Acostumbrando

Last night I went to the girls´home and played with them until Sarah and Kat came. Since it was their last day with them, we had a mini-party and gave them pie and lollipops. The other day this girl Mariluz (sp?) asked me how long I was going to be in Perú and I told her five more weeks and then I had to return to mi propio país and she said, "El Perú no es tu país?" and it made me so sad. Every so often one of the kids will ask about when we´re leaving and if we´re ever going to come back and I never know what to say. I love Perú and plan on returning someday, but who knows if the girls will still be there. I feel really guilty sometimes having such a stable support system in the States of friends and family when these girls (and boys) grow up having strangers filter in and out of their lives constantly. I´m not looking forward to having to say goodbye to them in a few weeks.

When I got home I got my clothes back from the lavandería (favorite part of the day) and then went back to get ready to go out. The new girl who lives with my host family is named Jackie and she´s 19 and goes to Duke (though she´s from Chicago). She´s really nice but she greeted me in English when we first met. After talking to my host mom I found out that Jackie speaks Spanish pretty well, so later I asked her if she would speak to me in Spanish and she said of course. She said that she obviously feels more comfortable talking in English and so she tends to fall back on it when she has the opportunity, which is understandable.

Anyway, I invited her to come out to dinner with me to celebrate Sarah´s and Kat´s last night in Perú since they both leave for Bolivia today. I think she was grateful to meet more people in the city and have a chance to speak a little English.

This morning I went to the boys´house and for the first time successfully helped a boy finish all of his homework. Wow. They had to write the names of the fifteen saints of Corpus Cristi and write sentences about each of them. Somehow I remembered 11 of those saints (?!) so I helped them with that and then they had to come up with their own sentences. This one boy, Ronald, I think is dyslexic so he wrote a few of the names down and then gave up and wouldn´t talk to me from that point on. Sarah and I looked through one of his notebooks and found that on a bunch of pages, the teacher had a stamped a crying face because he hadn´t done his homework. I can´t even imagine how discouraging that would be for a child who clearly struggles just to complete his homework. I talked to him for around twenty minutes telling him that if he wants my help I´m more than willing to give it to him, but there´s not a whole lot I can do if he refuses to speak to me. Any suggestions on how to handle this situation??

After that, we went outside and one of the profesoras had brought in a kitten (!!!) so some of the boys were playing with her. They were being kind of rough so Kat and Sarah had me explain to them that kittens can startle and have heart attacks pretty easily. That sort of got them to calm down, but eventually I had to take the cat away. Oh boys.

Then we rounded up all the boys in the comedor and gave them cake and lollipops (we do this a lot around here...) and told them that it was Kat´s and Sarah´s last day. One of the boys, Kevin, was being a little jerk and kept trying to take more cake than everyone else. Luckily I know how to say more to them than "No!" so I helped Kat and Sarah explain to him that that wasn´t okay. Still, I can´t help but love the boys.

Chau,
Adrien

P.S. How come no one is leaving me any comments? I want to know what you all think!

Niños!

I changed my Spanish class schedule so now I get to work with the boys every day! YES! I missed them so much in while I was at Lake Titicaca. So excited. That is all.

Lago Titikaka

This weekend my friend Sarah and I went to Lake Titicaca and spent the night on Amantaní island there. We left Cusco at 10:00 pm on Friday night and got to Puno (the city on the coast) around 5:30 the following morning. The bus was like a burning fire pit which was pretty unfortunate as it interrupted my sleeping. The journey however wasn´t all that bad (I guess I´m just so experienced riding buses with Unitarians). When we got to Puno we had to wait in the bus station for about two hours until our tour guide came to collect us. Sarah is a vegan (which makes me nostalgic for being a vegan...) and I´m a vegetarian obviously so it was pretty difficult to find anything to eat at the terminal. We ended up sharing a plate of rice and some bread (yeah, I know) before heading to the docks at Puno.

When we got there we got on a boat with 23 other folks and the tour guide and set sail for the Islas Uros. These are AMAZING. They´re floating islands in Lake Titicaca made entirely out of reeds called totora which are super versatile. The Uros people make all of their houses out of totora, use it for firewood, and even eat it. Yes, I did eat a piece of it and kind of tastes like celery mixed with water chestnuts. However, perhaps the most remarkable thing they do with totora is make boats. The boats take months and months to build and even the most exceptional ones only last for six or seven months before they rot. This is what they look like:

And oh yes, I took a ride in one (sorry Mom, no life preservers, but how can you let that make you pass up an opportunity to ride in one of those?!).

After touring the Islas Uros, we sailed to Amantaní. Amantaní is an island of about 4,000 people and I think roughly 20 villages. There is very, very minimal electricity on the island which was amazing because once the sun went down, I saw more stars than I ever knew existed (plus they´re southern hemisphere stars! How cool!). When we got to the dock at Amantaní, the group was divided up and we each went to our respective families´houses.

The dock at Amantaní

Sarah and I stayed with a family that had a husband and wife, a daughter, two sons and a granddaughter. They speak (mostly) Quechua on Amantaní and all I could remember how to say was "Thank you" and "Good afternoon." Fortunately, Sarah, the boys and I all understood the universal language of football (soccer) so we played that for awhile. Did I mention I was still wearing five layers of clothing at this point? It got kind of miserable playing so I had to excuse myself and change before I could get back to business. One of the boys kicked the ball into his brother´s face so it soon became a game between the three of us. It was really fun. We took a break to eat lunch which was all vegetarian. We had this amazing quinoa soup and oca and fried cheese (fried cheese is a really big thing in Perú. I see it everywhere I go.) which was really nice.

