Living with Pilar

So yesterday we flew to Lima, had lunch, then we anxiously awaited for our families to pick us up. We were so excited and all these ladies kept coming in, and all of them were so excited and happy. Pilar took a while to get there but Carlos had told us that she was 48, but turns out she is 62. She is divorced with 4 kids, which live in Italy, DC, and one in Lima I think, then one is mentally retarded and lives in a home somewhere. Pilar has been in the program for 10 years and also is a host mom in a program from Ohio. She had a girl living with her that left last week. So she is very experienced with students. There is a maid, Elizabeth, who we were told comes 2 days a week, Tuesday and Friday, but then she made us lunch today so I dont know, it confused. Pilar has cholestorol problems and also diabetes so she only eats certain things, but she says that she loves chocolate, which is a good thing because I brought her Koeze candy! Pilar knows a lot of english, she honeymooned in the US and has traveled a lot there, and has been to North Carolina. The apartment has a small kitchen, a living room, 2 bedrooms, and 2 baths. The rooms are fairly small, Kathryn and I share a room and a bathroom. It is like being in a museum because she has paintings and pottery everywhere, she is a painter. She took us and explained to us every picture she had hanging up. so it was like a museum tour. Our apartment is in a great location, near parks and near the ocean and near the main street of Miraflores, and near the church where we will be taking classes.

For dinner last night we had something like corn meal with spaghetti sauce on it, with some soup and an orange for dessert. Then breakfast was fresh bread that was delivered this morning, with marmelade. Then lunch we had something like a chicken fillet, with soup, and tomatoes and rice. It was really good. And an orange for dessert.

Pilar talks and talks and talks.. she doesnt stop. She is easy to understand so that is good, but I hope she gives us more of a chance to speak because we just listen to her talk. Haha. I do like her though, she is very nice. She forgot our names last night because one of her friends came over and was trying to introduce us. I dont think she cooks.. so I think Elizabeth will cook for us a lot, but I dont know becuase if she is only there for 2 days a week? we will see. She asked us all about what kinds of food we like and such.. so maybe she will cook for us.

The work load for classes is going to be hard because we have to cram in all the work into 16 days of class. I have class at 8am... which sucks! but then again I have been going to bed really early this whole trip.. I guess because of a lack of things to do. Lima is foggy every single day.. so its not very pretty. We are doing a tour of Lima on Wednesday with the group, so hopefully I will find some cool things to do.

Aimee good luck with chem.. how are you doing so far? I am proud of you for unplugging the internet. Thats the good thing about doing homework here.. we wont have any distractions like that! We only have 2 tests in one of my classes.. and I dont have the syllabus for the other but its prob the same.

Jimmy I knew you would be disappointed with no sweet and sour sauce.. and the meal was like 14 soles at Mcdonalds, so thats less than $5. funny story about the twins.

Yes John that was chico in the pic.. he is cute isnt he?

pics

I am putting pics up now.. and John was the only one who commented on my last post so did everyone else lose interest? last night was a busy night, after the blog we had a group meeting then we went to watch Andean dances, which were pretty cool. Then 4 of us got massages, they were amazing because we were sore after the hike. it was 35 soles for half an hour which is like 12 dollars, not a bad deal haha. We ate at mcdonalds before the massage because we didnt really have much time, hahaa. I was upset though because they didnt have any sweet and sour sauce.. oh well. After the massage we met up with a bunch of the other girls who went to a salsa bar. I really want to learn how to salsa. A lot of the girls went out and the guys there taught them kind of .. but i was too scared. I am going to get my host mom to teach me. Carlos said she is a ¨modern woman¨and he laughed while he said it.. so I think she should know how to salsa! This morning we went to a jewelry factory which has won all these awards for the best in Peru.. so that was cool and then I bought a ring from there! Then we went to the post office and I mailed my hiking stuff home.. they said it will take 20 something days so I might beat it home but I wanted to get rid of it because I have no use for it anymore. On the way to the post office a dog started following us and it was so sweet and playful and we kept buying it food and feeding it so it followed us for like 30 minutes and we named him chico. After that we went and ate at Jacks (the place with the amazing french toast) but I got juevos rancheros which were delicious and it was a tortilla with beans and sauce and cheese and eggs. Yum. Then we walked around a bunch of stores now we came here! Tomorrow we leave for the airport early to go back to Lima, then we meet our families! I cant wait. but then class starts on Monday. blah. I will probably get online this weekend! Hope you enjoy the pics, here is the link again

http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg58/rlwheele/Peru/

the password is rachelinperu

I did it!!!

