un poco triste

Estoy triste esta noche no sé porque. Seguramente porque es mi tiempo del mes que vien pronto. No me gusta llorar pero ya no puedo parar tampoco.
A veces creo que tengo un corazon demasiado grande. Me importo de cosa que no tiene importencia, tambien estoy enamorado facilemente. No puedo decir no a alguien, siempre quiero hacer placer a amigos a Tomas. Me desanimada facielemente también, quiero escribir mas, quiero hablar mas pero no puedo no hablo muy bien castellano...
Ya bueno, cual es el punto de este blog?


'' La verdad es que me siento solo....''

What will become of this blog?

I am back in Canada now, have been for about 3 weeks.
My last few weeks in Peru were fun because Tom came up and spent them with me. He was able to meet my friends, my students and get a tour of the school. It was a very blessed two weeks.
I was thinking of what would become of this blog since I am not in Peru anymore and the title is ''Coco in Peru''. I decided to practice my Spanish on it and let my Peru friends know what's going on with me in Canada.
I doubt anyone will really read but it gives me a place to practice and it's fun.
So sorry from now on the next postings will be in very broken Spanish, haha, its not like this blog was being used for anything else.
Love you all
Coco

Just Pics

It thought I would share a couple pics of my new house and my classroom... 

Enjoy!

My best friend... HEATING

My messy room

My messy room and the nice drawing my friend made for me

down the hall on the left is my room

This is my classroom

My ghetto flashcards

Not gonna lie, my two favs

My super nice new house

 They still speak Spanish

They lose a smiley face is they speak Spanish..

 I love being Mrs Corina

Madrina!

This week at the school there are championships. The students play against each other (specialties against specialties) volleyball and soccer.
The students asked me to be Madrina, which means I have to buy them their jerseys and encourage them. They all wanted a canadian leaf on their jerseys. They are so cute.
I was the best Madrina ever, I made them all come to the class an hour before and painted TURISMO on their faces. I then made them scream cheers.
We played against Carpenteria and we tied 2-2. Wilfredo the Carpenteria teacher wasnt too pleased with me but I didnt care, if you ask me to be Madrina I will be Madrina.
Here are a few captured moments

This is pure love

Mis alumnos, mis hijos, mis carinos

Chicha

I stayed in Chivay last weekend and this weekend I finally went to Arequipa. Since we got the go ahead with simply doing what we want last week and the week before Melanie asked me if I wanted to go to fiestas with her. A lot of times the little pueblos have fiestas ( usually because of a Saint) and they have dancing and they serve free beer and comida. Its quite excellent if you ask me. The problem is it is rude to not accept beer or food and after like 2 hours u feel really drunk.

They serve what they call chicha, it’s a humungo glass of fermented corn juice ( it ferments for a week). Yeah it sounds digusting. You know after you’ve vomited and you have that after taste in your mouth that makes you want to chew gum right away or brush your teeth. That’s what chicha taste like for me. The one we had was a little sweeter apparently. Still made me think of vomit.

The fiesta we went to was in Sibayo. Sibayo is so beautiful the whole village is made out of rocks. Itskinda hard to explain maybe these pics will help.

Weekend in Chivay

Last weekend my bus was cancelled and I was tired of waiting so I just ended staying in Chivay. Chivay is the little  village a half hour from the school. There is pretty much nothing there but the hotels I stayed in had cable TV. I went to the hot springs and watched tv all weekend. It had been a long while since I had watched TV. Made me realize how much my life is different here than in Canada. Also how TV has such a huge impact on life. It was such a relaxing weekend I needed that. Here are a couple of pics

Self timer shots for the win....

This bridge was sooo sketch, but I survived

I bought my swimsuite in Chivay cuz I wasnt planning on going to the hot springs. My peruano friend said ' oh you can always rent one'. Im no princess but sorry Im not into renting a swim suite that who knows whose who-ha has been in. I bought one instead, its quite cute and was cheap!

I know I am a city girl but I absolutely love the mountains. There is something so magical about them. I am sure David wrote the Psalms with such a view. Thank you God for creating such a wonderful world we have the pleasure to enjoy

These are a few of my favourite things

I realize that a lot of my blog is writing so here are a few pics of my favourite things 1)  Choko Sodas: these things are delicious

Its a soda biscuit dipped in chocolate the mix of salty and sweet is so delicious2) Manicures for 5 soles. They make me feel so fabulous and are so much fun

3) Mis alumnos. I just love them

4) My students being crazy, I could not have asked for a better classroom

Hope you've enjoyed this post!

Estas bien? NOOOOOOO! AYUDA ME POR FAVOR

So a half hour in to the new house I decided to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth I turn on the tap and put my toothebrush and toothpaste down on the sink and the whole entire sink falls and shatters all over the ceramic floor and water is gushing out like a gizer . Evidently the girls heard the noise and asked ; are you ok? I yelled no!. This was like at 11 at night so we called Will cuz we didnt want to call the girls from the administration, he came and cut the water and laughed at us so much.
They all said it was my bienvinidos.... haha . A piece of ceramic cut my leg but its not very deep more than anything I felt extremely bad for breaking the sink ( which I didnt really cuz apparently it had been loose and the girls told Will to come fix it and he never did... )
We are making memories

Travels & Valcanos

I don’t know if some of you have heard but there was a volcano erupted in Chile. Well my flight from BA to Lima was cancelled on Thursday and was rescheduled for SUNDAY NIGHT. That was really fun calling the airline and trying to schedule an earlier flight in SPANISH. I am pretty proud it all worked out.

