Full Body - mas mas mas!
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2008
1
7
33
Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Cusco,
Peru
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Spanish class es muy rapido and I am really struggling to keep up with the pace. This week we covered compratives (hot and cold etc), relfexive verbs, irregular verbs in the present tense, reflexive verbs in the present tense and the future tense. There is lots of talk of verbos, adjetivos and sustantivos but, even in English, I donīt really know what these things are. English in school just wasnīt taught that way. If I do decide to do a TEFL course out here Iīll have to get to grips with English myself before I start to teach to other people! I have also discovered I have no imagination (no tengo imaginacion) for role play. It must be all those years crunching numbers on spreadsheets. Still this week we had Libia and Nury who were both excellent, very patient with lots of support material.
On Tuesday Jane, Natalie and I went to visit the Zoo... but is was shut until further notice. Probably for the best as Iīve heard what few animals the University has are kept in very small cages - Windsor Safari Park it ainīt. Tuesday was also Students Day in Peru! Peru has a festival day for everything. We had some drinks and nibbles with the teachers, and there was a fiesta on the Plaza de Armas. It was actually pretty quiet, but then it was a Tuesday night.
Wednesday I resolved to study harder. Jane suggested her friend Maria as a tandem partner for practice. Maria is lovely, only 20 years old but very bossy and perhaps as blunt as me. We spent an hour chatting, first in Spanish then in English. It was really hard as I still donīt have the words to make a coverstation interesting. Iīm sorry to admit that it was a bit much and I have failed to meet Maria again.
I have had more success with Full Body class at the local gym - aerobics at altitude, bring it on! A hour of step and just throwing myself around like a loon. Jane and I are the only gringas there, displaying the dancing skills of a piece of wood and red faced to boot. But itīs good to be moving; all Iīve really done here so far is sit on my arse eating bread, rice, pasta, eggs and Chips Ahoy cookies. Iīve even started drinking full fat coke again (only to kill off the bugs you understand.) Itīs also good for my Spanish - mas mas mas is more more more; subir is get up, bajar is get down, and for a brief moment I learnt the painful word for press ups but thankfully Iīve forgotten that now. Full Body is three times a week. Stay tuned to see if I keep that up! Straight after Full Body Jane and I headed to the Real McCoy for the pub quiz, beer and the biggest veggie burger Iīve seen in my life. Well, I had earned it. Itīs amazing how drunk one beer gets you after some working out at the gym...
At the pub quiz we met with Janeīs volunteer pals from the Netherlands. Itīs been a great connection to make: On Friday I was contacted by Eva, another volunteer pal, looking for some market research! Eva is opening a project in December, a cafe that sells local artisan stuff that is going to be different from the rest of the tat they flog to tourists here. They are working with co-operative groups and local designers to come up with new designs. All the work will be good quality and fair trade, sold for a reasonable price in the not-for-profit cafe. Eva wants to know more about the attitudes to the current stuff on sale here, how important fair trade is to a purchase, whether people would be interested to buy new designs over the more traditional stuff. There are over 600 stores in Cusco selling this tat, somebody must be buying it! Over 1m tourists pass through Cusco each year, so the potential market is huge. Must get on with that once Iīve finished this.
Yesterday was another festival day, Day of the Tourist! Massive fiesta in the Plaza and a parade all day. I was dressed up in traditional Peruvian get up - a red wrap top, black skirt, little hat and sandles made of tires I think. We got dressed at 11am but didnīt get to the parade until 2pm. We were sold a bit of dud; we didnīt realise it would be hours walking slowly through the streets of Cusco. I havenīt managed to get the photos up yet, but when I do youīll see we donīt look too fesitval like.
In the afternoon I managed to meet up with Maria (from the UK, not Maria from Peru) as she was passing through mid-group tour of Peru. Maria was at school with me until she decided to drop out for better, more exciting things. Sheīs now on her way north. After a busy day I decided to have dinner on my own. Not an easy feat on a festival day in a town rammed with tourists. It didnīt take long for someone to invite me to their table, which was a nice thing to do really.
Other than those that joined the parade, most of the school are currently in Puno visiting Lake Titicaca. Jane is at Macchu Pichu so this morning I took myself to Jackīs for a big breakfast by myself. Again, wasnīt alone for long; ended up sharing a table with Jake the American. We swapped stories about the dire economic situation and how terrible the media are. This is standard chat amongst travellers at the moment, how glad we are not to be at home, and normally how it is all the Americanīs fault. But as Jake was from the US I thought best to skip that bit.
So Iīve stalled enough. Now I must get on with writing Evaīs questionnaire.
Hasta luego.
x
Iīve also managed to pull my finger out and actually plan beyond Cusco.
cold continues
