Schoooools out for summer...

I had planned on filling at least some of you in on how language school was going throughout the week, but as it turned out, school took pretty much all our time and definitely all our energy. We finished on Friday and although it was a VERY worthwhile experience, we were BURNT OUT. Luckily, we sorted it out so we DID get to eat lunch (I know you were all worried), but it meant we left for school at 7:30 and didn´t get home until 6:00, including walking 40 minutes each way. While the walk was great to get exercise, it was only one closed garage door and a midlife crises away from...well...there was a LOT of exhaust fumes in the city of Cusco.

Not much interesting details on the school part of things. I learned more grammar in 5 days there than I did in 3 semesters back home. Four out of the six hours per day were spent practicticing talking with my teacher one on one, and although my vocab is still extremely limited, I was able to fumble through such topics as Global Warming, the economic crisis, consumerism, etc. I enjoyed trying to get important, complicated points across while using a very limited vocabulary. It was a humbling experience, but also rewarding. The downside of the week was definitely my homestay. While I was fed well and felt safe where I was housed, there was really no family environment. The mother of the house was gone most of the time and when I did see her, the most she could manage was ¨que tal?¨and ¨como esta?¨repeated ad nauseum, regardless of how many times I answered or made attempts at other conversation. There weren´t any decernable kids that lived there all the time except LEO! who was only around long enough for his mom/grandmother? to scold him. The person I spoke with the most was another student from our school who was from Germany--also a bit anti-social. However, if we had not done the homestays, I´m sure we would have regretted missing out on a potentially great experience.

SOOOO...our next adventure began at lunch on Saturday before heading to Arequipa. For this, I will turn it over to Natalie, who really had the adventure, but all I will say is this:

I am a proud man. At least when it comes to eating anything and everything that is placed in front of me for sustinence. However, on saturday afternoon, I had to bow my head and pass the kudos to my slender travel companion. I just couldn´t handle the ZARZA MIXTA....