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