you silly avocado

i'm finding it very difficult to write because everything seems normal these days! from my daily 20 cent rides in combis with people's rumps and bags of veggies smacking me in the face.... to getting dolled up in traditional garb and braids to take pics with llamas!

so i am digging into the depths of my brain to try to remember what technically ARE oddities!

cusquenian facts:
- two painted lanes of highway really means 3 lanes
- salt here is not granulated... it is powder!
- peru is one of the top suppliers of coffee beans... but everyone here drinks instant. seriously.
- every peruvian child is model-status-adorable
- limes dominate every meal, but lemons do not exist
- it can be 80 degrees one second... and all at once the clouds appear and it drops to 50!
- there are about 700 million photocopy places but only TWO that do color! GARH!!!
- calling someone an avocado means they are confused and gonna mess something up

weird things i've witnessed this week:
- a dog and 3 kids doing a conga line in the street
- 25 school children pouring out of the back of a toyota hatchback meant for 5 passengers
- a donkey bellowing at a cow crossing
- a woman doing that Cirque du Soleil white sheet dance at a club opening
- baby with the longest tongue ever
- two guys on stilts dancing around a clothing store while a guy played a didgeridoo (instrument that looks like the ricola commercial in the swiss alps
- kid getting transported in a wheelbarrow of dirt clods
- 3-headed pig (just kidding)

my life basically consists of trying my darndest to get Loraypo's products into fairtrade stores around town and convincing tour agencies that they want to set up tours to watch live demonstrations of the sheering, dying, weaving process (i'm leaving the urine out of these sells).

and at night... hanging out with my buddies over fresh fruit smoothies, pisco sours, and salsa lessons! i'm very bummed because Ines goes back to lima in a couple of days. =( but i'll be visiting her at the end of oct and maybe taking a trip to the coast! yeeeeah for southern hemisphere summer! and Simone and Jeff are doing Machu this weekend!!! why is 2.5 weeks sooooo faaaaar awaaaaay????!?!

it wa my host mom's birthday on sunday, so there have been LOTS of festivities and guests over which is super entertaining! of course the one day i rise thinking "NO MORE SWEETS" and "TELL FLOR YOU WANT SMALLER PORTIONS" is feliz cumpleanos with cake and hot chocolate for breakfast! uf. plus, i got a lot of vino shoved down my throat that afternoon which turned out to be really fun. salud! salud! salud! NEVERENDING salud!!! but waking up to a 12 year old hired boy doing dishes and two women marinating a tub of 150 chicken carcasses kinda weirds me out.....

alright, off i go to hit up yet another tour agency. (and maybe stop by the black market for more $1 movies and 30 Rock series that i am obsessssssed with!!!)