School

I had to change the format of some of my posts. The internet at the school is unreliable at best and it takes hours to upload photos. We are having a great time, so it is hard to find free time to update posts.

Are room is  quaint and comfortable, and there is a cool view of the city lights from out room.  There are a few patios in the school as well to hang out on.and there are always other travelers willing to share advice about the best places to go and the cheapest way to do things. Everyone is really friendly and we try to do things in groups. We mostly communicate with everyone in English, but there are a lot of German, Dutch and Canadian students here as well.

Every classroom has a little station where you can make tea, they have coca leaves as well to help with altitude sickness and give you energy. We tried it, but I wasn't impressed, I think coffee has the same effects, but everyone here drinks it and some of the indigenous people chew on the leaves all day long. The coffee is good, it basically expresso in a little can that you add water or milk to.

The temperature here isn't quite what I expected- I had four blankets and tons of clothes on at night. I went out at night and bought some very fashionable socks made from alpaca.I really don´t have a ton of warm clothes so I have worn the same socks for three days! I also only have two warm pair of pants so I will just be alternating between the two and handwathing them on the patio outside our room. Today, the school cook was "bathing" in the same sink....I guess it gets a lot of use. Yesterday, Lindsey and I went to a market where I bought this blanket to wear. Yesterday I about froze to death in my classes and all I brought down were two pairs of cargo pants, then two skirts and a pair of capri's- nothing warm! The local women wrap the blanket around their waist and basically wear it as a skirt. It helps. Each night it gets down to the 40´s and there really isn´t any head...so we bundle up. Showering has to be planned ahead of time, and there are only hot showers at certain times and the water supply is unreliable.

The food is interesting. Basically you walk up and down cobblestone streets until you find small restaurants with little wood burning stoves and about four tables in each one. We had a reccomendation for a good place last night and we went with Katie, a girl we meet from England. Honestly, I learned more words in UK English than I did in Spanish yesterday. The restaurant served alpaca meat and it was pretty good. It´s about 7 us dollars for a five course meal and you can find a 3 course meal for about 3 us dollars.

Im off to book a trip to Machu Piccu. Lindz and I planned on taking this luxurious train up the mountain and going with the schools travel agency, but some other studens found a way to get there for half the price. They just told us that we would have to "rough it" for the weekend...i might regret this, but honestly, I would rather travel with a big group than with Lindz and I alone.

Love and miss you all!
Heidi

ps i don´t have spell check, and as you know my spelling is terrible....sorry!