This is a rather quick update, but this week has been so awesome that I felt it would be the right moment to update my blog.
Lima, city without sunshine, but lots of contamination. Too much traffic, but no green areas. All these things about Lima are true. But this also is:
Lima, city with a sea, cultural importance and millions of possibilities. Last week I grabbed two of these possibilities, the first one on Thursday when I went to a David Guetta concert and the second one on Saturday, when the Black Eyed Peas made 33 000 people go crazy in the night of Lima. And I was one of them!!! And boy, I went crazy!! It was easily the best live show I have ever seen. On top of that, the Peas performed their 100th and also last show of their world tour in Lima, which could be easily noticed. The energy they transferred was incredible and addictive. Their theme of the night “Peru, Peru, Peru is on fire” and their constant involvement of the crowd by speaking Spanish made everyone head over toes and completely lose themselves. Their last song of the night “I got a feeling” with confetti raining over the crowd was the perfect finale to an incredible night. You might thing: great, what’s got to do this with Peru? You can go to a BEP concert in every part of the world, you don’t have to be in Peru for that.
That’s right, but for me it was as special as for the Peruvians here. I was reading the newspapers today about this concert and all different Peruvian newspapers agreed on the fact that this concert was the biggest and most spectacular show Peru has ever seen by any artist, and knowing that I was a part of that makes me feel pretty great. Although it might sound a little bit crazy, but yesterday I felt proud like a Peruvian for hosting such an event.
But let’s change topics and let me tell you something about the travel possibilities in Peru. I must start off by saying that Peru is a country with one of the highest biodiversities in the world. You can relax at nice beaches in the North, have an adventurous trip in the Amazonian jungle, do hiking tours in the snow-covered Andes and go sand boarding down the dunes in the desert. All of that is possible in Peru.
I for my party enjoy the mountains the most. Perhaps it is because in Holland and my hometown in Germany there are no mountains. Another reason is that the air is so fresh and clean compared to Lima, that whenever I am in the mountains I feel like I haven’t breathed in a long time. Living in Lima for six months probably has the effect like 10 years of smoking would have on my lungs. Yay, great that I haven’t smoked so far, so I still have a buffer!
It is pretty easy, cheap and safe to get around in Perú. To all the major cities there are good bus connections. Of course it depends on the budget you would like to spend, but for a pretty decent price, you can get excellent service here, which is not at all comparable to buses in Europe. It is sooo much better. The buses here are what the Hiltons or the Marriots are in hotels. But then, I wouldn’t really know that, I have never seen one from the inside. On the buses you get served food, watch poorly subtitled movies and play bingo. Of course if you decide to take the cheaper option, you might end up in a pretty shitty motel, but even that might turn out to be a fun ride. Sitting in a cramped bus, which is only suited for Peruvian bodies (man, their legs are short); old, fat, but really nice Peruvian ladies trying to hook you up with their sons and after hours having a sore back and legs. But in the end you don’t really mind, because you saved a great deal of money and had some fun at the same time. This is why I love Peru. Everything is just a little different here, often unexpected and mostly fun.
At the end I just would like to mention my friends here in Peru, who make collective reading sessions with my blog here. They deserve special mentions, because mostly they are the reason I am having so much fun here. So the special honors of this blog go to:
Eva, in this blog you don’t even have to make up your name, I am gonna do that all by myself. Thank you for eating clowns for breakfast and making us laugh!
Elisabeth, I always think it is great to be pushed to my limits, but seriously, that riding horses session in Cusco was way too much even for me!
Emilia, thanks for sharing my passion for consuming. Without it, we would never have found out about the delicious “tart aleman” in Papa John’s!! I have never come across anything as German as that so far. By the way, when are we going there again? Or to Starbucks? Or to the movies? Or anywhere really?
You all rock!
Besos de Lima,
Katrin
Here are a few pictures of what Peru has to offer:
Well, it seems like once again my Internet connection here is too weak too handle the enormous task of uploading five pictures, so I have to delay that until tomorrow when I have a better connection at uni.
I am sorry that it took me such a long time to update this blog, but I guess every exchange student can relate when I say that there are just a million things to do while being on exchange.
So, where to start?