Afterwards the father of the family led us to the communal football field where we met up with everyone else from our group to begin our trek to the top of the island. There are two temples for Pachatata and Pachamama (Father and Mother Earth, respectively) on the top of Amantaní and we scaled up the top just in time to catch the sunset from the ruins. Everytime I think I´ve had it with climbing a really steep hill, I end up seeing something spectacular so I´ve just come to accept it. Oh, and on the way back down the hill, Sarah and I shared a quinoa doughnut!

After sunset, one of the boys from the family led us back to our house (as aforementioned, there are no streetlights or anything so it was pitch black. Luckily Sarah brought her head torch, but even still it was difficult. I have no idea how the people who live on the island get around after dark with no lights at all.) We ate dinner (another kind of delicious vegetable soup and some veggies and rice) and then took a nap before the mother of the family woke us up to take us to a dance! She dressed us in the traditional clothes of the island (Sarah and I could not stop laughing during this whole process. We looked absurd.) and then led us to their "town hall" where all of the other tourists were waiting, looking equally as absurd in their outfits. A band of young boys played for us (mostly traditional songs in Quechua, but at one point they played "La Bamba!") and we all danced. After about an hour and a half we left because Sarah and I were so tired. We were the only ones who didn´t stay in a hotel the night before in Puno, so we were beat.

After making another trek across the island in the dark, I stayed outside for awhile looking at the stars and finally decided to go to bed.

Literally how tall our door was (and yes, that is the roof grazing the top of my head)

What I saw when I woke up Sunday morning

The next morning we woke up early, ate some pancakes and headed back to the docks to set sail for Taquile. The boat ride from Amantaní to Taquile is only about an hour so I just listened to some Bruce Springsteen to get pumped up. Taquile is a really, really traditional island (even more so than Amantaní) with around 2,000 inhabitants. Virtually no one ever leaves the island and if any tourist is disrespectful, the inhabitants of the island won´t allow any tour groups to come for three months! The view from Taquile was absolutely incredible (I could see Bolivia!). Once we scaled to the main plaza, I just sat at the edge of the square and looked out over the lake for about an hour until we had to go to lunch. Lunch was kind of a debacle because even though I very thoroughly explained to our travel agent in Cusco that Sarah does not eat ANYTHING that comes from an animal, there was no vegan food for her. I talked to our tour guide and finally something got prepared for her, but I felt so bad because for awhile we thought she wouldn´t be able to eat anything (plus she had been really sick the day before and so she needed to replenish but eating anything that wasn´t vegan would´ve just been worse).

After lunch, we walked to the other side of the island and climbed down Taquile´s famous 580-step staircase (so glad we did not climb up said staircase) back to the docks. We were the last ones on the boat and soon we set sail back for Puno. It´s about a three hour boat ride from Taquile to Puno, so I sat on top of the boat (it was designed for that purpose) for the whole time because who knows when I´ll be able to see Lake Titicaca again. I loved Machu Picchu, but there was something so inexplicably incredible about being in the middle of the highest lake in the world that I think I loved Lake Titicaca just teensy bit more. If coming to Perú is the best decision I´ve made thus far (which it is), then deciding to go Lake Titicaca is the best decision I´ve made since being here.

Once we got back to Puno, we grabbed dinner and headed back to the bus station. We left Puno around 9:00 and got to Cusco at 3:30 this morning (ugh). This weekend another girl from the States arrived at my family´s house so I met her this morning. We talked for about two seconds before she had to go to Spanish class. She seems really nice. The only bad thing I think she wants to talk to me in English and I´m getting kind of tired of English so I´m going to ask her to practice Spanish with me.

This morning I went to the lavandería which I desperately needed to do. As much as I loved staying on Amantaní, I was so glad to get back to my home in Cusco (especially for the indoor plumbing and soap). The only unfortunate thing is that Sarah is leaving for Bolivia on Wednesday and then France in a week, but it´s okay because I´ll still have some friends in Cusco (plus I can always make more).

This afternoon I´m going to volunteer with the boys since I couldn´t this morning. I´m trying to change my Spanish classes so that I can work with them every day.

Allin sukha,
Adrien

P.S. Unfortunately my camera batteries died in the middle of making this post, so those are all the photos I can upload at the present moment. But I took a bunch more.

Machu Picchu! y más...

On top of Wayna Picchu

Brace yourself. This will be long. Also sorry I haven´t posted in a week. I have been crazy busy ever since I got back from Machu Picchu so I haven´t really had the time to sit down and write.

Friday night I went out with seven other ladies from various parts of the world who volunteer with me. One of them is leaving this week to go back to Sweden so we were all celebrating for her. As it turned out, I didn´t have to arrive in San Blas to catch the bus to Ollantaytambo as early as I thought, so I stayed out pretty late with my friends. It felt kind of strange speaking in English, actually. One of the women (Amber, from Canada) is staying in Cusco for an indefinite period of time so she really wants to practice her español, so she and I talked for a little bit because neither of us really wanted to talk in inglés.

Anyway, Saturday morning I had to be in San Blas at 9:10. I figured I´d leave my house around 8:30 so I would have some time to get more batteries before heading to Ollantaytambo where I knew they´d be more expensive. Ha, well, it took me almost forty minutes to catch a taxi. Every time one stopped I would say, "Plazoleta San Blas, dos soles" and they all rejected me. San Blas is not that far so I don´t know what they were trying to pull. Maybe they figured they could get more out of the foreigner with the giant backpack (embarrassing). I would´ve paid more but they kept speeding off before I could say anything. Plus very few were even stopping in the first place which made it difficult. Finally, at 9:05 or so I caught a taxi. There was a ton of traffic though so I didn´t end up getting to San Blas until 9:20, totally panicked because I didn´t know when I actually had to get to the bus or anything. Plus I obviously didn´t get to buy spare batteries.

