Altitude Sickness

Here's the amazing view from my room, which I've been spending a lot of time in...

My altitude sickness got really bad today. I seriously felt like Cuzco was one giant ship moving back and forth, back and forth. I took some more dramamine and drank lots of mate de coca, but nothing helped at all today. The ISA group was walking through the city to show us where all the universities the others will go to, but I finally had to ask Gabi (the program director) if I could sit down for a few minutes. I tried to sit through a powerpoint presentation about safety, health, etc, but I just felt too bad. Andy (the other director) got me more mate de coca and a taxi back to my house. Of course I couldn't remember the address so the cab driver just drove me up and down Av Grau until I saw it, which never happened. He finally just let me out on a corner and I started walking up and down the street. Finally I saw Mama Julia and was soooo happy. She wanted to make me more mate de coca, but I told her I just need to sleep. I came up to Felice's house and only her live-in maid was here. She also wanted to make me mate de coca, but I told her I just needed to rest. I slept for about 6 hours (after 10 hours of sleep the night before). For those of you who know me well, you know I NEVER sleep this much. When I woke up I felt completely better. I ate a little for dinner and played with my host brothers some. I'll try to post every night since they have an ethernet cord I can plug into my computer, I just didn't last night because I didn't feel well.

In case you can't already tell, mate de coca is kind of the cure-all of Cuzco. It reminds me of the dad on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" who thinks windex will fix anything, haha.

Hope you're all doing well :)