24 Page Packet

I was starting to get antsy and nervous because I had not received any information on the specifics of my arrival or information about what I'd be doing as a volunteer in the school. Until this Wednesday, I only had the description of my volunteership (not sure that's a word) from the snippet on the GVI website to go on. I emailed a guy who is at the site in Arequipa, and asked him to send me some specifics...he emailed me a 24 page packet...yikes. I'm a week out until I leave and I'm just now reading about my volunteership...I think, maybe I should have checked in sooner...nah, last minute information for international travel is always optimal...geez Hillary...ha.

The 24 page packet consists of teaching strategies and such...I come to find that I will be teaching kindergarten age children in a village about 20 miles outside of Arequipa. The first thought I had was, 'thank god...me and the kids will be on the same language level...'! I, like most people, took multiple years of a foreign language (Spanish) throughout high school and college...did I retain any of the said Spanish...NO...so, the first two weeks of my trip involve 1 on 1 Spanish tutoring (thank goodness), and then on the third week I'll be integrated into the school...and let's face it, these kindergarteners will be running circles around me when it comes to speaking Spanish no matter how much tutoring I have. Some of my work will involve lesson planning, craft ideas, creating teaching tools, etc. So then my second thought was, 'um, what?'...I thought I was going to be playing with them, not molding their minds! Mind molding is a large responsibility, especially when my Spanish speaking level will be not so good...for all I know I could think I'm teaching them 'the sky is blue' and really be saying 'my face is blue'. Nonetheless, after digesting all of the information, I was even more excited for my trip...I mean, how cute will Peruvian kindergarteners be?!?! And we'll get to learn the language together...ha!

Another portion of the packet discusses do's, don'ts, and be carefuls, of being a foreigner in Peru. Most of them were common sense things like, 'don't go down back alleys', 'do only drink bottled water or alcohol' (b/c they're bacteria free...I can deal with that), 'be respectful and non-judgmental of cultural differences', etc. One item that stuck out to me was...'be careful of visible tattoos', again, my thought was, 'um, what?' (for those of you who haven't seen me in a while, I have a visible tattoo...it's small, but visible)...evidently, visible tattoos are something only gang members sport in Arequipa...tremendous...I'll be drinking my bottled water, not in a back alley, and get jumped for having a tattoo...ha...not to make a joke out of gang member relations, but it made me laugh...this trip is going to be such an eye opener!

Just from what I've read in the packet, you guys should be in store for some pretty ridiculous 'Hillary' stories...it will be a new adventure everyday and I'm getting really excited!

First off...

I'm not too much of a "techy" person, so forgive me if my blog isn't up to snuff with the possibilities of the blog world...I'm sure there are cooler templates, pictures, etc., but simpler is better for me. I figured that while I'm gone, rather than email the same update to multiple people, it might be easiest for people to drop by here and see what I've been up to...I'll probably be pretty lonely at times, so please feel free to comment or email...I'd appreciate the contact =)

It's T minus 9 days until I leave for Peru...I feel kind of like that part in Armageddon when Owen Wilson is getting strapped into the space shuttle before it leaves on it's mission to land on a killer asteroid heading for earth, and he says, "I got that "excited/scared" feeling. Like 98% excited, 2% scared. Or maybe it's more - It could be two - it could be 98% scared, 2% excited but that's what makes it so intense, it's so - confused". Ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic, but I'm a normal amount excited and scared as the days count down to my departure. I've crossed my T's and dotted most of my lower case J's (a movie quote from Wayne's World 2, if you didn't pick up on it), so while I'm prepared, I'm getting antsy and nervous for all that's in store. And if you can't tell, I'm a bit of a movie lover/quoter...so get ready for some hopefully relevant/funny quotes throughout the posts.

Yesterday I bought a camera for my trip...a Nikon Coolpix P90 for any camera people...it's definitely out of my league, but I wanted a camera that not only would take incredible pictures, but I wanted a camera that would make me become a better photagrapher, so I hope I've accomplished this with an upgrade. AND it's easy to upload the pictures from any computer, so those of you who haven't seen any of my previous travel pictures b/c I couldn't figure out how to upload them to my computer, this should help too...a definite bonus!

I'll post more closer to when I leave...this is just to get something up. Thanks for reading!