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hola familia y amigos!
yesterday morning we flew into Cusco and i will be living here for the rest of my trip. flying over the Andes Mountains is an unbelievable experience. not that i can say i am very knowledgeable about mountains due to the fact that i have lived in memphis my whole life but they were breathtaking in a way that the Smokies and Rockies aren't. when we arrived in the cusco airport, all the host families met us outside after we picked up our luggage. mis amigas sydney, monica, and i aren't staying with host families- we are living in the apartment/dorm lodging of the actual Universidad de San Ignacio de Loyola where we will be taking our classes. so while all the cute cusqueño families were greeting the other students with hugs and kisses, the three of us stood awkwardly to the side like puppies who weren't chosen to be adopted. but no worries because the house that we live in, la Casa de Don Ignacio, is perfect in absolutely every way. downstairs there is a small dining room, a common room, and some other rooms that i havent quite figured out the purpose for yet. our apartment is simple with just a kitchen, a common room with miniature sofas, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. I will upload some photos so yall can see. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I could feel my heart beating extremely fast and I had to work hard to breathe. Cusco has an elevation of almost 11,000 feet! My roommates and I slept through the afternoon until 5, then went to explore our barrio (neighborhood). We ate in a small cafe along the main street and walked around more. Sydney and I were walking along the street and all of the sudden the buildings opened up to la Plaza de Armas. It was so magical! There were soft lamps lighting up the cathedrals and the fountains and people just milling around admiring the architecture. I'm so tired right now and honestly cannot remember what else we did yesterday. My short term memory is terrible. So now I will tell you about today!
Unfortunately, the walls in la casa are very thin and you can hear people climbing the stairs and laughing on the upper floors. In the bedroom I share with monica, the builders for some reason felt that not all the walls needed to connect and join properly because there is a hefty gap between two and we can see the plumbing. At night it sounds like Niagra Falls in our room. That combined with the street noise drives me insane! Im used to the silence of suburbia. Needless to say, I didn't have the greatest sleep of my life last night. I woke up this morning around 8 wide awake and decided to take a shower. I turned the water on and let it run for around 10 minutes, came back to see if it was hot, got frostbite on my hand when I tested the water, and decided to just wash my face. Monica and I ate breakfast downstairs in the dining area and I talked with an older British couple who "were on holiday". The typical Peruvian breakfast consists of coffee, bread, coffee, cheese, coffee, and frutas. Everything here is coffee coffee coffee! After our study abroad program orientation, one of our directors, Edi Monge, took us on a walking tour of the city. Edi is a native cusqueño. His first language was Quechua, the language spoken by the Incas and still spoken by the majority of the Cusco inhabitants. He also speaks Spanish and English so he is the king of communication here. We walked around the major plazas and he showed up great little cafes, restaurants, and discotecas. The cathedrals here are stunning. They were originally constucted as Incan temples but the Spanish conquistadors came in and partially destroyed them. They later built their cathedrals on top of the bases of the Incan temples and you can see the difference in the types of stone.
After our walking tour my roommate sydney and i walked through some of the streets further away from the main plazas. We just strolled along the 5 inch wide sidewalks looking at the tiendas (shops) and occasionally going in one to look at the merchandise. I dont know if Peruvians have especially poor eyesight but there were tons of shops for glasses. There are also quite a few shops where local artesans bring their work to sell. I guess shop would be an inaccurate word in this scenario. They are more like huge warehouses with individual stalls where the artists set up and display their work. They have alpaca wool sweaters, ceramics, leather goods, jewelry, paintings, and so much more I can't even remember it all. We started up a conversation with one man who makes his living by painting wooden plates with Incan symbols and designs. He told us that the men in his family have been passing this knowledge on for hundreds of years and that he is teaching his sons how to paint them also. It was unbelievable. We met up with our other roommate monica and asked people for directions to a supermarket. This was my favorite event of the day. Imagine a Kroger but smushed into a space half as big with twice as much stuff. Also, they never sell items in bulk here like Costo or Sam's Club does. Everything is a mini version. They had buge barrels of olives floating in oil and giant tubs of REAL, beautiful, unbleached sugar. It tastes like heaven! There is also an entire isle dedicated to coffee and tea. Like I said before, people here live and breathe coffee/tea. They had mountains of fruit piled up on display, but I don't think I could name one thing other than the bananas and oranges. Sydney bought some strange fruit that looks like green oranges (?). We haven't eaten them yet but I'll try to find out what they are called and how they taste.
So, I finally decided to just brave the iceberg water and take a shower. I managed to shampoo and condition my hair and wash my face in five minutes flat without getting my whole body under the water at one time. I can officially say that I have never been more cold in my entire life. To my immense joy and happiness, ten minutes after I got out of the shower monica informed me that the water k*** had been mislabeled and that we have had warm water since we arrived! I risked hypothermia for nothing. Fantastic. A little while later, one of the roommates (whose name will remain anonymous) plugged in a hairdryer without using a converter and blew all the fuses in our unit. So there we were stumbling around the apartment in the dark trying to find some form of light. It was hilarious but I don't think the maintenance people appreciated our sense of humor.
I'm sorry if this message is too long or boring, I just don't want to leave out any details when I go back to read them later! Please let me know if you want to hear about anything in particular and I will be sure to include it! Thanks for sending me little messages...they make me so happy! I love everyone and hasta luego!
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