Today I was introduced to my new family here in Cuzco after a brief tour of the city. Its quite a nice place, with mountains all around and lots of red tiled roofs. You might describe the people of Cuzco as a hardy, industrious people, proud of their culture yet welcoming in a new age. No, I guess I wouldn´t describe them that way, but their nice. My family here is particularly welcoming and loving, they insist that for the next two months I will actually be a part of their family

The family is Laura and Elio, the parents. Two daughters and a son also live there, Elio Jr., Claudia, and Fiorella. There is also an old deaf grandmother that lives on the bottom floor and cant go up stairs, so she´s constantly yelling for her daughters and granddaughters to attend her. She frightens me a bit. This is kind of different coming from a single child home. It´s alarming not to get the full level of attention that I have been accustomed to. No, actually their completely welcoming and amiable. I got the full dose of this full family experience at dinner. The family, I believe, is pretty well off, by Cusquenan standards, but they do have a somewhat cozy house. The dining room/kitchen, is on the top floor, and consists of a room no bigger than the average dorm room. There is some various kitchen apparatus in there, as well as a small table, no bigger than a card table. Outside the door on the roof is where the laundry is hung to dry. For dinner, besides the immediate family, the older daughter and her husband and infant child came over, as well as a cousin, Claudias boyfriend, an aunt, and an uncle. And all together, we squeezed into this tiny room, around this tiny table, to eat some pizza.