Huancayo

Where to start. Well, how about the bus ride. 7.5 hours or so of ear popping, mountain scaling action. I slept through most of it. Apparently a woman passed out in the bathroom due to the altitude but I missed it. Arrived in Huancayo around 9pm and was greeted by my host family, Neto, Elli and their daughter Marife who is absolutely adorable. We drove back to the house (more like a compound) and I was greeted by 6 other volunteers drinking wine and playing cards and all very cheery. I put my stuff down in my room (all to myself, I even have keys to it!) and then met a lot of drunken people. There are 15 volunteers right now I believe, 9 are med students at Creighton and they are leaving next week, 2 girls from England, and a couple other randoms. After next week there will only be 4 or 5 of us volunteers left. Its a very cool setup, we all live with Neto and Ellie, except the Creighton students who have an apartment a block away. We all eat in Neto and Ellie{s house and hangout here a lot.
So far the altitude hasn{t been bad. I feel a little winded after going up stairs, and last night woke up and didn{t know my name or where I was, but besides that I feel great. Today Neto, Ellie and Marife and I went to the "mercado libre", or the open air market. Poppadop you woulda loved it. Every kind of animal hung up, including guinea pig, so you know exaclty what kind of meat youre getting and can hand pick your bit of meat. They have everything from meat, to a million different types of potato to everday household items. I ate a caramel, jello type thing made from cow hoof which was really good. After we drove to the city center and I got to see more of Huancayo. It is better off than Lima, but still very poor. There are street vendors, stray dogs and we saw a random fire on the sidewalk tonight. Overall, I love the city though. There is a really weird mall just like out of the US that has KFC and Burger King, which is nice for some things but I think I will avoid it. Everything is SO cheap. Taxis are about a sole per person for a 10 minute ride or so, which is about 33 cents. I had a full dinner tonight for 6 soles, or 2 dollars. Its crazy. I ate cow heart, stomach and intestine. Some of it was pretty gnarly but it was super cool to try it out. Tomorrow we are riding horses through the valley (no work on weekends) and then going to the discoteca. Its a pretty funny, crazy, awesome group and I think I will relaly enjoy my stay here. I know I forgot a lot but can{t wait to tell you guys all about it. Miss and love you all!