Hueves de Cuzco

It hardly seems I have been here less than a week. I will admit last night that my belly started to rumble a little, but I am feeling better today. I drank lots of te de una de gato. I am still having trouble with the accent marks - there should be an accent on the e of tea and the n of una. Literraly the tea is called "the fingernail of the cat", but it is a plant in the jungle that looks like a cat's claw. It is good for the stomach, so I have drinking a lot of it. It is very different here because you cannot flush paper. It goes in a waste basket next to the toilet, and I have a great fear of forgetting. Last night I dreamt about having to clean a toilet out with a pair of forks. Gross! School was marvelous...again. I really love learning in class and wish I could afford to take classes all day long, but then I wouldn't be with my friends. I love sitting between Locke and Jason. We're always having fun and making jokes. Today Carla taught us many slang phrases, which we tried to correlate in English. Most did not, though a couple phrases are similar. Por ejemplo, "tener patas de gallo" es misma "have crows' feet" (wrinkles by the eyes). Also, our phrase "costs an arm and a leg is similar to "costar un ojo de la cara" (costs an eye). I mis-interpreted the phrase "tener a una persona entre ceja y ceja" for "have someone by the balls", but it really means to hate someone (have a person inbetween the eyes, as in a gun sight). My mistake began a joke about how it doesn't translate for women because we cannot or do not need to be controlled. Then we discussed how "problem" is masculine and "solution" is feminine. The joking was a lot of fun! Jason and I had a great conversation about environment and conservation between teachers. It's great to be able to have these type of conversations (in English of course) because my Spanish is often not so deep. Tomorrow is our last class this week, but hopefully Manuela and Jason will be in my class next week. We talk about work and home life a lot in class, so I am often talking about Metro CareRing as if I still work there. It is so interesting how even this far away, a person's identity is tied to their work. This afternoon I went to Saint Dominic's, which is built on the Incan temple of the sun - Q'oricancha. It was interesting to see, though I was disappointed I couldn't take pictures in the church of these beautiful paintings of "archangels", young Peruvian boys as angels. There were also angels of virtue that were young girls. The pictures were so sweet. I did take some pictures of the stone work that is still around, probably seven hundred years old. The craftsmanship is amazing! No mortar or lime between the stones, and they fit perfectly. I also checked out the Cathedral, where in fact you can see a huge picture of the Last Supper with Jesus serving cuy (guinea pig). The statues were really quite grotesque, actually. I enjoyed the churches in Italy and the few in Spain we visited. But these statues were pretty gaudy, and some looked like mannequins from a store with hideous wigs. In some of the side chapels, I saw some interesting things - a saint that looked like a long haired Indiana Jones, a nicely decorated space with cleaning supplies under the altar, another nicely decorated chapel with a telephone on the altar (not a cell phone). Unfortunately I can only share these images in words, but it was really quite amusing. On my way home, I saw that the Convento la Merced was open. It is only open in the evenings during services. Mass had just started, so I sat and tried to follow along. There were no prayer books, so I did my best. It was nice to go to mass, though there were tourists filing in and around during mass. As I exited, I ran into a parade of children with paper lanterns lit by candles. Some were dressed in a traditional costume and "dancing." I think what I saw the other day was practice for the parade. Gloria said it is an anniversary of the school. It was so sweet, though too dark for my pictures to come out well. From there I ran into Locke and Molly, but they stopped at a cafe, and I kept on home. In Plaza de San Francisco, I saw a group of men preparing for a music show. This I did capture in photos and videos. I will see if I can upload it to youtube.com or something to share the music. There are events at the municipal theatre, and this group began playing outside to draw people in. It was quite neat. Tonight we had hot chocolate with dinner, and I got a couple of the clues on Wheel of Fortune again! Whoopee! We wondered where they may have found their contestants if they couldn't figure out the clues before a non-speaker did. Quite proud of myself...huh? I am quite tired and starting to get chilled. It was such a nice afternoon; to be outside kept me warmer a lot later than usual. Thanks for the notes and e-mails. I only wish all of you could be with me, like in that cell phone commercial. Thanks for being my network! love, victoria ps - the spellcheck doesn't work here because everything is in Spanish. Please pardon my errors.