Al Principio…

Thanks for being patient with my comparative lack of communication. Although Cusco is far from primitive, it took me some time to get settled and figure out how/where/how often I can have internet, to make sure I didn’t need a converter for power, and to just work out the technicalities of living in a new place.

I guess I should start at the beginning and review basic events of my first few days.

For those of you who don’t know, I left the US on Jan. 13, 2010 for Cusco, Peru. I am studying here until April 22, and will be returning to the US on May 1 (yeah… don’t really know what I’m doing for the last 8 days… but if you have suggestions, I’m open!) I’m enrolled in 16 credit hours (officially) with a program at Centro Bartolomè de las Casas, a research center and library here in Cusco. It’s not technically a university, but we still have classes which are tailored to our interests and requirements, and taught by professors. 

Anyway, more on that later. The flights here were fairly uneventful. I met Lauren Hack, my roommate, in the Miami airport. The meeting was entertaining, and involved us both awkwardly staring at each other for a few minutes before talking and confirming that we were with the same program and were not, in fact, just being creepy. Going through customs was no big deal, and we weren’t forcefully interrogated or anything.

Once we got to Cusco, Emily, one of the ProPeru staffers, came to pick us up from the airport in Cusco. My first impressions of Cusco were actually quite similar to my first impression of the Andaman Islands in India, as weird as that sounds. It’s a fairly small town with an airport about the size of the one on the islands. The cars are smaller than they are in the US, and the place smells like Delhi, like that mixture of car exhaust, spices, and what should be fresh air (though obviously mountain air rather than the sea breeze of the islands… it’s still fresh after a rain). The mountains are gorgeous though, I’ll upload pictures whenever I have fast connection and patience at the same time.

We first went to the hotel via taxi. It was weird being out of breath after the short walk from the taxi to the room, but because of the altitude, it wasn’t surprising. We’re at around 9,000 feet above sea level, and obviously Tampa is pretty close to 0ft. After getting settled in, Lauren and I went out to explore the city. We discovered the main plaza, called La Plaza de Armas, a couple of markets, our school (the CBC), and a place to get notebooks and school supplies. After lunch in a market (noodle soup for 2.5 soles which is about 80 cents, and it was AMAZING!!) Then, we walked back to the hotel and slept for a few hours. Because of the altitude, we were both exhausted. Less oxygen = less energy. In the evening, we walked around some more, had dinner out, and then came back and slept early. It’s becoming a habit of mine to go to bed around 10pm and be up by around 6:30. Strange, yes, but oddly satisfying.

I also learned the benefits of being able to ask locals and other travelers questions. The restaurant we ate at was quite literally a 2.5-foot wide hole in a wall, which led into a small courtyard. At one end of the courtyard was a brightly lit room, which was the restaurant.

The second day, the other girls started arriving after breakfast. There are 9 of us in this specific program. We got to talk quite a bit, and got to know each other. We had both lunch and dinner as a group, but during the afternoon just walked around the city. The altitude was enough to tire us for the first few days, but now most of us are completely fine as long as we’re not doing really intense exercise.

I bought a small coin purse in a market since Peruvian sols are coins for: 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50 centimos (100 centimos = 1 sol) AND 1, 2, and 5 sols. Only 10 and up are bills, and most daily transactions (transportation, basic food, etc) are in coins. Paying for a bus which costs 60 centimos with a 10 or 20 sol bill is just begging to be pickpocketed. Plus, it’s a pain for all persons involved.

The third day, on Saturday, our host families picked us up. I’m glad they gave us a couple days to get used to the country, language, altitude, etc. before introducing us. I had a pretty epic headache on Friday morning because of oxygen deprivation because of the altitude, so I slept most of the morning.

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Anyway, the family is extremely nice. Lauren and I really could not have asked for anything more. We live in the smallest apartment out of all the girls (some of their families even gave them a choice of rooms!), and ours is 3 small-ish bedrooms (the largest is about the size of my room at home, and the smallest is only slightly larger than my dorm room), 1 bathroom, a living area, and a small kitchen, but it’s cozy. It’s also part of my personality though; I tend to be happier with less junk. They have a son who is my age (turns 20 in October) and who is studying at the University in Cusco, and a daughter who is in a boarding high school in Lima, the capital of Peru. Saturday we basically got to know the family better, and drank enormous amounts of tea. We almost drink more tea here than we did in India. The most popular and best known is called ‘mate de coca’ (pronounced ‘mah-teh') and is made from the leaves of the same plant used to manufacture cocaine.

Before you get excited, it’s not addictive or harmful, I asked. It takes 20 kilos of leaves plus 18 different chemicals and weeks of processing to get cocaine. It’s been helping me altitude sickness though (symptoms include headache, exhaustion, mild wheezing) and some stomach issues from getting used to the food. I guess it’s just enough to relax you. Also, since buildings here don’t have internal heating or AC, a hot drink quickly warms you up. Even though we’re just south of the Equator, the altitude makes this place colder than most winter days in Florida. I’ve been drinking 4-5 cups of tea a day, but ‘mate’ is different from ‘te’ and means an infusion: only leaves and water, no milk or sugar.

The next morning, we went to church with the family. I’ve always been a bit weirded out by Catholicism, but they had a hymn to the tune of ‘The Sound of Silence’ by Simon and Garfunkel, so we got a kick out of that. Also, the father in our host family, Willy (short for William of course) is a native speaker of Quechua, an indigenous language of Peru, and he’s been teaching me words and phrases, so after church we went to the market and I recorded what I could from him. It’s fun to be able to greet him in Quechua, Spanish, and English in the morning, and to know that I can also hold a basic conversation in two more languages! In the afternoon, we went to the house of the mother of our host mother (Marilyn). We had lunch there, and spent several hours talking. Some members of the extended family were there also, and had fun making fun of our terrible Spanish. Lauren and I have accepted that between us we can almost carry a decent conversation.