Luckily, when I got there everything was okay. This woman handed me a bunch of papers and very quickly told me what to do, shoved me in a van with the other volunteer (Richard) and in about 30 seconds we were on our way to Ollantaytambo. As I´ve said before, the Peruvian countryside is absolutely gorgeous and I couldn´t help but stare out the window mouth agape the entire time. That is, until our van´s engine started to overheat and we had to pull over in the middle of nowhere so the driver could fix it. That only took 15 minutes or so and soon we were back on the road. That little glitch was only the beginning of a really ridiculous weekend. Little did I know...

Anyway, we arrived in Ollantaytambo around 11:30 in the morning and the train was at noon. The town of Ollantaytambo itself is really small, so Richard and I putzed around the train station for awhile and I paid 5 soles (ridiculous) for a pair of AA batteries. Richard went into some store that made him pay 1 nuevo sol to go to the bathroom (which, conveniently, they mentioned after he had come out). He also bought a box (yes, a box) of some terrible Chilean wine to drink on the train to Aguas Calientes which I thought was pretty funny.

The train ride to Aguas Calientes was just as beautiful as anything else I´ve seen in Perú. The railroad runs right through the Andes next to the Río Urubamba and is just exquisite. I listened to Juanes because I was kind of tired of hearing and speaking so much English. It helped get me excited to go to Machu Picchu (as if I wasn´t already).

We arrived in Aguas Calientes around 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday and were told that some representative from our hostal would come to meet us. Naturally, no one was there. So we had to call the hostal and ask for directions from the train station (not that that was even necessary because the whole town has one street and simply walking up it we would´ve found it). For some reason the coordinators in Cusco only booked one room for the both of us, so Richard decided he would just pay extra for another room. After arriving to our hostal, we both took it easy for awhile and decided to meet up a little bit later to eat and explore the town. I tried to use the phone in my room to call Dad for his birthday, but to no avail. The guy working at the front desk told me I´d probably have to buy a phone card to make a call out of the country which would´ve been terrible because I already put twenty dollars worth of minutes into the phone card I already had (but which works differently from those you buy in Perú). I decided to hold off on that and instead went to an internet café where the guy charged me one nuevo sol for 15 minutes of internet (one sol gets me an hour in Cusco) so that was stupid.

I met up with Richard at the restaurant across the street where he had four beers for the price of one (a lot of you would really enjoy happy hour in Perú, because you can get four beers for about a dollar apiece. Granted I don´t know if it´s good beer or not, but still that´s some great value). I told him about my predicament with the phones and he told me that his phone could make international calls so I ended up using that later to call home. Anyway, Richard didn´t have enough cash to pay the bill so I spotted him 20 soles. He told me he´d just go to the ATM later and pay me back.

After eating, we went around to explore the town and ended up wandering all the way to the bridge which marks the beginning of the road to Machu Picchu itself. It was a beautiful little hike except OH MY GOODNESS it is so humid in Aguas Calientes. By the time we got back to the hostal I was practically drenched in sweat (something I´m sure you all wanted to know) which was incredibly unpleasant.

Anyway, at seven o´clock that night we were supposed to meet our tour guide to find out when we were supposed to meet in the morning to take the bus to Machu Picchu. Naturally, he didn´t show up. So we went out to dinner right by the hostal and after we ordered, Richard went to the ATM to get money. Aguas Calientes has one street and one ATM and by this point in the evening, there was no money left in it because all the tourists from the morning had taken it out. So I had to cover him again which meant that neither of us had a sol to our name in cash. Awesome.

When we got back we waited for our tour guide for a little while before the people in the hostal took pity on us and called him for us (because usually we´re not supposed to use their phones). At this point I could not stop laughing. There I was in Aguas Calientes without any money with some guy who couldn´t speak any Spanish not sure if I was even going to be able to go to Machu Picchu the next day. I´ve learned to have a really good sense of humor about this kind of thing since I´ve been here. Anyway after twenty minutes or so, our tour guide Reuben showed up and after apologizing profusely for about five minutes, told us to meet him at 5:40 in the morning in the Plaza. After that, Richard and I watched Futurama in Spanish and called it a night.

I woke up Saturday around 4:50 and ate breakfast with all the other folks from our hostal heading to Machu Picchu that morning. Richard told me to knock on his door at 5:15 if he still hadn´t come out to eat breakfast, which I did. He was still getting ready and when he finally came out at 5:30, he decided to order a cup of coffee (loco). I told him I was going to go on without him, left my bag in a room with a bunch of other bags and headed for the Plaza. Richard eventually made it and we all climbed aboard the bus to Machu Picchu.

We got to Machu Picchu itself around 6:15 in the morning and started our tour with Reuben. When it´s that early, there is usually a lot of fog that covers a good portion of the city which started to clear as the sun rose over the Andes. Truly, truly spectacular. Reuben showed us all of the main points of the city and explained the differences in architecture between religious and non-religious buildings (The Incas were famous for their precisely carved stones that fit together without mortar--ashlar masonry--but that style of building was only used for holy buildings. Everywhere else they used clay). We got to visit the Inca´s bedroom (the Inca himself technically lived in Qosqo (Cusco in Quechua), but I guess he had a room at Machu Picchu as well?) as well as the Inca´s bathroom which had one drainage pipe leading directly to the Urubamba.

I would write more about each specific site, but there is SO MUCH to say that I would probably spend an hour just giving an overview. So after our tour, we were at the beginning of the trail that leads up Wayna Picchu. Only 400 people per day are allowed onto the mountain so Reuben wanted us to be able to have the opportunity to go. At this point Richard and I met a woman from Canada named Jo who accompanied us on our trek. This is where the adventure really begins.

