Settling in

Officially 4 days in and I'm starting to get adjusted to the Cusco way of life. I've been keeping very busy and have quite a full schedule. Here is my schedule Monday-Friday:

-7:30am: Wake up and eat breakfast, which consists of delicious fresh fruit, yogurt, granola-type stuff, and fresh juice.

-9:30am: Leave the house to walk 30 minutes to my Spanish class.

-10am-12pm: Spanish class - I am in a class with one other guy who speaks fluent Portuguese, so he has a big advantage learning Spanish and picks things up pretty quick. I am learning a lot though. My teacher only speaks in Spanish the entire class, so at times it is difficult to follow her but she is very good at explaining things and giving examples. I'm enjoying class a lot!

-12:30pm: Arrive home for lunch. Relax a bit, read on the awesome rooftop balcony we have, or do my Spanish homework.

-2pm: Walk 30 minutes to the bus stop to take my 50 min bus ride to my volunteer placement in a nearby town named Saylla. This is where things get interesting because riding a bus here is quite the experience. First of all, it is not always a 'bus'- sometimes it is a van. They're are very crowded and play super loud music. There is a guy who kind of hangs out of the bus door (which is left open a lot of the drive) who yells at people at the different bus stops if they want to get on. He also walks through the bus at seemingly random times to collect payment (1 sole, or about 30 cents). He sometimes announces the next bus stop, but not always - you have to be pretty alert and ready to yell "Baja! (stop)" when you want to get off. Then you are told to hurry up, hurry up, get off the bus.

-3-6pm: Volunteer at Corazon de Dahlia, a program for local Saylla children ages 5-12. There are usually about 15-20 kids. I'm immediately greeted by the kids with kisses on the cheek and "Buenas tardes!" These kids are freakin cute, and so sweet and polite. For the first hour, we play a game or do an art project. The next hour they work on homework, and it's my job to make sure they are doing their work and not messing around. This can be difficult with the language barrier but already in the past 3 days, I feel I have really improved. Yesterday I successfully explained  in spanish to a 7 year old girl what a subject and a verb are and how they form a sentence. So I was pretty happy about that. Though there are also a few kids who do not speak Spanish or English - they only speak Quechua, the native language of the Andean region. The last hour of the day we work with them on English. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we teach a lesson and the rest of the days we review that week's lesson. This weeks lessons are how to say "My name is..." and learning the English alphabet. It is really fun, and I am truly enjoying it. I never really though of myself as a big "kid person" but these kids are really awesome and I look forward to spending a lot more time with them!

-7:30pm: Arrive home and eat dinner. By this time I am usually really tired and don't do much, but hopefully I will get more adjusted to my schedule and have more energy to do more at night.

Weekends are open for me, so I am trying to plan trips and tours and such. Hopefully this weekend my roommate and I will go to the Sacred Valley.

The weather here is beautiful - about 70 degrees and sunny during the day...and I mean SUNNY. I was on the balcony for about 10 minutes and got sunburnt. I have never felt sun so strong in my life (yes mom, I am wearing sunscreen everyday). Then at night it cools of quite a bit and you need a light jacket.

Here are some pictures: