La calma antes de la tormenta/The calm before the storm

Wow, the time has flown since I last wrote! I´ve been trying to write at the most every other day and I´ve been pretty good so far but as of now I guess this is my first mistake! Well, I suppose I can catch you all up on the past few days now though so here we go!

Wednesday was Peruvian Independence Day and here in Cusco it was pretty quiet for the most part. The normal procedure for them is mostly centered around parades (desfiles in spanish) which take on a somewhat military aspect but they are very popular everywhere. We missed them by being in school but parades happen at every level from the smallest grade school to the main plaza de armas in the center of town. There are no fireworks or anything like home but there are a lot of flags and a lot of national pride.

At school we got to end early and we had a special ceremony for the holiday and for those graduating. We got to sing the peruvian national anthem and then after the awarding of the certificates our quechua class got to sing a song that is basically the second national anthem, but it is written in Quechua. It is called Valicha and this is a link to the version we sang: . The little party was great and we to cap it all off we had two days off (today and yesterday) because of the celebrations!

Thursday I got to get a ton of work in at the clinic. I´ve moved from working outside to working inside with the kids and it is actually a lot better in my opinion. There hasn´t been much to do outside so I decided to help out with the children at the clinic inside the compound here at the hostel and it is actually quite fun and rewarding. These children are handicapped over an array of different ways and our job is basically to play with them, walk them out in the sun, and help them eat their dinner. There are about 40 children there and there would be no way that the nurses could keep track of them all and make sure things go well, especially with the food aspect. I worked four hours wednesday, and nine hours thursday, as well as four and a half today so I´ve been doing pretty good for this week. It is kind of strange for me to be happy doing this kind of work because, ashamed as I am, I usually don´t do well with people with handicaps so I feel great with this work. The kids are all really nice and they are just full of energy and easy to be with. Even the more difficult ones really aren´t that bad and I really do enjoy it.

Now, however, I have to finish my 5 page paper for the school on Peruvian Myths and interpretations. I present on tuesday but the paper is due monday evening so I have to make sure I get it done today because we are going on a trip to Machu Picchu tomorrow and there will be NO chance of doing it then. On top of that I have three short diary entries to make as well as dinner to eat, which is SUPPOSED to be coming now as we ordered two "terminator" size pizzas for about 10 of us but they haven´t come and they are over a half hour late... Oh well, guess I´d better call again!

Thanks for reading and here´s another picture for everyone who´s curious!



This is the view of Cusco from Saqsaywaman, a fort on the hill overlooking Cusco.

Las investigaciones se inician/The research begins

Allillanchu Kashanki? What, you don´t know what that means??? Well, If you were here learning about Quechua like me and working with the language you might! Allillanchu Kashanki means How are you (doing)? So, as you may have guessed, I´ve been working with Quechua over the past few days! Here´s a bit of a summary of what I´ve been up to.

Monday I went to school as normal and began my class in Quechua. We are being taught by Dany Vargas, another great professor from La Academia Latinoamericana. Dany is a very amicable guy who really has fun teaching us about the language and the culture that goes along with it. For instance, did you know that despite being an official language of Peru (along with Spanish and Aymara), there is no Quechua version of the constitution? Also, despite having an almost 14% by population speaking rate, the education system has historically almost entirely ignored the Quechua speakers and insisted that all language instruction be done in Spanish. These facts are very sad and they help me to think more about my research and how it can, in a way, put Quechua on a larger pedestal so that maybe something can be done.

Anyway, class is really good. We are basically working with the vocab now and learning what we can as we go. It isn´t as daunting as I thought but it is a bit frustrating being a linguist and having to take things slowly with the language . The very conjugation structure seems very straightforward and the vocab isn´t that bad, I think for the most part that the pronunciation and the particles (things attached to the end of the words to designate different meanings) are going to cause the most problems for most people.

After class I got to work for about 4 hours at the hostel painting instead of chopping flowers so I felt a bit less destructive. The great part of the evening, however, was having my contact for research show up at the door ready to work. I ended up getting a solid hour of recording done and it honestly felt great afterwards to have actually done something and to be moving forward in the project. Afterwards we had dinner at a Pollo a la Brasa restaurant for one of my friend´s birthdays. It was an altogether festive night for me and everything seemed to be working out great.

