So today, my plan was to get up early and pack so that I could spend the day doing whatever I wanted to do, well of course that didn't work out because I was tired so I slept in, but fortunately, I still had a great day. I started out my day by meeting Tonisha and Mark to go and turn in our cell phones. We walked to Marion's (CIEE coordinator) house in order to turn them in. Then we went to Café Z for our very last frozen fresas. We all shared one, it was awesome!
Then, we went to the bank to get shiny coins. There was a huge line at the bank and we grabbed a number, but luckily we know a guy (a.k.a. Tonisha knows a guy) so we were kind of allowed to cut in front of a lot of people in order to get our shiny coins. We felt kind of bad, but at the same time, I'm glad it was quick because I had to make it back to my house for my birthday lunch. Oh, by the way, it was/is my birthday today, my 21st birthday to be exact. I probably didn't spend my 21st birthday like the average 21 year old, but that's okay with me. I had a great day! I don't need the stereotypical 21st birthday bar crawl to make me happy. Anyway, after the bank, we went to the markets one last time. Tonisha wanted to buy a Christmas ornament and a snow globe so we got those and then it was time to part ways with Mark. Although I wish that all 14 of us CIEE students lived near each other, I am very thankful that Mark, Tonisha and I live near each other!
Anyway, Tonisha was invited to my birthday lunch so we headed to my house for that. For appetizers we had Papas a la huancaína, which are delicious and then, of course, for my birthday lunch, I chose to have Lomo saltado. What a good choice on my part, because it was ALL delicious!!! Then, of course we had chocolate cake and they all sang 'Happy Birthday' and 'Feliz Cumpleaños' to me. It was fun! Then, I finally started packing! Tonisha kept me company for awhile, which was nice. You want to know something else that's nice? The fact that Tonisha is taking a small suitcase with her for me! Number one that's awesome because then I can get all the stuff home that I need to and number two because that guarantees that I will see her again!
Tonisha, Tómas, Kitty, and I
After she left, I finished up packing. Boy, was packing a task. Good thing Tonisha took a suitcase because I think my suitcase is 3/4 filled with souvenirs. :) I'm hoping that I have no problems at the airport tomorrow. It's supposed to be under 40lbs, but I don't think it is, but luckily, I already have a plan for wehn they tell me it's too heavy, but hopefully I don't have to use the plan! Anyway, after packing, I went to the grocery store. I picked up some of the things that I wanted to bring home with me such as Inca Kola. I've actually heard that you can find Inca Kola in the states, but I'm bringing some back anyway because I'm not sure where I would go to find it in the states. Anyway, I took a taxi home from the grocery store just so that I could get rid of my last three non-shiny soles: I probably should have put those soles to better use, but it's too late now. Anyway, I sat down with my mom to have leftover lomo saltado and we chatted for a bit. I told her that I bought some stuff at the store to take home. She asked what and one of the items was Sublime, which is kind of the Peruvian Hershey's bar, but not as good and she refused to let me take that chocolate home and call it Peruvian. So after dinner, we walked to Larcomar to a place called La Iberica, which is a very good Peruvian chocolate place apparently, and we bought the proper chocolates for me to bring home. :)
Other than that, I have just relaxed tonight, done some blogging, and watched Super 8 and Home Alone 2. I'm think I'm ready to be home! Also, thanks to all of you who have given me birthday wishes! It's been a good one!
So, I started yesterday off by finally going to Católica for the last time. If you remember right, Wednesday was supposed to be my last day there, but since the dance department didn't have my transcript ready I had to go back there yesterday. Well, luckily, I have a good friend named Tonisha who accompanied me to Católica. I was anticipating what I would hear once I got there and, as expected, I did find out that it still was not ready. So of course they told me to wait about an hour for it. Tonisha and I walked around for a little bit, but then we finally decided to go to the computer lab, where we wasted some time. I felt bad for dragging her along once that happened, but since she's incredible she was pretty patient about it. So, an hour later, I went back to get the paper and of course it was only five lines long. I'm not sure how "Andrea took this class blah blah" took so long to write, but I was just glad to have it and Tonisha and I took a micro back to Miraflores.
