i just said goodbye to my dear friend and fellow traveler/volunteer Sebastian. it´s amazing how close you can get to people in such short periods of time. i´m not sure if he feels the same, but it´s as if i´ve known him since k-5. we went to ulrike´s, who was actually surprisingly pleasant even this late, and watched Sex and the City the movie. there were 12 or so girls there to say goodbye. it´s going to be strange not having my German amigo around.
i just wanted to tell everyone that i miss them so much. watching the movie i got a quick pang of homesickness, surprisingly the first i´ve had yet, and i just realized how much i love my friends.
after watching Sebastian go i´m going to try to fully live life while i´m here, because yes, it is so much more than our culture makes it... thanks kina :)
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
machu picchu.
the 3rd week?! i can´t believe that it´s been that long, although, i am beginning to feel at home here. that feeling was the most intense last wednesday on my way to urubamba for a fun night with the volunteers. i sat on the bus for an hour with my iPod blaring Radiohead and everything made sense... it was as if i´d been here for years.
this last week went by pretty fast. we had a fun day in the kindergarden with the kids. there was a fiesta and the school had a group of people come dance for the kids with Barney and Winnie the Pooh costume people. quite entertaining i must say. i can´t say that my stomach has been too pumped about being here. i was laughing at the people who were having issues with the food and of course, that was the exact moment that it got me the worse. not goign to go into detail because i´m sure your brain can comprehend what i´m saying...but let´s just say it´s not pleasant. whatever..it´s all part of the experience right?
i went to machu picchu this weekend. needless to say that it was an amazing weekend. i will say that a lot of the reasons behind it being great were the people that i went with and the ones that i met.
Libby, Kathleen, Sebastian, Maxim and I left for Ollantaytambo on Friday around 3. we had a horrible taxi experience (some of the rubber blew off our tires but he kept going) on the way there so we decided to stop in Calca, 30 min from Pisac, and got a minibus to Urubamba. i employed my iPod once again to make me feel more at home and ended up feeling like i was in a Hummer going to the jungle in Africa or something(there was a military guy in there too). the scenery definitely went along with that. if you get a moment, Brooke Fraser´s "Albertine" did the trick that day. we rode to Urubamba and stopped at the office to say hello to whomever was there. friday was the social in Cucso so there was only one person there, Hannah, and we just chatted for a second and then headed to the restaurant that we always go to with the other volunteers called The Muse Too. it´s a cute, chill space painted in bright colors with modern fixtures and accents. of course my natural inclination was to access where the best spot for a bed would be when i converted it into a chic loft. i can´t help it...
everyone ate food and drank tea while we listened to Tracy Chapman and watched the Simpson in Spanish. we then headed to Ollaytaytambo in a taxi. you must understand that everytime i write "and we rode in a taxi" i always should add to the end "and we almost died" because that literally applies to every taxi ride i´ve had so far. to save time in the future i´m just going to leave that out. so we got to the O-town and i had to exchange some travelor´s cheques so that we could pay for our bus ride up the mountain to machu picchu and eat during the weekend. we stopped in a super cute restuarant, once again i had converted it into a cozy, chic one-bedroom flat within moments of entering it. it had all of the Incan designs but there were white sofas and hardwood floors and fun bob marley cover music. we had a glass of wine to wind down from the traveling there.
our train left around 8:00 and we had to be there :30 early so we bought the tickets and got on the train when we were supposed to, hanging out in coche A and laughing with the people around us at how little space they gave people to be comfortable in there. libby and i sat across from a Belgian couple and across from people from somewhere in Asia. that always happens and i always feel plain. oh well.
we arrived late to Agua Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu, and spent time looking for a hostel to stay in. a man saw us at the train station and got us to follow him to what looked like a concrete block building with only two rooms that had 3 beds in them. a joke. he was mad too when we didn´t accept his offer, which could hardly be labeled an offer because there would have had to have been something to give. we left. found a place that charged "35 soles" a night--this ended up being "per person" a minor detail we later found out as we were being forced to pay saturday night but it was nice to have a private bath with hot water and a really comfortable bed, which in fact did have bugs in it. the girls got eaten alive. nasty but definitely authentic (the only thing i´ve decided that counts on this trip)...
we decided to go "get a bite to eat or a coffee or something" and ended up finding a soccer game played on a concrete lot with mini rock cliffs for bleachers. in a field next to it there were people practicing an Incan dance routine complete with drums and a little recorder-looking thing (help me out if you know the name). they all had on skirts and things that slung around when they twisted. also very authentic. the soccer game was awesome. of course libby was having fun (she loves the game) as well as all of the drunk people there. if you closed your eyes it sounded like any highschool football game, there was a cheering section complete with a cowbell, rowdy kids, horns and confetti. the drunk people got upset when their team lost and there was plenty of glass thrown on the field and a few fights broke out. we were told by libby´s friend that she met there that all of the hotels and restaurants have teams and that they are very competitive. obviously.
after that we decided to follow libby´s new friend to a local discoteca. soo much fun. we were all disgusting from traveling but that didn´t stop us from dancing until 2:30 am. i learned how to salsa from this short, 40-something, sweet little man. we had a blast. i saw sebastian break out some German moves which were pretty awesome.
the next morning we slept in till 10 or so and went and ate breakfast. the funny thing that everyone picked up on was that the entire street was filled with restaurants so they are all yelling at you to come eat at their restaurant, but once you did that, they had no idea what to do with you. it was as if they´d never had a customer. it took a while to eat, but we did it and then walked around some to look at the town. it started to downpour and of course we all left our raincoats in the room so we headed back (as a lady is video taping me running soaking wet up the street) and took a 3 hour nap with the porch door open. it felt like we were sleeping outside and because Agua Calientes is sort of the outskirts of the jungle, it was lush, green and muy tropical.
after our naps sebastian and i went to find libby and kathleen who had left 45min earlier and we found them super stressed out about something... cock fights. like, legit roosters with blades attached to the back of their legs in this little ring with 30 people yelling and betting on the winning bird. no doubt there were peruvian mafia there. it was really bloody and none of us cared to stay around that long. we headed back early to go to sleep for the next day...
