Hard to believe, I will have been here in Peru for 6 months come March 15th. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, a Birthday.... it has all flown by so fast! I have really enjoyed being a part of the Maximo Community- after working for over a year in a school where it was hard to feel accepted, having a social network of people, gringos and Peruvians alike, has been really nice. The only problem--- every month someone leaves! Fortunately this month, though my best friend Amy has left Maximo, she is still in Cuzco and I can go visit her at her hostel she is now working and staying at! I am teaching 7 classes this month, rather than the normal 6, so my schedule is a bit busier, but I am really enjoying my students this month. I am slowly getting better and stronger at climbing, and Chandler, my housemate from Texas, and I have been going to the rock climbing gym once a week, and hiking up to go bouldering at "los techos" when weather and time permits. I hope I can continue the sport when I get home, and perhaps in Costa Rica!
Last weekend I had my first Reggaeton concert experience- Chino y Nacho! While I am really not the biggest fan of reggaeton unless I have had a couple of drinks at the club and am dancing with my girls, it was actually a pretty good show. Amy and I skipped out on our last classes to "tailgate" in the line. While we were finishing off our box of Clos, unfortunately Amy fell victim to theft- some shady characters looked as if they were trying to cut us in line, and someone they pick pocketed Amy's camera and concert ticket out of her jacket! She dealt with the situation extremely well... as really, what can you do? Let a couple of thugs ruin your night? Not my Amycita- we got her a ticket from a scalper quite easily, and she didn't let it put a damper on her night. The opening act, the Monkees, were alright, but Chino y Nacho actually impressed me with their dancing (AKA hip thrusting) and we had a great time. Here is a little taste of the action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOY7sqEVyG4
I have also been getting back into salsa dancing. Amy and I went to the free salsa classes at Maximo the past two weekends, and after 3 hours of practice, we then went out to the clubs to show off our skills. I can now make it into the advanced dancers circle at classes! I'm sure I still look like a gringa trying to shake it like a latina, but in my head I got in goin'on!
With less than 2 months left at Maximo, I am now starting to plan my travels for May. Hopefully my friend Sarah, who is in Costa Rica now, will meet me in Cuzco and we will head to the Amazon, then down to Argentina. Then back to Maine for Brett's wedding! I can't wait to spend some time with the familia... and then get back to the beach in Costa Rica in July! This is the school I will be working at in Playas del Coco:
http://greenlifeacademy.wordpress.com/ess.com/
Friday, March 4, 2011
Holidays in Cuzco
Ok so i'll admit it- I'm a terrible blogger. I just can't seem to find the time to update this thing. It's March, and finally I am getting around to publishing the Christmas Blog. Whoops! Well, just so you all know, I am busy having a great time in Cuzco and teaching a lot when I am not blogging- which is most of the time. Here you can see how I spent my Christmas in Cuzco. It was so strange to not see my family on Christmas, although in fact we did open presents via Skype, so I got to see all their pale winter faces on the computer screen. It was a pretty rainy Christmas here in Cuzco, but fortunately I have found some great friends here and so wasn't alone on Christmas.
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| The Christmas Market in the Plaza del Armas in Cuzco, where everyone does their last minute shopping and finds decorations for their "Nascimiento"or nativity displays. Everything was perfectly troll sized (or baby Jesus sized, as the Peruvians would probably prefer I mentioned) |
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| Troll playing Jesus in the cresce... terribly sacriligious, I know |
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| Where's Troll? |
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| Playing Jacks on the sidewalk |
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| Photography in San Blas with Selena |
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| Christmas Day dinner party at the "Frat House" |
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| An impressive Christmas day spread, potluck style. I made the quinoa salad. |
Many campesinos, or people from the countryside, come into Cuzco around Christmas time, both to sell goods and to find a little charity from which they can celebrate their Christmas. There were many more ragged children than usual running the streets, and one can only hope they were able to receive a few gifts and have a nice meal for Christmas. Peruvians generally celebrate the holiday on Christmas Eve, as midnight, when they have champagne and Paneton and chocolate. Paneton is somewhat like a big fluffy fruitcake. I tried a little bit after Christmas, and it wasn't so bad really. The grocery store actually cleared out an entire aisle to stock the shelves with the huge Paneton boxes. These are not usually homemade, but come from a box, which comes from a factory, probably somewhere near Lima. In addition to eating Paneton at midnight, just about everyone in Cuzco sets of fireworks. I went to a mulled wine party at what we call the Ice House in San Blas. The house is very cold due to most of its walls being windows, but it made for great viewing of the fireworks, which went off all over Cuzco at midnight and continued to well near 1 AM. It was certainly the most spectacular fireworks display I have seen on Christmas Eve, and never before have I seen fireworks going off in every direction. Clearly fireworks aren't very well regulated here! In fact, on New Years Eve, when there were even more fireworks going off, my Irish friend Selena got hit by one in the food! Dangerous!
I was extremely glad to have some nice homecooked food on Christmas- many of the teachers are really quite talented in the kitchen, so we had plenty to eat for our Christmas day meal.
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| A typical street vendor in San Blas |
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