Up on the Roof

There was no rain today. The skies were blue and bright. It's days like this that I appreciate afternoons off. I sat up on my roof and worked on my Spanish flashcards, while listening to some tunes. It was lovely. So lovely that it reminded me of the song "Up on the Roof" by the Drifters, so I put it on. I love that song. I love my roof. I love listening to that song while up on my roof.

La vida es buena.

Enjoy...

Me Encanta Agua

You know how Joni Mitchell (and about a million other people) said that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?

I think she may have been living in foreign country in a house on a hill with no running water.

Sure, I KNEW running water was awesome, but...did I...really...?

Here's the deal:

Our toilet has been finicky for awhile now- breaking and then working again, on and off.

THEN, last Sunday, the water tank attached to our house (that supplies water for the house in the evenings, while Cusco supplies it in the day) broke. Our landlady was here, knew about it, and then bounced off to Lima, telling us she'd be back to help us on Friday (today). That meant we went five nights without water. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either.

THEN, this morning, I went to check on the toilet to see if it was running and when I went to flush it, the "trip lever" (yeah, I looked that up) just SNAPPED and then the tank started overflowing. This happened at 6:30 am, 10 minutes before the absolute latest time we could leave for work. We eventually had to turn off the water in the whole house in order to stop a major flood from happening.

Ohhh! Aaaand it rained a lot yesterday (which is normal for this time of year) and the drain on our rooftop porch was clogged so our ENTIRE KITCHEN flooded while we were at work.

And now? It's Friday afternoon and the landlady is back, but there's no plumber in sight and she has yet to discuss the situation with us.

Suddenly this charming cottage on a hill with killer views kind of...sucks.

If this doesn't get fixed, and if our landlady keeps flakin' out, we might have to move. I don't want to do that. I'm just getting settled in. The four year-old at the tienda next door and I are becoming such good friends.

Despite all this, I have to say that this is not HORRIBLE (yet). It's inconvenient. And annoying. I'm learning about what I need to live comfortably and it turns out, it's a lot less than I thought.

And now, I have a new appreciation for running water. I LOVE me some running water.

Weomans in the Bisco

Q: "What are your friends going to do this weekend?"

A: "maybe hunting weomans in the bisco."

(Corrected sentence- "They might look for women in the disco.")

"Teacher, what does 'one night stand' mean...

...and 'hit it and quit it'...

...and 'wam, bam, thank you ma'am'?"

- This came from Soledad, one of my smallest and most adorable students, who heard another student asking a male teacher about these things. When she got to "wam, bam, thank you ma'am", I laughed until I cried.

Have I mentioned that I love this job?

Riddle Me This...

A riddle:

What still has parasites, two thumbs and no running water at night?



Answer:
Me.

C'mon, CUSCO! Make this place tough to leave! Parasites be gone! Water- RUN!

Happy Ending

I recently showed this to one of my friends here, after describing the Kate/Nate/Dustin dynamic to her. She loved it. I originally posted it on my regular blog (which has been neglected the last few months), but I realized that since we made this in honor of my departure, I should probably post it up here as well.

It's cheesy, unchoreographed, and over-the-top...but it's us.

Enjoy!

Here's a quick vid of Machu Picchu. Please ignore my dorky commentary. Also, I sound like a man. Hiking around and feeling tough will do that do a person.




I was taking this video on the way back to Cusco from our trip and it's really not all that interesting, BUT at one point you can hear me say "Me gusta tu musica" to the driver and suddenly he starts blasting "Let's Hear it for the Boy". The 80's are HUGE in Latin America. The whole trip home, he played his own 80's mix for us and, I gotta admit, it was awesome.