4 a.m. really isn´t that painful when you know you´re headed towards something as intense as Machu Picchu. we ate bread for breakfast and got in line for the bus down the street from our hotel. God was very generous with our timing all weekend, and we ended up being in the first rows of the second bus. (only the first 200 people in the gate can go up a different mountain, so we made it) it was a little funny because we literally ran straight through machu picchu because the entrance to Huaynapicchu, the other mountain that i was talking about, was at the other side of it. we were numbers 49-54 and were psyched to get to climb early in the morning before it got really hot. the climb, on the otherhand, was not so awesome and all of us nearly wanted to die before we got up there. i was shocked at how unregulated it was for safety. anyone could have fallen off at anytime. i spent about an hour in silence up there, from every angle there were more and more mountains. some where even snow-capped. the clouds were the most brilliant shade of the purest white and the sky an intense blue that contrasted with the green of the mountains with perfection. God showed me the littlest things, like the hairiest fly i´ve ever seen, the pinkest single flower in the middle of hard stones, six oragne butterflies fighting for a plant, rivers so far below they weren´t moving and the intricacy of things living on these huge mountains. it was so cool because on the way up there the song "can you feel the mountains tremble" suddenly popped into my head and i couldn´t stop singing it all day. i mean seriously, if THESE mountains are trembling then how awesome our God must be... because these mountains are enormous.
from where we sat, macchu picchu was smaller than my thumb. chew on that. we were high.
we descended in about a fourth of the time it took to get up and spent some time wandering around MP. there were a ton of llamas roaming around all of the people there. they really are cute animals! (i´ll try to post pictures later) and holy mosquito! i felt like i was in an insect farm or something. ridiculous. we left machu picchu exceptionally parched and payed way too much for water. i don´t think i´ve been that tired in a long time. once we got to the bottom we ate amazing pizza and decided to check out the hot springs at the top of the city. haha NASTY. i will give the people credit for strategic marketing techniques, as false as they may have been... you pay for your ticket about 200 yards down the hill where there are pictures of gorgeous pools and green scenery. once you walk up an incredibly long way you can look over the pools and seriously we all wanted to turn around at that very moment. the pools were just concrete holes in the ground that looked like they were filled with pee water. that, or tea. the dressing rooms were insanely public and not in the least bit clean. once we got enough courage to get in the stagnant murky water it just felt so wrong that we had to leave within 10 minutes. sorry but that just wasn´t on my list of things to do before i died. all there was left to do was to wait for the train to arrive at 6 so we went to a restaurant and got dessert and read books.
on the train ride home libby and i sat across from two brothers from Ireland. it was really cool though because one of them had done the same thing i´m doing after he graduated from college, but he went to Uganda. now he has plans to go for the next 6 months all over South America. the train marked the end of his 5-day trek through the Andes with 12 strangers-turned-friends. my new role model...
we got back to pisac around 9:30 and passed out quickly. sunday was one of the longest days i´ve had in a while and i was glad to be back home...
this last week went by pretty fast. we had a fun day in the kindergarden with the kids. there was a fiesta and the school had a group of people come dance for the kids with Barney and Winnie the Pooh costume people. quite entertaining i must say. i can´t say that my stomach has been too pumped about being here. i was laughing at the people who were having issues with the food and of course, that was the exact moment that it got me the worse. not goign to go into detail because i´m sure your brain can comprehend what i´m saying...but let´s just say it´s not pleasant. whatever..it´s all part of the experience right?
i went to machu picchu this weekend. needless to say that it was an amazing weekend. i will say that a lot of the reasons behind it being great were the people that i went with and the ones that i met.
Libby, Kathleen, Sebastian, Maxim and I left for Ollantaytambo on Friday around 3. we had a horrible taxi experience (some of the rubber blew off our tires but he kept going) on the way there so we decided to stop in Calca, 30 min from Pisac, and got a minibus to Urubamba. i employed my iPod once again to make me feel more at home and ended up feeling like i was in a Hummer going to the jungle in Africa or something(there was a military guy in there too). the scenery definitely went along with that. if you get a moment, Brooke Fraser´s "Albertine" did the trick that day. we rode to Urubamba and stopped at the office to say hello to whomever was there. friday was the social in Cucso so there was only one person there, Hannah, and we just chatted for a second and then headed to the restaurant that we always go to with the other volunteers called The Muse Too. it´s a cute, chill space painted in bright colors with modern fixtures and accents. of course my natural inclination was to access where the best spot for a bed would be when i converted it into a chic loft. i can´t help it...
