Cultural differences

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

"no entiendo...."

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