Last week of school

Last weekend I unfortunately didn't do anything because I had a fever until Tuesday and the cold really got into my bones. But on Sunday I happened to see on Instagram that two acquaintances from my former class at TGA just visited Machu Picchu. So I asked if they were staying in Cusco and if they would like to meet up with me. We met for lunch on Sunday and then went for a stroll together. It's crazy to meet again in South America after four months.

This week I still had 5 private lessons left from Lima, so on Monday I had one lesson, yesterday two, and today two, because I won't go to school tomorrow and therefore won't miss any private lessons.

Tonight I will pick up my friend Emily, who is from Germany, at the airport. We will travel together for 10 weeks in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. I'm incredibly excited to see her! Speaking German again and having someone by my side when traveling is nice. She will fly back home on October 20th and I will probably continue traveling alone.

After 4 1/2 months of more or less school, a new section of the trip begins for me, as on Tuesday we will constantly change accommodation and location, and I will no longer have a fixed place to stay or a fixed daily routine.

Looking back, I'm quite glad that I went to school in San Francisco for 5 weeks, as I met many great people and lost my inhibition to speak English. However, the quality of the school was not particularly good, as the classes never started on time, I stayed in the wrong language level for too long, and the situation with the host family was impossible. The road trip afterwards in the USA was like a vacation from school for me. I saw so much and also went on vacation with my family.

Last year around the same time, I decided to go to a language school in Lima for 7 weeks and 6 weeks in Cusco. But I don't know why exactly 13 weeks. Many of my friends couldn't understand why I wanted to go to school again right after graduation. However, I don't regret it for a second. The organization of the school is incredibly good, as is the structure of the lessons. After 13 weeks, I can speak so much Spanish that I can have a good conversation on the street, describe the way to the taxi driver, and explain my problem in the hospital. Unfortunately, sometimes I struggle with the vocabulary, as I learned so much grammar in 13 weeks that the vocabulary sometimes got left behind. I definitely want to improve my Spanish next year in Germany and also during my trip.

If I had the chance to book a language school again, I wouldn't go to Lima again. Lima is super gray and just not a nice city. Cusco, on the other hand, has history, is beautiful, the weather is usually good, and you can do many excursions from Cusco.

We will visit Machu Picchu this weekend. Then on Tuesday, we will finally start properly and leave Cusco. Our route for the next two weeks will run along the coast back to Lima. However, Lima will only be a stopover, so we will probably only sleep there for one more night in order to be able to continue traveling to the north.