Settling In

Hola de Cuzco!

I'm settling into Cusco just fine.  My house is pretty awesome, there's lots of housemate love going on.

I got pretty lucky that the class was canceled this week.  I was under the impression I was going to be a teacher's assistant since I am not TEFL certified.  Turns out I'm not the assistant, I'm the teacher.  They expected my to teach on Monday, with only a 30 min crash course on teaching English and never seeing the site or meeting the women I'll be teaching.  If that weren't stressful enough, I never saw a curriculum and they handed me disorganized notes from the previous teacher 30 minutes before going to the class.  I was REALLY annoyed.  I was a bit indigent with the program coordinator.  But since its Semana Santa (holy week) and its a Catholic program, its canceled this week!  Sweet.  

Most of Peru shuts down for Semana Santa.  Cuzco mostly stays open through the week because its a tourist town, but everything's gonna be shut this weekend.  Since I haven't had to teach all week, all I had to do was Spanish class Tuesday and Wednesday.  I'm taking a week of private lessons then I'm going to sign up for a tandom program, where they pair you with a local to get together and chat. Spanish class was canceled yesterday and today.  So I went with Alejandra, my housemate, to the old folks home to help out yesterday.  It was incredibly uncomfortable. I have a hard time interacting with elderly when they speak English, these women if they can speak at all speak Quechua, the native language in Cuzco.  Alejandra and I both skipped today because our whole house had the day off.  They are ok with volunteers taking days off, which is nice.