Week two

I feel so HAPPY.
 I spent the first half of my gap year working in a small, nice shop in Shrewsbury, selling kites and pens and cards to lots of nice people, and living at home hearing about everyone's awesome fresher's weeks and interesting, exciting lives, not appreciating my family enough because I definitely felt ready for change! 
 Really good experience for me living more independently, and rocket fights when the shop was empty were great, as was the extra time with the fam, but after a fantastic summer filled with people and things those few months felt very unstimulating and slow. 
I'm loving meeting new people every day here, practicing Spanish, learning to teach, being taught, and being challenged with something new every day. And I love Peru- getting daily doses of sunshine is fantastic, the food is drool worthy and every Peruvian I've met so far has been lovely. I'm also appreciating my parents much more out here and loving Skype conversations!
  

 Spent a busy weekend with friends- on Friday we took advantage of the pool at our friend Carlos' house, then Saturday visited ChanChan, one of the ancient sites near Trujillo. It was the elaborate capital city of the huge Chimu empire and is ridiculously big itself- hundreds of acres of ruins. To get to it you have to walk down a deserted desert road feeling totally lost, then you suddenly come across a massive touristy entrance building with 'I've been to Chan Chan' caps and all.
  Spent the rest of the weekend at Huanchaco again, surfing and chilling. It was also the 127th anniversary of Huanchaco, a South American excuse to fiesta! On Sunday we were planning on going surfing in the afternoon as well as the morning but cancelled the afternoon, telling our surf instructors we'd be back tomorrow (day off), and at the same time inviting them to come to a salsa club with us that evening. In the end we decided not to go, assuming they'd be with other people anyway- when we got back to the surf shop next morning we were told we could have free lessons, plus a free trip out on the reed fishing boats native to the area- turned out they thought they'd stood us up the night before and were making up for it, oops! 
  The same morning found me wandering around the beach in my pyjamas in search of a beach yoga class....

  Yesterday I went to the baby shower of two women from the mothers group. We chatted about knitting etc, drank inca cola, then Peruvian time caught up with us and the speaker that had been booked turned up, an hour late! She's a psychologist, and gave the mothers a crash course in parenting as a whole in about half an hour, and did it very well- but I was more than shocked when she told them it was fine to hit your child if on the third time of asking they don't obey!! I couldn't believe a trained professional was giving this as solid advice to mothers- it's a very common occurrence here, and kids have come to school with bruises before, but to actually say that you SHOULD do it is ludicrous!!
  Another weird part- as a fun game for them to do after the talk they were given word searches. About half of these women are illiterate, if not with minimal education- it was simply embarrassing for most of them. I could see the woman on my left hiding hers, and looking over to see mine- weird choice. 
  Veronica, who used to help lead the group, is leaving in a few days, and they've asked me if I want to take her place as I've taken interest in the group. Very surprised as I've only been to two sessions! Not being what I consider to be mother age myself, I don't want to seem condescending to them, some of whom have daughters my age, so can hardly join in on the whole 'mother solidarity' thing... I've said a provisional yes as I'd love to support the group, just wondering if I'm the best for the job?!
  Off to buy some mega cheap pirate movies and an unhealthy amount of junk food...
Hasta luego! Love, x