Birthday celebrations

Conveniently, my birthday happened to fall on the last day our group was going to be in Cuzco before leaving for excursions to Lima and Arequipa for two weeks (March 22). It was also, sadly, the day of our last Quechua class. In the class, our whole group performed a short play we had written in Quechua called "The Guinea Pig Suicide Cult" (typical of my group to come up with something like that) in which we all played guinea pigs who were suffering from a food shortage and had to resort to eating their children. After one guinea pig got eaten by a human, all the other guinea pigs decided to commit suicide. This tragedy was accompanied by live quena (Peruvian flute) music provided by Jenny.

My host mom also organized a special lunch for my birthday at the house. Miraculously, Rosita has actually been sitting at the table with the family ever since Ursula was here. When she tries to sit somewhere else, my host mom insists that she sit at the table. It's unbelievable to me that I could have witnessed such a radical change in just a few short weeks of living with a family. I also invited Mijael to eat with us, and so for the first time me, Rosita, Socorro, and Mijael all ate at the same table (along with Raquel, who had also come to join us). Admittedly the conversation was slightly awkward, but I was overjoyed that the scenario could even exist at all. Rosita made a dish called "aji de gallina," which is a typical Peruvian dish of chicken shreds covered in a yellow sauce made from peppers and cheese. It was delicious. My host mom also liberally served us all special flavored liquors, and scolded Rosita when she didn't finish hers. We were enjoying ourselves to such an extent that by the time Raquel and I actually got around to looking at the clock it was past the time our afternoon class was supposed to start, and we were both a little buzzed. My host mom said, in complete seriousness, "Oh, you're not going to go to class, are you?" She cracks me up. At times she's completely neurotic and at other times totally chill.

So Raquel and I showed up to class late and slightly under the influence. To our surprise, at the end of class Irma, our academic director, pulled out a couple of bottles of pisco (the Peruvian liquor) and proceeded to give us a short lesson about the difference between aromatic and non-aromatic pisco. (The funny thing about Irma is that she has a knack for turning everything into an academic experience.) Then she handed out shot glasses and poured us each two shots so that we could see the difference between the two types of pisco. It was a cultural experience, alright.

At night I met up with pretty much all of the friends I have made in Peru thus far (which turned out to be a very eclectic but fun group) and we all went dancing in Las Vegas, a discoteca where my host mom has forbidden me to go because she says there are lots of robbers, but which I love because almost no tourists go there. Since I knew I would have to meet the group the next morning at 6:00 am to take a bus to the airport to fly to Lima, I decided to skip out on sleep. Alas, I am pretty exhausted today, but totally content.