LIVE from cusco.

Before we go any further, I’ll answer the question I know you’ve all been dying to ask me. YES, I have had rice every meal since I’ve been here. No beans though, which is a little disappointing because if I had to choose between the two, I’d go with the beans. But it’s fine..we got some other type of white, grainy starchy thing to go with the rice :)

Anyways…I’m here! And didn’t have any major issues with flights. Spending the night in the airport wasn’t as bad as I thought either because there were tons of people doing the same thing…most of them asleep on the floors, in the restaurants, bathrooms. You name it, there was a sleeping person near by. The flight from Lima to Cusco was about an hour and we landed right in the middle of the mountains, it was beautiful. We also exited the plane outside!! Just like you see the President do on TV…walking down the stairs from his own private jet, waving at everyone. I thought it was cool. 

Anyways..As I was waiting for someone to pick me up, I met another girl who was waiting for the same person…turns out we were going to the same house! Housing was my first surprise….I’m not living with a family like I thought, I’m in one of the volunteer houses with about 12 other volunteers from all over the world. My roommate is from England. I’m not the only one who thought they were living with a family either, so I’m not completely stupid. But it’s fine, it’s been good living with other people because we’ve walked around together and hung out quite a bit. I’m coming from 3 months in a town in Costa Rica literally the size of my college so to go from that to Cusco is a HUGE change because if you know me, then you know I’m horrendous with directions. Just ask my friends that went to Mexico with me. Nothing started on time, usually because I was lost and they had to come find me. That’s a slight exaggeration, but it definitely happened more than once. Buuuut, the house is very nice except for the cold showers. They feed us breakfast, lunch and dinner, do our laundry and clean for us. Basically like a dorm.

Surprise number 2 was that I have internet in the house!! YAY!

Today we had orientation and then I went to visit my placement. I’ll be working in a Clinic with children with special needs. They were so cute! Basically I’ll just be doing whatever they need help with. There’s not enough people to give the kids one on one attention, so I’m there to help with that. I’ll play with them, help feed them and help with their therapy. (Sidenote—they have alpacas in the courtyard of the clinic. Hanging out, just like dogs.) To get there, I’ll walk about 25ish minutes to a bus stop and get on a bus (which actually is a mini-van full of people…) for about 10 minutes. I walked it today and let me tell you…going up the slightest incline feels like you’re climbing Mount Everest because of the altitude. Maybe not quite that bad, but I was definitely out of breath after walking 2 minutes.

I’m going to take probably just a week of Spanish classes and after that I’m hoping to be able to spend more time at my placement. I also signed up to meet with a local Peruvian for an hour a day and talk for half hour in English and a half hour in Spanish so I can learn and they can learn!

For at least this week, my days will look like this: Volunteer from 8:30-12ish, come home for lunch, talking with a local from 2-3, Spanish class from 4-6 and then come home for dinner at 7. Which is late for me. So somewhere in there I’ll be eating a snack :)

So I'll leave you with this...the weather here is perfect :) it's sunny but not too hot because there's a breeze. And I'm sunburnt.

Pictures coming soon....Miss you all!! Throw a snowball for me!!