The problem was that from Lima I had to take a bus of 13hours to Arequipa. Except I had to teach on Monday. And from Arequipa the Valley is another 4 hour bus ride. So I decided it was probably cheaper and easier to just buy a light from Lima to Arequipa. so I did that except my flight from BA to Lima arrived at 9pm Sunday night and my flight from Lima to Arequipa wasnt until 6 am Monday morning so I slept at the airport.
It was actually quite a nice sleep I had I must admit. Problem was I woke up and was all confused I went straight to the boarding without going to the counter. it was quite funny I almost went through security and then realized wait a minute i dont have a boarding pass HAHA man I looked dumb but it was really cuz I slept so well and woke up only an hour before my flight.
Nadia and Hannah missed their flight at that airport once there must be something in the water. All in all I had a good flight back arrived at the Valley around 9pm. Will came and helped me with my luggage I bought little gifts for the ppl here from Argentina and they were so happy
it was nice it felt as thought I was coming home to a family.
I aslo moved in to the new house.it has heating what a great thing to come back too.

Mi amiga Olivia

Mi amiga Olivia,
While in Ba I stayed in a Hostel with a room with 8 other beds. There was only one bed being used by a nice girl named Olivia. The most surprising thing to me is that Olivia ( her Spanish name) is from China. She is in BA to study Spanish for an entire year. Because it is a little difficult to get an apt being a gringo she has been staying at the Hostel. She has classes almost everyday except weekends.
I asked  her if she wanted to spend the day with me Saturday
She agreed so we seriously had the funnest day together at the botanical gardens and the Japenese garden and visiting the parliament buildings together.
The funnest thing is that she doesn’t speak a word of English and I don’t speak a word of Chinese so we just spoke Spanish to each other the whole entire time.
When I left Sunday she accompanied me to the bus station and we said goodbye. She cried, and made me cry telling me ‘’ tu eres mi major amiga aqua’’ meaning: you are my best friend here.
The thing is that I am rather sure that it is true. She doesn’t have many friends and it is rather hard for her. Now I want to go to China.
I love that connection you can have with a person, we only really spend two whole days together but I really bonded with her even if we both couldn’t speak very much Spanish. It was as though that was what linked us together, we both had patience with each other and we both had our dictionaries handy looking for words to explain situations.
It made me realize how we live in such a beautiful world full of different cultures and really all every needs is human contact, connection. Olivia made my trip worth while and I will sincerely miss her very much.
Gracias amiga

My stupidness saved my life

I really enjoyed my time in BA. The city is beautiful reminded me a lot fo Montreal but a hundred times better  It has a great mix of old history and modern architechure.
I was a little nervous about travelling solo but I got the hang of it and I did pretty well. So this one day I decided to go to this really nice park. It is in a very nice neighbourhood en BA. I was in this big park and I entered and walked all the way to the end of the park and sat on a bench. I took a couple of pictures about 200 meters from me was a nice couple hanging out. I sat there for a while. A young guy walked by and I asked him ‘’ Desculpame sabes si hay una salida par aqua’’ I was asking if there was an exit at this end  of the park. The guy came really close to me and started talking to me really fast, I couldn’t understand what he was saying so I kept saying QUE? He repeated again and put his hand on my camera. I still didn’t understand.  I then realized that he had one hand in his pocket pretending to have a knife.  He then asked me if I wanted a knife in my neck. I was still all a little confused so I answered ‘’ no porque?’’ HAHA.  Then I realzed he was robbing me but it had clearly not worked, he wanted my camera, so I said ‘’ no por favour no mi camera’’ so he said ‘’ money money give me money’’ at this point I started to be a little scared ( because I realized what was happening) I looked and the couple on the bench and the guy stood up realizing I needed help. So I stauled a little bit looking thru my purse pretending I didn’t know where I kept my money. Meanwhile , the other guy nearby came closer and my robber was a little nervous so I ran as fast as I could.
With my money and my camera. It was after that it hit me and I started to cry, I ranned to the nearest phone and tried calling Tom I just wanted to hear his voice but I forgot he was on Terrain… so I just cried and cried and cried.
Now I am able to really laugh about it and be really thankful that my Spanish isn’t THAT great 
I also belive God really protected me and all of this could have been a lot worse.

176??????????????????

I weighed myself at the airport today I almost cried.

Es la culpa de la COMIDA!!!!


That's it I am on fruit and water until I see my husband again.

No way Im gonna be 20 pounds heavier after not seeing him for 4 months.

That time I was in Lima...

So I took a 13 hour bus to Lima.
For real it is like better than a plane they serve you supper and breakfast. I really loved Lima, the beach is beautiful, the only thing I didn't like is that life is a little more expensive and you get ripped off as a gringa. So I stole bread from my overprices hotel to have lunch on the beach.
I shopped a lot and just enjoyed the beach, it felt like a real vacation.
Funny story, when I was walking around town a man stopped and asked me for directions. I told him I am not from here, he said '' really??''. BAHAHAHA. Clearly I am a gringa what an idiot. He didnt chatted me up for twenty minutes, typical peruano!

Cou Cou de Coco

Coucou

C'est moi,

COCO!

Lima,Palabra de Vida and now Buenos Aires

I haven't posted in a while and Tom complained. What? I didn't even know how faithful you people were to my blog but I am happy you care.