everyone ate food and drank tea while we listened to Tracy Chapman and watched the Simpson in Spanish. we then headed to Ollaytaytambo in a taxi. you must understand that everytime i write "and we rode in a taxi" i always should add to the end "and we almost died" because that literally applies to every taxi ride i´ve had so far. to save time in the future i´m just going to leave that out. so we got to the O-town and i had to exchange some travelor´s cheques so that we could pay for our bus ride up the mountain to machu picchu and eat during the weekend. we stopped in a super cute restuarant, once again i had converted it into a cozy, chic one-bedroom flat within moments of entering it. it had all of the Incan designs but there were white sofas and hardwood floors and fun bob marley cover music. we had a glass of wine to wind down from the traveling there.
our train left around 8:00 and we had to be there :30 early so we bought the tickets and got on the train when we were supposed to, hanging out in coche A and laughing with the people around us at how little space they gave people to be comfortable in there. libby and i sat across from a Belgian couple and across from people from somewhere in Asia. that always happens and i always feel plain. oh well.
we arrived late to Agua Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu, and spent time looking for a hostel to stay in. a man saw us at the train station and got us to follow him to what looked like a concrete block building with only two rooms that had 3 beds in them. a joke. he was mad too when we didn´t accept his offer, which could hardly be labeled an offer because there would have had to have been something to give. we left. found a place that charged "35 soles" a night--this ended up being "per person" a minor detail we later found out as we were being forced to pay saturday night but it was nice to have a private bath with hot water and a really comfortable bed, which in fact did have bugs in it. the girls got eaten alive. nasty but definitely authentic (the only thing i´ve decided that counts on this trip)...
we decided to go "get a bite to eat or a coffee or something" and ended up finding a soccer game played on a concrete lot with mini rock cliffs for bleachers. in a field next to it there were people practicing an Incan dance routine complete with drums and a little recorder-looking thing (help me out if you know the name). they all had on skirts and things that slung around when they twisted. also very authentic. the soccer game was awesome. of course libby was having fun (she loves the game) as well as all of the drunk people there. if you closed your eyes it sounded like any highschool football game, there was a cheering section complete with a cowbell, rowdy kids, horns and confetti. the drunk people got upset when their team lost and there was plenty of glass thrown on the field and a few fights broke out. we were told by libby´s friend that she met there that all of the hotels and restaurants have teams and that they are very competitive. obviously.
after that we decided to follow libby´s new friend to a local discoteca. soo much fun. we were all disgusting from traveling but that didn´t stop us from dancing until 2:30 am. i learned how to salsa from this short, 40-something, sweet little man. we had a blast. i saw sebastian break out some German moves which were pretty awesome.
the next morning we slept in till 10 or so and went and ate breakfast. the funny thing that everyone picked up on was that the entire street was filled with restaurants so they are all yelling at you to come eat at their restaurant, but once you did that, they had no idea what to do with you. it was as if they´d never had a customer. it took a while to eat, but we did it and then walked around some to look at the town. it started to downpour and of course we all left our raincoats in the room so we headed back (as a lady is video taping me running soaking wet up the street) and took a 3 hour nap with the porch door open. it felt like we were sleeping outside and because Agua Calientes is sort of the outskirts of the jungle, it was lush, green and muy tropical.
after our naps sebastian and i went to find libby and kathleen who had left 45min earlier and we found them super stressed out about something... cock fights. like, legit roosters with blades attached to the back of their legs in this little ring with 30 people yelling and betting on the winning bird. no doubt there were peruvian mafia there. it was really bloody and none of us cared to stay around that long. we headed back early to go to sleep for the next day...
4 a.m. really isn´t that painful when you know you´re headed towards something as intense as Machu Picchu. we ate bread for breakfast and got in line for the bus down the street from our hotel. God was very generous with our timing all weekend, and we ended up being in the first rows of the second bus. (only the first 200 people in the gate can go up a different mountain, so we made it) it was a little funny because we literally ran straight through machu picchu because the entrance to Huaynapicchu, the other mountain that i was talking about, was at the other side of it. we were numbers 49-54 and were psyched to get to climb early in the morning before it got really hot. the climb, on the otherhand, was not so awesome and all of us nearly wanted to die before we got up there. i was shocked at how unregulated it was for safety. anyone could have fallen off at anytime. i spent about an hour in silence up there, from every angle there were more and more mountains. some where even snow-capped. the clouds were the most brilliant shade of the purest white and the sky an intense blue that contrasted with the green of the mountains with perfection. God showed me the littlest things, like the hairiest fly i´ve ever seen, the pinkest single flower in the middle of hard stones, six oragne butterflies fighting for a plant, rivers so far below they weren´t moving and the intricacy of things living on these huge mountains. it was so cool because on the way up there the song "can you feel the mountains tremble" suddenly popped into my head and i couldn´t stop singing it all day. i mean seriously, if THESE mountains are trembling then how awesome our God must be... because these mountains are enormous.
from where we sat, macchu picchu was smaller than my thumb. chew on that. we were high.
we descended in about a fourth of the time it took to get up and spent some time wandering around MP. there were a ton of llamas roaming around all of the people there. they really are cute animals! (i´ll try to post pictures later) and holy mosquito! i felt like i was in an insect farm or something. ridiculous. we left machu picchu exceptionally parched and payed way too much for water. i don´t think i´ve been that tired in a long time. once we got to the bottom we ate amazing pizza and decided to check out the hot springs at the top of the city. haha NASTY. i will give the people credit for strategic marketing techniques, as false as they may have been... you pay for your ticket about 200 yards down the hill where there are pictures of gorgeous pools and green scenery. once you walk up an incredibly long way you can look over the pools and seriously we all wanted to turn around at that very moment. the pools were just concrete holes in the ground that looked like they were filled with pee water. that, or tea. the dressing rooms were insanely public and not in the least bit clean. once we got enough courage to get in the stagnant murky water it just felt so wrong that we had to leave within 10 minutes. sorry but that just wasn´t on my list of things to do before i died. all there was left to do was to wait for the train to arrive at 6 so we went to a restaurant and got dessert and read books.
on the train ride home libby and i sat across from two brothers from Ireland. it was really cool though because one of them had done the same thing i´m doing after he graduated from college, but he went to Uganda. now he has plans to go for the next 6 months all over South America. the train marked the end of his 5-day trek through the Andes with 12 strangers-turned-friends. my new role model...
we got back to pisac around 9:30 and passed out quickly. sunday was one of the longest days i´ve had in a while and i was glad to be back home...
