work hard, play hard

last week was the end of our time in the kindergarten :( i must say that we ended with a bang.

thursday of last week libby and i went to cusco to buy presents for the kids for Christmas and just to say that we love them and will miss them. we went to a peruvian wal-mart pretty much where barbies were less than $2 and everything was displayed in huge brown boxes like it was straight out of a warehouse. they did have a huge selection though. it got a little out of hand, considering there are 120 kids in the kindergarten and we wanted to get each one a couple of small things. we ended up with.... 60 barbies, 60 plastic colorful purses, 60 cooking play sets, 60 toy cars, 60 toy robots, 120 balls, balloons, whistles and coloring books. to say that we had a lot to take home is an understatement. the taxi was so full that libby and i had to lean forward because the back seat wouldn´t click back into place. the taxi driver was a good sport though and we bought him french fries from McDonalds.

after we returned home we set up an assembly line and everyone in the family helped pack bags. livia(the grandmother) opened the plastic bags, juliana helped count and pack finished bags in a box, patti and i stuffed the bags and libby helped count and tie ribbons on the sacks. it was quite humorous to watch but gets five stars for family bonding moment.

the next orning was our party so we had to rent a tricycle to take all of the stuff to the kindergarten. i picked up 15 2 liter coca colas and 5 chocolate cakes and we partied the day away. the kids we so precious receiving the presents. i think this day made everything worth it.

the weekend was really chill. libby and i went to cusco to do some last minute shopping and hang out. we got home and ate lunch with kathleen as our last meal together. i can´t believe that everything´s winding down and people like kathleen are gone...

now we´re on vacation! we took the most amazing tour bus from cusc to puno. there were four stops along the way which made for a 9 hour bus ride, but the bus was super comfortable and libby and i sat in the first two seats so we had the best view . thanks dad :) libby got a little sick on the bus so she didn´t feel like doing much later. after we arrived in puno i met up with a friend and we went out on the town.. and by town i mean the most drab, icky, rundown city. yuck. there was a really fun rock and roll bar and they played a lot of 90´s hits and coldplay. amazing to hear those.

yesterday was our tour of lake titicaca. absolutely beuautiful. there´s one huge island called Taquile, if you´ve seen Lost, that´s where i felt like i was. families just live out there on this magnificent island and once a day tours would come and they would get business. because it´s so big you can see out to bolivia. ha! there´s another island named Uros and it´s actually a floating island, meaning they use some kind of reed and build the island so that there´s nothing underneath it, it just floats. kinda creepy. they told us that if they wanted to they could cut the island in half or move it to a totally different place. there´s a school, hospital, church and a little market on it. i don´t get it. unfortunately the tour lasted all day so we were exhausted by the time we got home. libby and i watched a movie and just had a chill night.

today we´re headed to Arequipa! it´s supposed to be beautiful and they have beaches and sunshine so maybe i can get some color back. por favor. i´ll be home in 9 days. so strange.