Today we did more of the same in the classroom but we began to work on numbers. They are pretty complicated as well. For example, the number 1532 in Quechua is: waranqa pisqa pachak kinsa chunka iskaniyuq. A bit of a mouthful as I´m sure you can see. The principle isn´t hard, it´s just the execution and being able to replicate it when it´s test time. We just happen to have a test tomorrow so that theory will be put to the test!

After Class I went out to lunch as usual and made my way to the DRE-C, the Dirección Regional de Educación- Cusco to meet my contact for some more recordings. I enjoyed navigating the Plaza de Armas and its side streets to find out where I was going and then afterwards when I had gotten my two hours of recordings (double what I got yesterday!!!) and I was making my way back to the hostel I was so wrapped up in the atmosphere of the city in its preparations for independence day that I couldn´t help but stop and "smell the roses" a bit longer than I wanted to. I ended up taking about 2 hours to get back but I was really happy with my explorations.

So, after the past two days I am feeling a bit "fat and happy" as we like to say, in regards to my research. Not only do I have more than 30% of the actual data gathered, but I also have an appointment for tomorrow with my professor Dany to get another hour in at least so I feel like I´ve really gotten moving in the right direction. I was worried last week that I wouldn´t ever get anything done and I wouldn´t have the proper thesis and then I wouldn´t get into grad school (I know, a bit overblown), but this week has really been encouraging so far.

Thanks for sharing in my triumphs and trepidations these past few days and I hope you are all beginning your weeks swimmingly. We have Thursday and Friday off for Peruvian Independence and I´ve already hung my Peruvian Flag out the window so I should be good for a few days enjoying myself and getting things squared away where they need to be. Here´s a parting picture from another day just to keep you updated and excited (and to keep you reading til the end :) ):



Also, if you like the photos there´s a link here to my facebook photo album of the trip so far: http://www.facebook.com/pfabian53?v=photos#!/album.php?aid=192536&id=536061990

¡Tantas cosas que hacer!/So many things to do!

Hola Amigos,

I hope I find all of you well. Over the past few days we have done so many things and taken so many pictures but I just haven't had the time to update the blog but now as I stay at the hostel (while a bunch of other people go out dancing) with my upset stomach I've got plenty of time to put down my thoughts and get some pictures up for all to see!

So, let's begin where I left off.

Friday was the last day of the "semester" for my Andean Culture Class. I was very happy with the information we covered during the class. Our professor, Erwin, was a full blown anthropologist and he had covered a huge amount of the topics we studied in class (festivals, dances, rituals, etc) in his research afield so mostly everything we talked about was something he had personally been to. It was a great semester and I was extremely happy with how everything worked out, especially since I ended up with an A, haha!

After class, we went on a trailriding trip around some of the ruins north of Cusco. As many of you may know, I haven't ever ridden a horse before, but I was extremely happy with how things turned out and I am definitely trying to do it again while I am here. We paid $15 US for over two hours of riding and the landscape was awesome. Here are a few pictures to prove that I did indeed do it!


After horseback riding the night was pretty much tame and we just ended up going to bed nice and early.

Today we got up around 7:30 (an upgrade from the normal 6:45 wakeup call for school) and made our way downstairs for our trip to Pikillakta and Tipon. These historical centers of the ancient peruvian history were great places to explore and hike and we really had a great time. Another good thing about the trip was that we got to split up into two buses but with different people than normal. We typically ended up going with the people from our hostel for everything and it was getting kind of repetitive but today we got to mix and match a bit.

Pikillakta is a city of the ancient pre-incan Wari people that is just a bit outside of Cusco. It was used as a point of control for those who entered the city (since only the noble class of Incans were allowed into the city). The settlement was also used as a center for practical education for conquered people in the empire. The incans would bring conquered peoples into the city, teach them Quechua and a craft (pottery, weaving, etc) and then have them work as productive members of society.
Here are some pictures from Pikillakta:




After Pikillakta we went to Tipon, which served as an agricultural center for experimentation on the part of the ancient Incans. They had terraces over a large height difference which they used to reacclimate low altitude plants to higher altitudes. For example, they would plant Coca, a plant normally cultivated in the jungle lowlands, on the lowest terrace and then after a few years they would transplant the bush up a level and repeat the process. After the plants got accustomed to the highest terraces they would take the seeds and use them all over the mountanous parts of the empire. This saved them countless hours of transportation and labor as they could now simply grow the plants where they were by conquering the environment instead of letting it dominate them. This is what Tipon looks like, some from ground level and some from the mountain above:






