Living in Lima and Rocking Peru

Hello everyone! My name is Amy and I have been living in Peru for 4 years. I was in Cusco for two and now I am in Lima with my husband. He is in the Peruvian army so we will be moving throughout Peru over the next 20 years of his career and possibly abroad for a bit. I have always loved to travel and it wasn't surprising to find myself as a permanent expat after meeting such a wonderful man. I like challenges and navigating life in a different culture will never cease to be an adventure.

I am expecting my first child in December and my husband and I are super excited. I am documenting the experience of it all on my blog wawasinperu.com. I have another blog as well that documents random things about living in Peru that don't necessarily have to do with children. That one is thisisperutip.blogspot.com

I am a full time kindergarten English teacher and I also teach violin. I sing in a professional women's choir called Coro Arpegio and I love to get out and dance with the husband when we can!

I thoroughly enjoy giving advice and tips to people planning on visiting Peru. There is so much to do here. Feel free to contact me at [email protected]!

Hey Amy!

I'm moving to Lima, Peru to find a job as a TEFL teacher on December 27th. I'm a British expat and I will live with my girlfriend/fiancée who I met in Peru in February and stayed with for 2-3 months.

I am TEFL qualified and I have a little experience shadowing a teacher in a TESOL environment (voluntary). I have had good replies from a few language institutes and I can go to a few places for interviews and hopefully to get a job shortly after arrival.

I have a couple of thousand pounds saved up for the first few months of security and renting an apartment, etc.

Any other general advice?

Thanks!

Sounds like you have a good plan. I will say that the institutes tend to be a bit demanding in terms of time but it is definitely a good experience. ICPNA and El Britanico are the two big institutes here as well as EuroIdiomas. I have not worked at any of them in Lima. I worked at an institute in Cusco called Maximo Nivel and the split schedule killed me.

You will most likely be able to find a place to live in the Miraflores or San Isidro area from anywhere between 500 - 1000 USD a month depending on what you are looking for. Cost of rent here has skyrocketed in the past 5 years from what I hear.

The good thing is that you can find lunch deals from 8-20 soles (3-7 USD) for soup, a main course, a drink, and a dessert typically.

You are going to have a blast. Make sure you get out to the beach since you will be getting here in the summer. Ceviche is the best on the beach. I also recommend Barranco for music and dancing.

Hope this helps!
-Amy

jwhmilne wrote:

Hey Amy!

I'm moving to Lima, Peru to find a job as a TEFL teacher on December 27th. I'm a British expat and I will live with my girlfriend/fiancée who I met in Peru in February and stayed with for 2-3 months.

I am TEFL qualified and I have a little experience shadowing a teacher in a TESOL environment (voluntary). I have had good replies from a few language institutes and I can go to a few places for interviews and hopefully to get a job shortly after arrival.

I have a couple of thousand pounds saved up for the first few months of security and renting an apartment, etc.

Any other general advice
?

Thanks!


I study at ICPNA which is an amazing language school. I love it. I'm sure you could find a job here at icpna quickly. I'm convinced that you could be a very good English teacher. You have to remember that ICPNA is an American Institute, so they teach American English. BRITANICO,  on the other hand, is a British institute. Consequently, they teach British English, just to make you know. You will be fine in any of them. There are sometimes
British teachers and many Peruvian Teachers, of course, including the American ones lol. When I was in Basic 12, I had a teacher who had a British accent. At first, my classmates and I didn't understand what she said, but after a couple of weeks, we got accustomed to her accent. We are used to the American accent, you know, but it's really cool to hear different accents. A couple of months ago, I had a Nigerian classmate and it was a little difficult to understand him at times, but then, It was easy. I have a friend who told me that his Teacher was from California and it was a little difficult to understand him. I don't know why lol haha. Anyway, I write too much. I just wish you good luck, dude.