Carmen's Birthday (July 23)

Tonight we celebrated my host-mom's sister's birthday. It was so much fun and such a great cultural experience. We ate really good pasta with chicken for our main course, then we had 2 desserts. A pineapple pastry and a huge piece of black forest chocolate cake. We also drank really good white wine from grapes grown in Peru.

After eating (actually while eating) we danced... a lot! In fact, there was even a live band there playing traditional Peruvian music. I wish we did that in the US!! After the dancing and eating, we broke open a piñata, which was filled with candy.

After celebrating with the family, Micah, Andrew, Brooke (another ISA student), and I went out with Carmen and her friends. We went to a few places that were filled with "gringos" and finally ended up in a Cusqueña bar, where we were the only "white" people there! It was my favorite place I've been to so far in Cusco. The other students and I left at about 2:30 and Carman and her friends stayed out until about 6! We were so tired the next day, but we all had a really fun time!

This week and (probably) next week I'll be working at Yanapay - the place I was originally supposed to work. They're a lot more strict than the kindergarten, but I still think it will be a good experience. I start today at 2:45. The main drawback to this is that I'll be working from 3-7:45 all weekdays this week and next week and these are the weeks that everyone is on vacation for the independence days so I'll be missing out on some family and independence day activities, but hopefully I'll like working at Yanapay and will get a lot from the experience!