Tuesday January 11^th, 2011

Yesterday was my first day of class at Centro Tinku. Monday through Friday I have class from 3-5pm. In total I will take 5 courses, but right now I have 2, one about the Spanish language and one about language and culture. Both of my professors are female and both are very nice, which is pretty important considering my classes are one on one. I was hoping to have classmates of some sort so that it would be easier to meet people and make friends, but I guess I’m out of luck in that department. Yesterday I briefly met 2 students from Germany, but I think they’re both leaving Cusco to do volunteer work. I think there are other students that will eventually be coming, but they’re not here yet. I must practice patience…

On a lighter note, I successfully took the bus all by myself today! The first time going to and from Centro Tinku my host father Alberto went with me, but today I went on my own. I take one of the many “microbuses” (or combi) which is basically a van with extra seats in it. Sometimes they’re full to the point of standing room only, which is a bit uncomfortable. When you're coming up on a bus stop the person operating the door yells out the name of it. If you're getting off you have to say 'baja', otherwise they won't stop! 

Tomorrow is my birthday, which would be super important if I was in the US, but here it’s just another birthday (in Peru the drinking age is 18). I don’t yet have any specific plans. I’m not sure what Peruvians usually do to celebrate a birthday, but I’ll find out soon!

The weather here is still pretty nice. It rained most of the night last night, but then was warm and sunny during the day. So far this “rainy season” isn’t all that bad…

Wednesday January 12^th, 2011

¡ Feliz cumpleaños a mí ! This morning Alberto prepared a special drink for my birthday. It’s called Ponche de Habas and is a drink for parties and is served hot. It usually contains the alcohol beverage called Pisco (it’s unique to Peru) but this didn’t, of course. Ponche simply means ‘punch’ and ‘habas’ translates to ‘broad beans.’ It also contains egg, cinnamon, and airampo, which has a red color (I’m not sure if it has a certain flavor or if it’s just for color). For lunch we prepared Pastel de Papas, which means ‘potato cake’ literally. It was a lot like a lasagna, but with potatoes instead of pasta. It also contained tomatoes, onions, hardboiled eggs, milk, cheese, and whipped eggs. To bake it, we didn’t use the oven here; we walked to the ‘gran horno’ where a woman operates a big wood fire oven. I suppose it’s more economical in both energy and money to use a community oven!

Right now it’s 7:30pm, so for the rest of my birthday, as far as I know right now, Miguel and some other friends of Paty are going to come over for dinner and cake and then we’re going out to dance. I’m glad Paty has friends to share with me since I still don’t have any of my own… :/

Class today went well and I once again rode the microbus successfully! I’m getting to know the city better, little by little and once I get a better map of the city I’m going to do more exploring.

One cultural difference that you might find interesting is the way Peruvians greet one another. When you greet someone you always put your cheek to theirs and make the kissing noise as if you were kissing them on the cheek (but you aren’t literally kissing them on the cheek). It doesn’t matter if you see them every day or if you’re meeting them for the first time, you always use this greeting. To be honest, I’m still getting used to it…

I’ll hopefully continue the story and post again sometime this weekend!