Well, I finished the Inca Trail! I was told that it was 23 miles, but when Kathryn and I added it up, it was more than that. I am trying to look it up right now. Not only did I finish it, but I carried my pack the entire time!! Day 2 of the hike was awful, it was literally 4 hours of stairs, with basically no flat spots. It was pretty miserable, especially with carrying the packs. Kathryn and I both carried them. And even better, we were among the first group of 5 or 6 people to reach the top. I was surprised about how out of shape people were. One girl was like ¨well I power walk to class every day¨and then another was like Ï havent worked out since before spring break¨and I was like wow.. haha. Everyone kept asking us if we hiked before or like worked out just for the hike.. but we both just run regularly. But we were at the front of the pack for the entire hike! We had about 5 or 6 guides that went with us, and then around 40 porters. On the 2nd day, about 10 people carried their packs and the other 30 paid a porter to carry them. It was definitely by far the hardest day. The top of the mountain of day 2 was called ¨Dead Womans Pass¨.. so thats kind of scary. But it felt great to be at the top. The porters were insane. Most of them wore sandals, and they carried bags bigger than them, and they went running past you every day. They carried all our tents and food. Not only did we have sleeping tents, but we had tents to eat in, along with tables and chairs. They fixed us 3 meals a day, and gave us snack packs on some days. We had pancakes one morning, and omelets another morning, and porridge. We had tea, coffee, and hot chocolate every day, soup with every meal, bread with every meal, then different stuff like noodles, potatoes, rice, yuka, vegetables, spaghetti, and stuffed peppers with every meal. We also had tofu one night, which I tried for the first time. All the food they cooked us was good. We also had dessert, like chocolate pudding, sangria, and some purple corn dessert. Also, yesterday it was one guy Brandon´s birthday, so for breakfast, they come in with like 4 cakes, complete with icing! I have no idea where they came from or how they made them.. It was crazy, like 5 star camping. But it was still like camping because we were in tents and no showers and we carried our packs, so it was still fun and hard. Most nights we went to bed at 9ish, and got up anywhere from 5-6. We got woken up with tea in the morning before breakfast. The toilet facilities were... interesting. They were like toilets in the ground, so you had to squat over them but they were so gross. I would have much rather used the woods but they dont really want you to because of the streams and stuff. I had a really warm sleeping bag so I wasnt cold at night in the tent. It only rained once for like 15 min while we were eating lunch. The hike and the mountains were amazing, it was so cool just walking through the middle of the Andes. The 3rd day was by far the prettiest, the path was more relaxing and it went along the side of the mountain and you could see everything across the valley and all the mountains. There were a few ruins that we stopped at along the way, but they werent very interesting considering we were on our way to Machu Picchu! And the stars at night were so bright, Ive never seen so many stars! On the third day, when we reached our campsite, you kind of just walked around the corner of the mountain and it just opened up to the other side of the mountain and it was the most beautiful view ever, my jaw dropped for like 5 minutes. We were so high that we were at cloud level, it was so so pretty! We watched the sunset and that was awesome, then we watched the millions of stars come out. Waking up that next morning was great too, with the view as soon as we opened our tent. We watched the sun rise too. It was like sitting on top of the world. That last morning, we woke up at 5 to get an early start to make it to Machu Picchu. I was so anxious to get there. Every corner of the mountain we walked around, I was just waiting for it to appear. It kind of got hard at the end, especially because we knew it was so close and it was a few uphills at the end. Then all of the sudden we could see it! It was such a great feeling, and a great view of the ruins. We still had about a 30 min walk till we reached it, but we stopped and waited for the group there and it was great! The ruins were so amazing and pretty and it was so big.. when we got to the bottom, I was in the first group of people down, and then we saw the rest of our group (the ones who didnt go on the hike) so that was pretty cool. I cant even explain how cool, amazing, etc. that Machu Picchu was. We were supposed to kind of just go to the hotel, shower, and go back to Machu Picchu for the day today, but we had a change of plans. Do you remember when I talked about the strikes that happen in Peru? Well there was a strike that started today so the train back to Cusco wasnt going to be running today, so we had to get on the train last night to get back here to Cusco in order to be able to get back to Lima when we needed to. So we had about 3 hours in the ruins, which wasnt enough. I could stay there all day. But we walked around as much as we could, being as tired as we were and being pressed for time. Then we had to take a bus down to our hotel, and we went to the train station at 730. The people doing the strike were mostly farmers, and they block the train tracks.. so some of them had already arrived last night and they were sitting in the tracks with spears and bows and arrows, Carlos told us that they had come from the Amazon jungle to get to the strike.. which explains the spears.. it sounds crazy haha but they just stand there, they arent violent. There were also police everywhere, with big rifles.. so it is kind of scary but then again it wasnt, because everyone else was just doing their normal stuff on the streets and stuff. So we got to the train station at 730 and were supposed to have a train at 930, but didnt leave until just before midnight. We finally got to our hotel at 330 AM, then we took showers because we hadnt showered in 4 days (ew). So we slept in this morning and have a free day today since it was supposed to be spent at Machu Picchu. We might get massages tonight, I cant wait! I was just uploading pictures on photobucket but my camera went dead, I will go charge it and I think we will probably come back here tonight since we dont have anything to do. I am excited to post them!, even though I dont think the pictures will do justice what it was like in real life. John called me already today so that was fun, and I am about to call my mom! I will probably think of more stuff to add to the blog later.. I cant think of everything. Oh also it was fun because all the guides were really nice, one was named Ramigio and he was my friend because he sat with me on the bus ride to the trail, and he could barely speak english. Then yesterday I walked with one guide, Ruben, and he talked my ear off in spanish, but a lot of it was hard to talk about, because sometimes he was talking about stuff like politics and Obama and what I thought of certain trade agreements, haha! But it was so much fun!! I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Another thing I am excited about it meeting our family on Friday! Well actually it is just one lady that Kathryn and I will be living with, Senora Pilar. Last night on the train, Carlos (the director) sat with us and we talked to hima bout Pilar because he is the one who picks the families. He said that she is about 48ish and she has been with the program for all the years they have been doing it (which is like 8 or something). So thats a good thing! He said the families are really excited to have all of us, so I can´t wait! Carlos is from Peru and is fluent in English and French too, and knows German but is not fluent, which I think it really cool. He is really funny too and really nice. His other job is an author, then in the summer he has about 3 or 4 US college groups that come to Peru, but we are his biggest group.

