One huge highlight so far: on Sunday, we woke up with a wrapped gift from Richie (11yo boy), youngest child of the family we are staying with. It was an original song that he wrote for us in Spanish, with an English translation included. The actual gift was him singing the song, i tried to upload the video but it didnt work, so instead i am settling for sharing with you the "google translator english version" (trust me it was prettier and made more sense in spanish)
Welcome to this house, really welcome
Welcome to this house, really welcome
Welcome to this house, really welcome
MMMMMM, MMMMMM, MMMM, Welcome
Today is a special day, we are all together
Come, we celebrate, you arrived
Come, we share, you came to our house
Its good to have you as guests
Mormon soccer: on my first full day at 11,000+ feet, i got invited by 2 missionaries going door to door, to play soccer. I had to wake up at 7am, and I definitely hadnt adjusted to the climate, but finding a regular pick-up soccer game was one of my "big goals" coming into this trip. So i said yes. I thought this game might last til 830 or so...NO: in classic Cusco-fashion, we didnt start playing until 845, and the 14 missionaries & 125+ "mormon youth" were still playing when I left at Noon. I really didnt know what i was getting myself into, it was a recruiting event where the missionaries were supposed to show/talk about how awesome it is to be a mormon missionary in order to get "the youth" sign up for their missionary duty when they got older. There were lots of speeches, lots of prayers, lots of spanish, and lots of soccer. Overall, it was a pretty funny/fun thing to do on my first morning in Peru. Totally not expected.
Speaking of Big Goals, in case you were not aware, the No.1 goal we have while we are here is to learn SPANISH! In two months we are going to a town 45 mins from the city center and I will be working at a Christian Clinic for our last 2 months. If i want to be able to having meaningful interactions with patients, i gotta learn spanish.
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| A pretty view, from a pretty hotel...we might stay here when our parents visit in March for a Macchu Piccu trek + jungle safari |
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| The view from San Blas |
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| The famed: "Plaza de Armas", there is a crazy amount of history here related to spanish colonization annihilating the Incas... its a mixture of sad, interesting, tragic, and symbiotic |
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| Maren is a great travel partner, and even better life partner |
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| hawaiian shaka meet cusco |
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| The Villenas family (our hosts for 2 months) missing Lisette (the mom) |
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| Who needs to go to Brazil, when you have a huge statue of jesus hanging out over top Cusco |
Did you know: every sunday in Cusco they blow off fireworks starting at like 5am. You hear this noise that sounds like a bomb going off. It lasts for 10 seconds. In my mind, i have 3 issues with this: 1) its loud and at first a little scary. 2) its daytime, you cant see fireworks in the daytime. 3) the noises are so random and sporadic that even if you could see fireworks, you wouldnt know when/where to look, and by the time you hear the noise and go to look out the window, the 10 second extravaganza is over...my guess is that you did NOT know any of this
Alright, thanks for reading/looking, more where this came from (except hopefully even better)
1st WEEKEND IN CUSCO
LOVE the recap! I can just picture Richi singing!! So...we lived there for 9 months and I never knew of these fireworks. What!? are you talking about? I guess that I am a sound sleeper.
ReplyDeleteThe room looks awesome! They painted it since we left...and got a new bed (our mattress was on the floor because Kenzo broke the bed at one point (jumping on it)).
I am impressed that Maren (and maybe you, but I saw the photo evidence for Maren) tried Chicha. I did that once and only once. What did she think? Her face doesn't look too impressed.
Have so much fun with that precious family!! Hopefully we can skype with all of you soon.