nice, and who lives there with 3 other Peruvians and 2 Mexicanos. I can't believe our luck. By having a chance to be in a shared home where only Spanish is spoken, I feel like fluency is in the bag. Very happy now. One more great week learning Spanish with Maria, and then we are off to our new place.
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| Happy Winter Solstice |
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