Last Tuesday I took a 13 hour bus ride to Lima. To be honest it was the best bus ride of my life. Its better than a plane, they feed you supper and breakfast. I also slept super well. After so many people told me to be careful in Lima I was pretty freaked out. Basically I just stayed in Miraflores and it was great. The shopping was amazing.
Thursday I took a plane to Buenos Aires. Kristina and her friends came ot pick me up at 4 am at the airport :). We headed straight for the school. I felt like I was at Word of Life family campground 1998.
I am glad I went. Glad I met Hindor and got to see her life and I realized aswell that I am so not made for Bible school. I was there a weekend and already felt a little trapped.
This past year I havent been really close to God. Now I am , now I know I cannot live without Him. However I am so far from that lifestyle, everyday being surrounded by christians, I dont really get the point tbh. People asking me questions like '' so what has God done in your life''. '' how long have u been a Christian'' '' what are you taking back with u of this weekend here'' .. '' what have you learned, what has God taught you?``
 What I have also learned is that its okay, its not for me but its not wrong, its just different.
I am glad I had the opportunity to see Krik and to sort of rekindle our friendships.
Now I am in BA and I absolutly love this city

Destination BUENOS AIRES

Tonight I am busing to Lima and Thursday I fly to see Tina in ARGENTINA

LOCA LOCA LOCA

yup!

Quierres ir RAFTING?

So I have become really good friends with the two girls that work at my Hostal. Elli & Caty. they are a lot of fun and help me practice Spanish and I help them with their English.
They asked me if I wanted to go rafting ( for like 15$). Because I dont have much planned and I am sort of waiting around to see what I could do I said yes.
Like hello I am such a scary cat, I wouldnt go rafting in Canada, but in Peru? What was I think.
So we went, Elli, Caty and Tom ( another dude that has been at the Hostal for a while) . It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fun. It lasted about an hour and a half. We were all four in one boat and there was another group. the boat of the other group fell over
We did really well but Tom fell in once. The other two girls are kinda young so they kinda panicked I pulled him back in the boat.
I think all those years of canoeing with the rents did me good because our guide told me I had a really good stroke and really knew how to row :)
Jorge ( the guide) went and told Tom that he owed me a beer because I saved his life
What an awesome day!

Mucho Gusto Renzo!

So on Sunday I went to the plaza to soak up the sun a little.
I sat on  bench. What I love about the Main Square is that Peruvians themselves hang out there.
I sat beside a young men. Some older man was selling something and came up to me and asked me if I spoke Spanish. When they sell something I don't speak Spanish.
After the old men left the young men beside me asked me if I spoke English I said yes. His English was REALLY good. He told me that he studied English for 5 yrs and now he studies business. Every Sunday he goes to the main square and hopes to find someone who speaks English to practice.
I thought that was fun. I asked him if he knew a place where I could take a Spanish class. He told me yes and that it would be really cheap cuz he knows the ppl.
So in the morning we went and we sat with the lady for like a half hour and talked about our lives.
I signed up for a 4 hour a week class, for 4 weeks, cost about 50$.
I am rather glad., my first class is the 11th!

New Addy

Here is my addy at my hostal, I am here almost every weekend.


Corina Jones
Hostal Reyna
Calle Zela N 209
Arequipa, Arequipa
Peru

(you can still send stuff to Franklin's but I would rather here cuz I get it right away instead of him having to call me)

I got my baby back

I just blogged all morning but I felt the need to share my stories.

Last night I got to ARQ and Otto called me to tell me my computer was ready. We met up at his school and then walked to a nearby coffee shop. In my head I thought, really? can you just give me my computer do we have to hang out? I know I sound a little rough but I am a little tired of being hit on or ambushed into dates

We sat at the coffee shop and he opened up my computer. I could not be more blessed! I regret ever thinking badly of him, he's just really sweet and respectful.
He recovered everything and added more. He put this thing where I can change the background on my desktop now and it changes picture every minute (you usually can't on a netbook, it was almost a deal breaker for me when buying my baby).
He also added a little game for when I'm bored at work. He added all this music,I mentioned once that the Beatles made me think of my dad. So when he showed me all the music he added he said '' when you miss your family you can listen to The Beatles and think of your dad''.  He also added  traditional ARQ music and some other songs that I really love from here.
He added Microsoft Word 2010, and I asked ' wait doesn't that cost money' and he said ' no not in Peru haha'. ( they pirate everything!)
When I asked him how much it cost he simply asked my if we could have lunch together today ( typical Peruano!) I agreed  because I have my baby back and its better than ever.
I think thats all the blogging I have in me for today. I am off and I still have no destination for the next 3 weeks. I cant wait to talk to my hubby he'll give me a couple of suggestions I think.

He would have replied something and I...

Ruben the Spanish dude is very odd. Well no he's normal but I don't understand when he speaks. what's odd is that 90% of the time I say QUÉ?! I would have thought he would be fed up of hanging out with me due to this but NO.
This Thursday he's like lets travel back to AQP together. I am like OKAY?
So he left for Chivay Thursday night. I took the bus from Achoma Friday morning. So we meet at th bus terminal on Friday morning and hes like the bus is full. and I'm like why didn't you buy your ticket Thursday night?  ( in my head not aloud cuz he would have replied something and I would have not understood)
He then asked me to ask the bus driver if he could just stay in the aisle. So I did and it worked cuz I am a chica. So after the what I thought was a very awk 4 hour bus ride with Ruben asked me if I want to eat with him.? So I said yes to be polite and also cuz Im not very good at making up excuses in Spanish, and he would have replied something and I would have not understood AGAIN.
So we go out to eat CEVICHE ( my fav) and again super awk not talking or when we do talk it's only me saying QUÉ and him repeating 5 times ???
And afterwards he's like do you want to come with me with my friends? And at this point I am just like I don't understand the words coming out of your mouth why do you want to be my friend.( again in my head cuz if I said it aloud he would have replied something and I would have not understood)
I told him I would call him later and I never did. I just can't deal with feeling stupid and for real I don't understand the words coming out of your mouth Ruben!