Once back, I ate lunch and relaxed before I had to meet up with everybody that was going to volunteer for the last time at Deporte y Vida. Today at DyV we had a huge party. All of the CIEE students donated money so that the kids could have a great Christmas party and it was indeed great! There was tons of food, entertainment, and presents!!! It was a blast! The kids were all very happy and it was amazing to see their faces when we gave them their presents! It just automatically put a smile on my face!
With some of the girls
I was sad to go, but we all exchanged numbers with all of the professors there so we will be able to keep in touch with them and the kids. Anyway, once I got home, I ate dinner and then headed out for one last hoorah with the CIEE gang. We went to Meghan's house in order to hang out and it was a really good time, but I had to say goodbye to some amazing people. Luckily, there are all sorts of communication these days so I'm pretty sure we'll all keep in touch! It was a good day and night! Also, when it turned midnight everyone sang Happy Birthday to me, which was so great of them! I hope you had a good Friday as well!!!!
So although I went to bed fairly early, the night at the "hostel with character" wasn't the best sleep of my life. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, but was still cold. I woke up with a stuffy nose, but luckily that went away fairly quickly as the morning went on. Also, the mattress was extremely uncomfortable so I woke up several times, but I survived and so did the other three. :) We woke up around 7:15 to get ready to leave and our tour guide picked us up soon after. We went to the Puno port and boarded the boat that would be our form of transportation for the next two days on Lake Titicaca. When we got on the boat, there was a man that was playing a guitar, playing a panpipe, and singing. Now, that's what I call talent. That was actually a pretty frequent thing during the week. People in both Puno and Arequipa played the guitar and the panpipe at the same time.
Our first stop were the las Islas de los Uros (Uros Islands: mostly commonly known to tourists as the Floating Islands). They are known as the Floating Islands because that is exactly what they are: man-made islands that float (obviously, they float. haha).
One of the floating islands that we visited
When we got to the first island, we sat down and learned about the Uros tribe and the islands. The Uros actually came from Bolivia and when they arrived to the Puno region they actually escaped from the Incans because they were living on reed boats and then later on they escaped from the Europeans as well because they were living on the islands that they had built. The islands actually consist of the blocks of reed roots, stacks and stacks of reeds, and hay. The blocks are all tied together and then the whole island is anchored down. The President of the island told a joke that if the island wasn't anchored they would float to Bolivia and they wouldn't have a passport to get back. :) Anyway, each island takes about 1 year to make and they last 30 years (with maintenance) and I think there are around 50 of them. Every island has a President and all the inhabitants on the island are related. They are actually really impressive. All the websites say that they feel like waterbeds when you walk on them, but I own a waterbed and I don't think they feel like that. They are sturdier than you think, however there were a few soft spots. Anyway, we got dressed in the traditional dress while there, too, which was cool. Lastly, we learned a new Aimara word "Wailiki," (I don't know the spelling) which means "Estoy bien" or "I'm good." After the first island we stopped at a second island that is more touristy. It had a restaurant and small store. We didn't spend too much time there, but we spent enough time there that I was able to get the Lake Titicaca stamp on my passport because it's a World Heritage Site or something like that. :)
Once we were done at the Floating Islands we boarded the boat to head to Isla Amantani. It was a three hour ride to Amantani. I laid out on the deck of the boat for a little bit, but the wind made it really cold so my sunbathing didn't last long so I went inside and Tonisha and I worked on our presentation for a little bit.
When we arrived to Amantani, we got paired up with a family who would act as our hosts for the night. Sheila and I got Benigno's family and they were great! We walked to the house and I can't speak for Sheila (but I'm going to anyway), we were sooo impressed by our accommodations. Our room was really nice and after some conversation with the family, we found out that it's actually their job to have tourists stay in there homes. I asked the father, César, if he liked having people there and he said, "Yes," which made me so happy. I felt like an intruder and there are some companies that exploit the families on the island, so it made me feel good that they actually enjoyed it. Their house was actually in the process of being fixed up so that they could have guests stay. It seemed that they had done the "important" rooms first: our bedroom, the bathroom. Their personal rooms were definitely not first on the list and they were in the process of making a dining room.
