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A Day in the Life of.....

A typical day for me in Arequipa consists of:

• 6 AM - Get up
• 7:15 - Eat breakfast with Yesenia and the kids.  Breakfast is either oatmeal and white rolls or eggs and white rolls (coffee/tea/milk).  Sometimes we have juice and rice. 
•    
• 7:45 - Walk the 1-1.5 miles to the SEPA Institute at the Casona
• 8-10 - Have Spanish class with Sandra
• 10:30 - Grab some fruit at the grocery store for a snack and walk the 1 mile to the Arequipa Educational Center to teach the grade school kids.  I am there for 4 hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and only for 2 hours on Tuesday.  I never know what grade nor what I will be teaching that day until I arrive at 11:00.  It is always very hectic and busy here.  The kids are very active and have a hard time focusing.  I think alot of it has to do with the diet here.  The kids eat a lot of sugar and carbohydrates.  (Look at the picture of the birthday party and see what they gave the kids!) They even put sugar in their milk at home!  They go to school from 8-2:45 without a lunch break.  They do have a snack of sandwich, fruit and juice at 11:00, but eat lunch when they get home. 
• 3:00 - Walk the 1 mile home for lunch.  Lunch is the main meal of the day and consists of soup, rice and some main course of a small portion of chicken or beef mixed with potatoes and a few vegetables.  Maria, the cook at home, cooks all the soups from scratch and they are always very good, but usually don't have much meat in them - lots of potatoes, onions, carrots, noodles and rice with a few meat pieces for flavoring.  Twice a week, we have a totally vegetarian meal with some sort of beans.
• 4:00 - 10:00 - Study for a while until I need to leave to go teach at the Casona or the company, TECSUP.  I teach at one of these places 4-5 times per week.  I teach 2 Directors of TECSUP (a Technical Institute for technical professions in mining) English 2 nights per week for 2.5 hours at their office.  I return to the Casona around 8:00 PM and return home between 9 and 10 PM.  The other 2-3 nights, I teach teens or adults English at the Casona until 9:00
• 10:00 - Eat a snack for dinner and then study until I can't keep my eyes open! 
• In between times and on Saturdays, I have class with Mark on the Teaching English as a Foreign Language - complete with homework and tests!

On Saturdays, my schedule is:

• 9-11 AM  Origami - The Casona sponsors all kinds of artesians and musicians.  Right now they are having an origami exhibition and offering origami classes.  It is surprising how  popular origami is down here.  The teachers are very young and as you can see by some of the pictures, very talented.  All the figures are folded either from one or multiple pieces of paper.  If multiple pieces are used, they create modules which they then fold into each other.  There is no glue, paper clips or other means of attaching the modules - just folding!  Pretty amazing!  After the few classes I have had, I have a new appreciation for their talents and dexerity!  Classes have been very interesting, since my Spanish and their English is very limited.  Somehow, though, we have been able to communicate enough to create some figures!
• 11-1 PM  Flute lessons or cultural tour
• 3-6 PM  Class with Mark

Sundays I have off to catch up on everything else!

Quite a busy schedule!  It definitely keeps me out of trouble! 

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