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In Peru there is a lot of waiting outside of doors. If you go to someone else’s house it is polite to wait for the host or hostess to invite you inside. Going to someone’s house and walking straight in would be really strange. This much is true for bedrooms also. When I lived with my host family, my host siblings would never just walk into my room. They would always be… Read More
It’s pretty bad. My attention span that is. I have noticed a big difference in my ability to stay focused since I became a volunteer. I think the change is easy for me to see because my lifestyle is so different than what it used to be. Going straight from being a graduate student in a Master’s program to a PC volunteer was not the easiest thing. As a student I was… Read More
Figuring out how to understand humor in Spanish took me a while. Understanding when to use it myself took even longer. Now I am able to joke amongst colleagues and friends like I would normally in English. I’ve got a better handle on what Peruvians think is funny and how/when to deliver jokes. I think it’s really hard to try and explain each individual good joke. There is so much that is… Read More
I already sort of shared about this concept in a different blog post I wrote. Sharing is one of my favorite things I like about living in Peru. I think that because it is all around me that I tend to share more often now myself. The most obvious thing is food. If I buy a drink, popcorn or some ice cream it has become really normal for me to share with… Read More
In English we use a lot of different ways to describe money. Buck, stacks, benjamins, bill, wads, cash etc. In Peruvian culture there are also a couple slang terms to talk about money. You hear them getting used all the time so it’s important to know what they are and how to use them. Additionally, like other slang terms, they add authenticity to your Spanish and locals love it when you use… Read More
One of the more obvious changes I have noticed in myself is my ability to speak Spanish. It is by far one of my favorite skills. And one of my favorite parts about living in Peru and traveling to other Spanish-speaking countries. After living for almost 2 years in Peru, it makes sense that I would speak the language. I have become fluent. But it’s the little things within my new fluency… Read More
A lot of the travel in Peru gets done in buses, minivans or some weird car-contraption thing. Whether you are traveling within a city or perhaps in between two or three, you will probably use whats called a combi. I am not sure where the name came from, but I like to think that combi comes from ‘combine’ or ‘combination’. Like a whole ton of people (a combination) combined in one car…. Read More
I recently hung out with some friends from Lima. What I noticed was that the way they spoke had some subtle and interesting differences from how some of my friends from the Sierra speak. What I found out was that there are some slang terms in Spanish that are unique to Limeños (people from the capital city/ province of Lima). Here are 3 new slang terms that I learned how to use…. Read More
Body Awareness The amount of times I have been sick during my Peace Corps service is innumerable. During pre-service training, I was sick every month. For a while during my first year, I was sick every couple of weeks. My body was having a really hard time adjusting to the water, the food, climate and bacterias. I would get colds, fevers, chills, body aches, diarrhea, headaches… the whole enchilada. I took lots… Read More
Teddy Dondanville 