It’s amazing how fast my Spanish is improving though. It’s only been a week and I’m already having coherent, if not fluent, conversations.

It’s getting late now, so I’m going to sum up the last couple days, and progress in basic language, culture, etc.

Classes are going pretty well. I’m in 6 hours of Spanish, 3 of Political Science, 3 of culture/art/history, and 4 of ‘development’. I was originally placed in the basic Spanish class, but they moved me up to Intermediate because I was bored witless in the easier one. The advanced is definitely beyond me though. It only has 2 students both of whom are both Spanish majors. Development was a little annoying because it’s being taught from a Euro-centric perspective, but maybe that’ll change with time. I’m trying to be patient since it’s only the first week. The culture class is probably going to be my favorite, but I think it’ll be interesting to get a grounding in political science, since right now I don’t know anything.

Spanish is awesome. It’s coming along really well, and it’s fun to learn the differences between Andean Spanish and ‘Castillian’ (Spain/standard) Spanish. Some words and pronunciations are slightly different, but if I was not a linguistics major and had not been trained to hear the differences, then I would not even notice them. Willy and a few others have also been teaching me a bit of Quechua. It’s interesting how similar it is to Jaqaru and Aymara, other indigenous Peruvian languges, even though it’s not even in the same language family. It’s like the similarities between Hindi and Spanish, even though they’re completely different in so many ways. I’m enjoying it, and it’s fun to impress people in the market by being able to tell them I’m from the US in their own language, especially since so many Peruvians don’t even speak it.

Peruvian food is awesome. Our host family makes sure we have plenty of fruit, toast, and tea (or coffee) every morning for breakfast, and sometimes we have cheese or cereal with it. We generally don’t have milk products other than cheese though… not sure why, but I don’t really miss it. After morning classes (9am-12pm) we take the combi (a miniature bus, but with the same idea) home for lunch. We have 3 hours of siesta (12-3pm). Lunch (el almuerzo) is easily the largest meal of the day. On weekends, we started with a soup, had a starch, some vegetables, sometimes chicken (but I told them I don’t eat much meat, and they’ve been very accommodating), and dessert (flan, jello-ish stuff, or just fruit and honey). During the week, it’s a bit simpler. For instance, rice or potatoes with vegetables steamed, sauted, or roasted with different spices, and fruit for dessert.

They have also been introducing us to traditional drinks. I had chica morada in the US, and the family here made it for us as well. One night, all of us went out also, and I had a ‘pisco sour’ which is similar to a whiskey sour but with a local liquor called pisco. I had to be a bit careful though, since the altitude augments the effect of alcohol. On the plus side, it’s cheaper to get drunk here.

Anyway, overall, I really like it here. I’m not having any problems with the temperature. My boots are going to be extremely well-used by the end of the trip, since I’m wearing them day in, day out now. Fortunately they are very comfortable and of excellent quality. It’s just too cold to wear flip flops all the time, plus, most of the streets are uneven cobblestones and have cracks and gaps. Even tennis shoes might not have been practical because of how rainy it’s been (almost like Florida’s summer, every afternoon between 1 and 4).

Money is fine. I’ve gone through less than $40 in the last week, without even trying to save. Quite the contrary in fact, since we’ve already gone out twice. I’ve started leaving most of my valuables at home in a locked drawer since one of the girls got pickpocketed the other day (thank goodness she only lost a few soles, but still). I don’t carry more than 20 sols at a time, and I keep all original documents in that drawer.

So far as the general ‘aura’ or ‘feel’ of the place goes, everyone should visit some time. It’s a comparatively small town up in the mountains, and it’s so relaxing. Somehow it really is impossible to be stressed out here. Classes start at 9am, but I’ve been waking up at 6:45 almost on the dot every morning, showering leisurely, eating breakfast and talking with the host family, before leaving around 8:30 to catch the combi to class. It takes about 25 minutes to get to the CBC, but it’s a good time to review vocabulary, talk to the people on the combi, and ponder the morning events. Willy normally gives me a Quechua lesson in the morning, since later we have homework, go out with the other girls, or do other stuff too.

            The CBC isn’t technically a university, but it’s an internationally known research center in the humanities and social sciences of the Andes. For instance, the history, linguistics, politics, and culture of the mountains primarily of Peru of course, but also of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Its library has over 50,000 volumes in addition to articles, maps, censuses, and other records. I’m hoping to be able to look into their volumes more while I’m here, though I haven’t had much of a chance so far. I’ve already seen grammars of Quechua, Huascan, Aymara, and a couple other indigenous languages, though I have yet to find any of Kawki. I kind of wish that we were studying at an actual university where I could meet students from other countries or who differed greatly from me, but I’m getting to be better friends with the other girls in our group. Plus, I’ve gotten to know a couple other travelers, and the extended family of my host family. We’ll see how it goes. I’m pretty confident right now though, both academically and socially, and am excited to see where the semester will take me.

            It’s hard to believe that already I’ve been here a week (more or less). For some reason, it’s taken me a lot less time to adjust to life here than it did in India…. I really don’t know why.

We do have wireless internet in the CBC, but taking the computer is a little difficult and dangerous, especially if we mess around the city after classes. I’ll probably average about one entry per week.

Hasta luego!