2nd to last day in Peru = Sad

I am glad you guys are reading my blog. I am sorry I am not posting anymore. Here is what happened...

(squiggly lines, squiggly lines, suiggly lines swirling and focusing into a scene)

I posted once and it took me so long to get even one post done. And then I checked a few days later to write the second post and only becca had commented, so I gave up. It is too hard. I want to spend every second here having fun. So I figure what I will do is this: I am going to type up my journal when I get home for personal reasons and because I have to turn it in to my professor. So I am thinking everyone who is interested and does not speak to me on a regular basis can hear about my adventures in Peru, day by day, while I am actually in California. Sounds fantastic, right?

While I wait for my amigas to get done, I will write a little bit, because I am too exhausted to wander on my own for a bit. My legs hurt. We got into Cusco on Saturday and it is suprisingly large. We met our host family and they are wonderful and loving and talented. The program for the University started on Sunday and we met Jesus who runs the Amigos Spanish School. He is fantastic and sassy and likes to share his sexual encounter stories with me for some reason. We started lessons on Monday and I had the most wonderful class ever. I learned quite a bit from Jossie, but we spent pretty much the entire time laughing. She even took us out for Cuy (Guinea Pig). It was muy rico and very hard to cut, so I did not eat too much, but I have some wonderful pictures for later. They bring the cuy out full. Teeth, hands, feet and all.

Archaeological wise, I have been to see Machu Picchu, Tambomachay, Pukapukara, Qengo, Saqsayhuaman (pronounced Sexy Woman), Pisac, and Moray. They were all breathtaking. The most profound experience of the trip was stepping off the train in Machu Picchu town (Aguas Calientes). I nearly cried when I saw the mountains soaring above me and the fog setting in all around us. It was... astounding.

We went out a lot too. They have a fun discoteca in the Plaza de Arms and we have gone salsa dancing a few times. I really am sad to leave.

My time is up on the computer. Love you guys. See you in a few days.

First off, here are pictures of our hotel room and restaurant/bar downstairs






I don´t have any pictures today, but I didn´t think I would be coming to an internet cafe. There are a lot of fun stories to tell, but they will probably only be told to some people in person, so my mom doesn´t have a heart attack :)

Seriously though...

We took the mirabus yesterday on a tour throughout Lima. It was amazing to see the entire city. We are staying in Mira Flores, which is a little out of the way, so we hadn´t ventured into the Plaza Mayor (I think that is what it is called) yet. We stopped at the Cathedral of San Francisco and got to tour the catacombs underneath. The paintings and woodwork are truly breathtaking. When we got back on the bus to head back, I met the first man I am going to bring home. His name is Rafael and he is Brazilian and gorgeous. My friends and I met he and his friends at a bar and went dancing.

Oops.. gotta go. I will post pictures from the tour and of Rafael whenever I get on here next.

Peru- Day One

I made it! I can not believe that I am actually here! 3 plane rides down, 5 to go over the next couple of weeks. The flight wasn´t too bad. I was a little worried about the ride from Atlanta to Lima, but they had lots of food and "New Release" movies to watch, so I was set. When we landed, we had a ride arranged through Katie, one of the girls I was traveling with. They are, by far, the scariest drivers I have ever encountered. There aren´t so many rules that need to be followed. People honk a lot and that is their way of saying "Get out of my way, because I am getting into your lane wether you like it or not". There were a few times where we literally drove between two lanes, squeezing in between cars on either side.

The food here is amazing and for some reason, we´ve taken ALOT of pictures of our meals and drinks.







We are staying in the suite at the Bella Vista hotel in Mira Flores and it is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in, and for only $40 a night. I will try to upload some pictures later. The only problem is, our balcony shares a glass wall with the gym that is downstairs. So, we are woken up every morning around 6 when the cycling class starts and they blast the music. They have a really nice outdoor cafe/bar downstairs as well.

The first day we got ready and started walking towards the big mall that is on the beach. We stopped constantly to shop in the little stores along the streets. They have tons of shoe stores around and I am still contemplating a really cute pair. We stopped for drink at Mezze, a really cute restaurant with even cuter waiters. There are some very good looking men down here and they are all very nice. I might have to bring one back with me. Anyhoo, we finally made it to the beach and mall around 6 at night, meaning it took us 6 hours to make a 10 minute walk to the beach. They have some great stores at the mall and it is set right against the beach. We plan to spend a whole day at the beach tomorrow or the next day, but we got some nice pictures of it.

There is so much more to tell and pictures to show, but we really want to get out of here and start our day. This computer is really slow at uploading pictures, so I got as many in as I could. I will upload more soon. Today we are going in to downtown Lima to see the Cathedral, catacombs, etc. Talk to all of you soon!

The Master of the Universe

I presented my Master's thesis this week and I don't think I have been so nervous in my entire life. I am such a procrastinator, and every semester, every new project, I think, I am going to get started early this time and finish well in advance. Yeeeeah, right. I did everything last minute, which isn't to say I didn't work hard. I would guess I put in at least 50 hours worth of work, but it was 50 hours within a two week time span instead of four. And then I had two weeks where I had nothing to do but wait, because my committee needed to look over my materials. I planned to write out what I wanted to say word for word, podcast it and listen to every day. And I did. But I did it two days before my presentation. So, naturally my heart was pounding come Tuesday. I got to the U an hour and a half before my presentation and sat in the student lounge rehearsing my lines. (My presentation had to be at least an hour long). I felt confident with the material, but was terrified I would forget what I wanted to say and have to look at my notes. I took 15 kava pills within a 2 hour time span before the presentation and they always work, but not today. So, I ended up taking a quarter of a xanax 30 minutes before my presentation.

