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...