By Courtney C., Guest Blogger and Peru study abroad participant

¡Hola!

Now for a little bit about my family…..

When I arrived at the airport, my host parents, Belinda and Cesar, were there to pick me up with great big smiles on their faces.  I explained to them that I don´t speak much Spanish yet, but that I wanted to try to speak as much as possible.  They were very understanding and they have been very welcoming.  That first day they explained to me that to avoid a bad  case of altitude sickness, I needed to drink some coca tea and go straight to bed for a few hours, and so I did.  That evening their family had a huge family gathering because one of their nephews, who now lives in New York City, was coming in for a couple of days, so when I woke up I had a lot of friendly faces to meet.  The food was fantastic—lots of vegetables and some grilled meats such as chicken, sausage, and even slivers of cow heart of a stick.  It was all really tasty especially when dipped in a special sauce that they made with various herbs and spices.

My host parents have three children: Ursula (I think she is around 30 years old), Adriana (I think she is in her late 20’s), and Cesar (I believe he is around 20).  Adriana is married and has two sons, Augustine (around 2 and a half years old)  and Nicolas (8 months).  Adriana’s family lives in an apartment that is enclosed with her parents’ home by a big gated wall.  Ursula and Cesar live at home.

All of the food is great so far and I help by setting the table or washing the dishes after a meal.  I love to cook, but I haven’t had the chance to help yet because of my class schedule.  I have had many dishes that I want the recipe for for!

My bedroom is simple and cozy and the view is pleasant too as I can see some cute houses and the mountains in the background.  The only two ¨social rules¨ that I have found different is that you should always come to dinner with your shoes on as it is considered impolite to come barefoot, and in fact, it seems that the whole family wears their shoes at all times in the house.  I prefer to be barefoot!  But I think I can manage.  Second, you are not supposed to dispose of toilet paper in the toilet (this goes for all toilets, not just in my host family’s home), but rather in the trash can next to the toilet.  This rule is more practical than cultural because the pipes here are old and narrow and they can easily clog, although it is hard to get used to because I have been trained otherwise.

This weekend I am going on a trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca, so next week I will fill you in on my trip there as well as about my school.

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By Nichole D., Guest Blogger and SALUD Medical Spanish in Peru participant

I know many of my close friends and family have been asking if I'll start a blog while abroad and well, here it is!  My goal while abroad is to update this blog as much as I can…at the very least I'll post a new blog twice a week.

In just a little over a week I will be starting my journey to Cusco, Peru where I will be living for an entire month!

For those of you that don't know, I will be taking medical Spanish classes Mon-Fri as well as volunteering in a clinic in the Cusco area.  I absolutely can't wait to start this journey and I promise to keep everyone updated on my adventures as much as I can!

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Lima Hotel

After being at airports from 7am to midnight, when I got to the hotel all I could think about was sleep!  But when I went down to the main lobby this morning to print my boarding pass, the woman working the desk asked if I would mind helping her daughter with her English homework since she has an exam tomorrow.  We had a lot of fun and a little difficulty converting her sentences from Spanish to English but we definitely both learned a lot and I really think she will do well on the test!  In exchange for my English lessons, they offered me a breakfast of eggs, coffee, juice and some bread which was amazing!  I´m getting picked up to be taken back to the airport to fly to Cusco in 20 min where I will finally be united with my host family and roommate Dalya!

I absolutely can´t wait to get to Cusco!!!

Read all of Nichole's blogs

Learn more about AmeriSpan SALUD Medical Spanish in Peru and many other countries abroad

Enjoy Cusco's many flavors in a cooking class, volunteer within a Peruvian community, or just have fun bouncing around town and meeting new people – there is always something new to see!

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I spent my second week working at Madre Teresa de Calcuta in the afternoons with my friends Elizabeth and Jen.

The first time I was showed around the place, I wanted to cry.  I think I almost started a couple of times, but here's the set-up: the place houses men, women, and children suffer from varying mental and physical disabilities and is run by a group of three nuns. 

They receive no help from the government or sponsors and solely depend on donations from the community and the time of the people.  On our first day, we decided to work with the children because we thought it might be easier on us but it was still pretty disheartening.  There were 22 of them with varying degrees of autism, down syndrome, and paralysis.  The saddest part about this place though was the lack of medical assistance; there's no doctor on-site or any working nurses.  Two times a week a physical therapist comes in to work with a couple of the children, but the help they are receiving isn't anywhere to what they need.

The first day I was there I was helping wash the floors and this little boy, named Carlos, comes up to me dragging a miniature chair set for a dwarf behind him.  He placed it beside me, told me to sit after calling me Mama (later I would learn he likes to call everyone Mama , and then took the mop from me and proceeded to clean for a while.  Then he came back and returned the mop, and I would proceed to start mopping, and then he would decide it was his turn again so we repeated this for a while.  It was super cute and it made my day a little better.  A couple of the children are really with it, walking and talking around, but most of the children are in their own world.  They nod and smile when you talk to them, but you never really know how much they process.  I changed my first diaper there (and felt really bad for my victim), but once you get into the zone, the smells don't get to you quite as easily. 

I included a picture of Tumi (above), but it was forbidden to take any pictures of the children at Madre Teresa.  

This will conclude my Peru blogs…I hope they were enjoyable reads!

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 One afternoon we got to have a meeting with a real shaman!  It turns out she also worked as a Registered Nurse and a massage therapist.  And there I was expecting this witch to come in with a cape or something.  But she was really sweet and gave us an explanation of the three types of work she does: the first one is reading of our cocoa leaves, the 2nd involves an egg, and the 3rd a guinea pig (cuy).

