The University Life

So i feel like talking a little about my life at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica en Peru. First off, its not really a highly religious school... I think its just a requirement to have Catolica somewhere in the name of schools here (not really). The campus is amazingly well maintenanced, but to me it feels really unnatural despite it being one of the few places i know with lots of green areas. The campus is huge and beautiful, and is not a bad place to lounge around all day..

I am taking 4 courses directly enrolled in the school and 2 courses through my CIEE program. The 4 classes are Alternative programs to Pre school, administration and legislation of education, social development and responsibility, and human sexuality. My other two are advanced spanish and peruvian social reality. So this is what i do all day at La Catolica (PUCP)

Let me tell you about first days of school in a new language: you dont understand anything. I was literally completely lost by the end of my first week. I didnt even know who i was, i was so confused. The cool thing about most of the classes are that they work in groups. So some students who felt sorry for me decided to take me in and nurture me back to health.

This is how their conversations probably went:

Pepe: Do you think we should take the gringo?
Maria: I dont know, I seriously doubt hes going to do any work.
Pilar: But i want to practice my English! Lets take him!
Pepe: Yeah, poor guy, he is all alone in this class. Lets do it out of our good hearts!

So i have groups for the rest of the year, and yes I have done work for them...

A kinda different thing in Catolica is that there are no bachelor degrees, only degrees equivalent to masters. A person chooses a faculty and takes classes only in that faculty, so me being in 3 different faculties (education, social management, psychology) is a rarety, if ever it even happens.

My two classes in education are full of girls, I am literally the only guy in one class, and Im gringo. What a mix! I have a pretty cool group of girls for that class but they talk incredibly fast. I think they do that just to make fun of me in front of my face! Ill understand them one day...

Also, my human sexuality class does not just talk about sex... it is actually includes everything about sexuality, be it preference, social issues on gender, development of sex, actual sex, and identity. I am actually getting a lot of cool ideas from the class, mainly because i agree with my teacher on just about everything, even if they do call it feminism (i have in the past claimed myself to be an ecofeminist without the title of ecofeminist) i am also one of the few guys in that class as well.

I am meeting new people, but its a slow process. I really do not think the ¨Im lost, can you help me¨ line works in Catolica, so ive just been goin to classes and goin home. Three of my classes are made for independent reading and research, which is exactly the classes i believe are the best for learning. My human sexuality is all lecture, which is fine. My administration and legislation class is literally all independent research, we dont even have classes except for when we need to do a little exam (which i did alright in)

Another cool thing is that all of my classes work for my little research project im doing for UA. I am focusing on the education of Peru and Lima and what all the social reality is of it. So almost every class helps me on my independent research. I am happy about that

When i cannot go home for lunch there is this hamburger kiosk right next to the school that i go to every time. I pay 3 soles (1 dollar) and get a huge hamburger (thin slice of meat though) that i enjoy every bite of. The different thing they do in burgers here is that they put potato sticks in the hamburger.. Who knew it would be delicious!

Cheerio, then! Right-tow!