Stokes in Peru

Greetings everyone~ Alright, I fell off my promise to update the blog every week, but I can assure you, you wouldn´t have missed much if I gave you an update last week. In fact, this week´s update will be pretty pedestrian in comparison to the others-it´s funny how once you start working, it consumes all the interesting things in your life :). Actually, the job itself is quite interesting and entertaining. I am teaching English to two classes of young adults, one at a basic level and one at an intermediate level. My students are all quite nice and respectful, with varying degrees of English speaking skills. I have some students that are really good English speakers who are quite driven to get better, some who are trying to balance a lot in their lives while also trying to learn English, and some who are attending because Mom and Dad keep paying the monthly tuition :). The interesting aspect of the job is how disorganized it all is. . .I come home and shake my head and laugh with M...

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 exper...

Hello again everyone~ My apologies if you checked on the blog Friday for a new post and canceled your weekend plans in eager anticipation of my next entry onto the blog. The previous week was somewhat quiet, unless you wanted to hear my thoughts on Batman: The Dark Prince or how I did in my fantasy football drafts. While I´m sure there are some members of the reading audience who are interested in my fantasy football team, I figured I might scare off the vast majority, so I decided to wait until after this past weekend to add a post, as we were pretty active over the weekend. So, without further ado, here´s what we´ve been up to recently in Peru: Chinatown Around the turn of the 19th century, a significant number of Chinese people immigrated to Peru to work in the numerous mineral mines in this country. Upon arrival in Peru, they formed their own community not too far from downtown Lima that continues to thrive in population and visitors to the area. We were fortunate to visit on Sund...

Hey everyone, ¿Como esta? (How´s it going?) Life in Lima is going pretty well thus far. It´s been a relaxed week for me, with Marianella working during the days and my communication with her parents limited (they only speak Spanish), I have been catching up on my sleep, reading, preparing for my fantasy football drafts, and watching TV. You might say, what a life of leisure! Which I would respond, yes, but realize that my watching TV is actually work. What I have been tuning into is TV shows or movies where they are broadcast in English, with Spanish subtitles at the bottom of the screen. So, as I watch Friends or Everybody Loves Raymond I sit with a notebook on my lap, scribbling down Spanish words that I am able to figure out their English meaning. These are then transferred to flash cards so I can practice with Marianella the words, phrases, and sentences in Spanish. So after spending a day teaching first graders, Marianella comes home and does the equivalent of that with her husban...

Greetings all~ And welcome to my blog. Hopefully over the next two years or so, you can visit here to see how life in Peru and the surrounding areas is treating me and my lovely wife, Marianella. I can´t promise it will always be edge of your seat captivating (and to be honest, I don´t know that I´m up for edge of your seat captivation in a country where I´m still learning the language, culture, and people-one of my primary goals the next couple years is to avoid any international incidents), but I will work hard at keeping this blog updated (at least weekly) and as interesting as possible. So officially, this is my second day in Peru. I arrived shortly before midnight on Wednesday, August 6th, but by the time I cleared customs, got my luggage, and met Marianella at the airport it was about 1 a.m. on Thursday, August 7th. My first day in Peru was mostly spent sleeping-the exhaustion of preparing for the move, topped by the long flight from Minneapolis to Lima (via Toronto) caught ...