Given that none of us has posted for a while, seems like everyone has been pretty busy! I have definitely found that my day fills up quickly but I am really enjoying the daily pace of life in Cusco. Since I've been here for over two weeks now, I feel much more settled in and I thought it might be interesting to write about a typical day. So here goes:
7:30am Wake up, shower, etc. Recently learned that the trick to getting hot water is to turn the knob about half a centimeter instead of turning the knob all the way. My shower experience has been greatly improved.
8:00am Breakfast. It's kind of strange getting served by my host mom (I keep asking her if I can help, to no avail) and not having any idea what I am going to eat until it appears in front of me. But I am loving Peruvian breakfast food, I think it might be my favorite meal. One of my favorite breakfast foods here is pan de hauro with cheese or strawberry jam and butter inside. Pan de hauro is kind of like thick pita but with a harder outside and a really soft inside. And the cheese here is unlike anything I've had in the US--picture salty, spongy white cheese that holds its shape really well when you slice it. I didn't really like it at first but it's growing on me. But I still really miss normal cheddar, apparently it doesn't really exist in Peru. My other breakfast favorite is granola, but this stuff is nothing like the Trader Joe's granola that I grew up on. Peruvian granola is a bunch of different types of grains all puffed up--wheat, quinoa, some other special Peruvian grain, etc. So it's not very crunchy but it is delicious and filling and mixes really well with yogurt. My host mom serves it with lúcuma yogurt. The yogurt here is runny and more drinkable than spoonable, like the texture of thin kefir. Lúcuma is an orange fruit that is special to Peru that kind of tastes like...gingerbread. Sounds weird but it's good. Wow who knew I could write so much about breakfast?
8:40am Huff and puff to the top of the hill to meet my friends Tyler and Maggie and walk to school. My house is at the bottom of a very steep street, so steep that the fourth floor of my building is about level with the top of the hill. The crazy high altitude here really does make a difference when you are taking part in any physical activity, aka even walking up a few flights of stairs makes you get out of breath during the first week. It's a very foreign feeling for someone who has spent most of their life in the low-elevation states of Illinois and Minnesota.
9:00am Quechua class! This is only a two week class but I wish we had more time because I am loving Quechua! It is so interesting to have the experience of seeing a language for the first time. I started taking Spanish in 6th grade so I kind of forgot what that completely new feeling is like. It is so cool to get to the point where you know enough about the language to start recognizing patterns and can actually understand what is going on. It's not an easy language, especially because the sounds and the structure are so different from English and Spanish, but I am really enjoying the challenge. Here’s a little Quechua fun fact: Machu Picchu means “Old Mountain” (machu means old, picchu means mountain) and Wayna Picchu means “Young Mountain” (wayna means young, or describes a young man).
10:30am Half hour break for coffee/tea/socializing. During orientation we visited a ceramics studio and got to decorate our own clay mugs, which we now use whenever we want hot drinks at school. This is a good place in this blog entry to note that coffee is kind of weird in Peru. Either it's instant coffee granules or it's "cafe natural," which is extremely concentrated coffee that you dilute with hot water until it is to your liking. Also, people are really into hot drinks here. Which is cool with me because I have always enjoyed coffee and tea and hot chocolate more than soda. But here there is a whole philosophy around hot drinks: everyone is always worried about catching a cold. Also, my friend Maggie's host mom says that if you eat certain foods (like avocado, for example), you have to drink something hot so you don't get sick. Interesting.
12:00pm Done with morning class. We have hang out time to use the internet at the school or run errands like dropping off laundry, printing out articles near the university, buying notebooks, etc.
1:00pm Walk home to eat lunch. Usually it’s just me and my host mom but sometimes my host dad or sister or brother comes home from work to eat lunch. This is by far the biggest meal of the day, which has taken some getting used to. Lunch starts out with a soup, at my house anything from ramen noodles to quinoa soup with potatoes and zapallo (a large vegetable that's kind of like a cross between butternut squash and punpkin) to choclo (Peruvian corn on the cob). Choclo is very very different from American sweet corn--the cob is about the same size but it's a lot more starchy and there are about 8 rows of kernels that range in size from a pinky fingernail to a thumb fingernail. It's served with the same salty cheese from breakfast so you have to carefully plan the ratio of bites of cheese to bites of choclo so you don't end up with too much choclo left over at the end. Then after that is the segundo, which is the main course. My host mom gave me huge portions at first and I had to explain to her that it was way more than I could eat. Generally it is something potato or meat with a sauce and some rice on the side. But my favorite lunch so far was yesterday's lunch: a slice of cheese inserted between two slices of something like sweet potato (can't remember the name), then battered and fried and served with rice and a very simple cucumber and tomato salad. Yum! Then, only after you are done eating the main course, can you have a drink. Apparently this is a very important part of Andean culture. Usually I drink water but my host family is way into the refrescos. Then I have a piece of fruit or some jello or some mazamorra, which is like a soupy jello texture of hot ground purple corn mixed with sugar and cinnamon.
