We enjoyed shopping today. I bought an alpaca sweater. On our way back to a hostel we met a spit robbery. My boyfriend was spit and soon one woman and two men surrounded us. We knew that they were robberies so that we held our bags tight. One guy tried to steal my boyfriend's wallet in his pocket but he failed and they left.
The Taquile island is located not far away from the Amantani island. I enjoyed a blue lake Titicaca.
We joined a tour to islands for one night two days. In Amantani island there is no hotel, electricity. We stayed in a host family's house. At night we changed our clothes to traditional clothes and went to a disco party. Well, it was a folklore music played by young boys in the island. Local people and travellers enjoyed dancing together. At house we had lunch, dinner, and breakfast. When they cooked, they used a flat stone as a plate, used dirty looking water in a bucket. I was afraid that I had diarria but I was OK. Food was delicious!! I really had a great time with my host family.
# our host mother
# our host mother
Many shops were closed because of christmas. The church was closed, too. We walked streets in downtown many times but it was not much exciting. Then we went to the market and did shopping. We had Inca Kola at lunch. Inca Kola is yellow soda drink. It seems as popular as Coca cola in Peru.
We came to Puno by bus. Puno is a small town and not much to see. At the market many decorations for christmas and fireworks were on sale. We bought a bottle of Champaigne, a cake, and fireworks. At night Puno was sooo noisy with the sound of fireworks. We also enjoyed doing fireworks. When we came back to our hostel the owner's family gave us a christmas dinner. It was very nice.
Aguas Calientes is the closest town to Machu Picchu. We went to Machu Picchu in the morning by bus. It went up to the mountain and it took about 30 minutes. The fee was $9 one way. It was toooooo expensive. The scenary of Machu picchu was gorgeous. The scenary from the top of Huayna Pichu was much better. Huayna Pichu is a small ruin of Inca. It is also called a younger brother of Machu Picchu. Huayna Pichu is located higher than Machu Picchu and we can go there only on our foot. It took about an hour to clim up the mountain from Machu Picchu to Huayna Pichu. The treacking was wonderful because it was scarely, historical, and the scenary was beautiful.
This morning I had a headache. I think it was high altitude sickness. A dose of medicine I brought from the US made me feel better. My boyfriend and I had a field trip. We went to suburbs to see some ruins. We went to the furthest ruin by taxi and came back to Cuzco on foot. The suburbs was very rural, beautiful, and peaceful. In the eveing we went to Aguascarientes by bus and train.
We arrived at Lima and flew to Cuzco. It takes 20 hours by bus and 1 hour by plane. So we saved time and energy. Although it is summer in Peru it is not very hot. It is a little chilly. Cuzco was a capital of Inca and its altitude is 3,660m. I like the town but it is really tough to walk around because there are many steps around downtown. Town is like a bowl and downtown is the bottom. Our hostel is on the hill. I had to take a rest before climing up to the hostel. Today I had cuy for dinner. Cuy is ginny pig, (morumotto). It was like a greasy chicken. There was not much meat and it was difficult to eat.
My boyfriend and I stayed in his uncle's house in Miami. His family was very nice and surprisingly his daughter studies Japanese at her middle school. We went to an island for sightseeing. There I ate dolphin for lunch! Dolphin is a fish but it is not IRUKA, real dolphin. The American call a kind of fish dolphin although it is not a real dolphin. The plate of fish was about 5 dollars cheeper than one in Philly. I am so jealous. Although we could not go to Peru today but I had a good time with his relatives in Miami. It is a good starter of my trip.
Today I left for PERU!!! I come back to Philadelhia January 7th. I spend Christmas and New Year in Peru. I wanted to go there for a long time but I did not plan because it is too far from Japan and a flight ticket is expensive. So I was thinking that I travel to Peru while I am in the US. The time has finally come. I am so happy about it. However, flight from Philadelphia was delayed because of the bad weather... So I missed the connection from Miami to Peru.
Today my boyfriend and I trapped squirrels! He made it during the thanksgiving holiday in Detroit. (I was watching him making it.) We went to the campus because there are many squirrels. We put it with some pieces of bread with peanut butter. It took only 10 minutes to trap the first squirrel. But it was about 30 minutes that we trapped the second one. We freezed. After taking pictures, we released them. It was fun.
Today I finished all courses of fall semester! I was not very happy after today's exam because I was pretty exhausted. I slept a few hours last night and worked on the exam for about three hours... Later, I took a nap and attended a farewell party of my senior student who is going back to Japan tomorrow. I had a lot of fun!
Today I finished all classes of one course, Language for Specific Purposes. Although there is a big final exam tomorrow, I am so happy! 
I was pretty busy with papers these days. But I am almost done. I submit one paper and do presentation tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I take a final exam on Friday. Then, FINISH!! I am going to leave for Peru on Sunday! I can't wait.
Finally I had braces put on today. It does not so hurt but it bothers. I was surprised that so much food stuck between braces and teeth. It took 30 minutes to brush my teeth and floss. Wow, what a nightmare! I hope I lose my weight...