Anyway, we laid down for a small nap before lunch, which by the way, lunch was delicious!! They eat a lot of potatoes, cheese, and grain on the island, which is what our meals consisted of, which is fine by me. For lunch we had quinoa soup, 2 or 3 types of potatoes (you know, since there are over 3,000 varieties), and cheese. :) I loved the quinoa soup! It was so good! And the potatoes were pretty good, too. However, I'm not a huge fan of cheese so I didn't like that very much. Oh, and of course coca tea also. Anyway, as we were eating, César, the father of the family came in and we talked with him for awhile. He kept asking how to say things in English because they have a lot of people that come who don't speak Spanish so he wants to learn English so that he can communicate with the guests. It's really too bad. I think he was extremely happy that we spoke Spanish because he just wanted to talk with us. I wish Americans had the drive to learn another language like other people in the world. Anyway, we learned more about the family, too. César is the son of Benigno (Benigno lived in a house that was a few doors down). César was married to Fidela who did all the cooking and she was very sweet and they had a 1 1/2 year old son, Johel, who was so adorable.
A quick glance at the Plaza
After lunch and chatting, we headed to a nearby library where we were able to play with some kids for a short while. They were all so adorable, I'm pretty sure all of us wanted to bring home a little Andean child after the week was over. We read with them and colored, which was fun, but it didn't last long. Pretty soon after, we headed to the Plaza of the community (I guess I should say that there are 10 communities on Amantani and 8 ports). Anyway, while at the Plaza we saw the church and sat down and learned more about Amantani. For example, the Plaza is only a plaza and not a Plaza de Armas because there is no police force on the island, but each community has a president and fun fact: they raise their hands to vote for him (yes, only men can be presidents). Also, we asked about voting for Peru's president because here in Peru it is obligatory and our guide, Herberd, said that an official comes to the island for those elections. More facts about Amantani: When someone has a fiancé, they have to live together for three years and after three years, they get married or separate if it doesn't work out. However, if in that three years, they have a baby, they have to get married. There's no divorce on the island. Women wear the traditional dress, but men do not because of city influences (Men leave to work in the cities and come back with the non-traditional dress). Men sew the women's clothes: the better they are sewn, the better the husband is. The wedding is a three day ceremony. Okay, I think that's it for island fun facts for now.
Anyway, after our Amantani lesson in the Plaza, we started our hike up the island. There are two peaks on Amantani, Pachatata and Pachamama. We went to the higher of the two, Pachatata, which is the highest peak on Lake Titicaca, however, unfortunately, the Pachatata side is bad luck. :/ At some point in the year there is a competition between the two sides and if Pachatata wins that means bad luck for the year to come. Anyway, we went up there for the sunset, which was gorgeous and then apparently you're supposed to walk around the peak three times counterclockwise and make a wish, so we of course listened to our guide and did that too. :) If I were ever a tour guide, I would make up stuff like this (but more embarrassing) just to see if the tourists would do it. For example, snipe hunting. If I were ever to give a tour of my hometown, I would take the tourists snipe hunting. :) Anyway, here are some fun photos from the peak!!
Lago Titicaca
Tonisha, Mark, Sheila, and I on what Tonisha calls
"the top of the navegable lake world."
Sunset
Rocking my chullo and Carthage sweatshirt
on top of Pachatata
Anyway, after watching the sunset, we all went back down the mountain and Sheila and I met our host-grandpa, Benigno in the Plaza. We headed back to the house and had dinner. This time we had sopa de cereal (Cereal soup..tasted like the quinoa soup.yum), segunda de verduras con arroz (this concoction tasted like chicken pot pie, yum!) and mata de muña, which is a mint-y tea. We spent time after dinner again talking with our host family for the night, which was really fun. Once dinner and the chatting was over, Sheila and I got all dressed up in traditional dress and went to a party at the community center. :) It was really fun! There was a live band with guitars and panpipes and we danced and had a blast! And even after all the partying, we were still in bed by 10:30 p.m.!!! Also, I should point out, that the stars were beautiful at night on the island; however, they really freaked me out when I first saw them. If you know me, then you know that I love looking at the stars and I could probably point out more constellations then the average 20 year year old, so automatically, I found Orion's belt and you want to know what I noticed right after that?! It was UPSIDE-DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the coolest thing ever! Everything was upside-down! I mean I know that they would be upside-down because I am in a different hemisphere, but I haven't seen the stars in awhile and it just caught me off guard! I was in awe by it! Ask Sheila, I couldn't get over it, still can't! :)
Sheila and I with our host-grandpa, Benigno
Dancing with two little kids!
