To Market, To Market!!

Today I took a trip with the PROMESA kids who are a part of a summer school for new students to introduce them to English. We went to market to buy fruit because they have been learning the words for fruit this week. There were about 20 some kids and we each split up into different groups. The market was a sprawling place with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, etc spread out all over the place under tarps and tin roofs. Everywhere there were bags and bags of potatoes, stacks of cheese, and piles of every kind of vegetable and fruit imaginable! Each location that we walked by we would talk about the kinds of food and their English names. Each group bought certain fruits and we took them back to the school to make fruit salad! We had a lot of fun and it was good to get to know some of the kids who will be at the school (though most of them were older than what I´ll be teaching) and to see where the San Jeronimo church and PROMESA school is. Especially since I will be spending a lot of time there come March!

I still need to learn my way around Cusco but I got to experience a combi today! There are two major forms of transportation in Cusco: taxi and combi. Taxis are every variety and type of car and will go wherever you choose. Combis are small vans that everyone crowds into and since Cusco is built basically in a line, they run on a basic route (until you get downtown). There is a person who drives and a person who works the door, collects the money and shouts out the stops to passengers and passerbys.

I´ve been feeling a little lonely here in my apartment by myself but I guess it´s to be expected in the beginning since I don´t know anyone. My housemate should be back tomorrow and it will be good to at least have another person around at night. I met a possible language tutor and I´m excited about starting with that next week. I´m understanding a lot of Spanish but I definitely be glad to work on my grammatical stumbling blocks.

Since I know that my days will be filled soon enough, I´m trying to enjoy this adjustment time. I´m sorry about the lack of photos. I think I fried my battery charger in the different voltage outlet. oops... thankfully most things are available here in Cusco -- I just have to figure out where!