Monday, September 22, 2008
party.
i know i´ve aleady talked some about the school i´m working in but i thought i´d go into more detail. it´s a really quaint little school. the front door is a huge rickety blue door with an old fashion lock on it. once you walk in the school yard there are 3 buildings. the one on your immediate right is the 3 year old classroom, the 4 yr olds room A and the kitchen. on the left is the 4 yr old class B room. across the yard is another building for the 5 year olds classes A and B. the yard has two little slides, a miniature monkey bar, and two circular concrete patios- libby and i wrote in chalk all over it and made a little hopscotch game. the kids love that.
i have been working with the 5 year olds. they are sooooo precious. today i wrote in their notebooks for their homework. we´re learning numbers 1-10 right now. today was "ocho." the school likes to use stamps so i stamped 8 little stars and wrote "¿cuantas estrellas hay?" there was a place to write a lot of 8s.
so tomorrow in school we´re having a little fiesta to celebrate the students. today we got out at about 11 which is an hour and a half early so that the teachers could blow up balloons. there were a million it seemed like. we linked them all together so that it made an arch. there´s a new guy working there named Alex. he does a lot of the grounds work in the tiny yard and helps clean stuff. he´s really sweet.
i´m going to sad when i leave the kindergarten because already the kids will see me in the street and yell at the top of their squeaky little lungs, "profe, profe!" it helps me feel like i´m doing something good. i think that was the whole point of this trip, so i must be doing ok.
i have been working with the 5 year olds. they are sooooo precious. today i wrote in their notebooks for their homework. we´re learning numbers 1-10 right now. today was "ocho." the school likes to use stamps so i stamped 8 little stars and wrote "¿cuantas estrellas hay?" there was a place to write a lot of 8s.
so tomorrow in school we´re having a little fiesta to celebrate the students. today we got out at about 11 which is an hour and a half early so that the teachers could blow up balloons. there were a million it seemed like. we linked them all together so that it made an arch. there´s a new guy working there named Alex. he does a lot of the grounds work in the tiny yard and helps clean stuff. he´s really sweet.
i´m going to sad when i leave the kindergarten because already the kids will see me in the street and yell at the top of their squeaky little lungs, "profe, profe!" it helps me feel like i´m doing something good. i think that was the whole point of this trip, so i must be doing ok.
exhausted.
so i just got my first official workout in since i´ve been here....DOING MY LAUNDRY. sheesh it was tiring. not that i´m not a fan of hand-washing everything that you´ve worn in the last couple of weeks, because i am, but when you aren´t one of those people who wears the same thing everyday and you end up having 30 pieces to hand-wash it gets a little exhausting.
around here this is the norm. my house has a little outside sink and we filled some buckets with water to first soak the clothes. then we transfered them to another bucket with soap in it and did this little scrubbing motion that she had to teach me about 50 times before i got it right. for the dirt at the bottom of the pants you use a brush to scrub the fabric. once that´s done you rinse the soap out and squeeze the water into the sink. then i hung the clothes on the clothes line. after i was finished it seemed like it could have stretched about 1 mile. ridiculous. my mom kept saying "muchas ropas." i was kinda embarrassed although it was mine and libby´s clothes from the last two weeks. i must say, i did find a little humor in seeing Spongebob Squarepants boxers hanging next to the traditional peruvian dress.
around here this is the norm. my house has a little outside sink and we filled some buckets with water to first soak the clothes. then we transfered them to another bucket with soap in it and did this little scrubbing motion that she had to teach me about 50 times before i got it right. for the dirt at the bottom of the pants you use a brush to scrub the fabric. once that´s done you rinse the soap out and squeeze the water into the sink. then i hung the clothes on the clothes line. after i was finished it seemed like it could have stretched about 1 mile. ridiculous. my mom kept saying "muchas ropas." i was kinda embarrassed although it was mine and libby´s clothes from the last two weeks. i must say, i did find a little humor in seeing Spongebob Squarepants boxers hanging next to the traditional peruvian dress.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Cusco.
hello again. this weekend was officially my first weekend to experience the night life in peru. interesting to say the least...
we began the weekend with a ¨casual¨ hike up to the pisaq ruins. when i say casual i mean i was so out of breath by the time i´d walked 10 minutes that i debated turing around. the altitude makes me feel like a slacking couch potato.
i woke at 5 45a.m. to meet a group of other volunteers, who i will write about later, in the Plaza de Armas a couple of blocks away from my house. we had an estimated meeting time of 6 30 and i wanted to get a quick shower before i began the day (which after the hike ended up being the dumbest idea i´ve had recently). after meeting in the plaza we began the hike. our reasoning behind getting up so early was that the ticket guard doesn´t usually arrive at the gate until later in the morning so we thought we´d try to beat him there.. why pay for nature, i say. i must comment that the trek up the gigantic mountain is not for the feint of heart. the altitude took a serious toll on everyone´s respiritory system so we stopped every 10 or so minutes to catch our breath.
