Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Compañera de PUCP

Today in class, rather than discussing the wonderful life of dogs in Peru, we talked about art.  Our professor started talking about El Museo Larco, which is a famous private art museum here in Lima and it is right down the road from the school.  Apparently, according to my professor, it is one of the best in Lima.  He showed us a famous painting that is in the museum titled "Funerales de Atahualpa" painted by Luis Montero in the 19th century.

The painting is a good representation of the Spanish culture and the indigenous cultures, so it was interesting to talk about that (the conflict between the cultures) some, too.  It was also interesting to learn that in many paintings which depicted indigenous people, the indigenous still looked European in their faces and it was only their clothing that would distinguish whether they were indigenous or not in a painting.  It wasn't until the Indigenismo movement in art that the people became more distinguished in their face.   Sorry if this is boring for you, but I figured that I should let you all know that I am learning stuff down here and not just vacationing. :)

Anyway on to a little less boring stuff.  After class we had an orientation to the university (for those of you who don't remember the university is La Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru).  It was mostly about registering for classes and everything.  Today I learned that there are over 300 foreign students at the university and that made me feel pretty small.  It's crazy, I didn't even really think about how many other students were studying at PUCP besides the 14 that are in my program.  Apparently in two weeks we (all the international students) have our registration for courses which starts at 9am, but I heard that some students get there around 7 or before in order to be first in line to get the classes they want.  If you ask me I think I should camp out on the lawn with the deer the night before. :)  I also learned today that all the sections of modern dance are full (which is the only dance class that I really had the option of taking).  Finding this out made me kind of sad, but I am going to talk to the professors and try my hardest to get into that class.

Also, I met my Compañera PUCP today.  A compañera is a companion or friend.  This Compañera PUCP business is a program where international students are matched with a student at the university and that compañera/o can help the international student with anything they might need or they can just be a friend to practice Spanish with.  My compañera's name is Ccantu, which is a Quechua (an indigenous language) name, however, I have not asked her what it means yet.  She is 19 years old and she is studying law at PUCP.  I really think it's going to be great once I have more Peruvian friends..I can't wait!!

Now for my micro adventure tonight, I got on a different micro than usual tonight with some of the other students from my program (I didn't get lost though, if that's what you're thinking).  Anyway, it really wasn't too much of an adventure, but it boils down to the fact that it took a longer way so I was on it for over an hour and it didn't even go to the stop I wanted or needed.  Not only that, but we also got off earlier than we should.  Needless to say I got a lot of walking in tonight.  It was also starting to get dark so I booked it for 16 blocks.  Sixteen blocks doesn't seem like a lot, but my feet and shins have already been sore from walking a majority of the weekend, but it was still comical to me.  For those of you who know my normal walking pace and for those of you who know my "booking it" pace, you'll understand why it was funny.  Number one:  I wish I would've timed myself.  Number two:  I wish I would've had a camera on me watching me weave through the slow walkers on the sidewalks.  I seriously passed everyone I came across, I'm sure they were all thinking, "where's that girl going?"

That workout home was pretty much the end of my day, otherwise I've been doing homework and trying to figure out what classes to take. :)  Buenas noches!  Gracias por leer mi blog!

1 comment:

  1. This blog made me giggle. I imagine you looked like one of those older ladies walking around the mall for exercise...arms waving and all : )

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