Reunion en la Manana a la 7

On Tuesday I walked into the office and those words were posted on the board.
Carlos turned to me and asked, are you going to be there? ( because I tend to come in at 7:15 :P) I smiled and said no I have class from 7 to 11. Gabriela the coordinator just happened to be there says '' Oh right because there is an event you don't have classes for the next THREE WEEKS''
THREE WEEKS, you tell me this the day before? Asi es el Peru!
So I am off until the 13th of June, where should I travel to?
Give me suggestions!

Willsito & Carlsito & comida

I usually do a little grocery during the weekend and bring it to the Valley so I have stuff to eat and so I can snack and also so I dont have to eat at the Comedor where you cant really pick ur meal. This week for some unknown reason I forgot my back on the bus. How dumb is that.
Anyway I told Will about it so he invited me to eat supper with him. So I had yummy rice and tomatoes and some delicious coffee. It was very sweet of him and I thanked him.
The next day I was talking to Carlos and told him the same thing, so HE invited me for supper aswell. Carlos cooked sausages, rice, eggs, fries and tomato salad. It was delish. We then played Jenga listening to random CD of totally GAY music like '' funky town and like a virgin by madonna''
While we were eating at Carlsito's, Will walked in ( without knocking? good thing we weren't making out, KIDDING!) anyway he walked in cuz he needed salt. And he looked at what we were eating.
The next day all three of us were in the office and Will asked me what meal I liked best. Carlos was there and said ''obviously mine, what did you cook her?''
 It is so funny it is like an ongoing competition between the two and I am just there in the middle getting all the benefits of it.
The two other girls were gone this week so I'm glad the boys took care of me.

Carlito & Wilsito & regalos

Since I didn't have a computer this week I didn't do much work to be honest.
In the Teacher Salad. ( the teacher room, but in Spanish its Salada de profesor so I like to call it the teacher salad :) my desk is beside Carlos and beside Carlos is Will's.
Willi, Carlito and Corinita (me) are the ones the most often in the office.  Most of the time I'm not working and Carlos either. Carlos is really funny, Im pretty sure he is a gay but doesn't know it. Anyway he is so funny.

So I have these Canada stickers and I gave one to Willi, and one to Carlos and some others to friends. Its quite funny cuz they all sticked them on the back of their cell phones. There are like 10 peruanos with Canada stickers on their cell phones, it makes me laugh quite a lot.

Carlos and Willi REALLY liked them. So I gave them about 2 or 3 each. Carlos filled his laptop with them and when Willi saw he wanted Canada stickers on his laptop too. And then Carlos wanted some on his radio. Finally I emptied my pack and the two boys.

The next day Carlos came to my house and gave me two really pretty bracelets to say thank you for the stickers. I thought that was so sweet. I kind of purposly showed them to Will and said '' look what Carlos gave me to say thank you for the stickers''. The next day Will came to my house with 3 hand painted keychains to also say thank you for the stickers. So I showed them to Carlsito, he said '' oh but you like my bracelts better tho right''. I laughed so much, it's like a competition between the two boys and to be honest I am so milking it

Tu disco duro es rompa

I have so much to write about I don't know where to begin.
I may or may not split up my post a little so people will actually read.
So where to begin...
Last Sunday night, my computer asked me if I wanted an update and I press yes.
Then I saw a blue screen of death and my whole screen went black. When I got to the school on Monday I asked Fernando the 'tech dude' to take a look at my computer. He did and told me to pull out the battery for 30 mins and see what happens.
I'm not a computer expert but I know that that doesn't help a thing.  So I did what any Jones girl would do, call my daddy. Actually I texted my husband and told him to get my daddy to call :) I spent about 2 hours on the phone and he told me nothing was wrong with my hard disk its just a software issue.
Fernando told me it was my hard disk, Way to go Fernandito!
When the weekend came around I brought it to Otto, hes been working in computers practically his whole life  and I thought well what the heck. Right there in his office he hooked up one or two things  and the black screen of death had now became back to my regular screen with all my stuff it was like magic. There is probably a very logical explanation but I like to think its magic. Otto asked me to leave him my compy for the week so I did.
I then went out for a manicure, best 12s I ever spent it gave me comfort and made me feel beautiful.

Mierda Miercoles

This week has been total crap, hands down.
My computer died, I got a virus and I cant start it up. We got internet at the school but only on one computer.
We got news that our new casa is ready except we cant move in until another 3 weeks.
It is total crap.
The two others girls decided to leave for Arequipa thats how angry everyone is
I am not that angry I am surviving and I don´t see the point of getting so angry to be honest.
It is a little stupid that the house is suppose to be for us but that we cant have it for another 3 weeks because some other important ppl are going to use it. Peru is big on hierachy ( thats a word I have no idea how to spell)
I am still keeping my smile.
Life is good and I have an amazing husband that encourages me
Love u
Corina

Tu no hablas mucho!

This morning there is only Reuben and I in the office. He is quite nice but I don't understand anything he says. It's his birthday Friday. He invited me to come with him and his friends to Frogs. Frogs is a really nice bar with live music. We go almost every weekend.