on to answer everyones comments,

John, are you talking about the Inka Cola? it is a popular drink here, made by Coca Cola, and it is a sweet type drink, kind of unexplainable but is like a mix of banana, bubblegum, and pineapple maybe? hard to describe, but it is good! They have Inca Cola shirts and I want to buy one.

Jimmy those animals in the pictures were guinea pigs.. I held one and then later on that day I ate one. haha. Tell Rosie I hope she feels better. and tell Max hi. I keep showing their pictures to people, I miss them!

Mom thanks for showing Aunt Marcy and please dont tell Zoe about the guinea pig. I am glad I never had one as a pet or I wouldnt have been able to eat the poor thing.

Allison I was thinking the same thing.. but I am not looking forward to starting class. We meet the families friday and start class on monday, but only have 16 days of class. so thats not good bad!

Susan thanks for showing Dolph the pics! The whole trip def. is a blast, you should try it sometime :P

Okay I will post pics later!!!!! So make sure to check :)

Love Rachel

ready for the hike!

I´m glad everyone liked my pics!

Aimee I will be wearing my zip off pants tomorrow, haha! I am not the only one that has them so I won´t be the only goofy looking one. I am glad you feel all better now :) good luck in chem.

Aunt Katie, yes that was me sliding on the rock.. i forgot to write about that, it was at one of the ruins and we got to slide down it. I forgot Jack is in Belgium! does he have a blog too? I doubt it, I know if Jimmy was in another country he wouldnt keep a blog. I only ate a bite of the guinea pig because we all just tried it. but usually if you order one, they bring it out to you in the shape of the actual guinea pig, it looks like it just died on the plate 5 min ago. haha. Also thanks Uncle John for posting too.. I will tell all about it when I see you!

Susan make sure you show Dolph the pics too! Whenever he is home..

John Im glad you like the pics, especially the one where you cant see my face, haha! I will post more after the hike.


So, on to my updates, last night, we didnt go to the Andean dance thing. I was disappointed but we ended up just talking a lot about the Inca trail and make sure everyone was ready for it. There were like 4 people who were sick today and didnt do the activities, so they may not be going on the hike.. depends on how they are doing tonight I guess. I still have not gotten sick, thank goodness! I hope I survive the hike. The hike is 4 days, 23 miles. We will have porters go with us and they run ahead of us and set up our tents and cook us dinner. They also cook us breakfast and lunch. Our guide said that they have races sometimes with the porters, and the record time is 3 hours 45 minutes to finish the Inca trail! wow. We get to go at our own pace, so that is a good thing. It is surprising how much you can feel the difference in the altitude. there is less oxygen here, so it is harder to breathe, and you can really tell whenever you run or go up a hill. The first hill I went up, it felt like I just got done running a mile. I think my body is getting used to it though. I have to get lots of sleep tonight because we leave at 6 from the hotel to head to the starting place of the hike! Day one is pretty flat, then day 2 is the hardest. I was told that it is like hiking up Harrelson stairs for the whole day (NC State people will get this)! So thats kind of scary. We can pay a porter to carry our bag on the second day since it is so hard, but I am hoping that maybe I will be able to do it. I think I will feel a lot more accomplished if I carry it the whole way!