Wayna Picchu and the Andes in general are completely unlike the Rocky Mountains in that they go straight up. Because so many people come to climb it, there is basically a staircase that leads to the top of Wayna Picchu but it is INCREDIBLY steep and difficult regardless. Plus, there was about a thousand percent humidity on the mountain itself. If I thought I was hot and sweaty the day before, that was absolutely nothing. I kept telling myself that it would be worth it once I got to the top, but the whole time I was climbing I was miserable. After scaling this giant staircase for about forty-five minutes, Jo and I (Richard went ahead of us because I kept stopping haha) came to this tiny cave that we had to crawl through in order to get to the top of the mountain. After climbing the last ladder, we had finally made it. Being on top of Wayna Picchu is the single most awe-inspiring, miraculous experience I´ve ever had. As soon as I stepped onto the summit, I forgot all about the heat and humidity and every other discomfort I experienced during the climb. It was amazing. Oh yeah, and I definitely listened to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on the summit.

After spending half an hour or so on the summit (I did not want to go back down AT ALL) the three of us decided to head back to Machu Picchu. There are two routes that lead back to the city, one of which being the one we took on the way up and another that passes in front of La Gran Caverna (The Great Cave) so we figured we might as well take the second one. It was so nice because there weren´t as many people and it was a relatively easy hike down. We took our time and allowed ourselves to cool down a little bit. Plus this trail was more "jungle-y" so we got to see a lot of beautiful flora as well as several types of butterflies. We climbed down until we happened upon some ruins and another group of folks from Chicago. We had actually followed them on the way up so it was kind of funny that we ran into them again. We went by the cave which was really just a hole in the side of the mountain and not spectacular in any way (I forgot to mention that I tripped and fell trying to take a photo of the ruins, but don´t worry as I did not incur any serious bodily harm). After resting a bit, we followed the arrow that marked the path leading back to Machu Picchu.

Apparently none of us realized just how far we had come down because we had to climb uphill for around two hours just to get back to the fork in the path. It was miserable. At this point we were all starving and exhausted and just wanted to get back. Plus no one was passing us going the opposite way, so we had no point of reference as to how close we were to Machu Picchu. This trail was far steeper and far longer than the original up to Wayna Picchu which was really unfortunate. Although at some point on the hike back I got into the steep uphill climb zone and stopped feeling so terrible.

After eons and eons of being the mountain, we finally scrambled back to Machu Picchu, exhausted and famished. Luckily for us, the food at Machu Picchu itself is ridiculously overpriced so we couldn´t eat anything. Jo had some fruit bars and wafers that she shared with me which helped. Richard decided he was too tired to stay at Machu Picchu and caught a bus back to Aguas Calientes. Jo and I decided to tough it out and go back inside to the ruins. Clearly the best choice. We got to explore so much more than we had in the morning at a much more leisurely pace. Even though I was exhausted and hungry and my legs were aching (from falling down and from climbing), I´m so glad I went back. I don´t know how to explain what being at Machu Picchu was like. It´s completely different from anything I´ve ever seen. Everything I had been through was completely worth it just to be there and take in all of its beauty.

After an hour and a half or so, Jo and I went back to Aguas Calientes in order to eat before catching the train at six. We had to find a place that accepted credit cards since Richard owed me but didn´t have any cash. I haggled with a server and got him to give us a pizza that normally cost 38 soles for 20 (I drive a hard bargain). After that we all raced to the train station to head back to Ollantaytambo. Richard and I sat across from a German man and a Dutch woman and we all talked the whole way back to Ollantaytambo so that was nice. Once we arrived there, we had to catch a bus back to Cusco. Of course our bus was the only one that was delayed for half an hour or so, but finally we set off and upon doing so I immediately fell asleep. When I woke up we were in Cusco and I was so delighted to be able to go back to the house. Cusco is starting to feel like my home away from home in Perú and after being the tourist hellhole that is Aguas Calientes, Cusco felt like the promised land.

There is so much more to write but I´ll have to do that at a later time. I took about 175 photos of Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu which I obviously don´t have the space to post. Tonight I´m going to Puno with my friend from Australia and we are spending the weekend with a family on an island in Lake Titicaca. Sometimes I can´t even believe how incredible my life is!

Mejorando

These past two days have been infinitely better than the beginning of the week. Yesterday I went to the lavandería again and spent the morning wandering around Cusco. I live really, really far from the center of town so I always see lots of interesting things on these excursions.

Yesterday in the afternoon I went to work with the niñas which was fine. I actually helped some girls with their homework instead of being hounded by twenty different people asking me to do it for them. So that was nice, even though homework for kids in primary school is just as tedious in Perú as it is in the States. I had the most pleasant bus experience on my way to and from my project yesterday which I´m sure will not be the norm. The most difficult part about these buses is you have to know exactly where you´re getting off otherwise you could end up in the completely wrong place. I´m learning the names of all my stops slowly but surely so I don´t have to rely on landmarks all the time to get me where I need to go.

This morning I went to work with the niños around 8:30. One of the boys, Richard, read me the story of Los Tres Chanchitos (The Three Little Pigs) and then we drew our own illustrations. I´ve always thought little kid drawings were really cute and his of these fat little pigs were exceptionally adorable. Then he recited the numbers 1-10 in English a bunch of times until he got it right. His English is already better than my Quechua. Then we went outside because another volunteer had planned something similar to a field day for the boys. So they had a sack race, a three-legged race and (after I left) a race balancing eggs on spoons. I missed the last bit because I had to go to class.

