1 day until the AMAZON!

Ok so not much has been going on the past two days but I figured I would update with things I've forgot since Friday we are leaving for Iquitos!!! and I probably wont update until Monday. We leave Friday morning at 4am and are getting back to Lima on Sunday around 9pm! I am beyond excited to be in hot weather and see the sun 3 days in a row! I will have plenty of pictures to post next week :)

I forgot to mention this on my post Monday but Sunday was my host mom's, Vicki, birthday Sunday. So since Emmi got sick I braved the family extravaganza solo. It was just Vicki's mom, sister and niece but it was crazy! Luckily the niece is fluent in English (and Portuguese as well as Spanish being her native language...wish I could learn at least one language fluently, it's so hard). It was so funny to hear them talking, I understood most of what was being said, but they way they talk reminds me of my mom's family when we were kids. Everyone would talk over everyone else and just continue to get louder. I miss my family back home and their craziness! Luckily Skype is very useful-Emmi and I have realized that Skype is definitely something very new to Peruvians. Speaking of Skype Emmi told my host mom last night that I was talking to my mom online and she said Vicki sprinted to the office and met my mom...not that their was much communication because Vicki can't speak any English but I think she got what my mom wanted to say (I tried to translate later). Emmi said she thought about coming in and translating (since Vicki talks so fast sometimes) but decided she would just let it play out!

On Monday we found out in class that part of our final is writing...in Spanish, yikes! And today we found out another portion of our writing and pronunciation class is to memorize 8 lines of a poem in Spanish and recite it properly. AND we found out that all of our classes will be done before we go to Cusco on the 26! So that means I will have almost 2 full free days before I leave! Today in my grammar class she let us finish the last of the Richard Gere movie (Hachiko: A Dog's Story) it's so sad and makes me want a puppy of my own!

Yesterday we had a meeting with Michelle who is the ISA Lima on-site director, she's great! She's very animated and funny..she'll be one of the 2 ISA staff members taking us on our excursions! After the meeting a bunch of us wanted to go to a local mercado (market), so Jose Louise (an ISA staffer) brought us to an area about 10 minutes from the school that had four different mercados! It is amazing the amount of stuff they have! I found a few things I'll probably be going back to get, I found a stuffed animal for my little cousin they call alpaca loco (crazy alpaca) it's fur is alpaca fur it's so soft and he has buck teeth and a rainbow colored beanie on --I LOVE IT! Emmi and I decided it would be good to wait a little while before we buy all our souvenirs and gifts because it's way cooler to say you got something in the Amazon than from one of the random mercados in Lima! I think we'll be going back during our free weekend or the last 2 days we have free.

A bunch of ISA students ended up going to see Prince of Persia last night in Spanish in one of the districts in Lima (San Isidro). Emmi and I wanted to go but our family eats so late and afterwards we get so tired! So we made a plan for next week to go into Larcomar again for dinner and to walk around out there at night, no worries it's a very touristy area, we'll be plenty safe.

Look for an update next week about my trip to the Amazon! Hopefully I can get the nerve to hold a sloth! :) --FYI sloths really creep me out, I think it's their face