Last night we did the cena. We made poutine for the group. The hard part was making the sauce but we did it mass or menos. We added sausage to our poutine. I liked it I don't thing everyone else did but at least its over and done with and we dont have to prepare anything like that again. Today we have to wash the dishes except there is no water. They think the water will come at around 2.. I feel like I'm in Africa. Oh well.

Tomorrow is Friday, I love Fridays. I am going back to Arequipa clearly although I really just wanted to go to Chivay this weekend but new girl ruined my plans. I am going to look for a school where maybe I can take classes on saturdays. In my lonely planet they say u can get a private class for 10S an hour.

Im sick of people telling me that  I dont speak enough

Sacrifice is a strength

Yesterday Melanie was so bitchy I couldnt take it anymore. She went on about how she hates that she is always with someone and that she needs her own space. And then she made a fuss about the new girl coming.

Here is the thing about the new girl , she wrote us both emails and she seems really loca. Like she asked us dumb questions and stuff, I get it she is probably nervous. Anyway we told her we wouldnt be in Arequipa the weekend she came. Except she told Fiorela that we told her we would stay at the hotel with her and help her with her stuff. Fiorela asked if that was ok. Of course Melanie freaked out and went on about how no one helped her when she came and its not her job. So I was like fine Ill go. I told Fio I would go and that I would bus back with her no big deal. Fio was really thankfull,

The thing that bothered me the most is that Melanie went on about how 'je me laisse faire'. Really I dont get the point of being a drama queen in this case? Yeah for real I dont feel like doing it its not my job I wanted to go to Chivay this weekend but so what? Its a little sacrifice and maybe I do 'laisse myself faire' but someone needs to. And maybe its a good personality trait.

It upsets me that she said that, as if Im weak and lame. I actually think sacrifice is a strength. Its easier to complaint and to say no to something, but saying yes and helping other is harder. Ah sorry this really upset me because I think I am doing the right thing but Melanie is hard on me because of it. I guess we hit the month and a half mark and we are both starting to show are true colours.

To be honest this week I kinda wish we werent sharing a house or that we at least had our own rooms. Apparently it may be as soon as next week, but that's in peruvian time.

Qué Frio!

In Canada, May has always been my favourite month. The trees start to blossom, the birds sing. We start to remember why we tough through our rough winters. . All of our terrible freezing -20, never ending shovelling months are behind us and the May sun starts to warm our hearts with hope again. Hope that helps us appreciate our beautiful country and its seasons. Hope that gives us a sweet taste of the delicious warm summer months ahead.

I could use some rays of hope today. It is cold and rainy here. I left my room with my thermos of hot chocolate and fill my cup every half hour. For now this cup of chocolate will be my little ray of May sunshine. It is as comforting as a hug from your mother.

So I lift my cup up to you dear friends and ask you to sing along to the birds chirping, soak up the

Spanish dude, vale vale and QUÉ DICE?

This morning I woke up early and went to Chivay with Melanie to buy groceries for our supper tomorrow night. I am rather nervous to be honest. Reubon the spanish dude is suppose to help us but to be honest hes a little flaky. He was suppose to call, I finally decided to call him. Yes I called him, do you know how difficult that was for me. Reubon is Spanish, from SPAIN,I don't understand no nada when he speaks to me. Basically I told him Melanie and I had decided to cook a typical canadian meal and that we wanted him to do an entre. I have no idea if he understood but we'll see tomorrow.

Back

 May 9^th 2011,

It's Monday and I am back at the escuela.. This week is a full week, I'm not use to that. This weekend was fun. On Friday night I went out to eat with Melanie and Franklin and really felt like a 3^rd wheel . The next day I didnt hang out with them I went to Siglo XX on my own. I like that place its like a market but full of stores. I bought myself a couple of things pretty cheap. In the evening Lisseth really wanted to hang out with us so we went out with her. Franklin and Wilfredo told us it was gonna be really boring and not worth it but she really wanted to hang out with us so we went along.

Then we realized that she is totally loca. She got there and then in a half hour she went to the bathroom and was gone for like 20 minutes. She came back and had changed in a miniskirt. Then after while we were dancing she was like , dont dance close to me I want the guys to see me??? Im ok like? Then after she went to the bathroom again and Melanie said, check this, she will come back and have changed again, She did. She is so loca. Melanie ditched us clearly for Franklin so I was alone with her. THANKS MEL! It kinda bugged me but there was nothing I could really do or say because Im not at the point where I can make up excuses in castelleno yet.. So I stayed with her and then she told me the funniest thing in the world. She has a crush on Carlos. The thing is Carlos is CLEARLY GAY. Like really and when I told her she was like , really? Are you sure? Wow what a loca.

Wednesday we have to cook for the staff. There is a tradition at the school that when you are new you have to cook for the staff. Franklin cooked about a month ago and he made lasagna it was really delicious except everyone criticized it . So we decided we would do poutine, who knows how but we will try. We figure if we do poutine and they dont like it then its not because we are bad cooks but because its different. We decided we would do crepes for dessert I think its rather French :). We'll see how it goes. Other than that Im in the office and so are all the other teachers , I like it better when I am alone for some reason but its ok.

