I have to be honest-I've been procrastinating. My apologies to my six followers.
So! I'm in Peru now, specifically Cusco. I've been here for almost a month. It feels like it's been longer and shorter simultaneously. Cusco is beautiful and my views remind me of this daily. The views from my bedroom window and kitchen are of the entire city and the Andes around it. Yeah. I have to pinch myself sometimes.
I'm working for the same company, but my class schedule is different. Where as in Costa Rica, I taught two hour M/W/F & T/TH classes, here I teach the same six classes everyday, for one hour each. I have a split shift and my heaviest load of classes is at night, ending at 9pm. It's taken some getting used to, but I'm getting the hang of it. My classes are also much bigger here (thirteen per class as opposed to four) and that means the staff is much bigger, so that's more people to hang out with. That's nice. I'm making friends from all over the world- Peru (obviously), England, Ireland, New Zealand, Colombia and Russia. I feel so...international.
I have not yet taken a weekend trip outside of the city, but in about two weeks I will be headed to Machu Picchu. I'm totally stoked about that.
My Spanish is improving and I'm eager to learn. I start classes next week, but no, I am not fluent. My dad asked me if I was the other day. (Silly dad.) I do teach IN English (I let a little Spanish slip in from time to time), as our program is "immersion". They speak a lot less English here than in Costa Rica, and that's a good thing; I get much more practice.
I mentioned that things were much different here than in CR and one of those things is the water- in Costa Rica, just like back home, you can drink the tap water and here, as in much of Latin America, you cannot. I expected this and really don't have a problem with it, BUT that does mean I am more vulnerable to stomach infections and whaddya know? I got me some parasites last week. To say it was horrible is an understatement, BUT thankfully our school has an on-call doctor who came to my house twenty minutes after I called him. He gave me a shot for the pain and wrote me a prescription, which my roommate immediately ran out and got filled. I was incredibly lucky to have so much support and realized that if I got this sick in the US, I wouldn't have the immediate bedside service that I received (then again, the odds of me getting parasites in the US are pretty slim).
That being said, I have to say that one of the side effects of parasites is homesickness. I've been gone four months and this is the first time I've felt genuinely homesick. No, I don't want to go home yet and yes, I am completely aware of how important and wonderful this experience is, but I do miss my loved ones very much. Prior to this, the longest I'd been gone had been two and a half months, so yeah, this is natural (I'm told), and like many bugs, will come and go. I left on a very high note and I was very happy and despite how desperately I wanted to do this, I miss many of the sweet things and people I left behind. This is part of my experience and a challenge that I know is ultimately good for me. There is a lot to learn about myself when I'm this far away from everyone and everything I'm most comfortable with and I am realizing that this part of my trip might be the most enriching. I hope.
In other news, I had the best night I've had here yet last night- filled with lots of laughs, intelligent conversations, and ridiculous antics. I'm glad I'm here.
I promise to write again soon! I still have to post my final thoughts on my time in Costa Rica...
