"What is your favourite colour?" Learning Spanish in Cusco - Week 1

COUNTRY: Peru
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Building
WRITTEN BY: Tricia Martin

Hola friends, family and fellow Australians !!

Well it has been just over a week and it is safe to say we are all having a fantastic time!! The past few days have been a blur of new language, cobblestone streets, ragged mountain ranges and a happy mix of freezing and hot temperatures. The flight into Cusco was absolutely stunning with snow capped mountains and streams of thick cloud! We met our In-Country Partner Nico who has been fantastic guide, translator and support!

Our first week involved a variety of activities from horse riding past Inca ruins to finding hidden craft markets! Our Spanish classes have been very fun although at the moment I cannot really say anything except "why is the dog sad" and "what is your favourite colour" but I am sure this will be built on fast!! : S

We have only just moved into our family homes which is both frightening ( in regard to how little Spanish we can speak) and eye opening. Leia and I have already reached a language obstacle, accidentally saying that we would like natural yoghurt and fruit salad for dinner! Liz and Freya have a brother who loves American pop music and helped the boys in a game of basketball yesterday ( the girls team still won). Nick, Nathan and Alex have a crazy and outgoing dog while Marianna and Cat's family has provided a lot of delicious and apparently filling soup!!

There have been plenty of occurrences throughout the week and it would seem inappropriate to leave them out!

They are as follows :

- Alex and Nathan's rouge horses, trotting off ahead when exploring inca ruins
- Marianna ending up in the clinic on Wednesday from egg poisoning
- Nick eating scrambled eggs and adding egg onto a burger after finding out the cause of marianna's sickness
- attending out first Peruvian soccer game!
-Alex perfecting Spanish pick up lines in class
- Nathan enjoying the mix up of papa and papá ( potato and father)
- nico asking us if we liked " Saqsaywaman" sounding scarily like " sexy women "
- enjoying Friday night at paddy's Irish pub ( highest Irish owned pub in the world)
- Freya's swish basketball shot managing to hit Nathan smack bang in the head
- Liz's unfortunate encounter with a muddy hole and sky blue converse shoes
- the squishy bus ride... Literally 30 people crammed into a mini bus
- a prevented bus robbery by Alex literally hugging the supposed thief to prevent him from escaping

Well that pretty much sums up our first week in this amazing part of the world!! Today we finally met the children we will be teaching and it is safe to say we can't wait to get started!

Until then hasta Luego!!!

Tricia