Not only were we able to visit the ruins of Tipon, but our tour director Nanci also set up a ceremony for us while we were there. A peruvian healer from the nearby village of Huasao (as you may remember, this is the town where we had the coca leaves read and is called "la tierra de los brujos" for a reason) led us in a ceremony giving an offering to the Pachamama or mother nature. We all got to participate while the healer lead the ceremony. Despite my unbelief, it was certainly an experience being in a ceremony in its native country which I have only read about or heard stories of. Here are some pictures of the "ofrenda a la pachamama" to help us in school, health, and love through the coming year:




After our offering was concluded we made our way down the montain and headed for, what else, lunch! We ended up eating some delicious rainbow trout at a restaurant called La Hacienda del Tio Juan. The restaurant is a spread out place with tables outside under thatched roofs. They had a volleyball court, a trampoline, and hammocks for your after-lunch siesta and we made use of all of those things. Perhaps the best was when, in the midst of our meal, Tio Juan himself, a charming old gentleman with a mustache and a cowboy hat, came riding up the slope leading to the restaurant on his magnificent black horse. We were all quite impressed and many of the girls confessed to have swooned a bit over their plates. Overall, it was an excellent meal and the weather couldn't have been better:




So, like I said, over the past few days there were sooo many things to do! Tomorrow we have our first "free day" since the weekend before last so we are pretty much ready and raring to sleep in late and see what else we feel like doing (if we get around to it of course). Well, I know this was long but I hope you enjoy and feel a little jealous that you're not here, haha!

Una noche larga/A long night

Buenas Noches,

Well, since I am up right now "watching" the thirteen inning Redsox Game on my laptop I thought I might as well get some work done and update you all on my goings and comings.

Today wasn´t much out of the ordinary. School was fine as it normally is. Our topic today was closing off our section of Peruvian Folklore. We studied how myths and legends play a key role in the culture of the Andes and how, despite the lack of a writing system, these oral traditions were able to be passed along for hundreds of years. One of the biggest causes of the perpetuation of these myths is the fact that they were associated with the regular festivals of the year governed by the tick-tock of planting, harvesting, and storing the crops. As these times of gathering repeated themselves each year, families took advantage of their closeness and told their tales of creation, destruction, and the explanation of mysteries to adults and children alike.

This class period wrapped up our unit and consequently our entire class. It is hard to believe that it has already been two weeks but tomorrow is the last day of classes and the last of the two exams. I really did enjoy this class but I think I´m ready to begin Quechua and see a bit of what it is about. After all, I am kind of immersed in it at this point, so why not study it?

After some long studying and doing homework, as well as having to hold my breath a bit for the Redsox, I think I´m ready to call it a night. I should be free to have a post up for you all tomorrow night as well, so I hope to hear from you soon!

As I did last time, heres a picture "for free" from my archive as I didn´t take any today:


Here´s our classroom in the luxurious Academía de la Lengua Española.

La segunda semana/The Second Week

¡Hola, buenas noches!

Another day of school and volunteer work has passed and I have, yet again, survived! School is really great, though, don´t get me wrong. It is really interesting to be able to take classes and be immersed in the education system of another country. In the United States school is so much different as it is considered a right and is understood to be a logical step in the process of growing up. Here, school is a privilege at the college level and students really take advantage of their opportunities and genuinely want to be there. It seems that all to many people in the States are just herded to colleges by their parents with faint echoes of "If you want a good job, you have to go to college nowadays" in their ears. Don´t get me wrong, I´m not condemning our nation or our education system, its just something that is easier to reflect on when you are out of the "bubble" that you are so used to.

Anyway, today instead of going to class as normal my class got a special treat. Our teacher Erwin took us to a town about 45 minutes from Cusco via bus called Huasao (wah-sa-oo). Speaking of buses, this was also my first experience on the city bus "system," which is a bit daunting at first. Take a look and see why:


It may not look that scary at first but these "combis" as the cusqueños call them make very short stops and are always very crowded. Ours today had about 75% of its wires exposed on the dash and around the console. Each bus has a doorman who yells the upcoming stops on the route at approximately 200 words per minute while subsequently cramming as many people in as the bus pulls away and the door closes. Needless to say it is a bit scary for someone who does not know the route that well so I was planning to stay away from the bus for a bit. Anyhow, for about 66 cents round trip we traveled in all the style a combi could offer.

