Cuzco- The norm

Walking down the street today there were so many experiences in my normal day that I thought of that I haven´t written about. The big moments & trips have been great- but there is a whole nother degree of my trip- which is experiencing the daily routine of Cuzco. My living situation is a ¨condo¨which I´m pretty sure is considered nice living here in Peru. It is a cement 3 story house that is stacked high rather then having width. I live in a room with 2 other beds (anyone want to come visit?) and a private bathroom... but it is pretty basic. I´ve had about 2 warm showers since I´ve been here- as you can imagine shower time is not my favorite time of the day. It isn´t like in Costa Rica where it is 80 degrees outside... it is COLD. Cold plus cold water= not fun. But there is good and bad to every place you live in life I suppose.

My host family as I´ve said are great... I came in at a moment that they are going through a lot of hard stuff. The boys try and not show it as much- but I can see it in them somedays. I am thankful that I´m here at this time as I´ve tried to keep a upbeat attitude and keep them laughing with my attempts to speak Spanish- when all else fails, SMILE :). They hardest part has been keeping up with the food. I am not used to having 3 meals a day. We sit down for three full meals. Breakfast is always toast with Jam & tea- sometimes fruit. Lunch is between 1-2 and everyone makes the trek home to eat together. Dinner is usually around 8 & by the time I´m done eating 3 full meals I´m exhausted just from the eating. I try and pawn the food off to Juanca & Richy... but they make sure to give me a hard time for not finishing first. The food for the moment is okay as I have lost a lot of weight. My pants are falling off my waist...but I´m sure I won´t have that problem for too long. Several students have gotten the same illness as me- but it has sat them out all together. Fortunately I´ve been feeling good- but they say it is pretty common that once you get this bug it comes back... I can feel it kinda dormant in me and I´m trying to be very careful to take care of myself so it can´t fight back.

Classes have been good- but the best part has been my tandem class- my one on one with a peruvian student. I was fortunate to get partnered with a girl (kely) my same age that has become more like hanging out with a friend then having a class. I had NO girl friends from Costa Rica (they wanted nothing to do with me) so it has been so FUN to have a friend here!!! We wonder around Cuzco and talk & it has helped with my conversational Spanish a lot more then the actual class.

On Tuesday after lunch I went out to find Dan bc he had been in Cuzco for a while and I hadn´t made contact with him. We met up at the Plaza and he was traveling with a friend and we decided to hike up to one of the highest parts of Cuzco- a place called ¨sacsayhuaman¨ to the gringos... where there are ruins and at the top we met a guy that had horses and offered us a ride for 20 soles...like 6 dollars. We took him up on it & it was a brilliant afternoon. We went to this stable with these little horses that we rode around on through the country side and up to the temple of the moon. It was beautiful. By the temple you could walk around through parts of the inca trail and see the walls they built at the very beginning. Pretty incredible. Sooooo much history here. There were rocks that were sculptured into monkeys, snakes, and a puma... but they were broken up (smashed up) by the Spaniards.... quite interesting. They aren´t really perserving the stuff- you could walk right up to it and touch it... I imagine that they are going to have to tighten the reigns on the artifacts and machu picchu in coming years or it will be destroyed quickly....

It took me a few hours to walk home from that adventure and I was exhausted. Wednesday was the first day i could eat again so my body was achy and weak- but it was good to get some fresh country air in my lungs. Yesterday was a good day also.... Did all my school and watched Liverpool tie. Did errands... laundry day- I needed it! I wore flip flops to meet kely the other day and it was cold and she asked me if I was crazy ¨no I ran out of socks¨I told her and she laughed and laughed and laughed at me. For some reason I was nervous to take my laundry- but it was quite painless... just had to go pick it back up around 8:30 last night. Everywhere i go here I walk- so I have to plan on leaving 20- 30 mins before I need to be somewhere. It has been quite nice...when it is not raining.

I didn´t think it´d be sooo cold here- but this week has been a bit nicer. I thought I´d die when I first got here it was so cold. Today has been beautiful. I went to a market called Molina this morning with kely & there you can find ANYTHING. It isn´t a tourist market- but for the locals. I bought a few DVD´s- 3 for 10 soles... like 3 dollars. I got Siete Almas¨- seven pounds, and look forward to seeing that as I´ve been wanting to for awhile. At night sometimes I can´t sleep and I´ve been watching movies- last night we bought Mama Mia for a dollar off the street- I enjoyed it. Kely took me to her house and we hung out for awhile and she took me to another part of Cuzco- it was a huge maze I think. Had she ran off I´d be lost for good I´m sure. It seemed like we were walking zig zag up streets- but I probably should question a local.. It is hard to have a since of direction here as it is all a big valley.

Hopefully we will go out for a bit tonight. I haven´t really done any going out since I´ve been here and after this weekend I will be 24-7 intensive in my TEFL. They say to brace yourself bc the last two weeks are intense- so I´m counting on getting all my fun out of the way this weekend. I´m going to be taking my trek to deliver the materials that I brought through ¨sense the world¨ on Saturday- that should be an adventure. There is supposed to be a big celebration/festival going on Sunday in Cuzco so I want to be around to see what that means???

So much I want to write about- but this is getting long for today. Thanks for the e-mails & staying in touch.

Love,
Lindy