Anyways, for dinner we went to look for a restaurant in the plaza last night. When you look for dinner, all these men with menus run up to you and try to get you to come to their restaurant. We had 3 at the same time trying to talk to us. Then you can ask them for free drinks or bread, its kind of like bargaining for dinner. They usually offer a free glass of wine or Pisco sour (the most popular drink here). but last night we got free lemonade AND garlic bread! then we had spaghetti, but it was kind of disappointing, it was pretty small for what it cost. Oh well, it was still good :)

Today we went to visit the ruins of Tipon. They were really neat, one of my favorites. Ruins kind of get old to visit, but if I had to pick 3 to visit, this would be one of them. Some of us walked up a bunch of stairs along this path to the top of the mountain, and the view was awesome! Before the ruins we visited a church, it was really pretty but once again we couldnt take pics. We also went to a bread factory, famous for its ¨oropesa¨.. the name of the bread. It was warm and fresh out of the oven. It was fairly flat and round, like a pizza. It was 5 soles for 2 of them, which is like less than a dollar for one. They are big too, Kathryn and I split one. It was really really good and thats what I am having for a snack tonight before bed.

After the ruins, John called me and we talked for a good while. He did figure out it is 68 cents for him to call me.. so that sucks, but at least it isnt 2.99 like verizon is for international calls.

After we got back to the hotel, we went to the bank to get more money because we cant change money for the hike, and once we get to Machu Picchu there will be things to buy and food, etc. Then we went to eat at this place called Jacks, that is recommended here in Cusco. It had breakfast food and basic things like sandwiches. 3 of us got the recommended french toast with strawberries and bananas, wow was it amazing!!! I am so full now I could hardly walk to the internet cafe, hahaa! After this I am going to buy a ton of water to fill up my nalgene and my camelback, also getting some snacks, then we have a meeting, then finish getting ready for the hike and go to bed early!!!

So I will be back on here in like 5 days or so, and I will have hiked the Inca trail! (hopefully)! I can´t wait for the moment when we walk around the corner and see Machu Picchu! So excited. After the hike it will be time for class though... booo! Wish me luck!

love, Rachel

pics

Oh and I didnt reply to any comments..



I did laugh about the guinea pig comment Meggan but I forgot to type it. haha. and I dont know what time breakfast ends, I didnt look. Some girls went to mcdonalds again last night. I think its funny.



and Meggan and Tab, I will be skinny after the hike, haha then I might have to go get a mcflurry.



Ashton I will try to find you something to buy you.. :)

Aunt Katie, hello and I am putting up pics now! Can´t wait for North Lake this summer.. also I didnt send Meg or Jack the link to my blog if they want to read.

Mr Silver, dont worry, now that the crazy bus driver is gone, you dont have to worry about me! I will be careful though.

Here is the link to my pictures! they took too long on here so I am using my photobucket

http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg58/rlwheele/Peru/

the password is: rachelinperu

I also forgot to tell about the laundry experience I think. Kathryn, Andrea, and I decided to do laundry, and the form just said ¨8 soles¨ so we figured it was pretty cheap, well it ended up being 8 soles per kilo, so our bill was 68 soles... so that is like 22 dollars to do our laundry, which was probably about one load. Yea.. we were mad! But its kind of funny now.. I guess. That will be the most expensive laundry I ever do!

Horses!

So I will finish talking about yesterday first.. it wasnt too entertaining, I went back to the market after I left the internet cafe and bought a few more things... hahaha I just can´t stay away. Then we went to the hotel to meet up with the group. Then we went to try to go to some Andean dance thing but we got there too late and it was full, so we are going to go back tonight. Then we ate dinner last night, I had a sandwich with basically everything on it, eggs, bacon, ham, chicken, cheese, and then french fries. The french fries arent good here.. they are more plain but they have SO much grease on them, its weird. But I like the ketchup better here, it is sweeter.

