My Life in Germany and Why I Left
When I was 16 years old I went to school in Germany, which was very boring for me, sitting in a classroom for 8 hours a day and not really learning anything useful. The commercial learning way was not the right approach for me, it’s mainly just memorizing and not thinking independently, no critical thinking and not understanding the “why” behind things and also no real life material, that could actually be helpful for me.
Moving to Cusco and living with a host family
That’s why my mother offered me to go on an internship to Cusco, Peru. I really wanted to go there, even if that would mean that I would have to leave my family, friends ect. So I flew to Peru to live 6 months with a host family from Cusco.
When I arrived at the airport in Cusco after 3 flights and a long time, my host family was there to pick me up. They all seemed very friendly.
Then they drove me to their home, which also was going to be my home for the next 6 months. They welcomed me and showed me their house, the house looked ver nice and clean. They also introduced me to the whole family, which was great. I felt very welcome and I really liked the family. They also had a very cute dog.
They introduced me to all the family. The family was very big, there was Nancy the grandmother, who was very sweet and welcoming, Oscar her husband and their kids Carlos and Osquitar, Carlos had one son called Adrian. They all seemed very nice and friendly.
They showed me my room and the apartment, it was very beautiful and comforting. After they showed me everything we ate dinner, it was delicious, Nancy always cooked the best food.
Then I moved all of my stuff in and I took a nap to get some rest from the long journey. They asked me if I was ok since Cusco was located at a very high altitude 3,399 meters above sea level. I was feeling a little drowsy and I got exhausted quicker than normally. So I told them how I felt and they offered me Coca-tea. A tea made out of Coca leaves. I accepted the offer and drank the tea because it is commonly used in Peru for the altitude sickness.
It helped a lot and also tasted good. After 1 week my body started to get used to the altitude and I was feeling better again.
Learning Spanish and volunteering in Cusco
Then I took a Taxi to Proyecto Peru, the volunteer school where I was going to take Spanish classes and spent a lot of time in,
I didn’t know, that I was going to end up working there. Proyecto Peru is a very beautiful small school close to the center (Plaza de Armas) in Cusco. It’s a very cozy school with a lots of nice people who are working there. I went there the Monday after I arrived.
They showed me the school, the kitchen, the reception and the living room which was very nice. There were also different volunteers different countries.
I made friend with a lot of people, people from the USA, people from Australia, people from England and many more countries. I started my Spanish classes and I loved it, learning new languages was always my Passion.
I took Spanish classes for 4 hours everyday for about 3 months. I learned a lot and I really liked my teacher. I also went on a lot of tours like Rainbow Mountains, 7 Lakes ect. I also did 2 volunteer projects, one being an zoo, and the other one an afterschool.
I really liked helping animals at the zoo. The afterschool was also very nice, it had a lot of little kids in it, who were very adorable. I loved my overall experience with my host family and Proyecto Peru.
The Peruvian kitchen is great, so is the culture, The people seem a lot friendlier that in my home country.
I learned the basics of Spanish quickly because the host family where I lived could barely speak any English or German. I made a lot of friends and I learned how to dance salsa, how to cook Peruvian food and much more.
Deciding to stay and starting work at Proyecto Peru
I also really enjoyed the nightlife in Cusco, me and my friends went to many clubs and restaurants. I also learned a lot about the culture of Cusco.
They have over 3000 different kinds of Potatoes and 50 varieties of corn. A very famous dish is Choclo con queso, which is a type of corn with cheese. Also Cusco is famous for Alpacas and llamas, which are part of their culture. They make clothes from the Alpaca and llama fiber. They also eat Alpaca. I’ve tried Alpaca and it tastes good in my opinion. It has less fat in comparison to beef. They also eat “Cuy’ in Cusco which is guinea pig.
My overall experience was amazing. That’s why I was searching for a way so I could stay longer in Cusco. That’s why, after a short period of time when a friend offered me to work for the English school of Proyecto Peru, I accepted.
I was working as an Administrative assistant. I did administration and sales, and I loved it. After months of working as an assistant it got a little boring and there were several real issues with my former boss, that’s why I decided to teach English, so I first started with teaching English to kids, which was pretty easy and I liked it. My English was always great since I’ve travelled a lot. I only taught 1-3 hours per week, so not a lot of work.
After living in Cusco wth my host family, I moved in to an apartment next to my friend. My apartments was a 5 minutes walk from work which was very helpful.
TEFL-Certification and becoming a full time teacher
I continued working and after a while my friend Nicole and I decided to get a cat. We both really loved cats and I already had cats so we wanted to share a cat.
Nicole and me got together after a couple of months. It was great I had a new life in Cusco now, a partner, an apartment cats and my own work.
Since I wanted to get more into teaching English I decided to do my Tefl-certification, I could do that thanks to the support from my mother.
Because I also wanted to do my visa, I had to cross the border to Bolivia so I could fix my immigration status and get my visa. It was a long journey, the the weekend before my TEFL course was going to start I took a bus to La Paz, Bolivia. It was a 22 hour bus drive and I didn’t organize it well, that’s why I also didn’t have enough food. I arrived in La Paz and spent a total of an hour there just to take a bus back to Cusco, for another 22 hours (this time the bus broke down). So it was a very stressful journey but at the end I arrived in Cusco at 4 am, 2 hours before my TEFL course was starting.
So I went to my TEFL course and it was hard, almost 7 hours everyday, not including studying and homework. It was very hard but great. It was very different from learning at school. more thinking by yourself and critical thinking, instead of solo memorization. I learned a whole new way of learning and teaching at the same time.
Sean was a great teacher and I learned a lot from him. Not only how to teach a new language to somebody who doesn’t speak your language, but to elicit the meaning of different words, ideas, concepts, ect. The TEFL was focused on real-life material and practical teaching, that’s why it was amazing.
My life in Cusco now and future plans
Except for that I also made a lot of new friends along the way. After my tefl, I started teaching English full time, sometimes even 9-10 hours a day.
I moved again to another house, because my old house was under very bad conditions and the landlords also treated us very poorly. So now I live in a nicer Apartment in a safer area with my girlfriend Nicole.
We also got a new cat, our cats names are Freyja and Magdalena and they are adorable, were planning on taking them on our journey. And now I’m currently still teaching and I gained a lot of experience as an English teacher. I always loved teaching English, helping other people learning another language is great and I feel like im giving something back to the community.
Throughout my whole experience, I have to say that I’ve learned a lot and I’m very grateful that that was a possibility for me. Now, my plan is to live in Mexico and other countries, my goal is to build an online platform and have students from all over the world so I can continue travelling to new countries and teach from all over the world.
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