hmph

ok, so I am still unable to update my epically long post. but, i will try again at a later date. anyways, we have moved into the new apartment and everything is going swimmingly. we will get "Emoticat" as we have dubbed him/her either later tonight or tomorrow, saturday at the latest. It depends whether or not we want to get her from a pet store or from the market that sells pets on saturday mornings. hmm, hard decision. I am sure they are both equally sketchtastic.

The apartment is quite nice, and the neighborhood is equally pleasant. I am revelling in the fact that we have cable and seemingly endless channels. It has give me little motivation to leave the apartment. Although Valerie and I did manage to go out yesterday afternoon. We went on a hunt for the pet store but sadly gave up because everything was closed for Peruvian Independence Day. So we headed to the center of town and found ourselves at a bar playing an epic game of spanish/english/way-too-many-letters Scrabble. Almost the entire board was filled by the end. Then we went to a quaint little French restaurant where I had a delicious meal while getting beat at Checkers and Valerie had a crepe. We also reviewed some French verbs and conjugations (my French has become truly atrocious). Then, at the late hour of 8, we decided we couldnt stand being away from our apartment a moment longer and headed home.

We had wanted to go on a nice vacation this week, but our boss decided he would schedule orientation for monday afternoon and thursday afternoon, meaning that we couldnt really go anywhere. that was quite unfortunate of him, and we were both just a bit peeved.

More exciting updates when the kitty arrives, I suppose!

GRRR, technology

So I wrote a really really long post, but i wrote it on word and now I can´t seem to upload it or even copy and paste it. REALLY FRUSTRATING! I´ll keep working on it, but I guess for now all you get is this teensy update.

My Very Own Diagon Alley

So it turns out when I venture out of my little TEFL bubble I can actually find cool things. Emily (my roommate) and I decided tonight we were sick of eating lentils and rice and bored of the chicken restaurants that we knew of in our two block vicinity. SO, we decided to make small step for us but a huge step for humanity and venture across the road! This was quite an epic adventure. First we had to walk up the stairs into the walking overpass. Then we had to walk A WHOLE 30 feet and THEN we had to walk DOWN the stairs. Whew, were we exhausted. We did find out that apparently the overpass is the new it place to be if you are a young couple that wants to make out in relative privacy. Anyways, we discovered A WHOLE NEW WORLD on the other side of the street (this is not just some little dinky street we are talking about here, I mean, 8 lanes of hardcore Latin American traffic going in all different directions). What do we discover in this whole new world you ask? Well I will tell you: PERU!

For the first time since I’ve been here I felt like I was in a bustling city of Peruvians completely unaware (or blissfully ignorant) of the many Gringos that parade around the higher parts of this city. I mean, obviously we knew we were in Peru, and we knew we lived in a fairly Peruvian neighborhood where we stand out as the silly mute Gringas, but this was different. There were restaurants other than pollerias (restaurants in which the only thing they serve is roast chicken and French fries, you just choose whether you want an eighth, a quarter, a half, or a whole chicken). So, we ended up postponing our hunt for food in favor of wandering the streets like true Peruanas. However, I’m sure we were quite conspicuous with our light skin and curly hair. Plus, our blatant English speaking and lack of awareness as to how restaurants work here were probably an even bigger tip off. In this epic adventure to the other side of the street, we also discovered the infamously sketchy El Molino Market in which you can get anything and everything at one low price! Well, I’m not sure about one low price, but anything and everything is for sure. We had heard of this market, and knew that it was hidden in a secret lair of unknown places that is our neighborhood, but neither of us had reported a sighting either from taxi or by foot. We had begun to assume that you needed a secret password and to tap a brick wall in a certain pattern, a la Diagon Alley, in order to reveal the passageway to this hidden market of treasures. Anyways, as we ventured forth past The River of Poop and into the heart of El Molino Market our bravery reserves were soon exhausted and we opted to settle in for dinner. We chose a very crowded Chifa restaurant (Peru’s version of Chinese food) and cautiously perused the menu unsure of what anything was until the waitress graciously pointed our attention to the pictures in the back of the menu. So we each chose our dish and settled in to a nice Chifa dinner. We wanted to eat some fried street food (some churro like desserts) but alas, we were sidetracked by our original second mission of finding toilet paper and bread (or really we just forgot and I’m blaming it on the TP).

So, while all of you are dressed in red and yellow with witches’ hats and sticks for wands waiting in line for that much anticipated movie, I was having my own adventure down my very own Diagon Alley. Now aren’t you jealous?

Mickey Mouse in My Bed

Its really amazing how different being a teacher is than being a student. I am so good at the student part—Grinnell trained me well for that—but whenever we have to do the teaching part I am not nearly as good. I am, however, enthusiastic, and exuberant so I guess that’s important because I can learn the practical teaching skills.

Unfortunately I feely like my goal to learn Spanish has diminished since I got here. As I was falling asleep last night (in my mickey mouse garb, which I will explain later) I remembered that I need to learn Spanish. I am just so exhausted after everyday of class that I don’t have the energy to talk to anyone, I just head home and try to get my homework done before I fall asleep and have to do it all again. I have mastered the art of watching Spanish dubbed television without being too bothered by not really understanding what is going on. Emily and my favorite shows include America’s Next Top Model on at 7 mon-fri (I’m not sure which season number but the one with Natasha and that bitch Rene who really should be home with her seven month old son), the Simpsons (on at various times, and sometimes dubbed really well and sometimes dubbed quite poorly). I would like to say I am learning Spanish for watching that but really I am just good at not knowing what is going on and not really caring anymore.

