Sunday morning, last day off before classes begin. My day began normally enough but somehow I became really sad and felt absolutely terrible. Everything was making me tear up and reminding me of home - and I've been gone less than a week! Anyway, what's more quintessentially me then crying at the drop of a hat? So anyway, it was a tough morning but I knew the best way to cure homesickness was to do something, anything to distract me.
I helped my host mom take down the Christmas decorations and felt very useful for once. Afterwards though, my host dad and I went for a tour of the city. I can't even tell you how much better I felt after that!
The first place we stopped had the most incredible view I've literally ever seen in my life. I was absolutely in awe. Here's a photo...
A picture could never really capture it. We proceeded to go down the mountain by these terrifyingly steep roads (a trail taken by Spanish conquistadores apparently) and visited the church that you see at the bottom of the picture.
Afterwards we went to the artisan market downtown and looked through everything. I seriously almost died of pure joy - absolutely beautiful pieces made/being sold by indigenous people and so so so cheap. Scarves, bags, PONCHOS, shirts, bracelets, earrings, silver rings, everything made of leather............. basically heaven. I didn't buy anything but I learned to haggle and learned from my host dad were some good materials (stones that are actually red or black corral, bull tusk!, a purse made from woven cacti reed things). Next time though, all bets are off and I'm getting... everything.
As we were leaving this area, back in the car, I saw a man on the a street corner eyeing these two blond women, one of which was fishing through her purse to find her keys. Then I saw him stick his hand straight into her back pocket!!!!! She didn't even know he was behind her. I freaked out but I could point out six things off the bat that that lady was doing that we weren't supposed to. So.
We kept driving, I felt much better. Came back, kept reading a little (I've been reading Las Brujas - The Witches by Roald Dahl in Spanish!) and then had a good small dinner. I'm remarkably used to having my meals at 2pm and 8pm. Imagine :)
Anyway, toda está bien ahora. See why I chose the title for this blog? For my mood and also because of all the crazy hills we climbed today in the car. Haha. Class tomorrow. Suerte...
Cyn!
Awww. I'm worried about homesickness, too. But hopefully you just need to get it out of your system the first week or two and then can really get into the swing of things :) Happy to hear that you are enjoying yourself already!!
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