Aqui estoy ... con cartitas a mi dia

Dear PUCP,
Who told you it was a good idea to change the time and room of classes between their 2 days of the week?

Dear self,
Way to successfully navigate PUCP scheduling until the second-to-last week of classes when you finally forgot that your Thursday class starts at 9, not 10.

Dear government,
Thanks for finally sending our student IDs...less than a month before I leave and less than 2 months before they expire. Nice work there.

Dear cobradores,
SEE, I told you I was a student. Now I have the little card you like so much. I have paid my last sol cincuenta.

Dear library,
Haha, I successfully returned a book and took another one out. Point for me.

Dear Cafetal,
Why do you not have chocolate on the day when I really need it?

Dear micro musicians,
You were AWESOME! I am vastly impressed with your skills of mandolin and pan-flute playing at the same time on a moving bus.

Dear school,
It's a good thing you are almost done because I am seriously lacking homework motivation.

Dear prof C,
Your choice of dates for our final exam are possibly the most inconvenient possible. It is really unfortunate that I will now have to study for your exam on my birthday.

Dear movistar,
I don't think I need your help-via-text with my English. Thanks though.

Dear host mom,
Thanks for giving me chocolate :) It is delicious. But now I am going to eat it all.

Dear deporte y vida,
See you tomorrow! I'm excited. I've missed you.

Dear internet,
I should really turn you off because you are a little too awesome for procrastinating.



And now I should go try to redeem this rather frustrating day by doing something productive. We'll see about that. (See last little letter)

Hasta la proxima

Aqui estoy ... en Machu Picchu!!

Saturday was our day at Machu Picchu, finally the main attraction :) A bunch of us from the group decided we wanted to climb Wayna Picchu. (You know the classic picture of Machu Picchu with the big mountain in back? That one) But because the path is Inca steps that are crumbling, they only allow 400 people a day so we had to get up really early to be on the first few busses to be one of those 400. (Like 4am early) But it was totally worth it. The hike was nothing compared to Colca canyon and the views were awesome. And after getting our stamps we were into Machu Picchu early so we got to watch the sun come over the mountains and the clouds clear and enjoy time with less people around. (And see some llamas!)

Cloudy still

Starting to clear up

Llamas!

Classic picture

Yeah, that mountain there on the right. The giant one with the sheer rock faces. :D

These feet climbed that mountain

The Incas had some sweet architecture

Starting the climb up...

View back of Machu Picchu

In Peru, sheer drops are not roped off. You can wander wherever you like. I guess they figure if you fall off that's your problem.

Steep stairs for the way down

All in all, gorgeous. Pictures, of course, don't do it justice.

So you should all come to Peru :)

Hasta la proxima

Aqui estoy ... en el Valle Sagrado

Friday was our tour of Saqsawaman and the sacred valley. Cuzco is also in a valley (nestled in a high mountain valley, says my book for class) but the sacred valley is a lower river valley where many Incas built their personal royal estates.

First, Saqsawaman. The ruins are just outside and above Cuzco, they’re actually said to be the head of the puma design of the city. The complex was originally a temple complex but became a fortress against the Spanish. It is known for its zigzag walls. All of that I learned in class so it was neat to see it in person and be able to nod along as the guide was explaining things to the group.

The largest rock on the site - weighs more than 120 tons and is about 12 meters tall, 5 of which are buried underground.

The zigzag walls

Looking back over Cuzco

The best part was seeing the school trip of 3-year-olds in their red uniforms, walking around in their little line. It made me even more excited to go back to working with kids at home more than volunteering once a week. Then we saw them sliding down a little rock slide and were inspired to find our own.

After Saqsaywaman we stopped at a camelid farm and saw alpacas, llamas, vicunas and guanacos. We even got to feed them. The farm makes various things from the wool to sell including some beautiful but very expensive textiles. (Like over 6000 soles expensive...that's over $2000)

Our next stop was the ruins of Pisac, a former Inca royal estate. We saw some terraces then took a little hike to see some building ruins. (And to test out our lungs at the altitude!)

The bus ride between each site also gave us some nice views of the valley

It also gave me a mystery. What are the fuzzy things on the wires that look like little dust bunnies?

Our last stop was Ollantaytambo before taking the train to Aguas Calientes to stay the night close to Machu Picchu. I liked the fountain there, they made it with a natural water filter, a little pool on top where the stuff can settle to the bottom and let just the clean water flow over. Cool!

Next: Machu Picchu!

Hasta la proxima

Aqui estoy ... en Qosqo!