À mon ami que j'aime tant

Bonne fête toi. Tu es un coeur et tu seras toujours mon ami.
Je pense à toi. Je t'aime Grabriel

Hwllo new girl

 May 4^th 2011

Today is Wednesday and usually I teach except I don't teach today how sad. The students went on a feild trip to a pueblo nearby and of course Melanie got to go. I didn't but to be honest I don't feel the need to go. This morning I came in the office at 7:40. Oops a little late but I didn't care honestly. No one even told me there wasn't classes I'm just suppose to figure it out for myself? I did thankfully. This week I feel pretty good about my Spanish. I feel although I am able to have a conversation mas or menos. A couple of people told me also that they have seen my improvement so that's encouraging. I hit the month mark today. Time is going by so fast I almost don't want it to go so fast if I am here for another 3 months does that mean i will learn 3 times more? I kind of hope so I am almost considering taking a class on weekends. I just think its a really good opportunity to learn another language and I don't want to miss out on it. What do you guys think? Worth it?

There is a new girl at the school and she is an architect. Apparently here it is a known fact that architects are dumb. Anyway, in the office there is a bottle of fresh water you know the kind you buy and a man comes and refills it when its empty.

Also there is a kettle if you want mate or coffee. So the new girl fills the kettle with the fresh bottled water. Like HELLO I am a gringa and I know that if you boil the water u should just use tap water anyway. What a waste of fresh bottled water, how dumb is that?

Everyone always asked me about my laptop. They say its cute. They are right its adorable :P.

Me gusta estar contigo

Lau pointed out that I should mention to dial 011 51 before my number so that people don't search forever on how to contact me. thank you Lau :)
So if you are calling from canada my number is

011 51 971831251

Ah its my last day in Arequipa already. This weekend has been very nice. I was all alone and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It made me realize that I am not bad in castelleno.
On Friday I had phone conversation with two people. I thought it was pretty good except when I tried to meet up with Otto I misunderstood and missed the appointment. Oops.
On Saturday I met up with Bendita and her boyfriend and they helped me buy a phone. Afterwards I went to her house and met her parents and they took me out for Acuchyo. Its heart and cow intestines. It was delicious, kind of chewy but delicious. They then took me to the farmacia to take a pill to make sure I wouldn't be sick. It was very sweet.
 I think Brendita comes from a rather wealthy family, her house was big and they kept paying for everything for me. Her dad was so cute he wanted to show me everything, like how they cook the heart and intestines, ( its basically on a bbq) but afterwoods your clothes smell like it. I quite like it. I told her to stop paying for me but then she said, well when I come visit  you'll do the same. I thought that was a good deal and I'm pretty sure she's the kind of girl who will be able to come visit.
I skyped with Tomi and with dad and Lau called me twice. Having contact with people is the best thing in the world it really plays on my mood.
Yesterday skyping with Tom was hard, ah! Its quite funny because sometimes for the first half hour we just like looking at ourselves and making funny faces in the webcam. Not even looking at each other, looking at ouselves. ( so us)
You know in one life you can meet sooooooooooooo many different people but there are a select few that you just share this unexplainable eternal bond with. As if you aren't even yourself without those people.
Im glad I share that with some of you
Love you
Cori

971831251

I bought a phone and I have unlimited incoming

971831251

Until Tuesday

0051-54-286578


Just say:
Puedo hablar a l'habitacion cinco por favor?


Es possible de hablar a l'habitacion cinco por favor?

Oy dia es VIERNES!!! ME GUSTA VIERNES

 April 29^th

Yes today is Friday and guess what, there is another long weekend yup we get Monday off. I think I have only had one full week since Ive been here. No hay problema.

My spanish still isnt super but I decided not to care anymore and just talk talk talk. Its rather funny actually.

This week has been alright, I was a little emotional one night but I'm better today. Im going to Arequipa and Melanie is staying here. Im kind of looking forward to being on my own in Arequipa. Melanie always likes hanging out with Frankling and Otto. And me well not so much, well I mean I do I just like some female contact sometimes so I will probably hang out with Brenda and go to church. 

I also told Melanie I would pick up her camera at the shop. Im gonna do some shopping too I love shopping. You guys need to tell what ud like from Peru. Ill probably wait till my last week to buy that stuff so I dont have to bring it everywhere with me.

The Escuela has a tradition that when there are new employees they have to cook a meal for all the staff. This week Franklin and a couple of others made lasagna it was dessert. May 11^th its Melanie and I's turn . What are we suppose to make noooooooo idea... ah well it should be fun.

I realize that my blog is actually not that interesting haha, so thank you for reading

Now that you have my addy

If you are in the mood for it here are a couple of things I would love getting

Pictures pictures pictures, of my babies, of my friends, of my love. Id really love getting Pictures

Postcards- letters- drawings- cards

Gum , the 'chicklet' here last 2 seconds and its over I like stride gum

Coffee.. if u can find those little envelopes and you just add water that’s the best

Candy, I love candy and there is no good candy here.

Celebration cookies?

A super nice and warm hoody

Anything that will remind me of home really

Peanut butter, Nutella baguette brie and paté and Thomas Fournier ok thank you!  

Ambushed!

April 26^th 2011

Hello friends,

I know I haven't blogged in a little bit, you must forgive me. I was off Wednesday and spent 5 days in Arequipa. I quite like Arequipa to be honest. Melanie thinks she wont go this weekend Im thinking about going anyway. I need the feel of the city, the luxury of having internet access. The sun.

I find Im not very independent so this will help me I think.

My Spanish is ok, I wish it was better Ive been here almost a month I would have thought it would be better by now but oh well. There isnt much I can do. The thing I don't like is that people don't really talk to me because they know I dont speak spanish. It kind of makes me sad but oh well I will try harder.