Class today was really good. My teacher and I talked a lot about the political climate in the world and I went on and on and on about Overthrow even though I didn´t mention it by name. He had planned for us to do some activity and read an article but we got distracted because I wanted to talk about Arbusto (Bush in español) and Iraq and Fujimori and Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path, a terrorist group in Perú during the Fujimori era) and everything else. Two hours was just not enough time! I think I talked his ear off...(hard to believe, I know)

Tonight I have to pick up my clothes from the lavandería and then I´m going out to dinner and dancing (sigh) with some of the other volunteers. Theoretically I´m supposed to have a city tour next weekend, but I´m going to try to rearrange that because I would like to go to Puno then to visit El Lago Titicaca. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I´m off to Machu Picchu!!! I promised Bailey that I would listen to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in her honor. I have to wake up incredibly early in order to catch the train, so I´ll try not to party too hard tonight. Ha.

Nos vemos,
Adrien

Fotografía

La Plazoleta San Blas (beautiful at night, not so much in the day)

Obligatory picture of something with the word "Lucero" on it
(Lucero is my favorite band, for those of you who don´t know, and it means "morning star" in Spanish)


You can´t see it all that well, but this mountain says "El Perú Glorioso, (then something I can´t decipher), Cusco"

More of the Andes. This is what I see when I walk to the town center.

La Catedral

Plaza de Armas

The Birds! Also in la Plaza de Armas

Our partido de fútbol this morning (the one in the green jacket is just a year younger than I am)

The view out of my window

Mi casa

My room (usually not so orderly)

What I see when I step out of my room!

Sorry these photos aren´t the best. More later!

Americana

Today I feel a hundred times better than I did on Monday. The weather has been beautiful all day (as was promised by my señor) so I am extremely grateful for that. I think the rain these past few days just made the whole situation worse.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the girls´home to help them with their homework, but the whole system of organization there is completely ridiculous. All of the girls as well as their teachers just want us to do the work ourselves (obviously conducive to a good education). The woman who is "in charge" there gets these puppy-dog eyes before I leave and asks me to do homework for "one more girl." The girls are extremely introverted as well, but in a very odd way. They always run up and start hugging and kissing the volunteers, and then immediately run away not to be seen again for the rest of the afternoon. It´s all very strange.

Last night I went out with some other volunteers to this (of all things) English pub-type restaurant. Not my choice, but it was fine. I went with three girls and one was from Sweden, another from Australia and the third from Canada. It was nice to speak some English. However, that was not the best part of the evening. While I was there I heard "Millenium" by Robbie Williams which was amazing. The only bad part was that I wanted to call my brother but had no means. (Adam, they also played "El Ninja Americano 4" last night on TV and that one infamous line is just as hilarious in español. Me hizo extrañarte, hermanito!)

This morning I went to work the boys, whose company I enjoy infinitely more. This one boy, Richard, tried to teach me Quechua (to no avail, as before). So far the only words I remember are chaki and maki, which mean foot and hand respectively. After that we played fútbol but I couldn´t stay long because I had to go to class.

I had a different teacher this week than last week but he was really nice. He seemed surprised that I´m a vegetarian (and was a vegan) and wanted to talk about it ad nauseum. I also told him about In Defense of Food (which I finished a few days ago) and the family book club and he thought the concept was really fantastic. I think he is going to be my teacher on Friday as well, so maybe we can spend that entire class talking about food as well!

Anyway, I´m definitely starting to feel more at home here. Just had to get over that first week hurdle.

Chau,
Adrien

P.S. Chuck Norris jokes appear at least once an hour on television here. And they´re still just as funny.

Enfermedad

Turns out, yesterday I didn´t do anything because I was sick the whole day. I woke up with a terrible stomach ache and spent most of the day in bed. I felt bad because I had to call my project and let them now I wouldn´t be able to come in. The only thing I did was go to the lavandería to pick up my clothes. And, my señora showed me the magic touch so now I know how to get hot water in my shower! Excellent.

Today I feel better. The weather has been really dreary since Saturday, so I think that contributed a little bit to my feeling so bad. It rained all morning but it´s starting to clear up now. My señor told me that there´s a habit in Cusco of four days of rain followed by blistering heat. It was really hot all last week so at least I know what to expect.

This afternoon I´m going to go to the girls´house at 3 o´clock until 6 or so. Tomorrow I have to go to the boys´house and then to class almost immediately afterwards. Right now I´m just counting down the days until Machu Picchu (three!). Apparently I´m going with another volunteer named Richard, who I actually saw in the street today when I was walking with Manfred, but I only found out afterwards that that´s who it was.

Admittedly I am homesick and it was definitely difficult yesterday to be ill so far from home. But I´m sure as I continue to feel better I´ll be able to explore the city more. Last week was my time to get my bearings, so now that my feet are more firmly planted here, things will get easier.

Anyway, I apologize for how boring this post was. It´s hard to have a whole lot of fun when you´re sick.

Con cariño,
Adrien

La primera semana

Hey everyone. Happy Mother´s Day!!! Mother´s Day in Perú is a BIG deal so this morning all of Hermalinda´s kids and grandkids were at the house. They were all eating ceviche and Edgar leaned over to me and said, "We eat this after drinking too much the night before." Haha. My señor and señora are party animals. Last night we all left the house at the same time and they got home two hours after I did.


Anyway, yesterday morning I took a shower* then went to the lavandería to have some clean ropa next week (always a plus). Then, I went with Hermalinda (my señora), her niece Ana and her grandson Mauricio to the cementerio so that Hermalinda could leave flowers for her mother before Mother´s Day. This particular cementerio is pretty far out of town, so we had to take a bus higher up into the mountains to get there. As much as I love Colorado, I have never seen tierra as beautiful as in the Andean countryside. Cusco looked so small and tranquil the higher we climbed. Hermalinda pointed out the railroad that goes to Machu Picchu as well, which snakes through these little towns further from the city. It just made me all the more excited to go to Machu Picchu next weekend (!!!).