So, I've come to the realization that I'm not going to finish these Puno/Arequipa blogs until I get back to the states. I'm going to switch to focusing on my end of the semester blogs and then resume these when I have more time! I'm really sorry for making you wait, but I promise my end of the semester blogs will be interesting as well!!!!!! Buenas noches!
Okay, on to today then a whole lot of trip blogging (maybe). Anyway, I got up pretty much in time to get ready and leave for lunch. Yep, lunch, that means I slept in. I was invited to Marion's house for a volunteer lunch. Marion is one of our directors of CIEE and all of the students who volunteered this semester were invited over to her house for pizza. I was soo excited just when I walked in her door because her apartment is decked out in Christmas, too! It was so exciting. Yay for Christmas! Anyway, we ordered delicious pizza and had a nice chat about volunteering and what we got out of it. It was a good discussion and we spent a nice afternoon together.
After that, Tonisha and I met at Ripley's to look at suitcases, because I have a ridiculous amount of stuff and because I am only allowed 40lbs on the plane, Tonisha is being an amazing friend and taking some of my stuff with her. I keep telling her I'm going to put banned substances in the suitcase so that she gets stuck at customs. Obviously, I'm not going to do that, but it's a funny joke, right? Anyway, as I was riding the escalator to the suitcase section of the department store, I got a very weird feeling. I almost got tears in my eyes. The store looked like Christmas and it smelled like Christmas shopping and it made me miss the states just because all of the sudden I felt that I was at home. Ripley's is so much like an American department store that, for a second, I thought I was actually in one. It was a really weird feeling, but the feeling went away quickly so all is well. Tonisha and I picked out a suitcase together, but didn't buy it because I didn't want carry it in the markets that we were about to go to. :)
Yep, that's right. One more trip to the markets. We went to some different ones today because we heard that they were cheaper, but they were pretty much the same especially when you do some bargaining. :) Anyway, I got the rest of my gifts and probably too many things for myself as well, whoops! I'm really excited about everything I got though, such as my new baby alpaca sweater that has llamas on it!!! Yay! Can you say Christmas sweater/sweater that I will definitely be wearing on the airplane home in order to be prepared for the cold weather?! So excited! Anyway, Mark joined us halfway through and we finished up at one set of markets, then went to one more set. It was a good night! I think we were at the markets for almost four hours. I took a micro back to Ripley's to get the suitcase that Tonisha and I picked out and if I didn't think that it was like Christmas before, it definitely was tonight!!! It was packed! It looked like Black Friday (that's not a joke). Everyone and their Peruvian hairless dog was there. :) I just wanted to get the suitcase and leave and I stood in line for about a half hour or more and I only had two people in front of me. I witnessed two arguments with the cashier as well. Oh boy was it exciting and I was chatting with the older woman standing behind me, it was entertaining and yet I felt bad for the cashier, too. It's Christmastime, people need to have some patience. :) And that includes me as well, because I was also getting a tad impatient.
After I purchased my new suitcase, I happily stuffed all my market buys inside of it and walked home. I arrived home right as my mom was getting home and since today was a holiday (Immaculate Conception) Lidia, our empleada, wasn't working so my mom cooked us dinner and, again, I sat down with a snowman plate, a lit Christmas tree, candles, and we ate together. It was a good time!