I had a fun weekend. We went to a Toro fight. We went with Franklin and his cousin Otto. (what a random german name for a peruvian haha) Anyway it was fun except Peruvians are on such a different schedule than us. Mélanie left at 5 am with Franklin, I refused to wake up that early on a weekend so I went with Otto at 10. Except I totally got owned. Well somewhat. In my head we were going straight to the toro fight to meet up Mel & Franklin. Well Otto showed me all around town brought me to this beautiful bridge with and amazing view. And finally headed to the toro fight around 2. It was almost an ambushed date. I did my best to talk about how much I miss my Marido and how great I thought he was all while practising my Spanish, so all in all it was a good day. The toro fight was rather impressive except kinda too violent for my sensitive eyes. I enjoy Melanie's company a lot because she has a boyfriend and we look out for each other so that we aren't ever alone with an amigo. So it works well.

Addy

The school has no addy but my friend Franklin was nice enough to give me his

Corina Jones
Calle Los Arces
222-A Cayma
Arequipa, Arequipa
Peru




If you are feeling up for it u can send me some gum and other goodies. 


Love u


Coco

You.

These last three weeks I have been through a lot of ups and downs and so far I have not cried.

 Nope I haven't shed one tear. Not even during my period! ( ok I know TMI but what are blogs for?)
 If you know me, you  realize that it is rather incredible because let's face I'm a crier hardcore.

Well this morning my no crying streak ended. I cried.

How could I not:

Combien de fois devrais-je dire "Je t'aime" afin d'assouvir la passion qui brûle au fond de mon coeur pour toi?
Heureusement, le chiffre est incalculable. 
Heureusement, en effet: je pourrai, à chaque jour, à chaque heure, jusqu'à ma dernière, te répéter ces mots, ceux que je préfère dire, et qui ne s'adresse qu'à toi:
Je t'aime.

It's mi Compleanos.

I was worried I would have a terrible birthday.
On Tuesday night the teachers said there was a teacher's meeting in the Salada de Profe at 7h30. It kind of bugged me because our day ends at 8pm and clearly if we were to have a meeting it would go on.
When I got to the teacher's room they had cake and drink and a fiesta for me. Frankllin a teacher that speaks French said that ' On t'apprécie bcp et on veut te faire sentir partie de la famille''. It was so sweet of them
The next day I taught from 7 to 11. At the end of my class all of my students stood up and sang Happy Birthday to me. and then one by one they hugged me and said happy birthday. One by one, every student. Probably my favourite moment here thus far
This week also Wilfred brought me supper and breakfast! YES!  I kind of think he has a 'convenient' crush on me and it works in my favour most of the time, and when not I get Franklin to give him a talk. Franklin has kind of become an older brother to Melanie and I. We appreciate him a lot. I also love the fact that I am married because it's sort of 'game over' for the men here and they don't try as much with me as they do with Mélanie.
Last night we went out for chicken and dancing. I danced the whole entire night. I absolutely love dancing and they dance all the time here. Also surprisingly enough  the guys are really not all over you. they just dance, it's seriously just FUN.

I'm staying at Hostal Reyna. I booked room 20 the suite for my birthday. Best idea and 35 soles I have ever spent.
This has been a very memorable 25th.
Thank you all for your nice birthday wishes

Its my birthday!!!

0051-54-286578 ask for room number 20 . Im here till Monday
Im an hour later than you Its my birthdaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Happy birthday to me

Ah what a fun weekend I just had.
I spent a lot of time with Melanie. God has really blessed me with her.
We sepnt the day shopping hotels. It was fun we would walk in ask a series of questions and I would take notes. It was rather hilarious.
Tonight I went to church with Brenda, the old English teacher. Shes a christian. the service was good I understood more or less. It just felt good to be in the church. It was probably the biggest church I have ever been to. It has 5 services. Afterwards we met up with her boyfriend and I practiced my Spanish with them a lot.
Im heading back to the Escuela tmorrow morning.
Wednesday is my birthday and its also la semana Santa, so we get to go back to Arequipa :)
Happy birthday to me.

Pictures

Ive put up more pics on picasa because it takes much less time than Facebook
Here is the link.
https://picasaweb.google.com/corinajones

God is stronger

April 14^th 2011

A lot of the mountain people here believe in evil spirits. It is very common for the kids or even the adults to get so worked up and have convulsions due to their scares. It kind of creeps me out to be honest.

Yesterday Mélanie came in late and told me she assisted to a purification ceremony. Apparently one student has been having frequent convulsions and sort of panic attacks so he asked his 'guru' to come and preform a ceremony of purification. Mélanie explained to me everything that went on during this sort of purification ceremony. It sounded really creepy. Apparently they had some sort of animal skin and llama foetus and all sorts of creepy stuff, and they chanted stuff in Quechua around a fire. She also told me another woman assisted with here baby because she believed her baby had no soul. Mélanie was interested because she is an anthropologist. It pretty much creeped me out and made me want to pray for protection and read psalm 118.

I know that most of that stuff is psychological. But I truly believe that Satan is real and is powerful. I know however that our God is stronger. Yesterday I felt weird all day like if there was a spiritual battle going on. Maybe the altitude is getting to me but its as if I knew something was going on. Please pray for me, pray for the students . This stuff scares me a lot and seems to be predominant here.  

7 days till 25

13^th of April 2011

It's my birthday in exactly a week. I think it will be fun because I will teach the day of my birthday. And I love teaching! Today at the end of the class we played pictionnary, one of the words I picked for them to draw was Mrs Corina. This is what they drew. We all laughed so much.

