I´m in peru

hi everybody. It´s been about three weeks since I left the bronx, and I figured it was about time to update everyone on my life a little bit since I left. I am currently a trainee in the Peace Corps´ community based environmental management program in Peru. We have 10 weeks of training about 1.5 hours outside of lima, and then I will be shipped off to a location that is as of now still a mystery to me for the next two years.
my days are pretty straightforward--4 hours of spnish training in the AM, technical, health and safety training in the afternoons, with visits to the local ag college on the weekends to learn some farming/gardening. The ag school is a cool place, reminds me a bit of Cornell but in Spanish
Peru definitely isn´t the US. THe smell of burning garbage is always kind of lingering, there is a rooster who lives about 50 feet away from my room who I would LOVE to throw a rock at, the market is way more colorful and lively than any farmer´s market I have been to in the US. But i do have a hot shower and water and electricity and while life here may be simpler, I´m not roughing it too bad, at least not yet.
I´m living with a super nice family in a small town called treis de octubre (3rd of October, the day they became incorperated. ¡look i learned some Spanish!). my hosts are a couple probably a few years younger than my parents with a son who is 23 and studies a lot of math that I don´t understand at a university in Lima. They have been very welcoming and very patient as I stumble along in Spanish. The town in tranquil and in a pretty little valley near a very polluted river and a bunch of small hills. I have been getting to run, which is always nice, and They have been feeding me very well--mountains of potatoes and rice.
and yea, that´s the basics. nothing too crazy or overwhelming so far, or if there has been my brain is handling it extremely well. there are 57 kids in my training class, which is big enough so that it´s a challenge to get to know everybody, but there are cool people around and I´m sure they will only get cooler as I get to know them better.

That´s the basics, sorry if it´s not too scinitiallating, but I wanted to get something out and I need to go eat dinner in 5 minutes. hope all is well whereever you are and i check e-mail on occasion, so feel free to write, although I may be late or never in getting back to you (sorry)

--Alex

Disclaimer: This post reflects solely my own opinions, not those of the Peace Corps or the US government