Since then, I have watched some Glee episodes and the movie Mi Pobre Angelito (My Poor Little Angel). You'll never guess what movie this actually is... Home Alone!!! Poor little angel?! Kevin has so much fun in that movie! There's nothing "poor" or sad about him. I used to want to be him. I mean, come on! What little kid can come up with all of those fancy ways to torture some robbers? That's pretty cool if you ask me. I mean I guess it's too bad that he was left home alone to begin with, but what would you rather do? Stay home and kick some robber booty or go to Paris? Now, if it was Lima, rather than Paris, I can see why it would be terrible to get left at home, but it's not. ;) Anyway, I have yet to do more packing and this whole blogging thing is taking longer than I want it to, because I want to try and focus on these last couple days rather than blogging, but I'm trying my hardest. I want to get my trip blogs done so then I can focus on really blogging on my overall time here. Also, obviously, I want to spend some time with all the people I've met here. :)
Anyway, have a good night! And keep watching for those trip blogs!
Okay, so this might get confusing. I'm sure you're all excited to hear about the rest of my trip and I'm sure you could care less about yesterday and today, but I'm going to write today and yesterday's blog posts then I'm going to work on my trip posts. This is going to take awhile, but I'm going to try my hardest to write these blog posts left and right. :)
Okay, starting with yesterday. I arrived back in Lima at around 7:30 a.m. after a 15ish hour bus ride. It was actually a pretty easy bus ride. I think if it had been during the day I would've gotten restless, but since it was overnight, I was tired anyway so I slept right through it. Tonisha, Mark, and I micro-ed to Católica and once we got there, Tonisha and I (meaning Tonisha) typed up the outline and bibliography for our presentation and we just hung out after that. We got to campus about two hours before our presentations so we both got some breakfast on campus and we "practiced" our presentation, but mostly just avoided practicing our presentation by listening to our new Andean Christmas CD! :) Then, all of the sudden, it was time for our presentations, but luckily we did pretty well on it (I think) and everyone else did a good job and the topics were interesting. Some of the topics included were Villa el Salvador (the district where Deporte y Vida is), the contamination of the Amazon River, tourism and the act of taking photos in Peru, and the workers of houses (aka empleadas) in Peru. They were all interesting topics and really made me think about what I want to do for my Spanish thesis next semester. :) The only bad thing about the presentations is that it made class time three hours rather than two, so after being on a bus for 15 hours and then having to sit in a classroom, I got restless.
Anyway, after the presentations, Tonisha accompanied me while I did a lot of things. Thanks for waiting on me Tonisha. :) I had to revise, print, and turn in my Cine paper and I had to go to the Dance office to get my transcript for taking ballet. Well, this was a disaster and I'm actually not very happy about it, but I've been to the office several times and each time they haven't had it. Wednesday (yesterday) was supposed to be my last day at Católica, but since I have to go back to pick up that paper, it wasn't. I am making a special trip tomorrow morning to get it. They better have it (which they won't) or else I won't know what to do about it. :/ Anyway, I also had my last piece of Católica chocolate cake, it wasn't too good because it was a Wednesday (it's the best on Monday), but it was still okay. Then, Tonisha and I finally headed home to Miraflores, after not having been there for a week.
When I got home, I couldn't even tell you what I did. I think I did nothing :) I know that I wrote one blog, but other than that, I can't remember. That's no good. I know that I watched the movie The Island, which is a sci-fi movie. It was okay, but not the best. I think I watched another movie, too, but I'm really not sure. This is terrible of me. :/ Anyway, before this blog post gets too boring, let's talk Christmas...
When I got home, there was a Christmas tree here!! A real one. Technically, this is my first real Christmas tree because we don't get real ones at my house, which is fine by me! Less work! Anyway, I was actually surprised to learn that they have real Christmas trees here in Peru. Unfortunately, the real Christmas trees here aren't very full, but I think it's still pretty!
Also, Tonisha came over for dinner and it was the most Christmas-y dinner I've had yet and it was soooo great! Our plates had snowmen on them, our placemats were Christmas-y, the lights of the tree and the candles from the advent wreath were glowing, etc. It was amazing! I can't wait for Christmas! I mean, it is the best time of the year as they say! Anyway, pretty soon after dinner Tonisha and I headed to a birthday/goodbye party at Jen's house. My birthday is this Saturday and Jen's birthday is the 20th and almost everyone is leaving on the 11th, so this party was the last hoorah for everyone. It was pretty fun. We all just hung out and listened to music, nothing too special, but it was a good time.