The rest of the time we are suppose to plan our courses. Clearly I don't take 10 hours to plan courses. I don’t get it but whatever.

Yesterday it was the principal's birthday we cooked from 5 to 9 pm and had this sit down dinner with all these people from the school and school board ( I'm presuming.) It was fun except I kept feeling very faint, it was really weird, I didn't feel sick just very dizzy and weird.. I don't think I drank enough water to be honest. I need to be more careful about that. Melanie helps me a lot and sort of takes care of me.

Yesterday I also missed Tom a lot. It really got to me. I guess the first week you're still on the buzz of the novelty of it all and then you start missing people. I realized yesterday how much he is my comfort and my rock when I have hard days. I worry about him a lot, if he is okay, if he is eating well, if someone has asked him – how was your day Tom?- and that that someone didn't just settle for an -okay- but probed further to listened to his complicated yet entertaining work/geology stories. Take care of my Thomas for me.

It is so cold in the mountains, I can't believe it. I should have brought my winter coat and winter boots. The thing is that they don't have heating and the temperature changes so fast during the day. I sleep with a tuque on that I bought here. Apparently the month of July here is the worst, sometimes they even get snow.

Food and hotels are cheap however i haven’t found clothes very cheap. I don't like spending money all that much so maybe that's my problem.

Lunch is in 40 minutes. I am starving I am always starving. Mélanie and I sort of do our own groceries and eat sometimes at the caf here when we are starving. They serve big meals for really cheap like 4 soles. We dont have a stove or fridge but we bought a kettle so we have coffee in the morning. Usually we only eat lunch at the caf and fend for ourselves for supper.

I still don't feel super today I don't know why, I don't feel as faint I just feel sad and weird. Tomorrow is a new day and then its only a half day Friday and we are back to Arequipa.

Flash light from heaven!

12^th of April 2011

We are back at the Escuela. What an adventure our way back was.

We decided to stop at Chivays to the Hot Springs. We figured we could take a combis (sort of communal taxi) back to the Escuela. The hot springs were really nice. There were some Irish men who chatted up with us and seemed to want to meet up again with us but we already have the Peruvians all over us we decided we would skip out on the Irish.

We took a combis back but the combis dropped us off in the center of town and our school is about a half our walk in the boonies.

Achoma is a bit of a sketchy town, especially at night, because most people living there are farmers and there is pretty much nothing to do in town, most men hang around and drink. Melanie and I were pretty scared and stranded. Apparently a bus was to pass at 9pm, it was only 7pm. We waited in this sort of store and then tried to find a restaurant. We walked from the store to the restaurant and two men followed us. As soon as we walked into the restaurant they backed off. In the restaurant we met two other men that were sober and very nice. They sat at the table and talked to us for a bit. Finally a bus came like 10 mins later, we had to run back to the bus stop with our luggage the nice men helped us and we felt safe again. We told the bus driver to drop us off at the Escuela. He dropped us off like 10 mins walk in the scary dark woods further. Thankfully Melanie had a flash light and we walked to our house together. It was kinda scary but we were happy to be home safe.

Today I am at the Escuela, sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. I mean I love teaching but the rest of the time what am I suppose to be doing. I dont understand much and I feel really lame today. That's all for now.

Touch your cheeks!

April 6^th 2011

I think the Lord heard my prayers today. I taught my first class. A four hour class with a 15 minute break. It feels inhuman to have classes for that long but apparently that's how it works in Peru. Students here start their days at 7 am, they have classes until 12 then have lunch for 3 hours they then continue until 7 at night. I taught from 7 to 11 am this morning.

The class went well. Students' level of English is not so bad. Better than I thought. Everytime I say a word they repeat it in Spanish. I guess that helps me learn. We played Simon says today, they really loved that game. And they laughed every time I said '' Simon Says touch your cheeks'' maybe there is a funny word in Spanish that sounds the same. No sé perro es muy comico.

Yesterday I was so discouraged but tonight I am the total opposite. I met Brenda, she was the previous English teacher but also the manager ( who knows ppl seem to multitask . She spoke to me at lunch and asked if she could practise English & French with me and I could practise Spanish with her in exchange. I went to see her to ask her a couple of questions in English, because so far they have explained everything to me in Spanish as if I understand. She asked me if I wanted to practise so we did. Her English is a lot better than my Spanish but she is very patient with me. I may practise Spanish every night with her. I hope it works out well.

Tomorrow I will be in Chivays . There is internet there. Hopefully this post will be posted.

Yo creo en EL

April 5^th 2011

Today we went to Chivay a nearby village. The students from our school had what they call an Evento. There is another Escuela Taller in Chivay. That escuela is much prettier, I kinda wish I was there. At this evento there were a lot of speeches that I didn't understand then a bar tending competition. The students studying in Turismo all prepared their own cocktail and then the school principal and other important people tasted and judged which was the best. Afterwards they presented a traditional dance of Colca I took a video of it.

Nothing is very clear, not just with the language barrier but just with telling me what my tasks are. I find it difficult. Mélanie is friends with everyone and she speaks fluently I feel really lame. I haven’t cried yet but right now I don't see how I will tough 4 months.

Tomorrow I start my first English class. I haven't prepared much because clearly I have no idea the level of the students.

I'm sad tonight but I keep reading this:

''May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'' Romans 15:13

Tomorrow is another new day I will do better, I will speak more in Spanish.


--- Bartending event, the students made their own cocktail and there were judges to vote for the best one







The students also did a traditional dance of Vale del Colca.