Amazing

Hanging out with the porters

Just a Tease

Confessions of a Field Linguist

Laundry
My Peruvian mom said they had a dryer, but really dryer is Peruvian for extra spin cycle on the washer. And I was left pinning up my underwear within view of my Peruvian sister's baby daddy. Furthermore, I was instructed to place a bucket underneath my clothes to collect water for the times when the city turns it off, which has been almost every night.  Since my jeans weren't completely dry, I wore slacks.  But since I wore slacks, that meant I needed to wear heels.

The Heel Formula
Heels + Cobblestone +steep hill +heavy bag with laptop +speeding cars + altitude = very difficult walk to the center of town.

Mondays are universal

My teacher told me today that when you don't like someone you tell them  "I love you like Mondays."  

Despite everything being so different, the breakfast for late night snack called lunch and the llamas that stroll through the street Mondays are the same even in the navel of the world. 

Confessions of Field Linguist

My Uvula is Sore


After 8 hours of Quechua, where seemingly every word has a uvular stop, my uvula is sore.  Moreover, I feel like I'm hiccuping every time I produce an ejective.  And then I ponder the amalgamation that is aspirated ejectives, that should not be physically possible.  Once I force my mouth to produce uvulars, ejectives and lateral glides I think have to concentrate on conjugation.  Quechua is not strictly agglutinative, subject and object agreement are fused.  There are 24 forms to memorize. Then when I know how those forms work in ordinary contexts I must remember that when I am studying the impulsative, the agreement is flipped.

My professor tells me all kinds of stories


I already know that her husband is a stubborn womanizer, her son has a heart condition, that her cat, Ron, is sick, that she refuses to learn English, that she used to earn extra tips by speaking Japanese at the airport, that she doesn't want grandkids to overpopulate the Earth, that her childhood neighbor once pulled a gun on her mom because their cow was on their pasture, I think I'm learning more about her than Quechua.

I'm getting fat


Fitting of the female confessional genre ala Bridget Jones, I must complain about my weight.  I've had cheeseburgers and pizza, not because of my american tastes but because the locals have recommended it.  Every meal is at least two courses and usually has lots of carbs, potato, rice, bread, did I mention potato. Lastly, there is a woman who sells chocolates where I go to get data, its rude if I do not buy chocolates from her (besides, she claims to speak Quechua so I'm buttering her up... or  rather she's is buttering me up).