Matt Gilbert, USA – Spanish School in Lima, Peru
The time that I spent in Lima was terrific! It is a great city and a really interesting place to learn lot about an important piece of Latin American culture. My arrangements for living and learning in Lima where made through the spanish language immersion school ECELA, with whom I had also arranged my time in Buenos Aires . When I made my plans to come to Lima to learn Spanish with ECELA, little did I know that I would be the first student to attend classes at that campus. My teacher, Waldemir Rios, was a classy guy. He is at once both a professional educator, and someone to whom you can ask normal cultural questions to get straight answers. Everyday we covered a lot of different areas of the Spanish language and I found his teaching approach to be very effective. The activities director organized all sorts of interesting things for us to do in the evenings and afternoons after classes. Examples of these things include: cooking lessons, salsa dance lessons, and a trip to the Congress Building and a number of historical museums and churches in Lima’s center. My housing was also a great experience. I lived with a family a few blocks away from the school in the Miraflores neighborhood. After living with two different families, both arranged for me by ECELA, I can truly say that the cultural experiences I had could not be duplicated in any other matter. If aperson truly wants to become able to speak Spanish, than this immersion is essential. Each night I dined with my family and we would discuss all sorts of things. The food at the house was great and the whole family was avidly participating in my cultural education. I am a chef and through this family I was introduced to the world of Peruvian cuisine. All in all, I am happy to say that my dealings with ECELA in both Buenos Aires and Lima have all beenfantastic. I am looking forward to learning more in Santiago with ECELA in february!!