While in Huasao we got to take a walk around the local fields or chacras as they call them here in the Andes to see some of the local produce and the people at work farming. It was awesome and very impressive to be outside of the city and be reminded that all is not hustle and bustle. I seemed to be able to hear my self think and I could reflect a bit better on where I was and what was surrounding me. Here are a few pics I snapped while there:


The real purpose, however, was to go to see the shaman to be able to get our futures read through their interpretation of a bag of coca leaves. Its kind of like the proverbial reading of the tea leaves except it has an Andean flair and is has historical roots in the Andean culture and religion. I won´t tell you what they told me but I can tell you I wasn´t convinced, haha. It wasn´t a big deal though and I didn´t have to sell my soul to the devil or anything else of that nature but it was definitely something that was at least "neat" to try while in the area, its not like you can do it at home or anything. This was the plaque outside her door:

After the trip I returned to the hostel and got right to work outside. I started about a half hour earlier so that I could end a half hour early because I had scheduled and interview for my Quechua research at 5PM today. Unfortunately, despite getting a lot done outside and finishing on time, my contact wasn´t able to get here on time and unfortunately got here when I was out to dinner at the vegetarian restaurant down the block. At first I was a bit angry for having waited outside in the cold for 45 minutes but in the end I realized that with two busy people´s schedules and only email contact, I couldn´t have expected anything else to happen differently if there was a hitch. This whole not having a phone thing doesn´t make things easy, but maybe I´m just learning what it´s like to be a real researcher and not one inside the comfy confines of the US or even just Rutgers.

Well, that was my day, hope I haven´t jawed your ears off, but I just like to keep everyone informed! Thanks again for reading and enjoy your evening!

A trabajar/Let's get to work

Hi everyone,

After my update yesterday I haven't done too too much. This week our classes run from 8 to 1 with a 30 minute break in between (hence my ability to write...) in order to make up for our trip and two skipped school days last week. School is still good, we've moved on to the topic of Andean Folklore and our specific point of study now is the music and dance of the area. It is very interesting because the influences come from many areas of South America, not just Peru.

Another highlight of yesterday was that we began our volunteer work. Many people are volunteering in the clinic that is right at our hostel or at the girls school that is right next door but, true to my work habits during the summer, I volunteered to help out on the maintenance team. Yesterday we worked for 3 hours chopping down flowers and trimming bushes. We had one pair of hedge clippers, one rake, one wheelbarrow, and one machete and me, John, and Marissa (yes, a girl is working on maintenance, haha) worked with our supervisor Umberto to make the dead and dying plants look at least a bit trimmer. As it is winter here and subsequently the dry time of the year, the flowers have to be cut so that they will come up green in the spring. They are more like bushes than flowers in size, but we got it done at the entrance to the hostel and we'll see what they have for us today starting at 2:OO.

I seem to have caught my own stomach problems again after two days of health but I think my constitution is resistant enough to clear itself up in a bit. I had to lay down last night because I had a splitting headache as well so our group homework had to be done by others. I felt bad but I really wasn't in any condition to work. Oh well, we'll see how the last half of the school day goes and then the work. I'm going to be steering clear of any greasy or fatty foods and probably making my own meals for a bit just to get a bit better back on my feet.

Alrighty everyone, Class is going to start soon but I'll leave you with a picture from the other day because I don't have any today. Thanks again for reading!


Here is a natural rock slide at Saqsawayman that we got to go down together, how fun!

Recorriendo/Touring

Hello everyone, don't worry I'm still here! We have been doing some tours over the past two days and this morning we have our exams for school so I've been busy during the day with traveling and busy at night studying and doing homework. But now, as we get ready to head to school I figured I'd give you a few pictures and a brief update.

Saturday we had a half-day city tour of Cusco and its surrounding historical areas. Our stops detailed the different areas of the Incan Empire and their significance about 600 years ago. Sites ranged from temples to baths to areas of sacrifices to strongholds. The word Qosqo (Quechua for Cusco) means Navel and for the Inca the city represented the center of cosmos and hence their many monuments and buildings. Their construction was so advanced that their most significant structures could integrate rocks up to 7 tons without using one drop of cement. They hauled these gigantic rocks, a task which required the manpower of over 500 people, over mountains, across rivers, and then up mountains again to create their monuments and sacred structures. Here are some pictures of Saturday:





Saturday was pretty short and we came back from the trip around noon and went shopping for food again. My stomach was a bit messed up from some bad chinese food but the cereal I got was very good for my stomach and I'm doing well now.

