Gringo In Peru

Today is a day off. Classes don’t start until Wednesday and I’m using the time wisely to recover from a cold.

Don’t worry. I’m not infected with the piggy flu, which by media accounts is going to wreak its own brand of havoc on the United States this winter. It does make me wonder why the predictions for the U.S. are so dire. Things here in Peru are much dirtier and disorganized. To date there have been over 6,600 cases of H1N1 and 80 deaths according to the interactive map at the New England Journal of Medicine.

I had a common cold. Two days of a sore throat followed by two days of stuffy head, topped off by a dry cough today. The virus is totally on its way out of my system. To kick the cough I’ve been taking a Peruvian natural cough syrup made from honey, white onions, garlic and other herbs and spices. It tastes about as good as it sounds but it does work.

While I was sick I did sin a little bit and went to the casino. Calling it a casino is a bit of a stretch, but it was a bunch of slot machines in a big room. I’m told it was one of the nicer such places in Lima. It reminded be of the depressing video lottery parlors in South Dakota with better lighting and free food and booze.

While there was nobody smoking in the place, it still reeked of cigarettes past as the gamblers continued to pour tokens blindly down the gullets of the video slots. The appeal to these machines is lost on me. You plug in your coins, play multiple lines, hit the button and hope for the best. No skill involved, just passive money wasting. I would rather play blackjack or craps. At least there’s action involved. Slots are like watching a dizzy TV that takes your money in the key of C.

That said, I did win. Not a lot, but I did win enough to grab a bite to eat after the night was over and leave with the same amount of money in my wallet I came in with. So I guess it was worth it.

Wow. What a crazy month.

As I said before, I likely logged 3 1/2 hours a day on public transportation, so it was a lot of dead time with absolutely nothing to do but see the dirty streets, smell the stale air and listen to my iPod.

There was Spanish to be learned and learn I did. This was a basic Spanish class, so don’t expect miracles. My problem is I know a lot of nouns, but few verbs. You can’t make sentences with out verbs. Action words in Spanish work a lot differently than they do in English. They change depending on who you are talking to or about. That makes it tough.

I passed the class with an 88 entitling me the right to take Spanish 2 next month. Which is good, but my Spanish studies could be coming to a halt again.  Turns out the institute is desperate for teachers to work in the morning next month. Business is booming and enrollment was up 10% last month and could be up again in September.

If I work mornings there’s no way I could make it to Spanish class. So I tried to work a deal with the schedule makers. I told them I’d be happy to work the morning if they give me two morning classes 7 a.m. and 8:45. They seemed receptive to the idea. We’ll see. My Spanish grade is good for three months and my scholarship is good as long as I keep passing.

All that bus time really hurt my study time and class prep time. I taught two new classes last month and they were hard. My problem is I’m not good with grammar so teaching it can be tough. Not knowing grammar isn’t anything that shocking. Most speakers in native languages don’t understand why grammar works, they just know how to use it correctly. Think of grammar like your car. You turn the key, obey the traffic rules and honk your horn when somebody cuts you off. You can drive the car safely and correct other drivers mistakes, but you likely don’t know how to replace a head gasket or even find it under the hood.

I had one class upper-level basic class where I spent the whole 90 minutes on one grammar lesson because the students weren’t getting it. My supervisors told me not to be discouraged because students always have trouble with the grammar in this course. Despite their problems something must have clicked because their test scores were still good and only one student failed.

Grammar still stinks though.

Ok, so its been a while since I’ve blogged.

Here’s my mea culpa, its been a busy month.

These days I can’t seem to leave Hotel California. I’m taking Spanish class through my employer. Which is great and its free, but its at a campus that’s over an hour away from the house. On average I spend a shade over two hours round-trip for a 90 minute class. It’s two hours of dead time two, there’s nothing to do but listen to the old i-pod.

Getting there takes two buses and a lot of sitting. One of the “busses” is like a glorified mini-van. At peak capacity it holds 15 people. Think of a sardine can on wheels, with the smell included, no extra charge.

Then at our campus I’ve got two new classes (you are only supposed to have one new class a month, except for the first month) and I’ve been planning for that. My new classes include an upper level basic and an intermediate class. If you can believe it the intermediate class has been much easier to teach than the basic class.

If you factor in my two regular bus rides to work, I’m spending about 3 hours a day on the road. All that dead time adds up, because I could be doing something productive.

Needless to say, I’ve been one tired cookie. Today it caught up with me. When I woke up, I felt like crap. I barely stomached one spoonful of oatmeal when it felt like I had to puke. So I skipped Spanish class and went back to sleep. Two hours later and I feel great.

This is all well and good, but I was called to substitute at 3:00. So no real relaxing, at least I got the blogging done.

Buenos Aires is not Vegetarian friendly. Steak rules almost every restaurant menu and these places are not your mom and dad’s steakhouse.

A look inside a steak restaurant

Tables are adorned with white linen tablecloths and four wine glasses plopped in the center. There are two glasses per person. One for water the other for the beverage of your choice (usually red wine for me). The cuts of beef are different than you are used to in the U.S. They seemed to be more fatty and big. Seriously, it was like eating a whole cow sometimes.

Another key difference between Argentina and Peru is bread. Every meal (even the non-steak) were accompanied by a basket full of hard and soft rolls. One night we stopped at a bar for drinks and appetizers, sure enough we were given an overflowing basket of bread. In Peru, its rice, rice, rice with everything. There is bread, but its mostly reserved for sandwiches and breakfast, not dinner.

Steak is also cheap. A good cut of beef, a few glasses of red wine and dessert will set you back $15-20 per person. We even visited an all-you-can eat steak place  on the recommendation of the Argentinian parents of a student Vanessa tutors. It had fresh grilled beef cuts, pork, chicken, a nice salad bar, unlimited beer, wine, soda and dessert for about $12.75. The place was packed.

One side effect from eating all this beef (I guess) is leather. Pedestrian friendly Florida avenue in downtown Bs. As. is lined with leather stores at every price point. Some are really high-end with designer-type hand bags, belts and jackets with the price tags to match. Others sell good quality stuff for a fraction of what you are used to paying.  I got a pair of casual sneaker-type shoes and Vanessa snagged two nice purses for about $150.

One block of Florida Avenue

With so many stores the competition is fierce. Sales people become street barkers telling you about the good deals at the store. When they saw me they tried to use their best broken English. “Come to this store, leather jackets, you like.” You get the idea. To entice shoppers, many stores offered exchange rates slightly higher than the average rate.

Besides beef and leather Argentinians love to smoke. Cigarettes are cheap and many indulge in the habit. While stores and restaurants were non-smoking, the street is not. Everywhere you walk the crisp July air had hints of Marlboro and Philip Morris. Most cafes and bars had set up tents with plastic walls and space heaters to accommodate their smoking clientele.

All this steak, smoke and leather seemed very old school to me. The steak was yummy, but if I don’t eat it for a month I’ll be OK. It was refreshing, yet there’s a part of me thinking about how unhealthy this lifestyle is. Granted I’m not a pillar of health myself.