So today we woke up and met at 8 to go to ruins and ride the horses! I thought we were riding for 3 hours but it was like 1 hour. First we went to some ruins, I dont remember how to say the name but the translation to english was ¨sexy women¨. I dont really know why.. but the ruins were cool and from there we could see the entire city of Cusco. Then we walked to where the horses were.. I rode a horse named Bandido, which means bandit. We basically didnt really get any instruction but all the horses kind of just followed each other, it was like a trail on a mountain kind of, and the view was awesome! We rode the horses to some other ruins (I dont even remember the name of and then we walked to these other ruin type things where there was ä ¨fountain of youth¨or something.. but it had water and supposedly if you drank it, it was supposed to keep your youth better. So after those ruins we went back to the horses and rode to where we started. I got Bandit to run a little bit.. it was fun :) but I wish we could have rode them more. Bandit got bit twice by other horses.. I think they got made when we tried to pass them and stuff. It was scary I was afraid the horses were going to bite me! Haha. After we rode the horses we went to a restaurant and had fried trout, rice, and potatoes. The trout was good but it was really really fried. Reminded me of America. haha. So now we are at the internet cafe and we are meeting the group at 5, then going to the Andean dance thing, then dinner. Can´t wait for the hike on Saturday! We have been here for a week but it seems like forever because we have done so much stuff. Oh, we got a new bus and bus driver and this one drives really slow and boring, unlike the other ones who were insane. So its kind of not fun anymore but now I am not afraid of dying! I am going to do another post after this and try to add pictures.

another day in Cusco..

Hey everyone, thanks for reading again! I love the comments.
John, my camera went dead and that is why I couldnt take pictures. I think that is what your comment was talking about.
Jimmy I´m glad you had fun but that sucks that you lost your money.. you got to cocky I guess. There are casinos in Lima, maybe when I get back there I will go and gamble.. it will be kind of scary to do it in Spanish.
Amber, you definitely would be at Mcdonalds EVERY day if you were here.. they also have dominoes, kfc, chilis, and some other places in Lima. I really dont want to end up going there but who knows.. I guess I will crave American food some time.
Tab I will get you a shot glass too!

So today we went to some Temple of the Sun place... it really wasn´t that interesting.. haha! So there isnt much to talk about.. it was all inside so in a way it kind of was like a museum with a guide talking about it, I like going to the ruins and walking around and looking! After that Carlos took us to a district called San Blas, where a lot of artists have shops. We walked around and looked at some rock in a wall that was supposed to be special because it had 12 different points where the rock met with the other rocks in the wall. We ate lunch at a place called Heidi´s, which is Kay and Leo´s (professors) favorite restaurant here. I had pumpkin soup and a ham and cheese crepe. It was really good but then I had cheese cake for dessert. Hm. It definitely was no Cheese Cake Factory cheesecake. It was more like a cake made from cheese or something like that. It wasnt very rich and delicious as expected. I think I might as well give up on the desserts and stick with the McFlurries and the candy bars, they are good here. After lunch we went to the market (yay!) and I bought some stuff... but then I ran out of money so I couldnt but any more. There was a necklace that I wanted so bad but the guy had closed his little booth so I couldnt buy it, also I had no money.

This morning my Peruvian cell phone rang and it was John! We finally got the right numbers for the phone to work.. we were just meeting with the group to leave to go to the sun temple thing, so he called me back while I was at the market.. we talked for a while and then I think his phone got cut off. He is going to call tomorrow though so I hope I can talk.. and tomorrow is our 2 and a half yr anniversary! So I hope I can talk to him, but we are going horseback riding tomorrow for like 3 hours and then to some ruins, so it might be a busy day!

This internet cafe is really nice. I wish I had my camera cord, the internet is definitely fast enough to put some pics on here.. I should start to carry it with me so I can upload pics at any time.

I called Tab on skype today and got to talk to her, and called my mom last night! So it actually is really easy to call people.. also if anyone wants to call me it is free for me to receive calls on my phone, it just costs for whoever calls me, haha!!

I told myself this morning I wasnt going to get on the computer again today.. because I was on for a total of 2 hours yesterday.. but we kind of ran out of things to do.

Amber I havent really gone in any shops because I just like the market.. the shops have more expensive stuff here that I really dont need or want to pay for! A lot have jewelry.. some have clothes.. just depends..

I´m sure I´ll be online again soon.. will blog later :)

so many things to write about..

THere are always so many things throughout the day that I remember that I forgot to blog about.. and so many things that I think of.. then I get on here and dont remember any of it!

I can tell you what I did today though.. and hopefully will think of the things that I seem to forget. Today we split up into 2 groups, first my group went to a museum.. it was pretty cool.. but a lot of it was pottery and more pottery so it kind of looked the same.. we got to go at our own pace so then after we left there, we walked around the plazas and went into some shops. We tried going to the market (we all love the market!!) but then we were hungry so we ate instead. We found a restaurant and had pizza and pasta. The pizza is definitely different than American pizza (a lot less cheese and bread) but it was really good! After lunch we walked around and made our way back to the hotel to meet the group at 3. I bought another memory card because I already took almost 200 pictures and I only have room for like 300 more on my card. So now I am prepared for the hike because i know I will be taking a million of Machu Picchu!! After we met with the whole group, my group went to 2 cathedrals in one of the main plazas in Cusco. You couldnt take pictures of the inside but they were beautiful! One of them had 24K gold EVERYWHERE inside.. there were so many things made of gold. It was cool. After the 2 cathedrals we got on the internet and then went back to the hotel for a meeting. Then we went to look for dinner. We went to McDonalds because one of my friends here is really picky. But then we went to a restaurant in a plaza and had some yummy spaghetti and fettuchini alfredo. The fettuchini alfredo here has ham in it usually, but mine also had mushrooms. We then went to mcdonalds to get mcflurries for dessert. funny I know.. but we gotta get some american food in! Now it is after dinner and we are back at the internet cafe. this cafe is better than the other ones. the internet is faster.