This past weekend I went to Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu! Finally. After living here more than three months, I finally got to see the number one attraction. I loved the whole thing, Cuzco is a beautiful city and it was wonderful to see the sun again after cloudy Lima full of noise and micros. It was exciting to see in person the places I’ve been learning about in class all semester. It is always awesome to hang out with my programmates, especially because we know each other well enough now to feel comfortable joking around a lot more. Overall I just felt content and happy to be there the whole time.

I’ll share pictures is chunks so they’re not overwhelming because I took a lot. I had to stop myself from taking more of the same from a slightly different angle :) We flew into Cuzco on Thursday and had the day to adjust to the altitude and walk around the city.

I walked to the Plaza Central

And to a couple markets

There are lots of remnants of Inca architecture even though the Spaniards changed the city drastically when they took over.

It’s the 100 year anniversary of Machu Picchu being announced to the world. (It’s a somewhat controversial celebration in Peru since it wasn’t technically “discovered”. Some people prefer to celebrate 100 years of the author Arguedas instead) In any case, that means there lots of celebrating. Plus it’s Inti Raymi in June in Cuzco. So for one or both of those or maybe a different reason (I was never quite clear) there was a parade in the plaza of various dance groups from several provinces.

Tomorrow: our tour del valle sagrado

Hasta la proxima

Aqui estoy ... pero si yo fuera...

I saw a list like this on another blog so I decided to try it, but a Peruvian version :)

If I were (in Peru)...

If I were a month, I’d be June because it’s a nice place with time left but getting close to family coming.

If I were a day of the week, I’d be Tuesday because I go to Deporte y Vida. (Or maybe Sunday because I spend it with my host mom)

If I were a time of day, I’d be lunchtime because I get to eat lunch with awesome people, Americans and Peruvians.

If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be my beanbag because I LOVE it, for studying, for naps, for being sick, for just sitting.

If I were a liquid, I’d be chicha morada because it’s delicious.

If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a guitar because I miss playing mine.

If I were a kind of weather, I’d be sunshine!

If I were a food, I’d be aji de gallina, or pollo a la brasa.

If I were a color, I’d be Plaza-2-de-mayo blue.

If I were an emotion, I’d be content but eager to learn.

If I were a facial expression, I’d like be a smile, but I’d probably be the blank-almost-frown expression that is my random-men-stay-away street face.

If I were an animal, I'd be a Catolica venado…Not! I do not enjoy their company.

If I were a car, I'd be my little civic because I miss it!

If I were a place, I’d be Miraflores.

If I were a tool, I’d be scissors because I didn’t realize how often I used them until I didn’t have any.

If I were a flower, I’d be a lilypad because the word in Spanish is awesome: nenufár. Thanks Monet.

Aqui estoy ... con ninos

Today I spent another fun afternoon at Deporte y Vida :)

Only drew a frog today. And worked with English homework, math and science.

I am still having trouble teaching math in Spanish. Today it was solving for x. The problems were pretty easy but I had difficulty explaining the concept of sides of the equation, getting all the x's on one side to solve it, and having to do the same thing to both sides of an equation. And then we ran out of time :( That's never a good feeling. I think he was just starting to get it, so hopefully he at least learned something.

English work from today, picture and word association. Pretty average basic verbs...jump, run, swim, etc... And then there's Milkshake. Capitalized even. Who decided that was an important basic vocabulary word to add to a batch of verbs? Strange. (And don't even ask about the run picture)

Escaping at the end is an obstacle course in itself. First who must kiss on the cheek everyone in your path and all the ninos who run toward you. Then you must assure the ninos that you will be back again soon and extricate yourself from their grasp. Then attempt to actually get into the taxi and close the door without them following you in or getting their fingers caught. And then wave as they run after you as below. (Please note the excited face and finger marks on the window)

Such wonderful ninos :)

Hasta la proxima

PS: In 48 hours, I will be in CUZCO! But I'm not excited or anything ;)

Aqui estoy ... con crucigrama

Have you ever thought about how much cultural background knowledge goes into a crossword puzzle? A lot, as I have discovered. I love crosswords so I've been trying the ones in the campus newspaper and with my host mom on Sundays. It hasn't been going terribly well...

Today's: I put in 10 words, 5 were wrong. Woops. Usually there's at least a couple that are words in English but not today.

First off, Peru-style crosswords are different. As you can see, they include pictures and the clues are right in the puzzle. The clues are also a lot more general. (Personaje biblico ... I don't know, there's an awful lot of biblical people to choose from!) They are fond of element abbreviations and just putting a person's initials. There's also often one quote winding through the whole puzzle.

It's an interesting exercise for sure. I'm learning some new words and learning to think in Spanish in terms of synonyms and linking concepts, not just straight translation.

But I'm still a little more fond of my number puzzles :)

Hasta la proxima

PS: If you can't read that, the Qrioso box says that the inventor of Pringles died and they buried his ashes in a Pringles can.