Hey yo!! Its Andy here. So we´ve been in Cusco for about a week now and have gotten the chance to explore and learn more about the city. Not only have we explored but we are also learning spanish at the same time!! The school FairPlay is awesome. Everyone has a teacher so the classes are one on one. We all had to take a exam before having class just so they could determine the levels we were at. It varies from person to person but we either have two hours of grammar first from 1-3 and then practice from 3-5. Practice is when we get to go out into the city with our own teachers and learn more about the city. Grammar is when we use our grammar books and learn more spanish the old school way =P.
But to recap the whole week, we got into Cusco pretty early(around 9) which meant an early wakeup call around 4. But once we got here we immediately went to see our host families. There are only two so there are 4 students assigned to each one. Maleea, Cecilia, Megan, and I are assigned to one so, as you might have guessed, Elta, Chlo, Kelsey, and Helen are assigned to the other. The two houses are located really close together so, sometimes, if someone needs to get to school early to volunteer, we can plan a meeting time with some of the other group members so we can split the taxi price. Anyways, Halloween was Monday as you all may have figured out. So after school we all went to the Plaza de Armas(which seems to be in every city I´ve been to) and saw all the kids costumes. However, somehow the kids associated gringos with candy, so we got mobbed once we stepped out of the cab. We learned quickly that if we stopped moving they would quickly swarm us, so lesson learned, keep moving! Some of the group members decided to buy some masks so they could be in the spirit of Halloween. Megan decided to wear her cow hat which got a lot of comments. Everyone who saw it seemed to love her hat. I decided to get my face painted with a bat. Which was pretty cool. Then Tuesday we had cooking classes after spanish classes. There we learned how to make Rocoto Relleno, which is like stuffed pepper. It was amazingly good. We had an amazing time learning how to make that. Then on Wednesday we had class as usual, then after class we got to participate in salsa class. As the name implies it was there that we learned how to salsa. Well we learned 5 of the steps. The next day we also had Salsa class again where we learned another move. Everyone participated in that class. It was very fun and funny to see everyone dancing, me included. Today we have class as usual, but after class Im not sure what is on the schedule. Whatever it is it´ll be super fun fer sure!!
I mentioned earlier something about volunteering. I just wanted to explicate a little about that. FairPlay is going to have an after school program, or its going to be associated with one. Im not sure which. But moving on, we as individuals have to volunteer for this, or at least help with the project. As of now we are coloring in a map of the world so the kids can learn the countries of South America and other countries. Also on the drawing board is teaching kids about healthy eating so we are creating a pyramid of foods. I think. It has something to do with vegetables, fruit, breads, sugars, meats, etc. etc. So thats about it for now.
Its been so much fun here. I´ve explored only some of the city. Not all thats for sure. But I certainly hope to explore more of the city today and the following week. So I think thats all I have to say. If not Ill be sure to update this blog again. So Ill talk to ya´ll again sometime soon!!
Piper out!