All went well. I didn't need to look at my notes and I felt a rush of emotions when after being ushered out so my committee could discuss, John opened the door and reached out his hand with a smile on his face and said "Congratulations!". It felt so wonderful. I woke up on Wednesday morning with the most wonderful feeling. Nothing. I had nothing to worry about that day. Nothing that had to get done. Freedom. And now, my room is finally clean-ish. I have too much and need to go through everything and just get rid of a lot of it. I've also spent a bit of time at school getting stuff ready for next school year.

I leave for Peru on July 6. I am beyond excited. Ecstatic maybe? Visiting Macchu Picchu has been on my top 3 list since I was 17 years old. I just hope I can soak everything up. I am not nervous or scared, only that I might forget to see something. After Peru, a trip to Vegas with the gals. And then Monterey, California to hang out with Summer and Rich until I absolutely have to be back.

I sound falsely upbeat, like maybe I am trying to hard to be happy. But I'm pretty sure I'm sincerely this happy right now. Either that, or I am such a good liar, I have even tricked myself.

Happy International Moment of Laughter Day

I use Mystery Motivators with my kids as an independent group contingency reinforcement system. Essentially, they get the chance to earn 5 stars throughout the day by following class rules. If they earn all 5, they get a Mystery Motivator at the end of the day. At some point in the year, the kids got pretty bored of my 10 recycled activities (free time, shaving cream, play dough, bubbles, movie, etc.). I stumbled on a National Holiday website that, as the name would imply, lists the national holidays from day to day. I have started incorporating them into my Mystery Motivators. For example, March 10 was national "Learn what your name means day". Everyone who earned all their stars sat around my computer and we looked up the meaning of their names and read them aloud to the class. The kids loved it! I printed it out for them to take home as well.

Now I have the habit of checking http://www.holidays.net/dailys.htm#LastWeek on a weekly basis to see what holidays are coming up. Today is International Moment of Laughter Day. It is also

Anniversary - President Lincoln's Assassination
Dia De Las Alericas (Honduras)
Children With Alopecia Day
Pan-American Day

So, in honor of laughter, here are some of the things I find hilarious:



JohnJay and Rich. The premise of this segment is not funny, but they say some hilarious things. I listen to them every morning and listen to their podcasts at least once a day. They may be the funniest people on the planet.



Flight of the Conchords



Jim Gaffigan. Hot pockets...

Superhero tattoo

Trey told me that getting one of these tattoos makes you a superhero. I'm Wolverine now, in case you can't tell. For all you bad guys out there, watch out. Trey and I are on the beat.

Teaching and animal conspiracies

My dad came home a few days ago and I had just woken up from a nap. I had been taking naps 4 days a week now since school started. "Now you understand why I am always taking naps", he said, with what I'm pretty sure was an evil "ha ha" glint in his eye. And yes, now I fully understand. Who knew that being a teacher was so exhausting? Sure, I'm not running laps all day long, but I do, uh, stand a lot. Quite a lot actually. So there. And sometimes I play tag at recess. So double extra there. But mentally, emotionally: I'm drained. I love my job and I haven't cried once, but there is so much to do and it seems that when I try to get something done or organized, I get handed 10 more things to do or the classroom just gets messier. Needless to say, I am no longer allowing myself to take naps, cause I don't get enough done if I do. I'm done with my degree though. I just have to print it off the computer. Yep. Just print my teaching license off the computer.

I am also almost halfway through with my Masters Degree. I can't until everyone starts calling me Master Tucker. My brother's are going to be so bummed that they went for their Doctorate. Be honest: would you rather be called Doctor So-and-so or Master So-and-so? That's what I thought.

I feel a little lame though and want to apologize to people who actually talk to me in real life. I find that I am taking less initiative to call people and when they do call me, I am somewhat lifeless which anyone could easily translate to mean: she hates me. But it's not true. I'm just tired. Oh so tired.

Does anyone else believe the conspiracy that animals are trying to take over the world? There's always these crazy news stories about animals getting into CrAzY situations that involve humans getting harmed or would've gotten harmed had the animal not been stopped? Yeah, I hear them all the time too. They pretend to be furry, innocent and cute until they try to scratch your face off while you're asleep. But they'll just pretend they were trying to save your life by trying to wake you up, cause the house was on fire (they set the fire by the way)... My life is infested with animals. There is a mouse living in the walls of my house, but for some reason it loves coming into my room at night and scratching away at things to keep me awake. And it's building it's nest in the wall between my bedroom and bathroom. I have set up mouse traps to catch Morton (that's his name of course) and he somehow evades them. There are only two spots where the sinks in my bathroom meet that he can get in and he must be an acrobat, because he somehow misses the traps that are set right underneath the holes. There is also a feral cat that loves to sit outside my window at night and howl itself to what must be a near death. The noise literally wakes me up and sends my heart beating a mile a minute, it sounds that bad. Then there's the spiders. Those disgusting little arachnids that worm their way into the weirdest little places. My thought on spiders is this: they are welcome to live in my house as long as they stay out of my way. But the second I see them, they must die. So I found one this morning inside my previous day's iced drink cup, which had a lid on it. So I set it in the sink and sent water rushing down the straw to slowly fill up the cup. The spider ended up floating upside down at the top of the cup, smashed into the lid. I planned to dump it out after I finished doing my makeup. Five minutes later I look over and Melvin (that was his name of course) is wiggling around trying to find a way out. He was pretending to be a drowned spider! And it was like he would sense when I saw him. He would curl his little legs up and pretend to be dead again and then lo and behold, when I turned my back, he would try to wiggle out.

That was a long story, I know. But I think it's important that everyone be aware of what the animals of the world are conspiring to do. They must be stopped. Or at least we need to get on their good side.