happy valentines day!

so here i am, a total cusquena. ok not quite but i am feeling much more accustomed to the city and everything. today was the second day of class, and now i really feel like i am back in school. i get up around 7 am and get dressed, breakfast, etc... and i meet all of the other americanos in a park at around 7:30. we break up and take taxis to plaza de armas... each cab ride is about 60 cents, but then we divide it between 4 or 5 people, very cheap. I have Quechua class from 8-10, which I really enjoy. Quechua is such a cool language and has all of these different sounds that we are learning to make. Its kindof like japanese in the way that you can say one word five different ways. Its kindof hard. Then from 10-12 we have either a literature class or an arts and culture class. Today I felt a little lost and the visiting professor made fun of me for not talking enough. great. It´s really sunny and hot today, which has been nice. The weather in Cusco is sooo strange. If you stand in the shade, it can feel like winter, and summer in the sun. I think I have worn many many layers of clothes and gotten a sunburn in the same day. Since today is Valentine´s day, the plaza is going to be hopping tonight at all of the discotecas. I´m going to venture out for my first nightlife experience! wooo. Maybe I´ll find an amante peruano. Margaret and I have been searching for amantes with no positive results. Is my english getting weird? We have to be careful about bricheros and Inka lovers, basically slimy guys who want all the americanas. My mother is biting her nails right now, I´m sure. So carnival is still going on, with water balloons flying through the air constantly. I was hit today. It was the first time. It was scary, a little surprising, and the loud smack of the water balloon on the cement made us all scream. One balloon hit all four of us, and I was affected the least. To make it worse, the balloon was full of dirty, nasty water! I turned around to see my friend Carolina´s face covered in gross street grime. eww. So Flor Tatiana has been playing carnival a lot, and I started to help her make balloons and kindof caught the fever. I went out and bought some and she helped me fill them up. When Margarita (Margaret Reiley) comes over in an hour to go with me to pick up our clothes from the lavanderia, Flor ad I are going to nail her when she comes to the door! hahahaha. I can´t wait. Fabian is crawling around on the floor right now, he is the cutest. When they ask him, where is tia Marcella? He points to me. Oh. My family doesnt like the name Taylor, they prefer my middle name Marcella. I don´t mind, little do they know that I had a stint in middle school when I tried to get my friends to call me Marcella instead of Taylor, and they thought it was dumb. My day has come! My Quechua teachers also call me Marcella. Oh, so a funny story about Margarita that I forgot to post with the Macchu Picchu stuff. We were eating lunch at Macchu Picchu at this small outdoor restaurant, full of tourists from all over. These two guys from Israel sat down with us, and we were all chatting. They live in Chicago now, but are originally from Israel. Dani was talking with them about Arabs, and one of the guys said, "we should kill them all." His hand was resting slightly against a packet of cookies when he said this. Margaret turned, hearing "kill them all" and seeing the cookies, and said OH, OKAY! and dove her hand into the package and took a handful. The guys looked at her like she was crazy, and everyone started laughing. They ended up leaving that package of cookies for her and a new one when they left. Hilarious. I´m going to my first Peruvian yoga class tonight! I´m excited. Hopefully I won´t fall over due to the altitude. I think that is all I have to report, I´m going to descansar before attacking Margaret with globos, getting laundry, homework, yoga, and festivando. Hasta luego