Spanish Class

Today , Oct 11th was my 2nd day of spanish school.  I am enrolled in a program at maximo nivel on Avenida del sol.  This is a well known program to the natives here for learning english but they also teach spanish as well for tourists.  It is at the main plaza in cuzco where you see all the tourists.  I go everyday for an hour with my private tutor, Ana maria.  I am really learning a lot being immersed in the culture and taking lessons are really going to help me even more.  They have other programs that are more intensive and expensive, but with the little ones this is the best I can do for now.  I will say that i can get around  by myself pretty well. I know enough to go to the lavanderia, supermercado y otro lugares:)  how great it will be to come back and have a conversation with  my grandparents:) 

Chow!!!!

kendrea

Giselle First day at School

We enrolled Giselle on Monday, Oct 3rd into a bilingual school called "time for kids".  It is about 5 or 6 blocks away from the house, so it is walking distance from our apartment. Tony drops her off every day before he goes to work at the hotel and I usually pick her up. We went and looked at 4 different schools before we decided on that one.  We wanted her to attend a preschool where she can learn spanish and some english.  She is in a great school that goes from 8 am to 1230 pm monday to friday.  She is taught 1 hour of english a day and then the rest spanish.  They have a great program and they even send her home with homework and a book that explains how her day was and whether she ate lunch or not.  We pay a little extra and they have a chef  that comes in and cooks lunch for those that pay.  We pay about $175 a month ( 390 soles) for the school which is less than what I would have paid in the states and also she is there longer than she would have been in the states.  It was so hard to send our baby away to school especially in another country, but this has been really good for her so far. I am so happy that she will leave back to the states pretty fluent in spanish.  I will upload pictures soon of her school.

Arriving in Cuzco, Monday Sept 19th

On Monday Sept, 19th 2011 we arrived at our final destination, Cuzco Peru.  We moved into a nice area of Cuzco, in a brand new buliding.  We are in a gated apartment with a private guard.  Everything is within walking distance.  Our first day here we tried to unpack as much as we could to get settled in.  Some stuff was already set up for us as far as the basics since his family lived here for a month prior to our arrival. One thing that broke my heart was when I pulled our our wedding picture and giselle noticed it it she said, "I want to go to my home".  I said, We cannot right now and she said, "sure we can get on an airplane and go".  I had to explain this is our new home for a bit and then we will go back to our home again soon.  There are some downfalls to not being in the states and there are also some perks too.   I will say the #1 downfall is the shower.  The water pressure is weak and we have to wait a while to even get hot water out. I really miss my shower especailly since it is cold here...and quess what?  I was told we are in Spring not winter..OUCH!!!  Did i mention, no heater!!!  So we bundle up well and we are getting use to things. # 2 downfall...I miss target . I cannot believe how hard it is to find things I need to settle in.  We went high and low to try to find organization bins and still have not found it.  But, we did spend our first week shopping for furniture and were able to get a couch and dining room table, a bed for gia and a little kids eating table for giselle and a high chair.  We paid $ 414.00 for all including tax.....actually there was no tax for those things. One of the many perks is that everything is for less here. I get hair cut, wash and blow dry, flat iron all for 11.00 with tip and looks like I did for 100.00 in the states.  Everything Labor here is inexpensive, everything american here is expensive. We also eat out at some amazing places for about 3 to 5 a plate.  We usually would pay like 40 to eat at a sit down restaurant and here it is like 10 or 15 dollars.  So, the first week has taken some adjustment, like anything new but I am sure things will get better as we learn the environment around us.