So, as for my Mickey Mouse sleeping garb. It is quite cold here at night. You would think I would be used to it from living in the negative temperatures of Iowa for the last four years, but Iowa, that wonderful state, has heating! Although it only gets down to the forties at night, it gets about that cold in my apartment too. So I have adapted my sleeping attire. Every night for the first week I added a new item of clothing to sleep until I have FINALLY figured out the right combination. Here is my Perfect Combination: leggings, fleece pants over my leggings, socks with my fleece pants tucked into them, a shirt, my sweatshirt, and the Mickey Mouse part: socks on my hands tucked into my sweatshirt. Sometimes I am just a bit too warm in this (depending on the night) and end up with one sock on and one sock off (my hands of course, the feet socks stay on always!).

There is a transportation strike today (whoa! BIG SURPRISE!). So Emily and I had planned to leave the apartment at 7:15 to walk all the way to the school to get there an hour early in order to do one of our mandatory class observations. So we leave the house, start walking and lo and behold, taxis! Everywhere! So we figure, why not, and hop on in. Turns out, indeed there is a transportation strike. But it doesn’t start until 8. Who would have thought getting up at the ghastly hour of 6 would have its pay off. Unfortunately, we failed at getting bread for our usual cheese, avocado (the avocadoes are amazing here!) and tomato sandwich, so we will be scrounging it for lunch. Maybe we can follow a stray dog to find the hot spots for discarded food!

Ah, and the Cusco air only lasted so long for my acne. I can always count on my period to overcome even the best acne medicines...

Cusco- number 1 dermatologist recommended

Well hello there. Yesterday was quite a day. Had a mishap with my computer that sent me reeling into "this is why I shouldn`t live in South America mode. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier if I were somewhere that was SOO different from what I am used to that when things go wrong I don`t get quite as frazzled. Cusco is urban enough and has enough amenities that I get very upset when I don`t have access to something that I would usually expect. If it were totally different and I didn`t expect anything, perhaps it would be easier. In any case, it has made me thing deeply about staying in Cusco after my TEFL course is done. I mean, the point of me being here (for the most part) is to learn Spanish, but if I teach English at a school like Maximo Nivel (where I am taking my TEFL class) it is so easy to be immersed in English and get by living here with very little Spanish. It makes me think that perhaps I would be better off in a place where I was the sole Gringa. Plus, I would rather teach at a middle school or elementary school. Although, unfortunately, I think the majority of the paid jobs are at schools like Maximo. Hmmm, what to do. I guess I`ll leave it up to the fates like usual.

Other things of importance to note...well, there is a little Grinnell Reunion in Cusco right now. We are going to gather and hang out to celebrate the independence of our fair country. There are actually four of us here, which is quite impressive.

Also, the Cusconians (?) seem to be celebrating something today as well. The market across from our street had a little festival going on. There was singing and dancing. As well as some cute furries for sale. Some rabbits and chickens and guinea pigs. Aww, what cute pets. Psych! I mean, awww, what a cute dinner! There were some very fat guinea pigs that I can imagine would serve quite a few people. Mmm, yummm, family pet for dinner.

I feel like there more things that I wanted to talk about but right now I am not sure what they are. I went out and saw a local Andean rock band last night. I think all rock bands need the addition of an Andean flute. It made for some rocking music.

Anything else? Oh, my acne is great here. The dry air does wonders for the skin. I would recommend a trip to Cusco for anyone suffering from bad acne. Screw accutane, just go to Cusco!

Stray Dog/Stray Kid Fansite?

This blogging thing is hard. I really just don’t have all that much to say, or at least the things that I might have to say, I really don’t think you care about reading about. So I guess I’ll just recap the last few days.

First day of class was on Monday. It was a really tame day and we got done with school at 12 and had barely any homework. The class is a good group of people. There is only one guy, but he has a cool British accent so it makes up for the lack of testosterone in the class. My favorite person is a girl named Valerie. She is from Millbrae and is two years older. She went to Mills and also played water polo. For any of you that know the area and the polo history between Mills and Woodside, this means that she was indeed there for the epic PAL championship game in which we won in sudden death after double overtime and proceeded to play “We Are the Champions”. They also filed a complaint against Becky and she had to write an apology letter. Valerie remembers being pinched by Becky. Valerie is also planning on staying around to find work or maybe going to Mexico or Guatemala for work, so hopefully she will stay here and I will have a friend and we can make Peruvian friends together (her goal really is to improve her Spanish also, but she is already much better than I am).

Let’s see, what else. On Monday some of the girls went to a couple bar/restaurants which was quite fun. We got free pisco sours and a couple of yummy hors’devoirs. And it’s true, you do get drunker faster at altitude, which is good for my wallet. The free pisco sours are also good for my wallet.

Ok, I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to say on here. I don’t really have all that much to say. Maybe that is why I never started a blog earlier.

Oh! But I was thinking it make this into a kind of “Stray Dog Fan Site” blog, and post a picture of a stray dog every day or every few days. There are so many stray dogs, and a lot of them are so cute. It may turn into a stray dog/stray kid fan site because if I have my camera out I’ll probably be more intrigued by the little babies running around with their adorable little ponchos and dirty hair and faces. Unfortunately, people are more picky about you taking pictures of their kids than random dogs on the street so I might have to learn to be sneaky…..

At least that way I’m updating every so often!