the view from even the first lookout was incredible. we all sat on huge rocks and admired the view of the entire city, as well as 2 others that were visible from where we sat. the mountain range is even more impressive from up that high. i´m still in awe of the scenery so it was very hard for me to grasp what i was looking at. i kept saying that it was as if we were on a movie set and someone had placed a drop screen behind us.
the ruins were very impressive. i´m amazed that they still remain which is probably the main reason behind them being such a successful national park. there were many building-looking structures that i´m sure once housed little families that had pets and ate family dinners just like everyone else. i don´t think i would have made a very good Inca because those people built their houses off 1,000 foot cliffs that LI-TER-AL-Y go straight down off the edge. i became very familiar with what it must feel like to be deathly afraid of rollercoasters. you people have no idea. i have´t figured out how to post pictures yet but they won´t even do the drop off justice. i´m shuttering just thinking about it.
we stayed at the ruins for about 4 hours. Sebastian, another volunteer who lives in Pisaq, and I went as high as we possibly could which was tooooo high. i probably made a few dumb decisions that thankfully didn´t end up tragic. at some points we could see all around us at every neighboring village in the area. it was very freeing to know that there was nothing between you and the next mountain 2 miles away except air. it makes me want to go paragliding even more. sorry mom.
we were scheduled to go to Cusco that same afternoon so Sebastain and I met the others in our favorite little cafe in the plaza called Ulrike´s Cafe. Ulrike is from Germany and she has really amazing pizza that she only serves on Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun. i usually get the vegge pizza but the hawaiian is really good too. after we had a little snack we took showers and got a cab to Cusco. the drive is very windy but totally worth it because of the view. it takes about 35-40 minutes via cab to cusco and only costs 25 soles which is about $8. we crammed 5 people in the cab so we´re looking at about a $1.60 a person. once we got to Cusco we headed to our hostel. i´m still not really sure what its name is but we fit 6 beds in a room and payed $5 a person for one night and a private bathroom. yeah, we´re defining the term ´traveling on a budget´ over here. it´s pretty sweet.
we had a couple of hours to burn before the other girl we were meeting at the hostel arrived, so we took that opportunity to visit the black market in cusco. everything there is ridiculously cheap. i purchased all 4 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm for about $12 as well as the movies Wall-E and Horton Hears a Who for $1 each. it´s all bootleg but it´s not illegal and everyone goes there for a lot of things. ***let me know if you want any movie or tv series and i´ll get it for you. it´s great quality and only $1 per disc. they had everything including Grey´s Anatomy, Friends, 24, Prison Break, movies that havent come out on dvd yet, The Office, etc.***
we headed to dinner after the other girl arrived at the hostel. we actually couldn´t find her for a long time until she wrote on someone´s facebook wall that she was lost and sitting in Jack´s Cafe. we found her an hour and a half later in tears because she thought she wouldn´t ever find us. it was funny because libby and i were looking for our hostel about an hour earlier and this sketchy guy asked us what we were looking and we told him our hostel. he said that our friend was looking for us and the hostel too and that she had gone down the street and he would show us. libby and i were like ´um no´ and walked the other direction. turns out she really had talked to him. small world.
we ate at a cute restaurant where some of the money we paid for food went towards the kids in the city. it was decorated a lot like what i would think hansel and grettel saw in the lady´s house they followed before they got eaten. i ate a yummy chicken, cheese and tomato sandwhich.
we then returned to the hostel to take a quick nap then went to a fun little bar named Indigo. they had hooka there and a cute little wood-burning stove to keep everyone warm. we played card games and chatted until everyone decided they were too tired to stay any longer. libby and i split off to meet with some other volunteers in a discoteca. THAT was an interesting experience. everyone there was incredibly sloshy and way too much in the music and dancing to make it a casual, conversational venue. duely noted.
we met some interesting people. i think that in a night club where you can´t really hear anyone it´s easier to practice your spanish. i ended up making good friends with one of the club owners and we had fun laughing at each other´s ability to speak our second languages. he kinda looked like fat joe. great guy. after that we went to a different place that wasn´t that fun and quickly determined that McDonalds would be better at that moment. i struggled out our orders and we proceeded to enjoy one of the best meals i´ve ever had at Micky D´s.
the next morning it was a little hard to wake up but we had a great breakfast at Jack´s Cafe. by great i mean i ate homemade french toast with fresh strawberries and bananas with an insanely delicious chocolate milk. am i on a diet? haha...no. we walked around for a little while, observed a festival in the plaza and hailed a cab for home...the most carsick i´ve ever been in my life by-the-way. by the first 5 minutes i had already sorted out in my head how to yell at the cab driver in spanish to pull over so i could yack. what seemed like forever later we arrived, and libby and i went home to recover from the drive home and our sleepless night. i took the best nap so far in my life.. we are going to machu picchu this weekend so we went to meet up with our friends to buy tickets online. they were at Ulrike´s watching Across the Universe so we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the internet cafe i´m in right now.
wow. i type too much. thanks for reading this far.
how was your weekend?
we began the weekend with a ¨casual¨ hike up to the pisaq ruins. when i say casual i mean i was so out of breath by the time i´d walked 10 minutes that i debated turing around. the altitude makes me feel like a slacking couch potato.
