Week 3: St. Rosa´s Day, Working, Seinfeld!

Greetings everyone~

I hope everyone has had a nice, relaxing Labor Day break. Peru doesn´t have a Labor Day, but I suppose you could say I´m been enjoying Labor Day for nearly a month. Ironically, I began my first job in Peru today as an English teacher at the university branch where I am also receiving my Spanish lessons. I have two classes that last two hours each day, Monday through Friday. Although I´ve been in education for a decade, this is a new experience for me as I seldom have had to develop lesson plans or work with students for such a lengthy amount of time. However, my students all are very eager to learn English, the youngest student is 17 while the oldest is 34, and let´s face it, I´m working four hours a day, so it isn´t too bad. The course lasts a month which is nice, because Marianella and I are planning to move to our own place in October, plus we have a big trip planned for the first week of October (I´ll share with you in a few minutes). It´s nice to gain the experience at this job without having to leave in the middle of the course because we´re moving or on vacation or other circumstances.

It was a quieter week for us than the previous weeks, but besides the good news of getting a job, I also received some very pleasant news from the States. The big news is a second renter has been found to live with my niece Heidi at my house in St. Paul. This was great news for us (myself, Marianella, and Heidi too) as we were getting nervous that we would go another month without another contributor to the mortgage. In addition to that news, I also got a very pleasant surprise when I checked my last bank statement. As my fellow educators know, when you´re a teacher you can elect to have your paychecks given to you either during a 9 month span or spread through the entire calendar year. I´ve always chosen to be paid during over the entire year which meant that I was receiving paychecks twice a month during the summer months and I assumed August 15th was my final paycheck from Woodbury High School for a couple years. Much to my surprise, there was a paycheck deposited on August 30th! I had forgotten we were paid on the 15th and 30th of the month, rather than the 1st and the 15th. Anyway, as anyone can understand, it was a most pleasant surprise. It also has already been spent :), but for something both Marianella and myself are very excited about. That trip I mentioned earlier is a second honeymoon to Buenos Aires, Argentina the first week of October. When we discovered that we would need to move to Peru shortly after our wedding, we decided that if everything fell into place, we would take a honeymoon somewhere in South America. Buenos Aires was our first choice and with Marianella´s spring break (remember, Southern Hemisphere) approaching, we were ecstatic to book the trip. So, expect many pictures on the blog in about a month´s time.

Even though we are not celebrating Labor Day in Peru, we did have a holiday this Saturday, Saint Rosa´s Day. In a country where 90% of the population is Catholic (Marianella´s serious estimation), religious holidays are celebrated quite often, with St. Rosa´s Day being among the most beloved holidays. The reason for this is St. Rosa is the patron saint of Lima and South America. She lived in Lima and Saint Rosa´s Church is where everyone congregates on this day. To avoid the massive crowds, we awoke early in the morning and made our way to the Church for the 7:30 a.m. mass. How to describe the scene? It made me think of a rock concert, except when you got inside everyone was very quiet and reverential. Much like a concert, the lines snaked around the block as people waited to enter. Much like a concert, you had people worming and pushing their way through the crowd to get closer to the front, except in this case, it was grandmothers in their golden years. This was at 7:30 in the morning, mind you. As the day advances the crowds and the lines become increasingly thick with people. After the service was over, we went for breakfast near the main square of Lima and stumbled upon a most impressive ceremony taking place in the Main Square. In addition to being the patron saint of Lima, Saint Rosa is also the protector of the police officers and a large conglomeration of officers were gathered for a ceremony honoring Saint Rosa. We weren´t able to stay for the ceremony, as we had to move ourselves towards lunch with Marianella´s kindergarten teacher, who became a family friend along with her sisters after Marianella and German went through her class. Marianella traces her inspiration to become a teacher back to Maricela. It was an emotional, yet relaxing lunch, where of course we dined like royalty.

Inside Santa Rosa Church at 7:30

The line waiting to drop off their wishes

Police officers in formation in front of the Lima Cathedral

Police officers in Lima´s main square

Marianella with her mother, kindergarten teacher Maricela, and Maricela´s sisters

Before I leave this topic I have to let you know, I was nearly broadcast over Peru´s national television channel. After Church services, we followed the tradition of St. Rosa´s Day, which is to write your wishes on a piece of paper and cast them into the wishing well which is located next to the Church (this tradition has particular meaning for the Vizcarra family-on Marianella´s parents honeymoon, they attended the service and her mother asked for a boy and a girl and sure enough. . .) After a lengthy time in line, we entered the courtyard, cast our wishes into the well, and as we were leaving a reporter and his camerman cornered Marianella and myself. Let´s just say, a blondish red haired Caucasian was unique in this crowd. The reporter asked me several questions in English, which I happily answered, while Marianella tried (and failed) to avoid the camera. Alas, I didn´t make it onto the national news. . .I wasn´t too surprised as I figured it would take too long to add the subtitles necessary for the viewing audience that evening, but it was fun nonetheless, especially listening to Marianella stress about what she would like on television.

Almost our big celebrity moment
The final note of the week? It has to do with my favorite television show. Upon arriving in Peru, I quickly found many of my old TV favorites broadcast down here-Friends, The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond. However, there was one show, the best show, that was missing. Then late one night while I was flossing my teeth in the bathroom, I heard the familiar theme music on the TV and before Marianella could turn the channel, I burst out of the bathroom, eyes wide, excitement in my voice. Seinfeld is available in Peru! Granted, I have to stay up until 11 p.m. to watch it, but it´s comforting to know I can watch it any night I feel the desire.

Take care everyone, I hope life is treating you all well, and to my education colleagues, I wish you a great school year ahead! Hasta la vista, until next week.