Tomorrow we are in 2 groups again, one group is going horseback riding to some ruins! But I am not doing the horses until Thursday. Tomorrow my group is going to some ruins, then having a free day in Cusco. We are going to go to the market!! I cant wait.. I want to buy so much stuff.

I dont know if I am going to like Lima so much when we get back there to live with the families and go to class, it is just so pretty here! and it is foggy all the time in Lima.. maybe it is prettier without the fog. I want Jimmy and mom to get to come to this area when they visit!!

Lindsey, yes they have shot glasses.. I havent bought you one yet though. I am waiting to find the right one!

Oh, most of the hotels here don´t have heat. Last night was definitely the coldest. We had a sheet and 3 wool blankets, then a comforter. I slept in my warm fleece and was still a little cold.

No one has said anything else about presents! I have bought a warm alpaca hat, 2 scarves, gloves, and a bag so far. And I am going to buy more tomorrow :)

I think once I get to Lima I will upload some pics.. after the hike. The hike is coming up soon, I am so excited! I am glad not to have gotten sick.. a lot people have. I hope I dont. The air here is different because of the altitude.. and you run out of breath easily, its really weird. The air is really dry and my throat feels like I have a sore throat kind of but its just the air. Lima is very humid though, but not here.

Oh, there is a strike going on here tomorrow from the farmers of Cusco. Apparently strikes happen all the time.. so maybe I will get some pics.. they said they arent violent so it is nothing to worry about, but they said it might affect our plans for the horseback ride. But I am not doing it tomorrow anyways so it wont matter.

Well I always seem to write so much. but there is so much to say. I have been journaling too. I can understand a lot of spanish but it is much harder to speak it than to understand it. It is fun though. Well its about time to head back to the hotel.. this place closes in 10 min.

Talk to you soon!

guinea pig!

I forgot one important thing, I tried guinea pig tonight! Well I think I forgot to say that, Im not sure now. Oh well. It was good.

Having fun and being busy!

Hey everyone, yay I finally get to get online!!! I{m so happy when I see all the comments that you guys have left me. Allison, I will go to red robin with you if you come visit me. Also Im sorry for the finance stuff I left you to deal with. Tab, I was thinking earlier about playing that game! I have no idea why.. but I guess I telepathically felt it that you were thinking about it. and John, yes the water bottles suck and I never really thought that you had to do it too.. but sometimes I accidentally run my toothbrush under the water and then I get scared.. but so far so good.

On to my trip... lets see.. so much has happened since I got on last. I actually had to get out my journal to remember (thanks Meggan for the journal). But after I got on the internet last, Kathyrn and I went to buy a phone so that John could call me. We bought one for 99 soles which is like 35 dollars and split it so it was like 17 dollars, not bad. its and LG with the phone company claro, which is something like Verizon maybe. Well we had trouble getting it to work because it is prepaid and we bought the wrong card for it, so then Leo (professor) sent his friend with us to help us and talk to the Claro people.. and turns out his friend didnt even speak english so it was really confusing and frustrating and they sent us walking to 3 different claro stores and they told us it wasnt activated and all this stuff but finally we figured it out. I called mom on it and it worked.. but so far I cant receive calls on it but I should be able to, so maybe after I get more minutes because it is really low. So that was an experience. For dinner that night we went to this sandwich place called San Antonios which was really good and nice, in the Miraflores district. On our way to the restaurant we noticed we were on the road that Kathryn and I will be living on. It is in a great discrict of Lima (Miraflores) and is near the beach and near the main road and near school. So we are excited. At San Antonios the sandwich did not come with and fries or anything, I guess because dinner isnt usually a big meal. After that we went back to the hotel and repacked for our next 3 day trip and went to bed at 1030 to get up at 5am. That is the earliest I have gone to bed in years!

