Paseos in Language school

So have I mentioned how much I love my Spanish class? It is just my Cusco mom Amy, twin Cailyn and I. We are learning so much, have a wonderful teacher, and spend the majority of class in conversation. We convinced our Elvira, our teacher, that it would be a good change of scenery to go out to a local coffee shop and have class there. She agreed and we had a wonderful time of conversation and coffee. It went so well that we have gone out every Friday for the past month!

Our second trip was a city tour around Arequipa. Even though we have lived here for 2 months, we haven't had the opportunity to see past the main road. We went to two different outlooks of the city, several historical churches, and saw a majority of the countryside. We also saw a historic mansion called El Fundador that was located right next to a very poor district. We even coordinated our clothing which made for great photo opportunities! This city is massive and breathtaking! There is a lot of work for the team down here, but the harvest is definitely plentiful!

For the past two weeks we have had Erica from England sitting in on our classes which has been such a delight! Since Cailyn and I were the only ones in our class that had ever experienced Mundo Alpaca, we decided to take the class there and then go into the centro for some cafe. Although nothing can beat my first trip to Mundo Alpaca, it was a fun time complete with more of Candy (the aplaca that I bonded with on my birthday) and fresh figs. After our alpaca adventure, we met up with Gary and Alex at Pura Fruta for some frozen yogurt and Cafe Britt coffee. Gary had Elvira as a teacher when he was in language school so he was able to come back and impress Elvira with his Spansih. He was also impressed with our Spanish which was quite an encouragement for all of us to hear!

This last Friday we went to a local fruit market and purchased several different types of fruit that are unique to Peru. We then returned to the school, washed them, and then had a feast! My favorite out of the 13 fruits we tried was the granadilla which looks like a sucker on the outside and is filled with slimy seeds that you slurp on the inside. I have now had three of those since our classs on Friday! Since it was Erica's last day and she still hadn't tried cuy (guinea pig), we decided to go to a local restaurant and experience a taste of Peru. It was as horrifying on the patter as it looks in the pictures! Elvira requested that we have the head on it so we could see it in complete form. There was more meat on it than I was expecting, which I'm not sure if that was a good thing. It tasted sort of like chicken, but the skin was a little too chewy for me. After eating, Elvira opened up the head and found a small bone that looked like an animal. It's tradition to find this bone and stick it in a drink and then have everyone take a drink of it. If you swallow the bone, then you are said to have good luck. I was the lucky one to swallow the bone! I'm not sure where our next outing will be, but I am looking forward to getting to know more of this beautiful place I call home!