Thursday, March 10, 2011

A Little Here, A Little There

One week down and life is good. I am settling in well at Yamanya and I only have one class at Excel. There weren’t enough people that matriculated for the other two classes that I was potentially going to teach. Fortunately, I am not desperate for the hours. I am actually kind of excited that I only have one class that I can pour all my energy into. I want to make it fun and exciting and I can certainly do it with all the extra time I have without two other classes.

Last night we celebrated Sadidt’s birthday by getting pizza at a place called La Verona. It was fun and I saw some students that I hadn’t seen since I had them in September.

I’ve been making lots of friends here at the hostel from all over the world. I definitely have a place to stay when I go to Santiago, Mendoza, Cordoba, and Buenos Aires. It’s amazing the amount of networking you can do when you live and work at a hostel. I have also taken to giving suggestions to guests as to where to get lunch and good coffee and pastries. I want to share my knowledge of the city because so often people who work at hostel bars are travelers as well and they don’t know the city that well. I want to make sure that people get good info. I read the reviews of the hostel on hostelworld.com and hostelbooker.com and one of the negative comments that was on there was about bad directions to Pisac. There isn’t much the hostel can do about it’s bar workers and their knowledge of the city but for the time being, I will improve upon that comment and give people correct advice. ☺

In other news, I met up with Marissa, the cousin of Becca who I worked with at Maximo until December. Anyway, Marissa and her boyfriend Humberto are opening up a pasta restaurant called Pasta Mama. It’s a play on the word Pachamama which means mother earth in Quechua. I think I may have mentioned all this before. I’m super excited though! They should be open by the beginning of next month and I will be working there serving and doing whatever else they need me to do. I can’t wait. It’s so exciting to be a part of an entrepreneurial adventure! Right now they are working on lighting and getting some bar stools. I am going to see if I can’t help type up the menu and make it pretty once it is finalized. I will be making about 4 soles an hour but it’s better than nothing. I might get a bit in tips too. I don’t expect much though. Tipping is not common here. A sol here or there would be nice though. I will have to rely on the gringos. They tend to tip; especially if they are from the States. So next month I will be working at the hostel and at Pasta Mama and taking a break from teaching which will be great because my brother Roger is coming on the 15th! He just confirmed his flight and I couldn’t be more excited!! We are going to have a blast. I am going to show him everything!

2 comments:

  1. Do you realize the significance of your waitress job!? When you were little and we asked you want you wanted to be you said "a waitress". Your mom and I were so happy you were aiming high and now, it has come to pass in a place so exotic and far away from where you spent your tothood!

    Keep on truckin' .... or servin' that is.

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  2. And come to think of it, it will be my first waitressing job. I was a host at Prairie Moon, but never a waitress. I´m very excited!

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