The Day of Excessive Eating

Hello, dear readers!

Hope you've all had a scrumptious Tuesday! I am rather exhausted after a long day of activity, but also grateful to be alive and excited about the awesomeness of our newest Cusco arrivals, 14 physical and occupational therapy students and professors. I'm going to be spending a lot of time with this particular group, and I'm excited both because they're a fabulous bunch and because I feel like I'm being trusted with a lot more in the way of group program coordination and execution. It's nice to have responsibilities and to be in charge. I feel as though I'm reverting back to my days as an overly-stressed high school student, and I have to say--that thrill of being in charge of a group continues to be rather addictive. (I was the student who, when forced to complete group work, made scripts and schedules and assignments for everyone to follow so that my grade wouldn't suffer at the hands of my untrustworthy peers...call me crazy if you want, but I prefer to call myself "lovingly bossy"...heh).

Anyway, today's group of arrivals came from the lovely land of Minnesota, specifically from The College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth. There are 9 students, all females, three professors, and two spouses, and they're just such an optimistic and friendly group. I'm always impressed when students emerge from the Cusco airport at some ungodly hour of the morning at 10,000 feet above sea level and still maintain their smiles! I got up bright and early to pick up this fine group from the aeropuerto, and after they had some time to rest, Lauren and I met them and walked them to lunch at Victor/Victoria. The particularly devoted readers among you might recall that my favorite meal until this point was had at Victor/Victoria, and today the place just outdid itself with an even better menu than the last! The first course was a sweet potato soup with the most deliciously flavorful broth containing some pork, three different types of potatoes, beans, and probably some other things of which I am comfortably unaware. It was one of the best soup experiences I've had in my life (and I've had many wonderful soup experiences!). So rustic and hearty. I need to find a way to get my hands on the receta! The soup was so filling that we really could have stopped there, but that's not exactly how the Peruvians roll, so we were "forced" to enjoy a super delicious second course, in my case a thinly-sliced chicken breast served under perfectly-cooked and seasoned lentils and rice. Dessert was thankfully a very tiny portion of tres leches. I don't know how so many of us managed to eat so much in a single meal, but everything was so good that we just couldn't help ourselves! I would call today's lunch the new "best meal I've had in Peru." Victor/Victoria has done it again!

After lunch, Eliza and I co-led orientation for the students, which offered another thrilling opportunity to take control and answer questions and feel super helpful. There's just no feeling quite like the one you get when you know you've legitimately helped someone out, and a very easy way to get that feeling is to become familiar with a foreign country and then work with groups of students who have never been to the country before and have lots of questions! :-) Brings me joy!

Once orientation ended, we had a brief rest period and then Laura and I escorted the group to dinner at La Boheme, a restaurant right off of the Plaza de Armas. During dinner, we were serenaded by a group of Andean brothers who perform together at a lot of the more touristy locations in Cusco. They're quite talented, and I'm especially impressed with the brother who plays this huge reed flute, which I'm pretty sure requires more air than I think I will ever possess in my lungs at this altitude! In addition to singing traditional Andean music, they do renditions of some popular pieces like "Guantanamera" and "Hey Jude." Pretty super fun. Dinner was good, though it didn't hold a candle to our lunch, and by the time we'd finished eating, we were all pretty well exhausted! Which brings me to my current position of relaxation in my bed. I'm hoping to make it through a few more chapters of Wuthering Heights before I collapse, but it's iffy.

Tomorrow, Eliza and I will be bringing the St. Scholastica group to the two sites where they'll be working over the next two weeks. It's going to be a busy time while they're here, but hopefully I'll have some updates soon on the sites where we're working and the work the students will be doing there.

I will end this blog with the exciting piece of news that is this: not only are Paul and Eileen Whitman coming to Peru, but also, and quite soon, Andrew and Brian Whitman! I'm so excited to have my brothers here for a while, and to force them to go salsa dancing with me and show them this intriguingly wonderful city that is Cusco!

Hasta pronto, amigos!