Although it seems like the midterms were like a year ago, I just want to give you a quick update on how they went. It was a really hard week, culminating in my 3-exams-horror-day. By the time I was writing my third exam on that day, I could hardly think anymore and I felt like I was a robot, just writing anything to fill the page. Ironically, it turned out to be my best exam. I guess I should make that my next strategy: not to worry too much, just write something, anything really and go home and relax. My grades in the midterms are not extremely good and are lower than my Tilburg grades, but at least I passed almost all of my subjects. Considering that all of my classes are in Spanish and the exams of course were as well, I guess I am quite satisfied with the results. I expect the finals to be better, because my Spanish improved significantly over the last few weeks.
After midterms weeks a friend and I decided that we deserved a break from university and went travelling for a week. The best way to summarize this trip is simply saying WOW!! We started in Cusco, which is the base for exploring Machu Picchu. Awesome. I think I have never been at such an incredible, atmospheric place before. The word I use mostly when I describe Machu Picchu to my Peruvian classmates is “marravilloso”! Being surrounded only by fog-covered mountains and looking at the ruins of the ancient Inca-city, I just felt an incredible happiness and the thought came to my mind that regarding my exchange, I made a truly perfect decision. In an instant, I would choose Peru again. I would suffer through the first weeks of university again. And I would definitely recommend Peru as a possible exchange destination!
Furthermore I want to give a small update about my level of Spanish, because I guess most people who are considering going to a Spanish-speaking country, will ask themselves the question whether his or her level is sufficient. As you probably could filter out from some of my blogs, it is an understatement to say that at times I was frustrated with my slow progression of learning. A good friend of mine told me again and again that there will be a time, in which suddenly it all makes sense and then I would be able to understand a lot and will be able to talk. Although I knew that he is right most of the times, I still highly doubted that. But it turns out that he was right: I think I got to this point. Finally! Just today I gave a 15 minutes presentation, in which I started talking with the help of my notes and by the end of the presentation I realized that for most part, I didn’t even look at them. I talked more or less freely for 15 minutes, which is my biggest accomplishment so far here. These moments are worth all the misunderstandings (which are still happening, actually just yesterday there was another one with one of my “profes”, when I answered his question with “No, please don’t turn on the air-conditioning, it’s cold”, when in fact all he asked me was whether I knew if my classmates were coming to class that night). Of course it is far from being “good” or “fluent”, but considering that during the first weeks I could hardly say anything, this feels like a big victory to me.
So my advice to everyone, who is considering going to a Spanish-speaking country and is unsure of his/her level of Spanish: Yes, it is painful in the beginning (especially at the Universidad del Pacifico, because class participation and group works are big here). Yes, there will be misunderstandings. Yes, there will be frustration and I guess sooner or later the question “Why didn’t I choose to go to an English-speaking country?” will pop up. But there is a point when you suddenly realize that you actually improved and are able to communicate rather freely and without being uncomfortable. And believe me, when you realize that this moment has come: It is incredible!
Wow, I guess this wasn’t a small update on the language part. Next time I will write more on what makes Peru and Lima so special to me. And then…finals…and then…traveling for 8 weeks to Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Columbia. I really can’t wait for these adventures to start.
Besos to everyone and especially to all students who are on exchange right now: Enjoy the final countdown!!!
Katrin
PS: As a final note, I would like to add that so far the support from the International Offices from both Tilburg and Lima has been great during the whole exchange process (although I hardly had any problems). Thank you for making this possible!!! Now that my Spanish is better, I am actually glad that you are encouraging us to go to Spanish-speaking countries. You can expect a little postcard coming your way in the next few weeks, if it doesn’t get lost on the way… J
Nevertheless I would like to add that I wish Tilburg University in general would consider that there are many students on exchange and therefore NOT in Tilburg this semester to attend all the important meetings about the Bachelor Thesis. I don’t know how this was handled during the last few years, but it would be nice if at least there was a note saying that there will be information published online for the exchange students, who are not going to make it to the meetings so that we get supplied with everything we have to know about registering for the Thesis as well. However, this is a general thing and does not concern the International Office in any way.
Otra vez – Saludos de Peru!
Time is flying by – too quickly for my liking. Although I realize that I sounded a bit overwhelmed with uni in my last blog (which is still the truth), I love it here. If I actually believed the cliché of “having the time of my life”, this would probably a fitting moment to say it. But I don’t- I believe that I have had great moments in every phase of my life until now with much laughter and fun which makes it impossible to point out the best time of my life. Well, you probably get the picture.
So, what’s happening here in Lima, Perú?
