Hello all. Tuesday 25th at 5.30pm here in the afternoon. I'm settling in well, the girls in the house have made me really welcome and part of the group...even if I am the oldest by a fair few years!

Thought I'd let you see where I'm staying, its the PoD House on Playa San Blas, a straight walk up the hill from the main square aka heart attack hill! I'm acclimatising well albeit have major breathing problems when I'm lying in bed (feels like I'm having a heart attack!). Also not sleeping much, not sure if its the altitude or the time difference, am basically awake from c. 12 midnight and just doze on and off til its time to get up.

Our house is the blue door on the right with the balcony, I'll be in that room with the balcony from next week. One of the girls goes back to Oz so we're having a shufty round.

Have also included some pics of the inside, its a lovely place, albeit a bit tatty in places and you can see that the cooking facilities are a bit on the rustic side and definitely not Mark Wilkinson bespoke stylie! The showers are a little frustrating too, the two bathrooms upstairs dont have hot water but since I've been there neither do the two downstairs!

It will surprise you all to learn that I'm settling in well to the life of a student ie not worrying about washing my hair (really didnt need the straighteners!), wearing the same clothes over and over and when eating at restaurants you always ask for a doggy bag as thats your dinner for the evening! Its fun and I'm loving it!

Have had two Spanish classes, 4 and a half hrs each time. I'm doing ok, by that I mean I'm not totally rubbish! I have a right pain in the arse norwegian called Nina in the class with me plus a lovely woman called Marion from London. We've nicknamed her Know it All Nina as shes done a bit of Spanish before and enjoys answering our questions for us!

Will be heading off on Thursday morning at 7am, we're doing the Macchu Pichu trek but not the usual one that the tourists do, we're going with our PoD representative and she's organised a different route into Macchu Pichu which will involve a 7hr drive, staying with local families and hostels before taking the train back to Cusco on Sunday night. Again, never done this sort of thing and cant wait to go. I can hear you all now...Dawn staying in hostels!

You will be amazed to know that I havent had an alcoholic drink since I arrived, god that makes me sound like an alcoholic! Am drinking loads of water and lots of fruit juices. Had an amazing Citrus/Mint Frappe yesterday morning it was delicious.

Oh yes, besides there being 7 girls in the house (Me, Clare, Annie, Harriett, Jess, Jess2, Lily) we also have a pet guineau pig! Apparently the group prior to all of us bought it at a market; its a black one which apparently the restaurants dont buy as they are unlucky so unfortunately it sits in the communal area, stinking and making a right bloody noise! Only I could live in a house with a soddin pet Cuy!

Sorry for the lack of photos, I havent taken many but these internet places (of which there are hundreds) are really slow at uploading pics. When I've got more time I'll download some more.

As for my placement, this week I'm just acclimatising and then doing my trip. Monday I'm being taken around some places and then I can decide where I start on Tuesday. The general pattern is morning placement ie 9.00-1.30pm. The girls in the house are doing a mixture of placements and they are all enjoying them. Lily (the 18yr old from Vermont) is working with babies which she said was harrowing to begin with ie how they treated them but as she says you have to get stuck in and give them as much love as you can in the time you're there. Not sure where I'll be based yet, want to see the places first.

My plan will be to do my placement in the morning, come back and chill and then do some 1:1 Spanish classes 3 days per week, its pretty cheap here and we have a good school in our square. So, fingers crossed I may be fluent in Spanish by the time I get home, but then again!

You probably wont hear from me again until I return from my trip. I'm sure there will be hilarious stories to report.

I'm heading back to the house to put my washing out for tomorrow morning, its collected once a week at 10am and returned by 3pm; apparently some things come back a little smaller than when they went! I will definitely need rehabilitation when I get home as I wont be doing much in the way of chores whilst I'm here!

Loads of love to you all
Dawn xx