First Week at UNIFE (5/30/16 - 6/2/16)

Day 1 - Monday (5/30/16)

It’s our first week at UNIFE, a university dedicated to women practicing the art of translation. A very intriguing university if you ask me, and quite frankly this would be one time I had wished to be a woman. No. Not really. But it was definitely a cool university. Just when you think the Airforce school was rampart with young teen girls wild with hormones and uncontrollable urges to take selfies with you, well you haven’t quite been to UNIFE.

You’d expect them to be more tamed and matured about things, but it was quite the opposite. These girls will sit around you and profess their love for you if they could. Miento. Miento. (I lie. I lie.) These girls were normal. At least on the surface they were different, but still the same on the inside because you know all the chisme is going around and whatnot. Chisme is Spanish for gossip, by the way.

Anyways, we were greeted with open arms and a cool ceremonial dance. And I’ve learned from my time in Peru that whenever a dance ceremony is commenced, it’s highly likely that you will be dragged in to participate. It must be a Peruvian thing because Monica was nudging me to hop on stage. Eventually, I had to suck it up and join the others in the ceremonial dance routine. Thankfully, everybody was so busy that there were no known footages or photos of me miserably trying to dance. Cha cha cha. Ole!

That was day one at UNIFE. A nice introduction to the school and the girls.

Day 2 - Tuesday (5/31/16)

Day two provided a more rigorous curriculum as we had to partake in a UNIFE literature class. I always like to take the opportunity for whenever anyone speaks Spanish to try to dissect and improve on my listening skills. So, I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture through and through. However, I couldn’t speak for everyone else.

After lecture, we left UNIFE to visit the Museo de Oro. This was a wicked place! (Excuse my New England slang, but it’s a good thing.) It was one of the craziest collection of gold I had ever seen. It’s a collection of the late Miguel Mujica Gallo who wanted to show the world of the various beauties different cultures had to offer. Apparently his daughter was a dime, hollow-headed, but a dime. He was a businessman that had travelled around the world in hopes of garnering precious artifacts and jewels. Most of these artifacts were obtained through famous historical figures, and some cool stuff even from World War II. Definitely an interesting man with a lot of money to his name. That was about all I could handle at the museum. I mean I was getting a little bit jealous, so I was glad to move on from there. After the tour, we had headed back out to the bus to go home. And I would go on to spend the rest of my day brushing up on my Spanish and watching Spanish TV before heading off to bed.

Day 3 - Wednesday (6/1/16)

So today was going to be a great day I could already tell because today was physical education at UNIFE. ME ENCANTA physical activity. I’m sorry, but that’s my motor and that’s what gets me going. I mean who ever feels depressed after a good workout? Well, ok. If it’s a low intensity workout I usually would and this was exactly what it was. I couldn’t say I was all that disappointed or expected anything more than just standing around smacking a volleyball with 30 other kids. I mean it was fun and good bonding time for all of us. It really showed everyone’s true colors, but I really wanted to jump, run, and dunk a basketball on some people. I’m not spiteful against anyone. I just wanted to showcase my dominance and lay someone out. Again, nothing against them. It’s a personal issue. End of day three at UNIFE.

Day 4 - Thursday (6/2/16)

Our first week at UNIFE is about to come to an end, and I’m really enjoying the conversations with the girls and the history classes we’ve taken. So, I’m always looking forward to the visit. Today, we sat around in a giant circle outside in a large grassy area to sit down and talk to the girls about politics, life in Lima, and hobbies. Just a bunch of random topics to get to know the girls more. And it was exciting. The girls were really cool, and at the end we became Facebook friends with all of them. Also because they promised to buy me Pisco Sours if we ever go out. You bet I’ll keep your number in my pocket. Anyways, conversation ends and we head into history class for one last time to endure a painful lecture about how Peru was founded. Listen, it’s not that I wasn’t interested, but we’ve heard so much repetitive stuff about the History of Peru that you might as well just hand me a degree in Peruvian History and Peruvian citizenship. I was that informed.

Class had finally come to an end, and we get ourselves ready for the best part of the day – Salsa dancing! A bunch of us lined up outside by the stage to meet up with professional Peruvian salsa dancers. This was awesome! We’re going to be taught salsa by actual pros. We then pair up with a partner, and the first person I snatched was my friend Kathleen because I knew I would be able to lead her. I was wrong. She was many times better than I was and I became submissive to her lead. Ralzaly you sure know how to pick them. I was humiliated, but let’s move on. After a while, I started to get the hang of it, but the lessons had just ended. I had hoped for more but I knew there was going to be plenty of opportunities to salsa later on in the week. We then gathered around the professionals as they performed a full-on dance routine. It was absolutely mesmerizing. As I was watching them, I couldn’t help but imagine being that good and eventually take my talents to Dancing with the Stars. Oh one could only dream. We applauded the performance, grabbed our belongings, and headed back home for the rest of the day.