I left off last week Wednesday. So Thursday we had a teaching workshop. Two of the teaching volunteers were sick, so there were only two of us. The other girl had finished her project that day, so we just discussed how her project had been, then we discussed my memory game and how to get all the kids in the class to participate. Friday after school I caught the bus to Cusco. When we found wifi there, we heard what was going on in Paris. We spent an hour trying to piece together what the hell was going on. We were all shocked. We couldn't believe that such people existed in the world who would do something like this. It was also really hard to get the whole story. Luckily the next day at the hostel they had turned on BBC news and we finally heard exactly what happened. The whole weekend we kept hearing new horrific information. I didn't really know what to say, and I still don't. So I'm going to leave it there.

Saturday we went up to see the ruins, called sacsayhuaman (pronounced as if you say sexy woman). We were kind of late, as we went for lunch first and generally just took it super easy that day. We found a cab to take us up there, and as we were riding up it started to drizzle. We put on our raincoats and carried merrily on. When we had just seen the lowest bits of the ruins it started to rain in earnest. We put our hands in our pockets and went to take a picture with the alpaca's. The stones that these old sites are made from are ENORMOUS. They still don't know how the Inca's managed to get those rocks up the mountain or how they managed to perfectly align them so they didn't need any mortar. It's a cool mystery. We were at the top of the hill, having climbed all the way up the ruins, so we could see the view of Cusco, when it started to hail. Yes, hail. This wasn't a game anymore. The hailstones hurt when they hit us, and when I looked at them on the ground I saw a piece of ice the size of a marble. There was a low stone wall just to our left, and we crouched behind it trying to shelter from the hail. Eventually it let up a little bit, and running from wall to wall we made our way down and into another cab. The cab didn't want to take us all the way to our hostel because of traffic, so we had to walk the last bit. At this point the roads had turned into rivers. My allstars are not made to swim in, so my feet were soaked (and made a squelching sound with every step). I had to buy new pants on the way to the hostel because my jeans could almost qualify as rivers as well. So there we were at the hostel, five people soaked to the bone, cold, and tired from running. So we showered and changed, ordered coffee and food, and sat there slowly warming up. Food and coffee made everything so much better. We ended up having a fun night hanging out at the hostel, none of us wearing shoes, because ours were so incredibly wet.

Sunday we went to check out the artisanal centre, basically a covered market. It had a lot of the stuff you see in other markets as well: scarves, blankets, sweaters, shirts, bracelets, dolls, etc. We got bracelets, because we have made it a tradition to get a bracelet for every ruin you see. We didn't really have time in between all the running from the hail to get bracelets at saqsayhuaman the day before. I went home early because I wasn't feeling very well, but luckily when I came back down to Urubamba I felt much better. I think the height was bothering me a bit.

So during the week everything here is settling into a nice routine. I get up around 6:45, get dressed, have breakfast and generally get ready for school. I start teaching at 08:00. I teach until 11:00, after which I have a hour of break. I usually spend it at Antojitos, the cafe where we have reasonably reliable wifi. I have a cup of coffee, check my email, that kind of thing, until I'm back at school at 12:15. Then I teach until 13:45. Then it's home for lunch. In the afternoon I either go to the office to work on lesson materials, or I meet up with the other volunteers, or head to the internet cafe. We have dinner around 19:00. Then I read, watch shows, or go to the internet cafe until it is time to go to sleep. A day in the life of Anne the volunteer :).
This week is a little bit of a funny week though. The kids have exams in the morning, so I don't start work until 09:30. Then the school day starts as if it was 08:00. But they have an hour and a half to make up. So the lessons are shorter. No one is entirely sure how much shorter though. Rosy keeps having to check with the principal what hour we're in. We do finish on time at 13:45, somehow. There's an atmosphere of almost holiday around the school, even though they still have two and a half weeks to go. I suppose after exam week nothing much happens anymore. Next week I'm going to teach them Christmas songs in English. I'm quite looking forward to that.

So today was my day off. I've been sleeping really weirdly lately. I go to bed at normal hours, but I wake up at 05:30 or 06:00. I suppose it's because it's light here then, and considering that it's November, it really shouldn't be light yet. I've been sleeping a little longer this week, but now I manage to wake up at 07:00 with a start because I think I've missed my alarm.
So I got up early today, went to take a shower, and found out there was no water again. They are working on the pipes in our street, and today they were working on the ones leading to our house, so no water until 17:00. Very well, then no shower (ew). So I grabbed my stuff together and went to hike up the usual mountain. It was so difficult today, it was really warm, and I was constantly out of breath. It was all worth it though. The top was as peaceful and beautiful as ever, and because of the clear weather, I could see the whole of the sacred valley. I was sweaty and disgusting when I cam back down, though. Luckily we have some extra water in reserve in a tank on top of the house and my host parents let me use that to shower. So my host father hooked it up and voila I could be clean.
We had a PA social in the afternoon, and we learned how to make a typical Peruvian dish of chicken in a slightly spicy peanut sauce, with rice and potato. I think if I make it at home I will not add the potato, but other than that it was really nice. We all helped a little with the cooking and then we sat around the big table at the office and chatted and ate the food. Nearly everyone was there, meaning there were around 11 people. In two and a half weeks a lot of volunteers leave. We have a lot of fun stuff planned until then though...