There's Too Much to Say...

Sorry for the persistent posts, but there truly is too much to say right now! We're finally in Cusco and it is wonderful!!! After finishing up orientation on Thursday we drove an hour to Cusco where we met up with our host families! I'm living with my host mom, Maria Elena, and her mother, Josefina, in an apartment and it is great! I have a great room all to myself and it's awesome to finally have the space to unpack and settle in.

Yesterday was my first adventure in Cusco. Another kid from my program lives in the same apartment complex as me, so his host dad drove us to the SIT headquarters yesterday. Our classes take place in the CBC in downtown Cusco--it's this really cool organization for campesinos that need help. We met up with the program directors and after a brief tour of the CBC, we took our Spanish exam. It was a bit rough, but I know it will get better with time! After the exam, we walked back to our houses. It takes about an hour to walk, but it's a straight shot down this Avenida so it's not bad.

After lunch I met up with some girls from the program and we walked back to the centro to buy cell phones and other various things. We're all now equipped with Claro cell phones, so that's pretty exciting. It's nice to have another way to stay in touch with each other. We also discovered the main Plaza del Armas which is fantastic! It's all very touristy, but it's awesome. It's a really interesting tourist scene in Cusco because so much of it is based on wilderness adventures. There's tons of shops with backpacks and offering all sorts of trips to different places around Peru. My kind of tourism, although I'm still trying to avoid it and live as much like a local as possible. Which is quite difficult.

I'm really, really happy in Cusco. I'm really, really excited to spend 6 weeks getting to know this awesome city. I'll write again when I've got more to talk about, but until then, hope all is well! (And this last picture is of the view from my room... Enjoy!)