i woke at 5 45a.m. to meet a group of other volunteers, who i will write about later, in the Plaza de Armas a couple of blocks away from my house. we had an estimated meeting time of 6 30 and i wanted to get a quick shower before i began the day (which after the hike ended up being the dumbest idea i´ve had recently). after meeting in the plaza we began the hike. our reasoning behind getting up so early was that the ticket guard doesn´t usually arrive at the gate until later in the morning so we thought we´d try to beat him there.. why pay for nature, i say. i must comment that the trek up the gigantic mountain is not for the feint of heart. the altitude took a serious toll on everyone´s respiritory system so we stopped every 10 or so minutes to catch our breath.
the view from even the first lookout was incredible. we all sat on huge rocks and admired the view of the entire city, as well as 2 others that were visible from where we sat. the mountain range is even more impressive from up that high. i´m still in awe of the scenery so it was very hard for me to grasp what i was looking at. i kept saying that it was as if we were on a movie set and someone had placed a drop screen behind us.
the ruins were very impressive. i´m amazed that they still remain which is probably the main reason behind them being such a successful national park. there were many building-looking structures that i´m sure once housed little families that had pets and ate family dinners just like everyone else. i don´t think i would have made a very good Inca because those people built their houses off 1,000 foot cliffs that LI-TER-AL-Y go straight down off the edge. i became very familiar with what it must feel like to be deathly afraid of rollercoasters. you people have no idea. i have´t figured out how to post pictures yet but they won´t even do the drop off justice. i´m shuttering just thinking about it.
we stayed at the ruins for about 4 hours. Sebastian, another volunteer who lives in Pisaq, and I went as high as we possibly could which was tooooo high. i probably made a few dumb decisions that thankfully didn´t end up tragic. at some points we could see all around us at every neighboring village in the area. it was very freeing to know that there was nothing between you and the next mountain 2 miles away except air. it makes me want to go paragliding even more. sorry mom.
we were scheduled to go to Cusco that same afternoon so Sebastain and I met the others in our favorite little cafe in the plaza called Ulrike´s Cafe. Ulrike is from Germany and she has really amazing pizza that she only serves on Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun. i usually get the vegge pizza but the hawaiian is really good too. after we had a little snack we took showers and got a cab to Cusco. the drive is very windy but totally worth it because of the view. it takes about 35-40 minutes via cab to cusco and only costs 25 soles which is about $8. we crammed 5 people in the cab so we´re looking at about a $1.60 a person. once we got to Cusco we headed to our hostel. i´m still not really sure what its name is but we fit 6 beds in a room and payed $5 a person for one night and a private bathroom. yeah, we´re defining the term ´traveling on a budget´ over here. it´s pretty sweet.
we had a couple of hours to burn before the other girl we were meeting at the hostel arrived, so we took that opportunity to visit the black market in cusco. everything there is ridiculously cheap. i purchased all 4 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm for about $12 as well as the movies Wall-E and Horton Hears a Who for $1 each. it´s all bootleg but it´s not illegal and everyone goes there for a lot of things. ***let me know if you want any movie or tv series and i´ll get it for you. it´s great quality and only $1 per disc. they had everything including Grey´s Anatomy, Friends, 24, Prison Break, movies that havent come out on dvd yet, The Office, etc.***
we headed to dinner after the other girl arrived at the hostel. we actually couldn´t find her for a long time until she wrote on someone´s facebook wall that she was lost and sitting in Jack´s Cafe. we found her an hour and a half later in tears because she thought she wouldn´t ever find us. it was funny because libby and i were looking for our hostel about an hour earlier and this sketchy guy asked us what we were looking and we told him our hostel. he said that our friend was looking for us and the hostel too and that she had gone down the street and he would show us. libby and i were like ´um no´ and walked the other direction. turns out she really had talked to him. small world.
we ate at a cute restaurant where some of the money we paid for food went towards the kids in the city. it was decorated a lot like what i would think hansel and grettel saw in the lady´s house they followed before they got eaten. i ate a yummy chicken, cheese and tomato sandwhich.
we then returned to the hostel to take a quick nap then went to a fun little bar named Indigo. they had hooka there and a cute little wood-burning stove to keep everyone warm. we played card games and chatted until everyone decided they were too tired to stay any longer. libby and i split off to meet with some other volunteers in a discoteca. THAT was an interesting experience. everyone there was incredibly sloshy and way too much in the music and dancing to make it a casual, conversational venue. duely noted.
we met some interesting people. i think that in a night club where you can´t really hear anyone it´s easier to practice your spanish. i ended up making good friends with one of the club owners and we had fun laughing at each other´s ability to speak our second languages. he kinda looked like fat joe. great guy. after that we went to a different place that wasn´t that fun and quickly determined that McDonalds would be better at that moment. i struggled out our orders and we proceeded to enjoy one of the best meals i´ve ever had at Micky D´s.
the next morning it was a little hard to wake up but we had a great breakfast at Jack´s Cafe. by great i mean i ate homemade french toast with fresh strawberries and bananas with an insanely delicious chocolate milk. am i on a diet? haha...no. we walked around for a little while, observed a festival in the plaza and hailed a cab for home...the most carsick i´ve ever been in my life by-the-way. by the first 5 minutes i had already sorted out in my head how to yell at the cab driver in spanish to pull over so i could yack. what seemed like forever later we arrived, and libby and i went home to recover from the drive home and our sleepless night. i took the best nap so far in my life.. we are going to machu picchu this weekend so we went to meet up with our friends to buy tickets online. they were at Ulrike´s watching Across the Universe so we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the internet cafe i´m in right now.
wow. i type too much. thanks for reading this far.
how was your weekend?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
one week.