Jen and I (The Birthday Girls)
Also, since I missed Music Martes, I'm turning it into Music Miércoles. Yesterday's song will be (in the spirit of Christmas) Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano!!!!!
Okay, so I hope you're excited to hear about my week long trip. I'm not sure how many days it's going to take to write everything. It's possible that I'll be back in the states before I finish, but I hope not. I'm hoping to get them all written within the next few days. To start off, I'll tell you that the week away from Lima was amazing!
Anyway, last Thursday (which was so long ago) Tonisha and I got up at 5:30 to get ready to leave for the airport. We both got very little sleep, but once we were up and moving we felt okay. Plus, I got to catch up on sleep on the plane. Anyway, we left my house and went to Vivanda to pick up big liters of water for the weekend. I'm so proud o us too because we decided not to take a ridiculously expensive taxi and we decided to micro instead and we found a micro that took us part way there then got on another one to take us the rest of the way. I'd say we're pretty accustom to Peru, when we can take two micros to the airport without getting lost. :) So rather than pay s/.30+ each we each paid s/.2.50 - it was an awesome way to save money.
When we got to the airport, the lady at the counter told us to hurry. We didn't end up being late at all, but when someone at an airport tells me to hurry, I am going to. So we went through security and then headed to the gate to get on our bus to get on the plane. The plane was full, but somehow I managed to be in the very first seat in the front. I pretty much fell asleep before the plane even took off and we made a long stop in Arequipa where I slept as well. From Arequipa to Juliaca was about a half hour flight and when we landed in Juliaca, I didn't want to get off the plane because the altitude is 12,549 feet and I wasn't looking forward to not being able to breath. Well even though Juliaca is a lot higher than Cusco, I actually felt 10x worse in Cusco. The altitude didn't have as great of effect on me which is awesome. When we left the airport, we then of course had a taxi driver and a combi driver fighting over us for who would take us to Puno. The combi won again because of the cheaper price. That drive was about 45-50 minutes and I slept the whole time for that, too. :)
Once we got to Puno, we took a taxi to the Plazz de Armas, because that's always a good place to start in a city and we walked around in search for a hostel. We ended up styaing at teh Hospedaje Rosario, which was the first one we came to. It probably wasn't the best choice, but I kept saying it had character to make me feel better, which in reality, it did have character. It smelled of paint thinner and the springs/mattresses were probably 50 years old. :)
Our shanty hostel room. :)
After we dropped our bags off at what would be our home for the night, we all went to eat lunch. I guess I hould tell you that "we" is Tonisha, Mark, Sheila, and I. We took our first trip together to Ica/Nazca about 15 weeks ago and we took our last trip together. :) Anyway, for lunch we went to what appeared to be a local place, which are the best. Prices are cheap and the food is good and plentiful. For s/.6 ($2.23) we each got a salad, a huge (and I mean HUGE) bowl of delicious soup and an entree. My entree was spaghetti, but I barely ate any of it because the amazing soup filled me up. We then went back tho the hostel for a 2 hour nap. The nap was COLD! We had a window open to get rid of the paint thinner smell, but it was so cold and when we left the hostel again at around 5 p.m. We all understood why it is that when you say "I'm going to Puno," they respond with "Puno is cold." It was, in fact, cold! And the wind didn't help. It was then that I realized that I wasn't too excited to go home to the cold and Puno helped me realize that.
Anyway, we walked to the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas and went in and sat down for awhile then we went to a statue that is on a hilltop that is a statue of Manco Cápac, the first Incan. It was a pretty view, but it was cold up on the hill. :) We then went to dinner at a pizza place that was pretty good. They had Andean music playing, which was nice and one of the songs was "What Child is This." This then put us on a mission to find a Andean pan pipe Christmas CD, which we did find on our last day in Arequipa. :) After eating, we went shopping at the markets. It wasn't an all that successful trip because the prices were high, but I still got a few things, and everybody else bought stuff so that they could bundle up at night. After shopping, we all went back to our creepy hostel (it really was creepy at night) and we bundled up and were in bed by 10:30 p.m.