Next morning, left at 5am for the airport to take a flight to Cuszco. Our group was divided into 3 flights. Well. the first flight left but the 2nd and 3rd flights got cancelled because of neblina (did I already mention this? it means fog.. and it happens all the time in Lima). So we ended up sitting in the airport for 5 hours and had a flight at 215. Then we got to the hotel in Cusco, and there were a bunch of sick people so a doctor came to treat them. The altitude is really really high so some people got sick from that. We all took medicine beforehand to prepare our bodies from the lower amounts of oxygen. So after the DR came we left again for the hotel in Pisac that we stayed at. We just left our bags at the hotel in Cusco because we were coming back in 3 days. So we took the bus and it was night, and I cant wait to go on the hike because the stars were so beautiful, better than any night Ive seen them in NC. We finally made it to our hotel which was really cute (most of them are), then we went and ate a late dinner at a place called Urlikes cafe, and had pizza. It was different than American pizza. The woman that owns the place moved here from Chicago because she loved it so much. After we left I basically went straight to bed because I was so tired and slept for 9 hours! wow. Then when we woke up and it was actually daylight, we could see the scenery around us. we were in the middle of a bunch of mountains that were so tall and pretty. The hotel was really pretty too but we left in the morning to go visit the pisac ruins. It was a hike, so it kind of prepared us for the big hike to machu picchu. It was really fun and so beautiful.. and the ruins are just so amazing. I took a ton of pictures! The path we were on was like on the edge of the mountain so some of it was scary because if you slipped you would probably roll like a mile downhill. Literally. But, as you can see, I didnt fall! When we hiked down the mountain, it was crazy to see how high we were because we hiked back down to the town.There was a market there with a bunch of pretty Peruvian stuff and I wanted it all.If anyone wants anything let me know. I bought jewelry for mom, shirt for Jimmy, Alpaca wool hats (Alpacas are like llamas and their fur is really soft, especially baby alpaca. baby alpaca actually means it comes from their neck.), also a peruvian bag.. and I cant think what else but I wanted to buy everything and I will be buying more. haha. AFter the market we ate at Urlikes again and then we went to a new place, spelled something like Ollataytama (mom can look at the schedule and clarify). but the hotel there was a piece of crap. we didnt have a toilet seat to start with.. and there was a hole in the wall and there was barely room to stand up. I could hardly stand to sleep there, Im glad we are at a new hotel tonight, haha. We ate a wonderful dinner buffet with a lot of potatoes and other stuff. There are over 3000 kinds of potatoes here so they are at every meal basically, and more than one kind at every meal.

We woke up this morning and went to see more ruins. My camera said the battery was full.. then all the sudden the battery went low and died. I was not happy but it is charging now. The ruins were awesome.. the view was amazing. The mountains are so huge, they reminde me of the alps, but maybe not as pointy and without snow. Although we did see a few with snow. After those ruins we left on the bus and had a huge buffet lunch at this really really pretty restaurant. the buffet had a lot of peruvian stuff.. some of it was good, some not. I tried alpaca meat... it was good ! Oh, I also wanted to point out that the towns that we were in today and yesterday are probably the ones that most of you have in mind of Peru.. run down, poor, Peruvian women wearing traditional clothing walking around with their babies in the bright colored peruvian cloths. But they live in such beautiful places. After lunch we went into a peruvian homein one of the poor towns.. and wow! They raise guinea pigs to sell because people eat them here. dso the pigs are just living among them in their houses. and all their beds are in one room, with a stone dirty floor.. they dont have a refridgerator or anything.. but they do have power. then we went to another ruins which were cool.. yea I know, a lot of ruins. Machu Picchu will be the best though. Tonight we stopped by at a textiles place and the ladies showed us how they take the Allpaca wool and dye it and make it into all those things that you see at the markets. It was pretty cool. there are always little girls and boys running around trying to sell stuff to you, its so cute.. they just yell un sol! un sol! and you feel so bad for them.. and you probably end up buying whatever they have. haha. Oh also I bought a smallpainting today, mom will be happy. We just got back to the hotel in Cusco which is nice but now I need to find food and everything is closed. Tomorrow is a trip to a church and I dont remember what else. Okay a lot of the end of this was rushed but I had trouble with the internet at first so I wasted a lot of time.. but I will get on tomorrow again I think!! Love you all..

Day 1!!

