Beginning my adventure solo!

Today is my first day not being with the group and having our days planned. I am very excited. The first day we arrived at this fancy hotel called La Gruta, I was walking around and I started chatting with a man who was with 2 women and I told him about my travels and what my plans were, to volunteer in a school, etc. We kept talking and his sister in law invited me to visit the school that she works at. This morning, this man, who is a spanish teacher in Alaska, a native of Arequipa, took me in a taxi to this school. The kids had made a sign for me that said "welcome Josie," in spanish and then we all sang a song and I helped them prepare a delicious traditional Peruvian food for all the kids. It was absolutely wonderful. I had no idea they were going to welcome me like that. The kids were 3-4 years old and all had so much energy. I said that I want to go back on monday, so I think I´m going to do that. Then, one of the teachers invited me to her house tomorrow for lunch and to learn how to prepare another delicious traditional Peruvian dish called Papas reullena. I think that´s how you spell it. Anyway, Wow! I´ve only been here a couple days and I´ve already made friends! And, I would´ve never known about the place that I want to volunteer at if I had not started chattting with a young lady who was on the computer at the same time as me when I was in the hostel in Cusco. I asked her how long she´d been in Peru and what her travels had been like and she told me about a place that she volunteered at in a city called Huancayo and as we kept talking, she asked me where I was from and I said originally Minnesota, then Oregon, and now Washingto. She asked me where in Minnesota and I said Mankato and she said that she was from Montevideo, Minnesota and it was crazy. Here we are in Peru! She asked me if I knew someone and it was a girl I went to high school with! Ha!! Magical, serendipitous encounters! Yesterday, as a group, we had our last day together. It was called a gastronomic tour! We learned how to prepare some delicious traditional dishes and we got to taste them. We also walked around a huge market in central Arequipa. We all tried a special drink they have here that has herbs and honey and boiled frog in it. We watched this woman kill a frog, boil it and blend it up with all this other stuff. Wow! I almost didn´t try it, but if I hadn´t seen it happen, I never would have known that there was a frog in it. I have also tasted llama meat, alpaca meat and guinea pig meat. Haha I am glad that I have tried all of these foods, but I am also glad to be able to eat lots of fruits and other foods. The markets here are wonderful and the food I have eaten the most here is avocado. Haha, I bought some as soon as a I could at the markets to eat with bread so I can save money and some of the other members in the group started buying avocadoes as well because they remembered how delicious they are. Also, since I´ve been here, I have had the most delicious hot chocolate that I´ve ever had. I want to bring some chocolate back with me. Now I´m going to go take a shower and then go walk around the town and the plaza! I am excited!