First of all, elections are coming up on Sunday. I am not even sure what the elections is for, but I think one of them is to appoint the mayor of Lima. Not such a big deal you might think, but considering that Lima has above 8 million inhabitants and is the economic and cultural centre of Peru, I think it is safe to say that it is kind of significant. Although I am not allowed to give my voice, I am surrounded and affected by it every day. For once, every day on my way to uni I can admire the beautiful advertising posters. Every time I see them (which is a LOT) I am astonished by their beautiful and creative layout. NOT. This is where I notice the difference between Peruvian (or South-American) and European taste. Everything is way more aggressive for the eyes here: strong colors and many pictures. At times my eyes are so assaulted by what they see, I don’t even know where to look anymore. More than once I have thought: “Wow, this is so ugly”. I also can see this trend on the PPT-Slides here at uni. Much text, many pictures and bright colors. Sometimes I can only concentrate on the ugliness of the slides and the content completely goes unnoticed by me. Don’t get me wrong – I love these moments. It may be surprising, but I believe that it is a beautiful thing when I actually notice real differences between countries or cultures, because it has become quite rare. At times it is easy to forget that I am in Peru, because the lifestyle I witness here at uni and in my district are very Western and not that different from my lifestyle in Europe. So when I look at the ugly posters and slides (that’s only how I perceive them) and realize that Peruvians actually like them, I am always amazed and feel a rush of excitement, just because it is a real difference.
And there is another way I am affected by the elections. Next week is the official midterms-week. I had three exams scheduled for Monday, one exam for Thursday and my last one for Friday. However, yesterday the university realized that there are elections this Sunday (so one day before the midterms start) and that Friday is actually an official holiday. These events were known a long time in advance. Nevertheless uni only seemed to have realized yesterday that some students might not make it back to Lima in time for the exams if there are elections and that having exams on an official holiday is also not really convenient, so 5 days before the exams they changed the schedule to one week later. For most students it is not a big deal – for me it is. I have to change all of my travelling plans, but keeping in mind that I am still here for 4 months, I don’t really feel so bad about it. Quite the contrary, this is another moment in which I am just amazed. In Holland it would never happen that the university would change exam dates 5 days before the exams were supposed to start. Here it doesn’t seem to be a big deal – my Peruvian classmates are actually rather happy about this.
This weekend and the following week I will be busy with studying to master my midterms, but after that I will be off to new adventures.
Besos de Peru to wherever you are,
Katrin
Buenas dias, chicos!
Sorry for running a little bit late, but there are just so many things to do, that it is at times a little difficult to keep up. Well, to start with the most dramatic change since my last post:
University has started. Yayyy! Fun times! Just kidding…I have never felt this overwhelmed before. Or to put it in a nicer way: This is the biggest challenged I ever faced in my life so far.
The university here is completely different from what I am used in Tilburg. In Tilburg I have a pretty relaxed life with little work during the semester, apart from some group work and case studies. Of course that also meant that I had to step up to my game before the exams started, but it was always manageable. It does not work like that here AT ALL. Although my level of Spanish is still horribly low, I can already identify my least favorite words: Trabajos grupales!!! In each of my classes (five to be exact) group plays an essential role, sometimes it counts up to 50% of the final grade. In Tilburg group work meant to me that it is enough to meet up once every few weeks to divide the tasks. Here it is not. We have to hand in case studies every week and give presentations on a regular basis, so on top of my classes I have up to five group meetings a week.
Group work here allows me to experience many of the cultural differences between Germany and Peru. It starts with the “Hora Peruana”. If there is a meeting scheduled at 10 o’clock, it is safe to say that showing up at 10.30 h is perfectly normal. You might even be the first person to arrive. In the beginning I found that a little bit irritating, but once I started adapting to this technique, I didn’t mind any more. Another difference I discovered is what I name “Peruvian inefficiency”. A meeting can last up to three hours, but in the end when you look at the results, it is startlingly poor.
Another big difference here: my schedule. On Tuesdays and Thursdays my first class starts at 7.30 am and my last class ends at 9.30 pm. So I have the pleasure to spend 14 hours at university. Fun times! On the other hand this also means that I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays, but if you count in the group works, I spend on average 10 hours at university every day. Sometimes even on Saturdays.
