The Bad Side of Being TEFL Certified

I have been in Peru now for just over 5 days. After arriving from the airport and finally getting some sleep, I went out to meet the rest of the students staying at the Amauta school in Cusco. I soon discovered that I am currently the only American that is living at the school, which I actually really like, but was also very surprised.

First night in Cusco via iPhone, view from San Blas

The school is an international mix of students from all over the world and of all different ages from 19-50 (?), more or less all traveling solo. The majority of the students at the school are from Holland and Germany, but there are students from Switzerland, Italy, Israel and France. Luckily or unluckily the common language is English (unluckily because I am probably speaking too much English and not enough Spanish).

View of Cusco 

I am always shocked at how well people from other countries can speak English, it would be nice if the USA had as much emphasis on learning other languages. I wish that I had started earlier and put in more effort to my language studies before, but alas here I am.

After spending a whole month in London learning how to be an English teacher for nearly 40 hours a week, I am having a hard time shutting off the teaching mode. I keep correcting people when they speak, not in a mean way, but it's still really annoying because they are speaking well. With time I hope I can learn to stop doing this, because it is a really bad habit and one that I hate when people (you know who you are) do it to me.

Other than that it is great to be away from Americans for a little while and learn about not only Peruvian culture, but also those from other countries. For example, I learned that Europeans would never just eat one sandwich for a meal, usually they eat at least two. In fact they thought it was a really small meal when I only ate one.

The best part about all these people is the bonus that now I will have even more people to visit in the world! Maybe I'll speak some Dutch and German in addition to Spanish by November....

Sacsayhuaman ruins, about a 25 min hike from the school