I know I've missed the last two weeks, so here's an update.
First off, I lived through a 7.1 earthquake...granted the epicenter was 50 miles south, but it was still a little scary. It was 3:50 am last Thursday and I got woken up by all of the dogs barking outside. They were so loud. Then the shaking started. I'm on the third floor of the apartment building, and I swear I felt the while building swaying. It got really scary when books from my bookcase above me started falling on my bed. It lasted about 5 minutes and the craziest part is that my host family didn't even feel it. I guess they were just really tired.
I went with Natalie to her project on one of my free Friday's and we made papas fritas with the kids. It was a little bit difficult because we only had one pot and some plates to work with. So I was in charge of the oil and making sure the girls that helped didn't burn themselves while they cooked the french fries. The kids loved them!!
This past week was Carnival. On Saturday I traveled with my local friends from church to a small town called Lucre. We went to an outdoor pool and things were pretty calm until the locals started to play pin the festivities on the white people. I was the only one that was trying not to get involved because I had forgotten a change of clothes, but of course I was the first person to get completely soaked. There was one older guy that had a bucket that he filled up with the pool water and immediately after he drenched me he stepped backwards and fell into the pool. All the locals were laughing so hard because it was so funny.
Like the weather often does here, it went from 70 degrees and sunny to suddenly hailing. It was coming down hard, so we all huddled under the gazebo until it passed.
Enjoy these pictures from Carnival with me and my host family playing with foam.
This past week we had another student living with us. Her name is Valencia and she is 28 years old. She was only here for a week so we went out to get pizza with her. (notice I'm the only one with Inca-kola because everyone else is drinking sangria...I get a lot of crap for not drinking. But I did accidentally drink strawberry wine...whoops)
I'm currently working on a project for school, and let me tell you, writing in spanish is so hard! I chose the topic of the Inca Religion. It is so interesting to study other religions and finding the similarities. It really is true, all religions contain pieces of the truth. I leave for Machupicchu tomorrow morning, and I am very excited!
Lots of love!
-M'Kala