However, the biggest challenge of all here: my low level of Spanish. At times I am a little bit frustrated with Tilburg University for encouraging me to go to a Spanish-speaking country, while only offering us two poor Spanish classes, which did not prepare me at all for my life here. Of course I expected it to be hard, but reality is just insane. And it doesn’t really help that all other exchange students from different universities seem to have an advanced level. Of course the students and professors understand my situation, but nonetheless it always feels humiliating to sit in group meetings or classes and only be an extra.
One situation in the top-ten of my “I-have-never-ever-felt-this-stupid!”- list is when professors and students ask me: “Did/Do you understand everything?”. Quite often I don’t even have to answer, because it becomes clear that I didn’t even understand the question “Do you understand everything?”. But the positive thing…I am quite used to this situation by now and I don’t feel as humiliated as I did in the beginning.
Nevertheless, I love exchange. I realize that it might be hard to believe after this blog, but my life does not only consist of university here. During the week it does, but the weekends on the other hands are awesome. Great parties, travelling, Surfing and superb people. I am living a life of extremes here. But most of the times that is just how I like it. And as the days go by, I master one challenge after the other, I am pushed to my boundaries and at the end of the day when I come home from an exhausting day to meet all of my friends in my casa, I realize that this is the most interesting time of my life so far. So I can only encourage everyone to go on exchange and to be pushed to one’s own boundaries. It is worth all the tough times!!!
Besos,
Katrin
¡Hola Chicos y Chicas!
For everyone who doesn’t know me: My name is Katrin and I am going to spend the next six months in Lima, Perú to hopefully have the time of my life. So far, everything looks really promising for that to happen.
I arrived in Lima three days ago after a long journey from Frankfurt via Caracas to Lima. I already got a glimpse of what I could expect in Lima on the plane when I accidentally ordered a strong, alcoholic drink, because of my lack of Spanish skills. It was probably not such a good idea to just say “el mismo” (the same) and referring to the drink my neighbor ordered. However, these two words were the only words I could bring myself to say to the only spanish-speaking flight attendant. As it turned out, he had ordered a coke with rum, too bad that I had missed the part where he said “with rum”.
The next adventure happened at the Immigration desk. The Universidad del Pacifico advised me to get a visa before I entered Perú. I send all the required documents to my host university weeks before the deadline, so it shouldn’t have been a problem. But when it was time to contact the Peruvian embassy in Germany, I found out that they received none of my documents from the authorities in Lima. I was non-existent in their system. In general this is not a big problem, since tourists have the right to stay up to 183 days without a visa, but in my case it was another story. Basically the people working at the German embassy told me that I might not be let into the country. So you can imagine that I was quite nervous when I was waiting at the Immigration desk. However, no need to worry. Although the screen of the Immigration officer said in big, red, bold letters “requiere visa”, the officer just turned up the volume of his Peruvian music, ignored the screen and gave me the permission to stay for 183 days. I started loving Peru from that moment on.
I had already arranged my accommodation in Tilburg, so I didn’t have to worry about that here in Lima and could move in the same day that I arrived. I chose to live in an international student house with eight other young people. At first I thought that a drawback of living here would be that I wouldn’t be able to practice my Spanish, but as it turns out I don’t have to worry about that, since everyone is speaking Spanish here, except for me. The two courses we had to take at Tilburg University were in no way preparing me for my adventures here. However, I will start attending Spanish classes by the Universidad del Pacifico from the beginning of the next week, so hopefully I will catch up very soon.
I have had some time to discover some parts of Lima, especially the district of Miraflores, which is the touristy neighborhood here. Lima is just crazy. First of all Lima is covered in a cloud of smog all the time. It is just grey. No sun, but no rain either. It is just grey the whole time. And loud. Lima is incredibly busy, hundreds of taxis rushing by with drivers trying to get me to use them. I had a small city tour with two of my housemates yesterday and we took a bus…I don’t know if I will manage to ever take a bus alone. Crazy. Apparently there are no bus stops, but you just indicate where you want to get off. How to do that still remains a mystery for me. There are also no official bus routes, every bus goes somewhere else. You may wonder how to know which bus to take…well, if I will ever find an answer, I will tell you. Right now it is safer for me to just walk.
Tonight I will dive into the night life of Lima. Stay tuned…
My name is Katrin Ullrich and I am a 3rd-year International Business Administration student at Tilburg University. Currently I am studying at Universad del Pacifico, Peru - one of Tilburg University’s renowned partner universities - as part of my Bachelor's degree.
Are you curious to hear about my experiences, as they happen? Every two weeks I will update my blog, detailing my latest adventures and travels, so stay tuned!
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