When we got to the cementerio, almost every grave had a vase filled with flowers right behind the tombstone. Since family is such a big priority here, it seems like people go to great lengths to honor the deceased (especially on days as important as Mother´s Day). Hermalinda arranged her flowers, lit some incense and a cigarette (her mom was a smoker) and put them around the grave marker. It was a really beautiful moment and I´m very grateful that she allowed me to come to experience it.

Apparently yesterday there was a partido de fútbol in Cusco, but I was so tired I decided not to go (plus it was raining like crazy). Instead I watched telenovelas and read In Defense of Food (yes, I have time to read here, and yes Mom, Dad and Adam, I am almost finished). At eight o´clock I went with this guy I met earlier in the day on my walk back from the lavandería to the Plaza de Armas. He´s from Lima (brichero, maybe), used to live in Ecuador, and has lived in Cusco before. Anyway, it was nice to go out with someone and practice my español with someone who knows the city.

Anyway, today I´m going to the Museo Inka which is really exciting. Apparently they have an absolutely astonishing collection of all things Inca (as one would assume given the name). Mañana I go to work with the boys at eight in the morning, so no Cusco night life for me today.

Chau,
Adrien

*Abandon all preconceived notions of what it means to take a shower. When I say I ¨took a shower,¨what I really mean is that I stuck my head under a freezing cold trickle of water for about ten minutes just kind of hoping that shampoo was being washed out (and usually, it isn´t).

Extranjera

Yesterday I went to work with the boys in the afternoon. There was another guy there from California named Alex who had been there for a couple months so the kids were really attached to him. I felt a little strange at first but I started playing un partido de fútbol with some of the boys and I think they loosened up a bit with me. Alex left for an hour or so and after that I think the kids figured they might as well talk to me since I was there. Ha, so they showed me around their school and asked me how to say certain things in English. Then a few of them taught me some words in Quechua (of which I remember no) and laughed every time I invariably mispronounced them. I got there around 3:30 and left at 6:30 and had a really good time.

After that, I walked to La Plaza San Blas to meet up with this Canadian girl so we could explore the city together. I was supposed to meet her at seven but she never showed up (ugh) so I ended up sitting there by myself looking ridiculous for an hour or so. I was sitting on the escaleras of the Cathedral when this guy approached me (brichero, for sure) and asked if I wanted to go to some cafe and listen to him play music. I told him I was waiting for someone but he was pretty persistent (Mom, don´t worry, I know better than to go out with someone I don´t know alone). Afortunadamente, this girl I met earlier at school walked by and I just started talking to her and pseudo-ignoring this other guy. Finally he left and the girl invited me to dinner with her and some of her friends. I figured by this point (it was around 7:45) that the other girl wasn´t going to show up, so I accepted. Lucky for me, they were all German. And they spoke German the entire time I was with them. So they took me to this weird hemp café and talked in German for two hours acknowledging me I think twice the whole time. Not that I can necessarily blame them for speaking German (even though they all knew English and Spanish), it was pretty rude given that girl who invited me hardly talked to me as well. Oh, and did I mention I didn´t have enough money with me to buy anything on the menu? Wonderful. Sitting in a hemp café in Perú with seven Germans, hungry and tired, listening to bizarre soft-rock covers of Beatles song. I feel like maybe now I can empathize more with Bill Murray´s character in Lost in Translation. But what´s more is that this isn´t even the first time this has happened since I´ve been here! On Tuesday, I went out with the coordinators for my project for a ¨welcome dinner...¨except they were all Dutch and spoke Dutch the entire time. Some welcome. But that was where I met the Canadian girl so it was a little less uncomfortable. And they paid for me, so it was considerably better.

Spanish lessons went well today. I´m not sure what I´m going to do tomorrow. I need to plan out when I´m going to do my ¨tourist-y¨activities (like visit all the churches, museums, ruins, etc.). I think tomorrow I´m going to take my first trip to the lavandería (laundromat), so that should be interesting.

Anyway, right now I should probably head back to my house for almuerzo. It´s really, really hot today in Cusco and I´ve already walked quite a few kilometers so it will be nice to go home and cool off.

Chau,
Adrien

P.S. Even in Perú, one cannot escape all the madness that constantly encircles Britney Spears.

Proyecto

Okay so I would right this in español and inglés, but I am writing a really, really lengthy diary in español so I figure from this point I´ll just write here in inglés. Also, it takes forever to write in español first and then translate to inglés and I think the people at the San Blas school do not appreciate how much I use their free internet.

Let´s see...yesterday I had my first Spanish lesson with this woman named Nadia. I think the teachers there aren´t used to getting students who have prior Spanish experience, so she seemed pretty taken aback at my level of fluency (hack hack). Our class was scheduled for four hours which is a really, really long time so we left the school and spent the majority of that time walking around Cusco. She took me to the mercado (market) in La Plaza San Pedro where they sell practically everything. But I assure you, it is not in any way similar to a supermarket. There are a lot of textiles as well as other handicrafts, tons of food (meat, cheese, produce, nuts, prepared food, everything) and jewelry. Everything is out in the open and every vendor is yelling one-hundred percent of the time to get you to come over and see what they have for sale. It´s a bit uncomfortable because almost everyone singles me out for being gringa and says "Señorita, ven acá...tengo bolsos y camisas y puedo ofrecerte un precio muy barato" y ya... The same thing happens when I walk in the street. I can´t walk twenty feet without someone offering me some sort of doll or postcard or massage or something. It´s really, really strange. My teacher and the people in the family told me a lot about bricheros, who are young Peruvians who try to take advantage of tourists in order to get money or go to the US or Europe. Apparently the majority of them come from Lima, where racism is extremely pervasive. So they´ve all grown up with the idea that the only way to really be successful is to change their race, so they essentially try to seduce white tourists so they can have more gringo looking children. Naturally they come to Cusco because this is a tourist hot-spot. The whole thing is very, very creepy. But at least I have been sufficiently warned of this and so will definitely be keeping my eyes open.

