The Private School: May 23

The next morning, we boarded the bus and took a new route to school. Since we were driving to the private school, you could tell we were in a different neighborhood. The private school was unbelievable! I would teach there in a second. The classrooms were so cute, and the school was located in the mountains surrounded by flowers and lush green grass.
On the bus ride there I learned that I would be in grade four, in the boys school, San Pedro (or Saint Peter). The school was divided according to gender, it was kind of neat. First though, the school did a little introduction and we had the cutest little girls recite poetry for us. Afterward we met with our principles and were given our schedules for the day. Since a few of us did not have first class, we decided to tour the school yard. Along the way, we met a few teachers and discovered that the kids here not only learn English (on top of Spanish) but once they reach the higher grades they pick a third language (French or German). After saying hello to some of the classes we made our way back.

  I was teaching my first lesson at 11. Wesley and I were sharing the same classroom, so after he finished, it was my turn to teach and I was lucky he stayed so he would work the slide show for me! I taught the kids about Maple Syrup, how it was made, the legend behind, and finished off the lesson showing pictures from the Cahill family album about their own sugar shack run by Grandma and Grandpa and their sons. The kids were really interested, but I believe their favorite part was testing maple syrup. One kid was super cute and came up to me as I was passing more cups of syrup around and said that this was the best honey he had ever tasted. I then informed him this was maple syrup it came from tree and not bees, this was tree food. Well the kids just loved the idea that they were eating tree food :) and they wanted more but I had to save some for my second class lol.
 After my lesson, we made our way to the Cafeteria for our lunch. The teachers sat on the stage while all the kids sat at tables on lower ground. The food was delicious!
After lunch, I had a lot of free time since I had the last teaching block, so a bunch of us made our way around to other classrooms and helped each other with our lessons (like handing out bookmarks or helping make snowflakes and milking) it was a lot of fun to see what others were teaching. Some of us even stopped and watched a soccer game which was pretty neat, those kids, though much younger than me, could definitely kick my butt in soccer! Then, the time had come for me to teach my final lesson. This class was definitely more lively than the first, which didn't help my voice lol, but I still had a great time with them and practiced disciplining! And a special thanks to Erin and Kelly helping me this time around. All in all it was a successful day! After, we joined up with the other half who stayed at the girls school and said our goodbyes. The school was so kind and gave us little gifts, cards and journals and offered us jobs ahaha much needed for future teachers today!
Since Guelph informed us that the renovations had been completed we made our way back to the retreat center after teaching and relaxed! After dinner and reflection, Raoul told us that tonight we would be visiting Lima University. When we arrived I was blown away by the beauty and decided I definitely wouldn't mind taking a few courses there. We stopped at the library which, of course, was exciting for me ... perhaps a future job there?
Our tour guides were students and they were super kind and welcoming and enjoyed practicing their English! We walked up the graduate tour, which was one of the neatest parts of the tour, since the stairs were see-through, and had a spectacular view of Lima from the top! (yes, I did not cheat and walked instead of taking the elevator). After we came back from the tour we were surprised to hear that we had our own private concert awaiting us! The band was great! I wish they had a CD so I could have purchased it and brought it back to Canada to remind me of Peru, but alas they were just working on their first one so I was out of luck :( Their harmonies and guitar and flute playing ... well I have a video here so you have listen and judge yourself :) (... if I can get it to work :S) After the concert we we crawled into bed. We had finished our teaching block, for though we were originally going to be teaching in the school for physical disabilities, we were unable to do so as much needed construction was going on this week :( I was a little upset since Erin and I had planned a cute music lesson based on Canadian artists, but instead, tomorrow would be our goodbye day at the two schools and we would still be teaching a lesson (on dental hygiene).