Paparazzi

This next paragraph took place this past miercoles: Despite my stomach ulcer, I decided it was a smart idea to go on the volunteer excursion to Matucana; a beautiful mountain range just north of the town Chosica (which is a nicer version of Huaycan). The views were amazing but the hike was pretty rigorous! It was a two hour hike up the mountain to the waterfall but we had to stop a few times. A dog we befriended in the city of Matucana came on the hike as well, he stayed with us the whole way, whom we referred to as Mr. McGriddes. Sarah, being the climber she is even attempted to "boulder" on a rock. On the road up, a little old man was trekking all the way up to the waterfall just to sell popsicles. The fresa chupete hit the spot after a long two hour hike, so i was very thankful. At the waterfall, we all took our clothes off (some more than others..Ellie and Chris) and jumped into the freezing cold water. It was so refreshingly brisk I almost caught hypothermia (if that is even possible). Our hike down was surprisingly only thirty minutes down...running. We got to see Aopaca's which is always thrilling. We got home pretty late, but it was a great day...needless to say, my butt was quite sore the next day. We got a new volunteer that night too, his name is David, he's Australian and he's grandmaster chess champion of the world. The best part is that he's coming to Cusco with me! So I don't have to go alone! YAY!

The next day, we all went into Lima and ate at Chili's. We were missing some good ol' American tex-mex. After a delicious meal, we headed over to a tattoo parlor in Miraflores where Ellie got two tattoo's (one is on her ankle that's the LLI symbol)! I got my nose pierced. Unfortunately, the nose piercing was ephemeral...It fell out and closed up two days later. Greak luck I have. That night we all went to Karaoke and we got another new volunteer named Valentin, he's from France!

Friday we all went back to work as per usual. I tutored Moises, taught my Alamos class, and that night we went to Kenko's (the regeatton club) at night. It was really fun, and we got to sit on the VIP couches...not really, but they were white and prestigious looking. Whenever we go out in Huaycan or Santa Clara, a million people want to take pictures with us...it's flattering at first..but it gets old fast. I danced with Roberto a lot, even though he's probably 2 inches shorter than me, not to mention-I was wearing heels. He tried to teach me some new Salsa dancing moves, but I have difficulty following...I always instincively lead when dancing.

Saturday is always my long day- I tutor Moises, play sports with 6-9 year olds and then teach them english. They were so misbehaved! After lunch, I tutor Juan for three hours (see below). I decided to do something different for this tutoring session. Since he really just needs to practice his english, I printed out recipes for him in english and we went to Santa Clara and ran around the grocery store to find all the ingredients. Afterwards, we sat outside in the shopping center, went over his homework, and ate ice cream. It was a really fun, he's a cool kid. That night, I taught my adult class, we just reviewed for their exam next week.



Today, Sunday, there was a cultural festival going on in Huaycan. There were tons of dancers parading in the streets and a band and the whole shabang. It was really awesome to watch. Tonight, we went to a student's birthday party,Areselli- keep in mind she's eight years old... and it was so awesome. Literally, there was this crazy clown that hosted the party and they played Regeatton and all the kids GOT LOW. They all had crazy dance moves. It was super cute and we all had a lot of fun. Afterwards, we went to a diskoteka that plays "JumpStyle" music. It is like electronica underground techno-ish and you do this really weird dance move...I would describe it as somewhat of a half-jumping, breakdancing movements to a step dance. It was really fun, and we all got super sweaty. Again, we posed in various pictures for the locals. PAPARAZZI.

That's all folks!