Anyway, my teacher told me that I should ask my family where to catch a bus near their house to take me to my project, which I did. I went to the "bus stop" (aka any random spot on the street where you flag down a bus) and waited for one labeled Pachacútec. There were several, but they were all overflowing with people, so I decided it would just be easier to walk to La Plaza de Armas (which took an hour) and take a taxi. Since I didn´t really know where I was going anyway, I figured that I could just rely on the taxista to get me there. Except, that´s not at all what happened. He dropped me off the Avenida Grau on the 400 block, but the building I needed to find was nowhere in sight. So I wandered around for awhile, unable to find this location, and stopping people every so often to ask for help. Unfortunately, everyone told me something different and I ended up wandering around for an hour and a half or so, totally disoriented and emotional because I was so embarrassed for being so late. I tried to call the director of my project, but I talked for about thirty seconds before my money ran out at a pay phone. Wonderful. Finally I just decided to take a bus back to my house. The thing is, I am about half a meter taller than your average cuzqueño, so standing on this bus was an absolute nightmare. At this point I was already disoriented and upset, so it didn´t really help that I had no idea what I was doing or where to get off. Luckily I told this woman where I was going and she told me where to get off. Fortunately the bus dropped me off really, really close to my house. When I got there, my señora and her grandson Mauricio were leaving so he could go to math class. I told her what happened and she told me she would come with me to find this place. We took a bus and it dropped us off right in front of the building. If I had walked maybe half a block more, I would have found it. It was really frustrating though because here is this building with the number 433 in the 1000 block. Ugh. Anyway, I was roughly two hours late but luckily the director was still there so she and I took a taxi to the other location. The whole time I was there I felt really, really uncomfortable. First of all, the first thing she said to me was "Be careful with your money" because apparently a lot of the girls have pretty deft fingers. Then, I walk in and they´re all making cards for Mothers´Day...except they´re orphans. The whole thing kind of made me sick to my stomach because I felt like I was taking part in this sick, sadistic joke.

Anyway, today I go back and hopefully it will be better. I´m going to try to see if I can work the boys in the mornings when I don´t have class. At least now I know how to get there...

Take care everyone-
Adrien

Y más...

Ahorita estoy en un café del internet cerca de la Plaza San Blas. Tuve que pedir un precio más barato por una media hora. La primera vez que he tenido que ¨haggle¨ en una tienda aquí!

A ver...esta mañana fui al aeropuerto para recoger mi maleta. Cuando llegué, la representante me dijo que no había llegado aunque el hombre de Continental me dijo antes que el mismo ya la había mandado. Pues, esperé un rato y después de unos minutos la representante de LAN me dijo que la había encontrado. Buena fortuna porque al principio ella me había dicho que tendría que regresar a las cuatro de la tarde. Ojála que estuviera allá. Cuando salí del aeropuerto, un taxista me pido DOCE SOLES pero le dije que eso fue demasiado caro y que no pagaría más de tres soles. No consentió, así busqué otro taxista. Al final tuve que pagar cinco soles, que fue demasiado caro también, pero después de casi 48 horas sin ducharme ni cambiarme de ropa, no me importaba mucho.

Ayer comí un pastel de espinaca y bebí una taza de mate de coca en la pastelería El Buen Pastor. Había leído de ese lugar en la guía de Lonely Planet y de verdad lo encontré completamente por azar. Pues pero cuando regresé a la casa de mi familia, el almuerzo estaba esperándome. Una ensalada de aguacates y tomates, una sopa muy rica de verduras, y unos plantanos fritos con arroz. Después no pude comer ni un bocado más.

Anoche, platicaba con la hija mayor de la familia que tiene quizá treinta y ocho años. Hablamos de los incas y de los españoles. Me mostró unos libros de historia de Cusco y otros pueblitos cercanos. También hablamos de las diferencias entre los EE.UU. y el Perú. Me dijo que debo sentir que tengo otra familia aquí en Cusco y que debo pensar que ella ya es mi hermana. Porque para ellos lo más importante es la familia y que todos se sientan muy cómodos y amados.

Hoy por la tarde fui a la escuela de San Blas para entender más sobre mi proyecto. Fui con una mujer cuyo nombre he olvidado por el momento al sitio de trabajar. La directora me dijo que tengo la opción de trabajar con niños o niñas de cualquier edad, por la mañana o por la tarde. Me dijo que se necesita más apoyo en las clases de matemáticas, química y física. Ojála que yo recuerde algo sobre eses tópicos. Pero mañana voy a regresar a la escuela por la tarde para empezar mis responsabilidades. También mañana tengo mi primera clase de español y una clase de salsa (ay que barbaridad...).

En dos horas y media voy a reunir con unas personas de la escuela de San Blas y de Planeta Unido para cenar. Así quise pasar un rato dándoles más información sobre lo que estoy haciendo!

En inglés...

Right now I´m in an internet cafe near the Plaza San Blas. I had to ask for a lower price for a half-hour of internet access. The first time I´ve had to haggle in a shop in Cusco!