2:40pm Make the epic journey back to the top of the hill to walk back to school. At first this huge 3 hour break in the middle of the day seemed a bit excessive, but now I really like it. Lunch isn't at all rushed like it is in the US, and you have a chance to take a mental break from class, talk with friends and your host family, enjoy being outside, use the internet, etc.
3:00pm Seminar with a visiting lecturer. The lectures so far have been about topics ranging from Andean Cosmovision to Peruvian gastronomy and the intersection between traditional Pervian ingredients and Spanish cuisine. Because we are in wettest month of the rainy season (aka summer but it's not actually that warm), usually it rains during our afternoon class time. One day there was a huge hail storm and another day it rained so hard that the roof of the school was leaking. The school is on the fourth floor of a mixed residential/office building and we usually have a really good view of the storm. And of course we also have a really good view of the mountains surrounding Cusco--the valley is so beautiful. Sometimes I kind of forget where I am and then I look out the window and there are the Andes. Sweet!
4:45pm Another hot drink break. Love it!
5:30pm/6pm The seminar ends at some point between 5:30 and 6pm and we are free for the rest of the day. Sometimes we go into the centro to run errands or get food or go shopping but most of the time we go to this amazing internet cafe called Don Pancho y Don Esteban that's less than 5 minutes away from the school. Picture an awesome cafe that so impresses you with its cheap croissants and alfajores, good music, and comfy chairs that you almost forget you went there in the first place to use the internet.
7/7:30/8pmish Go home for dinner. Dinner in Peru is something light, definitely not the biggest meal of the day like it is in the US. Sometimes my mom makes a little omelette with cheese and oregano served over rice, sometimes she serves leftovers from lunch, and sometimes she gives me just dessert, like a piece of apple pie from a nearby bakery. Then of course we drink tea or decaf coffee after we are done eating. Usually I end up chatting with my host parents or one of my host siblings about Quechua class or Peruvian culture or funny family stories for a while before I start homework.
9:00pm Read for tomorrow’s afternoon seminar and do Quechua homework. Try to connect to the ethernet in my room and rejoice when it works, about 2 times out of 3. Discover that Hulu really doesn’t work outside the US and fail to figure out how to trick the internet into thinking I’m not actually in Peru.
11:30pm Cozy up beneath 2 alpaca blankets and a comforter while wearing sweatpants and a long sleeved t-shirt. Houses here don’t have heat and even in the summer it gets pretty chilly at night. But still not nearly as chilly as the Midwest at this time of yearJ
This is the last “normal” week for a while because on Monday we are leaving for a two and a half week trip to Puno (Lake Titicaca!), Colca Canyon (homestay with a Quechua-dominant family), and Arequipa! Then we are back in Cusco for about 3 weeks of normal classes and the homestay before leaving for a 5 day trip to Manu, the Amazonian region of Peru. I love being in Cusco but I’m really excited to get to see other parts of the country!
In other news: Miracle of miracles, I got mail on Valentine’s Day! Thanks for the card, Grandmommy and Granddaddy! I can’t believe it arrived in just one week!
Also, I have been incredibly surprised by how cheap everything is here! No entry fee for discotecas; taxis cost 3 soles, about $1, but we split the cost between at least 4 people; international calling card with 45 minutes of call time costs less than $2; a cell phone costs $20 and comes with 20 free minutes of calls and 20 free texts; a croissant at the amazing internet café costs about 15 cents, etc. etc. This also means that souvenirs are very reasonably priced so let me know if you have any requests!
Tupananchiskama (Quechua for “see you when I see you”),
Maggie
P.S. As promised: pictures from Machu Picchu!
P.S. As promised: pictures from Machu Picchu!
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