perusing peru…

trujillo is the capitol city of la libertad. before going, everyone i had talked to in chaclacayo kept describing trujillo as the land of forever springtime and the place to buy shoes. both proved to be true. it is also where peru claimed its independence and where the first congress met. it used to be much larger than lima, so it contains a lot of history, and colorful, ornate buildings.

we stayed at the official peace corps approved hostel, which was close to the plaza de armas. it was in an old building, which was beautiful. our room faced out to the street, which was great during the day, but at night there were always parties at the church across the street, which proved to make falling asleep a bit challenging.

street view from my room.

street view from my room.

there was a club inside the hostel.

view from the hostel.

hostel décor.

because it makes sense to have a giant seahorse.

where the first congress of peru met, which is now a bank. my bank to be exact.

the church in the plaza de armas.

plaza de armas.

the ladies of my fbt group in the plaza.

the other view of the plaza de armas.

plaza de armas en la noche.

the trujillo municipality.

some ancient ruins in the middle of the city.

there were bees all over the city, and the nerd in me LOVED it.

just starting the day off with some pineapple juice.

i ate at this sandwich shop for three dinners straight. seriously, they were life changing (and cheap). i got the lechon one each time. their ahi verde was incredible. just everything about it was incredible. i will miss those sandwiches, more than one should.

ran into a peruvian mj.

our last day in trujillo i taught two classes at “el cultural,” which is one of the most renowned english teaching schools in the country and the best in la libertad. students come to learn on the weekends on top of their normal school schedule. i taught two classes in english on two topics: music and the art of complaining.

the music class was a lot of fun. i took them on a time continuum tour of who i decided were the most important musical artists of the last 60 years, which are all obvious: elvis, the beatles, michael jackson, madonna, new kids on the block and tupac, needless to say it was a blast for me.

for the class on the art of complaining, i had prepared some fun improv activities to show how and when to complain. but instead the class had already prepared questions for me. when i heard this, i assumed they would be questions about american culture, which is somewhat true. they instead asked me about our gun control policies, our problems in our educational system, and the lack of public health care. needless to say, i was left a little stunned. each question ended with, “what are your plans to help make needed changes?” i was left speechless each time, but adequately answered the questions and hopefully giving them a better understanding why america is quite slow to react sometimes or to make various changes. but the kids were more well-versed on american issues than most other americans, and it left me quite impressed. but i am still laughing about the whole situation. that is the best thing to do here. laugh.