Let´s see, this morning I had to go to the airport to get my bag. When I got there, the representative told me that it hadn´t arrived even though the man I spoke to at Continental told me that he had personally sent it to Cusco. I waited a little bit and after a couple of minutes the woman at LAN told me she had found my bag. Which was good luck because before she told me that I would have to come back at four o´clock this afternoon. So thank goodness it was there. When I left the airport, this taxi driver asked me for TWELVE SOLES but I told him that was too expensive and that I wouldn´t pay more than three soles. He didn´t agree so I had to look for another taxi. I ended up having to pay five soles, but after 48 hours without a shower and without changing my clothes, I didn´t care all that much.

Yesterday I ate a spinach pie and drank a cup of mate de coca at this bakery called El Buen Pastor. I had read about this place in Lonely Planet but really I just kind of stumbled across it by chance. But when I got back to the house, lunch was waiting for me. A salad with avocados and tomatoes, this wonderful vegetable soup, and some fried bananas with rice. Afterwards I couldn´t even eat one more bite.

Last night I talked with the oldest daughter, who I think is probably around 38, about the Incas and the Spanish. She showed me some books about Cusco and other towns close to here. We also talked about the differences between the United States and Peru. She told me that I should feel like I have a second family here in Cusco and that I should think of her as my sister. For them the most important thing is family and that everyone feels comfortable and loved.

This afternoon I went to the San Blas school to learn more about my project. I went with a woman whose name I cannot remember at the moment to the work site. The director told me that I have the option to work with boys or girls of whichever age I choose in the morning or the afternoon. She said they need the most help in math, chemistry and physics classes. Hopefully I remember something about these subjects.... Tomorrow I´m going back to the school in the afternoon to start work. Also tomorrow I have my first Spanish class and a salsa lesson (uh-oh).

In two and a half hours or so, I´m going to meet up with some other people from the San Blas school and United Planet for dinner. But I wanted to stop for a minute to let you all know more about what I´m doing.

Con cariño,
Adrien

Aqui estoy!

Pues, he llegado en Cusco despues de una noche muy larga de aeropuertos, aduanas, y vuelos. Mi maleta todavia esta en Lima porque nadie me dijo que tuve que retirarla en Lima y chequearla (?!) otra vez. Ay que barbaridad! Pero todo vale la pena porque esta mañana, cuando me desperte en el avion, vi el sol levantando detras de las montañas de los Andes. Y me parecio que Cusco era casi como una joya situada en el paisaje mas bello de todo el mundo. Tratare de tomar una foto cuando regrese. No puedo describirlo en palabras. Pues, decidi de escribir en mi blog en español e ingles porque aunque la mayoria de Uds. no pueden entender el español, yo necesito la practica.

Acabo de tener una cita con Manfred, el coordinador del Planeta Unido en Cusco. La escuela esta situada en la Plaza de San Blas con un catedral muy lindo. Tome un taxi aqui y pienso que no hay leyes de trafico en Cusco. En un momentito voy a explorar mas de la Plaza y de la ciudad. Mañana me voy a mi proyecto para aprender mas sobre mis responsabilidades. Me di cuenta de que voy a trabajar en una huerfania y no en una guarderia como pensaba.

Pues, lo mas chistoso es que la familia con quien estoy quedandome ha cambiado! Cuando vi a la mama en el aeropuerto, pense que parecia mucho mas mayor que treinta y seite, pero pense en mis modelos y no dije nada. Pero Manfred me dijo que de veras estoy quedandome con una pareja que estan en los años sesenta!! De veras no me importa, porque son muy amables y tengo un cuarto muy comodo. Tienen un patio dentro de su casa con unos pajaritos y arboles y es muy bonita. Tengo que subir unas escaleras afuera para llegar a mi cuarto, pero me gusta que privado es.

Les juro que la proxima vez que hago un "post" voy a darles la informacion de mi tarjeta de telefono para que puedan dejarme mensajes cuando quieran!! Y espero que pueda aprender como se puede poner acentos en mis palabras...

Y ya-en ingles.

I´ve arrived in Cusco after a long night of airports, customs and flights. My bag is still in Lima because apparently I had to collect it and then re-check it in Lima, but no one ever told me that. Hopefully tomorrow my señora will accompany me to the airport to get it. But what a hassle! But it was all worth it because this morning, when I woke up on the plane, I saw the sun rising behind the beautiful Andes. Cusco looked like a beautiful jewel nestled in the most beautiful landscape in the world. I will try to take a picture of it upon my return. Words literally cannot describe it.

Also, I decided to write in my blog in Spanish and English because even though most of you can´t read in Spanish, I need the practice.

I just had my meeting with Manfred, the United Planet Coordinator in Cusco. The school is in the middle of the Plaza de San Blas, which has a really beautiful cathedral right in the square. I took a taxi here and I´m pretty sure that traffic laws don´t exist here (don´t freak out Mom!). In a moment I´m going to explore more of the Plaza and the city itself. Tomorrow I´m going to my project to learn more about my responsibilities. I realized that I´m working in an orphanage and not a day-care like I originally thought.

So, the funniest thing to happen thus far is that I´m not staying with the family I originally thought I was! When I saw the mom in the airport, I thought she looked much older than thirty-seven but I thought of my manners and didn´t say anything. But Manfred told me that I´m actually staying with a different couple in their sixties. Really it doesn´t matter to me because they are very kind and I have very nice accomodations. They have a patio in the middle of their house with a bunch of beautiful birds and trees. I have to climb this curvy staircase to get to my room, but I appreciate the privacy.

I swear that the next time I post I will give you all the information about my calling card so that you can leave me messages whenever you feel like it. And hopefully by then I´ll have learned how to put accents on my words. But I´m really enjoying this free internet thing.