Vamos al parque!!

The 2 and 3 year olds made it successfully to the park today and it was so fun!! The only big glitch was walking there through construction because everyone was AMAZED by the bulldozers. The boys I was with couldn't take their eyes off them, and as a result, walked veryyyy veryyyy slowly :) We were also walking through the street at this point and luckily a police officer helped get everyone back to the sidewalk because the kids were so transfixed on the construction, they could barely walk and we were holding up traffic.

Easter in QUITO!

I arrived back in Cusco yesterday after visiting some friends in Quito, Ecuador for the weekend. It was amaaaazing and so much fun. Quito is beautiful and much much bigger than Cusco. It´s more modernized and there are Kentucky Fried Chickens on almost every corner. We visited a little town in the middle of the mountains a couple hours away, hiked to a waterfall and rode a zip line. It was a great weekend and really great to see my friends again! Now I´m back in Cusco and working at the daycare :) The weather here is improving every day so today we took some of the kids to the park to play....I didn't know we were going to the park and was not prepared, so I am now fairly sunburnt. There were three volunteers and one teacher, and we each had to walk holding onto five kids which was quite difficult because the street was really busy and the kids were trying to run all over the place. But we made it in one piece with all the kids! They had a lot of fun... Tomorrow we´re taking the younger kids....I´m really not sure how that´s going to go because they are much crazier than the five year olds! You will also be happy to know that the daycare has a new puzzle policy after my friend and I spent several days organizing them and putting pieces where they're supposed to go last month. Last week a couple volunteers spent two days putting all the puzzles together so the pieces weren't all over the place. Now, each kid gets one puzzle and when they are done, they can give it to me and I hand them a new puzzle....ONLY IF their puzzle is complete :) It's working well so far! Hardly any stray pieces.

Quito from the top of the basilica!

La Virgen

Quito!

Basilica

At the top of the Basilica

GRADUATION!!

As of yesterday I am officially done with my TEFL class and am now a certified ESL teacher!! The class was a lot of work, but overall it was actually really fun. We taught three 20 minute mini lessons (one per week) to actual ESL students from the organization and then our last week we were given one one hour class to teach. I took one for the team and took the 7am class, which means I was at school every day by 6:30, leaving my house around 6:15. My classmates felt bad for me, but come Friday, when I was done with everything at 8am they were wishing they hadn't chosen an evening class :) The students were a lot of fun...I usually had two students for the first twenty minutes...and then the other six would wander in sometime before 7:30...Peruvian time :) It was a great experience and I loved working with them because they're always eager to learn and very grateful. Tonight we have a little ceremony where I'll receive my certificate and be completely done (which all the staff are making food for in my house right now...it smells and looks amaaaazing).

As of today I have been here exactly THREE MONTHS and have exactly THREE WEEKS left! Monday I start back at the daycare, which I'm really excited about, and I'll also be back taking some Spanish classes. I can't wait--since I've been learning how to teach English in my class, I haven't had much opportunity to speak Spanish lately. We only have three days of placement and classes next week because Thursday and Friday are holiday.

Friday I'm going to Ecuador to visit a couple friends who had been in Peru with me since I got here but left in late March to do the last month of their volunteering in Ecuador! I get back on Tuesday and will then finish up the last week and a half at the daycare :)

Illness update: we had a rough couple weeks in the house where the doctor was literally coming more than once a day. One morning I woke up and he was eating eggs at the dining room table. Most everyone is starting to feel better but the couple people who survived the epidemic.....are sick now. It even hit my class pretty hard. The week before we did practical teaching we had several out sick, including my teacher.

I haven't taken too many pictures since I've been in class all day every day but I'll try posting a couple from a biking trip I did a couple weeks ago..it was beautiful! And exhausting.

THEY HAVE KRAFT MACARONI AND CHEESE HERE!!!
It tastes pretty much the same....amazing.