La Plaza de Armas and Cathedral in Puno
On the hill freezing with Lake Titicaca in the background
So, I missed class again today. Just kidding, I really didn't. I actually went to Peruvian Social Reality today and it was actually a really fun class. When I walked in the professor was talking about the different ways people celebrate Christmas and I thought that holidays was the topic of the today's class. Well, come to find out, when there were ten minutes left in the class, our professor said, "Oh, I actually wanted to have class today and talk more about gender." Haha, well obviously that didn't happen, but still like I said, I had a lot of fun talking about the different holidays and traditions in Peru. For example, Christmas has "US American" aspects to it, like they have snow flake and other snow decorations, but there has never been a recorded snowfall in Lima. Also, a really cute thing that I like is the tooth fairy here. Actually, they don't have a fairy. They have a little mouse that takes your tooth and leaves a coin or small gift. And here's the part that I really like about this story, everyone has their own mouse! How cute is that? The tooth fairy is so general, so a kid has to feel really special knowing that he has his/her own personal mouse to take his/her tooth. :) Also, we talked about other holidays like Easter, New Year's, Valentine's Day, April Fool's Day (which is actually in December), and Latin American holidays like Carnaval and Tres Magos. It was an overall great last day of class. Also, I should tell you that my professor's son is home and doing so much better and he is off all pain medications. He will still have a surgery in the next coming weeks, but compared to how he was before, it seems that his health has improved immensely. Thanks for praying for his family.
After PSR, I had my last Living and Learning class. We had a bunch of snacks today in class and it was actually rather unhealthy and all the sweet food made me feel sick afterwards, but the discussion was good. We pretty much discussed reverse-culture shock and what we're going to say to people when they ask us about our experiences. We also talked about what we'll miss and how we think we have changed by being here. It was a nice last class and it was nice to talk about our experiences with people who have all had experiences here as well. After an hour break, I had my Spanish Writing Workshop final. We had to write two essays and to be honest, my essays were quite boring and I'm really not sure how well I did, but mostly, I just can't believe that it was my last day of actual classes.
Anyway, after class, Tonisha and I went to Café Z for a few hours to work on our presentation that is next Wednesday. We got some of it done, but we didn't finish by any means. I'm really glad we didn't have to write a paper, but at the same time, the paper would've given us more direction and made us more organized.
Tonight, we had a cocktail party with all of the students and host families. It was a really good time. We got appetizers and free pisco sours! :) I sat with my host mom, Tonisha, and Tonisha's host family and we had some really nice conversation. Then, we had some nice entertainment. Jenplays the ukelele so she played that while Ian and Rachel sang and then Mark played the cajón while his dad played the guitar. It was really good entertainment. We sang Aude Lang Syne, Mi Perú, the Star-Spangled Banner, and La Bamba. During La Bamba, Sheila's mom made Tonisha and I get up and dance, which was fun. :) Also, some of the host parents, students, and CIEE staff gave short speeches to everyone and I'm not going to lie, I did tear up a little. I still can't believe how fast the time has gone and how I have really gotten to know everyone in the group! It's been amazing!
The Entertainment :)
My host mom and I (We did not plan the Christmas colors,
however, I will say that I love that we do in fact look like Christmas)
Anyway, Tonisha came over to my house tonight so we could work on our presentation some more since we leave tomorrow at 6 a.m. from my house to go to Puno. We'll it is now 3:30 a.m., our presentation is still not done, and we're exhausted! So pretty much we're going to bed and we're going to do the rest of it during our trip. I'm very excited for this last trip and I can't wait to tell you all about it next week!!
Anyway, one last thing...thank you soooo much for voting for ILS this whole month! We ended at #23, but we would have never been able to even get that far without all your votes! Thanks for voting and thanks for sharing!
Sorry that there will not be any posts this coming week, but you will be flooded with trip posts next week so keep your eyes open for them!