I'll explain the latter two because she actually performed the first one for all of us.  The egg and its yolk represent the soul and the body, and the shaman is able to tell how in synch these two parts of the human are from looking at their egg.  The egg is continually rolled over the person's body, starting with the head, touching the arms, then the stomach, and ending with the toes.  This allows the egg to absorb the person's energy which is interpreted when the egg is broken in a glass of water. 

The cuy also works in a similar matter.  A live cuy (has to be pure black) is passed over the person's body (though I'm not sure if there's contact), and is then killed and read.  The problems seen in the cuy are thought to be the same as problems the person is suffering, will suffer, or has suffered.  For example, if the cuy had an odd coloring around its kidney, it's a warning sign for the client. 

In the cocoa leaves, the first thing we had to do was choose our leaves in groups of three.  The leaves had to be whole and in tact, with no holes in them, and we placed them on a small mat until all the sides were fulfilled.  Then she gathered all the leaves, grabbed a handful, and asked us each for three questions.   It was like a genie in a lamp or something, but it was fun at the same time, and after we asked our question she would blow/bless the leaves in four directions (for the four winds).  Turns out that I went first, so I asked your generic questions like when will I marry….oh man, I don't need to explain that one.  The second question was where will I live and this was a bit more interesting.  She told me right off the bat that I was going to live "far" away from my hometown and that a lot of children would be involved in my life…so I would most likely be working with children.  (Both of these things have been slow on-going realizations for me).  My 3rd question was a bit more personal so I won't say it here, but she was pretty dead on right.  Freaky.  After this, the three of us girls went out for dinner and had a pretty lengthy discussion about this…and in the end we decided that this was like horoscopes, but all in all it was still pretty fun to ask and hear some answers.  I'm still a bit superstitious though, I love these type of things.

Click for more information on AmeriSpan's SALUD Program in Cusco, Peru

Click to see AmeriSpan's Spanish School in Cusco, Peru

Read all of Miko's blogs from Cusco, Peru

This weekend was a vacation trip to Puno!  At least in my mind it was, Puno is about a seven hour bus ride from the town of Cuzco and is a gateway to the beautiful Lake Titicaca.  Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable piece of water but has also been the source of some tensions because it borders Peru and Boliva.  The ownership of the lake seems to have been solved, although each side likes to claim they own more of the island. 

The first place we visited were the Floating Islands of Uros, these are literally floating islands constructed out of reeds.  The origin of these people who inhibit these man-made islands seems to be from the Andes.  It is said that these inhabitants ran away to the lake to hide from the Incas.  Each of these reed islands have elected a leader, and one greeted us upon arrival and did a miniature demonstration of their procedure.  First they harvest the roots of the reeds for a base and then layer the upper part of the reeds on top.

On top of all of this, their houses and boats are made out of reeds.  Most of their boats look like the typical boat but they have created another fancier boat (with the head of pumas) for tourists to enjoy.  For a small price you can have a go around the lake to be transported to another island. 

The second island we visited was the Amantani Island.  Our guide explained to us that Amantani comes from the word “amante” or lovers for when the Spaniards arrived, the island was only populated by virgin women.  However, our boat was greeted by our surrogate mothers for the night and they welcomed us into their homes.  We were all quite shocked by the simplicity of their lives; there was no running water and electricity, they ate their meals sitting on benches (only having tables for the convenience of the tourists), and their kitchen compromised of a simple fire and pot.  Even the type of food they eat are limited to their monthly or bimonthly visits to the mainland and what they can farm on this land (mainly potatoes) and their animals.   

The island's natural beauty makes up for the simplicity the people live with.  A portion of our tour took  a  hike up to the highest point of the island, Pachamama.  The hike up was a steep one and easily put me out of breath, but with each step we saw more and more of the island.  Usually, the townspeople make this pilgrimage once a year where they hold a festival.  Shamans enter a blocked off building and the people walk around this sacred site three times before making a wish (usually a good harvest).  However, we only walked around the site once before settling down to watch the sun set.

That night we also ended up seeing the Milky Way.  It was one of the most gorgeous sights I have ever seen, whoever knew that the sky could hold that many stars. 

The next day we went to Isla Taquile and hiked up for about an hour to the main square.  Although there was a slight incline to this hike it was easily redeemed by admiring the local scenery.  From there we went up to a small restaurant with an amazing view of the backside view and ate delicious trout.  Then, full of food and scenery we headed back to the boat for a three hour boat ride back to Puno.  A perfect way to lose yourself in the nature for a weekend; I couldn't have imagined anything more pristine. 

Click for more information on AmeriSpan's SALUD Program in Cusco, Peru

Click to see AmeriSpan's Spanish School in Cusco, Peru

Read all of Miko's blogs from Cusco, Peru

Past participant Neha B., recommends AmeriSpan's Cusco school, saying "The program is very well established and the staff is open to feedback," while other former Cusco Spanish student Christianne T. gushed, "The best part of the trip was the amount of friends that I made.
Anyone that hasn't experienced a language immersion program should! I
was totally satisfied with the program. I see no way to improve it!" 

Now is a perfect time to discover Peru and all of its treasueres; there's nothing stopping you!

Visit our Study Spanish in Peru profile here: Cusco Language School

Find airfare to Peru here: AmeriSpan Airfare Finder