OY. trying to find a computer that is not in use in a town that has a total of 20 computers where everyone speaks a language that you don´t = a migraine. it´s been one full week so far and i´ve only now been able to access a computer. i´m sorry to everyone that i´ve been ignoring, it´s not on purpose. if you only knew.
so our journey here wasn´t not as scary as i thought it would be. yes, i was scared to death of being faced with a situation where all of the vocab that i didn´t use in 9th grade Spanish would suddenly be very practical and necessary, but it hasn´t been all that bad. in the airport i was able to communicate that i needed to exchange my u.s. dollars into Peruvian Soles. and i managed somehow to get my luggage rechecked in Lima where Libby and i ate at McDonald´s (because we know how to travel the right way).
it makes me sad that you won´t be able to fully understand the beauty that is this country. if you´ve ever been to Gatlinburg, Tenn., you´ve experienced 1\20 of the beauty that God intended for the earth. the mountains here are seriously his signature on this planet and every night the stars shine the brightest i´ve ever seen them. the air is a fresh mountainous breeze all day long and at night there´s a little bite as it gets colder. flying into Cusco i saw snow-covered mountains (the forgotten Andes) and villages nestled in between gigantic mountains. coming closer into the airport i could see the city buildings, none of which clear 3 stories, all brightly-colored and smashed together in ¨barrios¨. once inside the airport i was greeted with authentic music and many coupons for free ¨papas fritas¨ at McDonalds (the newest commodity as of today in Cusco).
we were picked up from the airport by Cleona, the office aid, who is from the UK. everyone is from there it seems like. .. we drove to the office to meet the staff and then journey over an hour and a half to Calca, to drop off another volunteer, and then to Pisaq to our house. Our family greeted us at the door(here it´s customary to kiss on the right cheek). there is an elderly woman about 71 yrs old, her friend who´s 49 and her daughter who is 22. she´s really sweet and we laugh a lot when we´re around here. our house is a very interesting arrangement. when you walk in the main door --which is 5 ft tall-- the bathroom is directly on the right, still outside, and there´s a separate shower head in the same room as the toilet and sink. if you´ve ever been on a house boat or a submarine i´d imagine they´d be the same. then you continue to an open courtyard with two flower beds. surrounding this courtyard is the house part.. with the rooms in a line surrounding the open space on the second floor. the kitchen is a small little room with it´s own outdoor entrance and the dining room is attached. the living room is on the other side of the courtyard. it´s very disconnected and open. people on their back porches can see into our entire space. i have my own room with a bed, table, closet, and bed side table. only the basics but it´s home for now.
we eat three meals a day, most of which consist of carbohydrates like i´ve never seen before. a typical day of food would be... breakfast--a piece of bread with jelly and tea. lunch--potato soup with peas, carrots, french fries, and cilantro, then a second course with a plate half full of rice and the other side with potatoes and some other kind of carb. dinner--half a plate full of rice again, chicken breast on the other side with cucumbers and tomatoes and tea to follow. libby and i had to take a break from this and went to Ulrike´s Cafe and ate vegge and hawaiian pizzas with a brownie and ice cream for dessert. it was amazing.
the kindergarten that i´m working in is very small and quaint. they don´t use much to get things done--and empty plastic coke bottle cut in half is commonly used for a pencil holder and they don´t have toilet paper in the bathrooms.. it´s very plain and simple. right now i´m just helping the teacher copy homework into their notebooks and sharpen colored pencils.. the kids call me ´Sarita´ and pull on my clothes all day. i would say that this is very annoying but hey, they don´t get to do that often so whatever.
i told you i would document my first llama sighting and i am writing to say that i saw one!! sadly though, 5 minutes after i saw this interesting creature, a crazy dog attacked and killed it in the middle of the street and about 30 people proceeded to crowd around and make a huge thing of it. i was very sad for the llama. he looked nice.
the town that i´m in is very small and traditional. if you´ve ever seen pictures of Peruvian women with babies on their backs, that´s what i see everyday all day. these people have no shame. peeing in the street, changing baby diapers on the backs of stopped motorcycles at intersections and things of this nature are not uncommon. it´s very interesting...
i think i´m going to get used to being here for a long time. i miss my friends, family and my cell phone very much but in the end i think this will change my view of the world and why i´m living on it. please keep me in your prayers because there are days when i don´t think i´ll really learn spanish or i´m scared to get photocopies made for school because the girl behind the counter hates foreigners but i´ll make it.
people are staring at me and of course i have no idea what they´re saying so i must run. please email me and give me the scoop on your life!!
hasta luego.
so our journey here wasn´t not as scary as i thought it would be. yes, i was scared to death of being faced with a situation where all of the vocab that i didn´t use in 9th grade Spanish would suddenly be very practical and necessary, but it hasn´t been all that bad. in the airport i was able to communicate that i needed to exchange my u.s. dollars into Peruvian Soles. and i managed somehow to get my luggage rechecked in Lima where Libby and i ate at McDonald´s (because we know how to travel the right way).
