This is right before we were supposed to sing. Michelle was a little surprised.
Here is a picture of one of the bands performing. They were really good and made the night a little more lively.
More pictures of the band performing.

This past Thursday night we had a Coffee House Night at SALI. The idea was to present to Peruvians a picture of what an American coffee house looks like/feels like/sounds like. So we had a planning committee (me and about 6 other interns) who were put in charge of publicity, food and drinks, and set-up. To make SALI feel like a coffee house, the decorators (Becca and Michelle) put up Christmas lights and set up lamps around SALI so we could turn off the lights. Joshua got some different musicians to perform (including all of the SALI teachers--we sang Holy, Holy, Holy and Be Thou My Vision). Matt played his guitar and some Peruvians performed some Peruvian music. For food, me and Sydney made several different "coffee-houseish" desserts. We made blonde-brownies, banana cake w/ cream cheese frosting, sugar cookies with icing and strawberries on top, chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, and Rosita made some popcorn for the Peruvians who were suspicious of our desserts. We had free coffee/tea/hot chocolate for everyone. We made back about half of the costs of the event so we were glad that the bake sale could help with the cost. The night was a lot of fun and we had a ton of people (150) come. Everyone seemed to enjoy the atmosphere and the food and drinks. These kind of events are always good because it gives all of the teachers a chance to have some conversations with their students outside of the classroom, which helps build our friendships with them. Seeing our students outside of the class and being excited to see them really shows our students that we care about them as people, not just as students. I enjoyed the Coffee House Night and SALI is going to make it a regular event on the SALI schedule.

This is Rosita making the hot chocolate for the Coffee House Night. It was really good. She used chocolate bars and sweetened-condensed milk.
This is the icing we made. It seemed like almost everything we made didn't turn out the first time. The brownies we made burnt the first time. This icing was basically like chocolate water. We spent a total of 2 full days baking for Coffee Night because we were expecting 120 people. Baking in Peru is definitely a lot more difficult than baking in the States b/c the ovens dont have temperatures but just a 1, a 2, and a 3. Also, the ovens here are all gas ovens and halfway through the day on Thursday, we ran out of gas so we had to call the gas man to come give us a refill. So... as you can see... baking in Peru is a little different than baking in the States. :)
This is a picture of the brownies that we burnt.
This is a picture of our bake sale. We earned almost $35! We covered a good bit of the cost for the coffee house night through our bake sales.
We had a very, very good turn out. There were over 120 people that showed up for the festitivities at SALI that night.

Preparation for the Coffee House Night at SALI

(1)This is Becca and Sydney stuffing bags with popcorn.
(2) Me, hiding behind a massive stack of cookies.



(3) These are some of my students that came to the Coffee House night. I practiced some conversational English with them and it was fun to interact with them outside of the classroom. (left to right: Iris, Joselyn, Me, Cesar)

Coffee House Night at SALI

This is me and Sydney right after we finished baking all of the goodies for SALI Coffee House Night.

Everyone, check out my new pet, juan pablo carlos. You can feed him if you want. Enjoy.

adopt your own virtual pet!

Fun Facts ...

So I have some fun little tid bits of info that I thought some of you would enjoy

(1) A dog lives on top of our roof at home: Here in Peru, most of the people dont have yards so a lot of the dogs live on the roof. At our house there is a tiny little white dog that lives on our roof (actually it is about 20 feet of space b/c the house is open and so the roof is divided into several parts). However, I have the pleasure of having the room right below the dog. So ... as a result of this, I get to go to sleep to the sound of little toe nails clicking above me as our little dog walks around on top of the roof. I have also heard several dog/cat fights late at night and that has definitely been pretty fun.

(2) To make transportation cheaper, Peru has collectivos. A collectivo is a taxi that 7 different people ride in together but only have to pay one sol (which is about 30 cents). So every Tuesday and Thursday I take a collectivo out to Arevelo to work with the children b/c it is about a 20 minute ride. Everyday I have no idea who is going to get into the collectivo so it is kind of an adventure to see who is going to pile into the collectivo next to me. It is pretty packed b/c Peruvians try to get 7 people into a regular size car so it is kind of weird getting squished up against some stranger but you learn to get use it.

More Later..

I feel like I need to tell everyone a little bit about my friend Sydney. You know those people you just instantly click with? Sydney is definitely one of those people I just click with. She has been a huge blessing to me and I am so thankful that she is here while I am here. I love talking to her and hearing about what she is learning. God has used her to encourage me and to make me feel at home here in Peru. I can't even remember how we became so close but after my first week here, we were instantly close friends.

Sydney's brief bio: Sydney is a rising junior at Texas A&M. She took a year off between her sophomore and junior year to live in Peru for a year. She is studying History (like me) and wants to teach high school history and be a volleyball coach. She is very good at volleyball and has a wonderful laugh. Te Amo, Sydney!

Teacher Appreciation Day is today!!!

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day in Peru and my Basic 6 students bought a caramel cake for me (along with some popcorn :)) They are a fun class and I am glad that I am their teacher. Left to Right? Migel, Connie, Guillermo, me, Gabriela.
This is a picture of the whole class. Gorge (the guy with his eyes closed) was gone when we took the first picture.

A little taste of home...

So I was little sad that I was missing July 4th festivities back in the States but I had decided to just suck it up and be ok with it. My friends Sydney and Becca (two of the other lovely interns here) and I were invited to go out to eat with two other Peruvians (Oscar and Ludwig who are super nice and super fun) to go eat pizza. So we went to New York Pizza for a quick bite to eat. Much to our surprise, we arrived to the pizza restaurant and there were red, white and blue balloons hanging from the ceiling with streamers. When we walked in, the owner of the restaurant said to me and my friends, "Happy Holiday to you!" When we got our pizza, our plates had red, white, and blue stars on them! I know that these decorations might seem like a minor detail, however, it definitely made me feel like I wasn't so far from home. I am so glad that we went to that restaurant and got to celebrate our holiday here. It was kind of neat b/c I was feeling a little home sick but I just feel like God really provided some good encouragement through those decorations. Praise God for his constant provision.

This is a picture that one of my students at Arevelo made me. I am the girl in the middle. This picture's purpose is twofold: to celebrate America's Independence Day and to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day in Peru (which is tomorrow and apparently it is kind of a big deal). Some of my students told me that I had to leave the class for a couple of minutes today and on my way out I heard two words that normally mean good things: sorpresa (which means surprise) and chocolate. We shall see how things turn out tomorrow. My favorite part is that I have BLONDE hair.
This is the Orbegoso family wishing my mom a happy birthday b/c her birthday was on Saturday (when I went to eat lunch with them). Cheers! Feliz Cumplenos, Mommie. I got you a really cool present yesterday!
This is a close up of the ceviche that I ate. Looks appetizing, doesn't it?

This is Gabriela's mom. She was super fun and sweet. I enjoyed being in their home.
This past weekend I went to one of my student's house b/c she wanted to make me my favorite Peruvian dish (lamo saltado) and some ceviche. It was a lot of fun and not I can come back to the States and make it for my family and friends. Check out that sweeeeettt apron!
This is a picture of the ceviche. Ceviche is made using lots of different types of seafood--octupus, shrimp, fish, and some other things I had never seen before. Instead of cooking the seafood, you leave it in about 2 cups of lime juice for about 2 hours and the acid in the lime juice cooks the seafood for you. Ceviche is served with canche (corn) and sweet potatoes. There are onions and pimiento in the ceviche to give it some extra flavor. Ceviche isn't my favorite but it was fun to make and taste. Ceviche is one of the most famous dishes in Trujillo. Anyone who comes to here has to try it.