Almost home!

Hey. Guess what? Obama won! I'm guessing it means that all of you got your little USA-dwelling butts out there to vote. What is up with Prop 8 though? =/ I can't tell you how much it pained me to return home yesterday, still in goosebumps over Obama's speech, only to go to SFgate (Yes, I still do know what's up back home =]) and see that Prop 8 was leading and probably about to pass.

Anywho, here's what I've been up to lately since my last post, and probably not in any particular order. =) Life's been so frantic here I'm having a hard time keeping up. =)

- First of all, I should have been home by now. And yet, here I am, typing to you. However, I am typing from a safe and secure state of mind, after changing my flights around at the LAN office. So the new itinerary is that I arrive Saturday night at 10:40, and hopefully see a good deal of you at Maddie's party on Sunday.
- Yoeun left for Brasil on the 29th, bringing our house down to three people. And so we began having sleepovers in Jake's room. Liz and I commandeered the queen bed from Jake and have slept there every night since. (It's quite nice really, cause it means we get to leave our beds unmade and use them as extra storage space. =)
- Liz and I pulled last minute costume ideas out of our butts for Halloween. The two top contenders were devil and angel costume to be Jake's conscience, or dress up in overalls and veils, with pillows in our stomach, to be a trailer trash wedding. =) We ended up going with the angel and devil/id and superego (woo! Who paid attention in Lit?), though Jake stayed home, so we just looked like an angel and a devil. Still, we had fun going out and meeting up with the other house, and dancing the night away. We stupidly tried to look around for pizza at 2 in the morning, not realizing that it's not like the US where 24 hour EVERYTHINGS exist.
- On Saturday the 1st, it was Day of the Living, or the celebration of life, so Marco and Christian cooked a HUGE lechon and plenty of tamales. I can't even explain how much it made me miss home to see a dead pig staring me in the face. By the way Auntie May, all I kept hearing in my head was, "Wilbur! Wilbur!"
- On Sunday the 2nd, Marco and Yoco brought us to the cemetery where we got to see all of the Día de los muertos/Day of the Dead festivities going on. They showed us his sister's grave/memorial site and told us all about her. It felt so amazing to celebrate it with them, rather than having gone on our own, looking like lost Gringos.
- After the cemetery, Marco and Yoco dropped us off at Jack's, for what was probably my last meal there. And boy was it a good meal. My staple orange, pineapple and banana juice accompanied by green tofu curry. Best believe I cleaned that plate up. =)
- Deciding we needed to walk off the fattening Jack's meal, we walked down to Molino the purchase a whole bunch of DVDs to entertain ourselves with. When we were done, Liz and Jake headed home and I went to go return my angel costume to CCC. It was there that I found the El Dorado of food deals. How I had never seen it before I have no idea. =( But I could get Lomo Saltado with a fried egg over rice for...wait for it...2.50 soles!!! That's not even a darn stinking dollar! Oh sigh...cheap food, how I'll miss thee.
- Tom from the other house and his friends moved in for a bit starting Sunday, though they left this morning for the jungle. They're a group of six 30 something year olds on their mid life crisis type thing. =) They were extremely funny to talk to, so it's too bad I didn't get to know them better.
- Monday we started the dining out for Morgan's last week ordeal, and headed off to our favorite Indian restaurant. Of course, we went to the gym first (which is conveniently on the first floor of the same building), as to get rid of our guilt. (You know that my partial Catholic upbringing has me guilt-ridden all the time.) ;) And after Indian, we headed over to McCoy's for my final pub quiz. We won (we joined up with the other house), yet it didn't feel the same, as all of my favorite people who defined pub quiz for me are now gone. =( Jake and I walked home in the rain, but had a good talk nonetheless. We dried off, and then watched Arrested Development for 2 hours. =) (That's become our nightly ritual by the way. Nothing like ending the night with Jason Bateman and Michael Cera.)
- We woke up yesterday morning (tuesday) around 7:30 to watch election coverage, and basically watched the entire day. The only breaks we took were to go to the gym (I souvenir shopped), go out to dinner (more to come in the next bullet), and head over to the other family house to watch with them.
- Last night, we went out to this 100 percent organic restaurant greens, and I almost died of satisfaction. I ordered a beet and Brazilian nut ravioli with goat cheese. Liz had the Spaghetti with mushrooms and cream sauce, and Jake did the "Magic Table" or buffet option. It was so bad because Liz and I kept making Jake go up for certain items we really liked. And half of the buffet was cleared by the time we were done, though Jake was the only person who had done the buffet option. Oops. =) Plus, we topped off the night with gooseberry cheesecake and a chocolate tart with Brazilian nuts and caramelized oranges. MMMMM MMMMM GOOD. So expensive, yet so worthwhile. =)
- OBAMA WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Had to slip it in here. =) I can't explain how amazing it is to experience the election outside of the country. Ironically, I honestly have never felt so involved in my own country's politics as I have here in Cusco. It was just so amazing watching the results come in though. I can't wait to be talking with my children or grandchildren however many years down the line and get to say that for my very first election, I saw history being made. Sure Obama may not be perfect, but he is the inspiration and motivation that so many of us need right now, and I can't wait until Jan. 20th. =)
- Today I went to my first (and sadly, last) Cienciano game. For those that don't know, Cienciano is the fútbol team here in Cusco. I still can't really describe it, because though I enjoyed myself, the team isn't very strong. Don't get me wrong, they won, but only because they sucked slightly less than the other team (Universitario de San Martín). It was kind of like watching the Niners back home. You have to stay faithful just cause they're your home team, but you're in constant frustration at their bad plays.
- And tonight, (actually, T minus 1 hour), we're getting ready to go dine out at Incanto, which is some fancy shmancy place here. It should be nice, and a great final out-on-the-town dinner. (Tomorrow Marco is making my pancakes by request, and the whole Perez family is going to eat with us. I can't wait.) =)

Well I certainly hope I'm able to update one final time before I leave, but if not, I can't wait to see you all this Saturday!

All my love, Morgan.

P.S. Get your final souvenir request in NOW, or forever hold your peace.