The Lima Airport was pristine. It was clean and as modern as it could be. The minute I stepped off the plane in Cusco this morning, the first thing I noticed was that the airport looked like a piece of a garbage. Paint was peeling off the wall. The wooden floors were scratched and dented. It was dusty all around. I thought, “Well, I guess Cusco is a city of dirt?” As soon as I got outside, met with someone from the school, and got in the car and took off, I envisioned the city as if it looked like an earthquake just happened. Buildings are falling apart and also very cheap looking! They look like crushed cardboard boxes. Sidewalks are very uneven! Roads have lots of dents. The paint from the road looked like as if it needs to be repainted VERY badly. Many roads don’t have a white or a yellow strip line in the middle. Almost all of the cars looked as if they needed to be thrown into the dumpster. Many of them look somewhat like my parents’ Toyota Corolla from the late 80′s! What can I say about my overall impression? I’m slightly not surprised because I’ve always found the Spanish culture to be somewhat dirty as I found Spain to be dirty and people who have visited Mexico told me that it’s also very dirty.

About a half hour later, I arrived at my host family’s home, which looked like a decent townhouse from the ’60′s. The inside is very nice, but a very old feeling to it, which I’m more than fine with as most homes in France are old too! There are three floors. The first floor has a kitchen, a living room and dining room together. The second and third floor both have a bathroom and three rooms. I have my own bedroom and there is another student who arrived at the same time as I did staying with my host family too. She’s from Slovakia —-

My host mother served me breakfast, and I could barely eat as I was tired as hell and was about to collapse. The mother was very understanding and told me to go to sleep. So, I did and slept for most of the day. Even when I got up for a late lunch, I was still tired.

Shortly after lunch, I went to the Spanish school to take a tour of the city center. I have to say that the city center is a much nicer area. It looks very much like Spain in terms of architecture! However, it is still an amazingly exotic place! There were women carrying children by using a brightly colored blanket on their backs. Some even used the brightly colored blanket just to carry items. When I was walking around the city center, I realized that I am a minority, something I’ve never experienced! All throughout my life, I’ve been surrounded by a diversified population or where white was the majority. Now, I’m one of the few white people among the people who have darker skin color! Strange feeling!

I have not taken any pictures yet. I want to become accustomed to the Peruvian culture and learn my way around before I go out and take pictures. I have a WHOLE month in the same spot! However, I am going to start shopping this week! While it’s warm in Cusco during the day, it’s FREEZING as hell at night and I brought only one sweater and a fleece jacket. So, I need to get another sweater or jacket. I also see lots of cool specialties, including scarves, hats and dolls.

See the stunning view of the Andes from the plane!