Hey everyone, I´m at an internet cafe here in Lima. We finally made it to our hotel at about midnight last night (which would be 1am at home) and we will be there tonight as well, then we fly out to Cuzco tomorrow morning (leaving at 545 am to be exact). On the 5 hour flight from Miami, I sat beside a man from Spain. I knew he was spanish and I knew that my mom would be really happy if I talked to him, so I struck up a spanish conversation with him. We talked about where I was going, what I was doing, etc, and I was really excited. Half of it I couldn´t understand though sometimes so I just nodded and smiled. and some of it he wrote out for me if I couldn´t understand a word. He would randomly talk to me through out the flight, and when I told him my name was Rachel, he said ¨Rachel like from Friends¨? and it made me laugh. He had asked if I could read in spanish and if I liked novels, then later he got out a book from his bag and gave it to me. He said he bought it for himself for his trip but wanted me to have it! His name was Angel. But enough about him already...
Today we had an orientation meeting and got lectured on how to tell real soles from counterfeit soles, and learned about being safe in Taxis, about drugs in the area, etc. Then we went to the bank to exchange our money.. but the line took so long that we had to leave to eat lunch, then exchange money after lunch. For lunch, it was preordered because it is included in the trip, so they just brought all the food out to us. It was a cafe on the ocean (Lima is on the Pacific Ocean). First they brought us some kind of yummy cheese crepes with a mini salad. I ate all of it and was satisfied, then they cleared the table and brought us new forks and knives. We all forgot that lunch is the main meal here. So then we had potatoes and meat, and then ice cream for dessert. I don´t know what we will do for dinner but today is a free afternoon.
We can´t drink the water here, and you aren´t supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet, you put it in the trash can beside it. The keyboard is different with spanish keys, so some of the stuff is hard to figure out how to type. I am going to try to find a phone today to get so that John will be able to call me.. also mom was just asking me if there was food and coffee in internet cafes, but no, there are only computers!

The people in charge of us are really nice. There are the 2 married professors from NC State, then a man Carlos who lives here, and a man Jose who also lives here. All the people I have met so far have been nice. There are 47 students I beleive, and only 6 or 7 guys I think. So its basically a bunch of girls.

I keep thinking of random things to add, and I just was looking and I think that it will be easy for me to upload pictures on this computer and then post them. So I can do that when I get the chance, probably after the hike! My cell phone has service here but neither Kathryn or I can figure out how to make calls.. so I just turned it off.

Well I will be back on here as soon as I can!! Might be tomorrow, might be after the hike.. not real sure!
Talk to everyone soon!

Almost time!

Hey everyone, just posting again before I leave. Mom and I are heading out tomorrow AM at 630, my flight is at 10 from Charlotte. I go from there to Miami, have a 5 hour layover (yuck), and then on to Lima! I get to Lima at 9:45 PM, and I think the time zone might be the same there, or maybe it is an hour difference, not real sure.
It was hard to pack, but I ended up with my hiking pack (I'm checking it), a big rolling suitcase that I'm checking, a smaller rolling suitcase, and a bookbag. I think I did a pretty good job with it.
Right now I'm doing last minute things before I go to bed, (you know, painting my toenails and uploading the latest pics on facebook), but I'm headed to bed shortly to get up early!
Just to have some rough dates,
May 16-flight to Cusco to spend a week there,
May 23-27 Machu Picchu hike!!!!
May 29-flight back to Lima, we will meet our families then.

So, I don't really know at what point I will have internet access, but for sure when I get to Lima I will have access every day if I have time! and I really hope I can post pictures because the Machu Picchu pics are going to be awesome! So if I don't get to post before May 29, be thinking of me that I make it through the long hike! (its a total of about 25 miles I think, maybe more), but don't worry I will be having tons of fun!!

talk to everyone soon, thanks for reading!! love & miss you all

Getting Ready for Peru

Hey everyone, I'm setting up this blog before I leave for Peru so I can be ready for you all to keep up with me while I am gone! I'm leaving on Thursday the 14th from Charlotte, flying to Miami, where I will meet up with the rest of the group, then we fly on to Lima. I will be in Peru until July 2, and I hope to blog about my experiences often! I am not bringing my laptop with me, but I am told that there are a lot of Internet cafes in Lima, where a majority of my trip will be spent. My good friend from school, Kathryn, is going with me and we are staying in the same household together. There are about 48 students going on the trip, and 2 professors from NC State who are in charge. I will be doing a 4 day hike to Machu Picchu, a trip to the Nazca lines, and many other fun things. We have quite a full and detailed itinerary for the entire trip. I will be taking 2 classes once we reach Lime towards the end of May, and this is when we will be staying with a Peruvian family. Kathryn and I will be staying with a single woman in the Miraflores district of Lima. My Mom and Jimmy are coming to Peru to visit me the last week that I am there, so that will be something to look forward to.

I am starting to pack tonight, its going to be hard to figure out what to pack for 7 weeks, including a 4 day hike, and not to mention it is winter in Peru. But we will also be in places where the temperature is near 80, so I have to pack all sorts of things. I am going to miss out on a fun summer at Lake James, but this will be an experience that I will never get another chance to have, so I think it will be well worth it! :)