it makes me sad that you won´t be able to fully understand the beauty that is this country. if you´ve ever been to Gatlinburg, Tenn., you´ve experienced 1\20 of the beauty that God intended for the earth. the mountains here are seriously his signature on this planet and every night the stars shine the brightest i´ve ever seen them. the air is a fresh mountainous breeze all day long and at night there´s a little bite as it gets colder. flying into Cusco i saw snow-covered mountains (the forgotten Andes) and villages nestled in between gigantic mountains. coming closer into the airport i could see the city buildings, none of which clear 3 stories, all brightly-colored and smashed together in ¨barrios¨. once inside the airport i was greeted with authentic music and many coupons for free ¨papas fritas¨ at McDonalds (the newest commodity as of today in Cusco).
we were picked up from the airport by Cleona, the office aid, who is from the UK. everyone is from there it seems like. .. we drove to the office to meet the staff and then journey over an hour and a half to Calca, to drop off another volunteer, and then to Pisaq to our house. Our family greeted us at the door(here it´s customary to kiss on the right cheek). there is an elderly woman about 71 yrs old, her friend who´s 49 and her daughter who is 22. she´s really sweet and we laugh a lot when we´re around here. our house is a very interesting arrangement. when you walk in the main door --which is 5 ft tall-- the bathroom is directly on the right, still outside, and there´s a separate shower head in the same room as the toilet and sink. if you´ve ever been on a house boat or a submarine i´d imagine they´d be the same. then you continue to an open courtyard with two flower beds. surrounding this courtyard is the house part.. with the rooms in a line surrounding the open space on the second floor. the kitchen is a small little room with it´s own outdoor entrance and the dining room is attached. the living room is on the other side of the courtyard. it´s very disconnected and open. people on their back porches can see into our entire space. i have my own room with a bed, table, closet, and bed side table. only the basics but it´s home for now.
we eat three meals a day, most of which consist of carbohydrates like i´ve never seen before. a typical day of food would be... breakfast--a piece of bread with jelly and tea. lunch--potato soup with peas, carrots, french fries, and cilantro, then a second course with a plate half full of rice and the other side with potatoes and some other kind of carb. dinner--half a plate full of rice again, chicken breast on the other side with cucumbers and tomatoes and tea to follow. libby and i had to take a break from this and went to Ulrike´s Cafe and ate vegge and hawaiian pizzas with a brownie and ice cream for dessert. it was amazing.
the kindergarten that i´m working in is very small and quaint. they don´t use much to get things done--and empty plastic coke bottle cut in half is commonly used for a pencil holder and they don´t have toilet paper in the bathrooms.. it´s very plain and simple. right now i´m just helping the teacher copy homework into their notebooks and sharpen colored pencils.. the kids call me ´Sarita´ and pull on my clothes all day. i would say that this is very annoying but hey, they don´t get to do that often so whatever.
i told you i would document my first llama sighting and i am writing to say that i saw one!! sadly though, 5 minutes after i saw this interesting creature, a crazy dog attacked and killed it in the middle of the street and about 30 people proceeded to crowd around and make a huge thing of it. i was very sad for the llama. he looked nice.
the town that i´m in is very small and traditional. if you´ve ever seen pictures of Peruvian women with babies on their backs, that´s what i see everyday all day. these people have no shame. peeing in the street, changing baby diapers on the backs of stopped motorcycles at intersections and things of this nature are not uncommon. it´s very interesting...
i think i´m going to get used to being here for a long time. i miss my friends, family and my cell phone very much but in the end i think this will change my view of the world and why i´m living on it. please keep me in your prayers because there are days when i don´t think i´ll really learn spanish or i´m scared to get photocopies made for school because the girl behind the counter hates foreigners but i´ll make it.
people are staring at me and of course i have no idea what they´re saying so i must run. please email me and give me the scoop on your life!!
hasta luego.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
tomorrow...
there's something about being a Loveless that makes you late/procrastinate for everything. it's 4 a.m. and libby and i just finished packing. my mom will cringe when she reads this...
tomorrow marks the beginning of our journey to Peru. i'm not sure that either of us will be feeling up to the 14 hours of travel ahead of us--Atlanta to Miami, Miami to Lima, Lima to Cusco, bus to Urubamba, and finally, short ride to Pisaq, our destination. this time tomorrow i'll be on a different continent at a different altitude speaking a different language (i hope). while i'm there i'll be working with 3-5 year olds in a kindergarten in Pisac, Peru. i'll help the teacher with things like making sure the kids wash their hands, watching over the playground area and assisting with classroom activities. i seriously cannot wait :)
i'll be back in 13 weeks! here's my address while i'm there if you feel like mailing fun things!
Sarah Loveless
Projects Abroad– Peru
Casilla Postal 831
Correo Central Cusco
Peru
or email me at sarah.s.loveless@gmail.com
i'll keep you posted and let you know the moment i meet my first llama :)
tomorrow marks the beginning of our journey to Peru. i'm not sure that either of us will be feeling up to the 14 hours of travel ahead of us--Atlanta to Miami, Miami to Lima, Lima to Cusco, bus to Urubamba, and finally, short ride to Pisaq, our destination. this time tomorrow i'll be on a different continent at a different altitude speaking a different language (i hope). while i'm there i'll be working with 3-5 year olds in a kindergarten in Pisac, Peru. i'll help the teacher with things like making sure the kids wash their hands, watching over the playground area and assisting with classroom activities. i seriously cannot wait :)
i'll be back in 13 weeks! here's my address while i'm there if you feel like mailing fun things!
Sarah Loveless
Projects Abroad– Peru
Casilla Postal 831
Correo Central Cusco
Peru
or email me at sarah.s.loveless@gmail.com
i'll keep you posted and let you know the moment i meet my first llama :)
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