Well it's already been more than a week, but I'll try to keep this thing going week by week...
So my 24 hour traveling was actually not terrible. I started in Milwaukee around 10:40 AM, landed in Lima at 11:30 PM and had to stay overnight to catch my 6 AM flight to Cuzco. Good thing college students are used to sleeping anywhere (i.e. the library haha). I could've kicked myself for not having a camera on that flight because the views of the mountains were literally breathtaking.
When I got to Cusco, I had to stay in a different house than what I signed up for because the girl (whose place I was supposed to take) was sick. This ended up being a great experience since I met some pretty cool people. Mariana was my Peruvian mother for about 3 days and she was a sweetheart. No english, but really understanding and always there to help us out. I shared a room with an American girl - Lindy - from Colorado who was getting certified to teach English as a second language. She left already this Friday so I didn't get to know her well. A young couple from the UK were also staying with Mariana - Paul and Paula. Due to the wonderful global economy, they haven't been able to get jobs at home and have been traveling and working as they can. There was also a girl from Holland staying there about my age called Merel.
**Cute story: After somewhat unpacking, Lindy, Merel, and I went to the main square in Cusco called 'La Plaza de Armas' where we sat eating some Peruvian ice cream. Of course anyone selling anything was trying to convince us that we needed to get a finger puppet or fake brand pair of sunglasses or a box of cigarettes. Finally a Peruvian family approached us with a camera out. I assumed, in my still jet-lagged state of mind, that they wanted one of us to take a picture of them. But no, we being three blondes in one place must have been such a sight that the mother insisted we take a picture with her children. So we are currently in someone's photo album with a caption saying something to the effect of 'My children with the Giant Blondes'. In case the giant part is confusing, I am rather tall compared to people at home and even larger when compared to the general Peruvian population.
And so I spent the first part of my week here with Mariana and family, got settled into classes, and started to explore the city....
My last night in Mariana's house, Merel and I were watching The Notebook (in English no less and on TV) when she asked if I would want to go learn dancing with her and a couple Dutch friends, Merel and Sophie. Naturally I said yeah and off we went to go find her friends. We met up not far from the salsa school and waited for the class before us to finish. While we waited more and more Dutch girls arrived until I was surrounded by a completely different language that I had no hope of following. I think they assumed I spoke Dutch but was rather quiet?? One of them at least tried talking with me and I had to cut her off saying "English or Spanish because I cannot follow Dutch at all!" Finally we started class and there I was with the Dutch girls, a couple Peruvian guys, and one other American from Montana (of all places). It ended up being an amazing time, though we couldn't always speak the same language! Afterwards Merel, the two friends we met up with, and I went out for Peruvian pizza at Chez Maggie, which made your pizza as you ordered it ~ delicioso!
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