Sunday was a much bigger trip and we did something similar except we ended up in the Valle Sagrada de los Incas/The Sacred Valley of the Incas. We stopped at many archeological sites and other interesting places there and got to climb very high monuments which was something I really liked. I got some awesome pictures there and at the Llama farm as well so here they are:





In between everything we got a free buffet lunch which was awesome and we got back safe and sound. I ended up studying and then running to bed so I can get some sleep for this Culture Test. I guess I have to go now though, so have a great day everyone!

La fiesta grande del Paucartambo/The big party in Paucartambo

Here I am, back again in Cusco! These past few days were absolutely, utterly amazing and incomparable in terms of anything we can think of here in the US. Let´s just say I took 358 photos and two videos over the entire span of two days just to document it... In that spirit, and due the the fact that I have a data limit to each blog post, I will put up only some of the best pictures as I describe these past few days and you´ll have to seek me out to get some more if you so desire :)

Well, first off we made it out of Cusco at around 8:30 on thursday morning. For the first time in a week we made our way out of taxi/foot traffic range in Cusco and we got to see what the outskirts of the area and the geography really looked like. Here are a few shots:




Driving through the Andes is a tremendous experience and I cannot tell you all how much I appreciated it even more once I got outside of the city limits and began to see how beautiful everything really is first hand.

Anyhow, our trip was interrupted slightly with a setback in that the road across the mountains to Paucartambo was covered by a rockslide and wouldn´t be fixed until 4pm that night. Fortunately for us, despite not being able to take the most direct road, we were able to make it to Paucartambo via a different route that only delayed us a couple of hours (a 3 hr 30 minute trip turned into 5 hrs 30 minutes). Here is an idea of the kind of roads we were traveling:



If you notice in the bottom left hand of the picture, we weren´t exactly very far from the edge and once you were off the roads it was a looooong way down... Needless to say, I was very scared at some points but I tried to make the best of it by taking in the views.

After this trip we arrived in the charming little village of Paucartambo. Our hostal was well arranged and served us well by providing us with beds, bathrooms, locked doors, and four hot meals.



The town of Paucartambo is a sort of outpost for the people living in the mountains around Cusco who cannot make it all the way to Cusco to buy supplies. These people, Quechua speakers and of native descent, take advantage of the great goings and comings of the festival to buy and sell their wares and things they need for the rest of the year until they come down from the mountains again for more supplies. Some of the typical things they bought include axes, shovels, mattresses, blankets, coats, and even fertility shakes made from blended frogs. No, that last one was NOT a joke





The real attraction of the town during this festival is the dances. There are almost twenty differently costumed dances that have anywhere between 20 and 60 dancers that parade throughout the streets of the town and are designed to honor the Virgen del Carmen which I talked about last time. Here are a few brief pictures of the dances and the fireworks that followed the night after. Note the colorful and handmade costumes and the crazy atmosphere that is EVERYWHERE during the celebration:





After enjoying the festivities and even going to the house of one of the dance leaders and getting to dance with the dancers of one group from the celebration, we headed out very early in the morning to watch the sun rise at Tres Cruces. Tres Cruces is a marvelous area where the sun rise gives way to history and we were able to see how the ancient Incans viewed the sun rising out of the Amazonian jungle and its cloudy mantle and get a taste of what made these ancient Peruvians worship the sun as one of their most powerful deities.



After returning from Tres Cruces via bus we got to rest and watch the festivities wind down before we headed out to return to Cusco. The dances during the daytime were especially interesting because they seemed to come right after another as we got the please of sitting and watching them unfold right in front of us.

As you may imagine, taking the roads we took to get to Paucartambo probably meant that we would have to take some similar ones back. As you can see, these ones were a bit more scary, but I did manage to get out of the bus and have my picture taken overlooking the drop of doom, so I figured I would share it while I could:





Well, now that everyone´s palms are sweating like mine were I will leave you for the night. Tomorrow we go on a half day City Tour of Cusco hitting five of the main sites of historical importance according to their ancient Incan use, so I should have some more interesting stuff for you all tomorrow! Thanks again and I am sure glad I didn´t die on the mountain so I could come back and show you all my pictures! ¡Hasta mañana!

¡a viajar!/Time to travel!

Buenos días a todos!

Today at 8:25am we set off on our first excursion of the trip! We are headed to a small village about two hours Southeast of Cusco by the name of Paucartambo to take part in/watch the festival of la Virgen del Carmen, one of the impotant festivals celebrated every year in Perú. Our tour guide Roger ("row-yair") told us that in the colonial days the Catholic Church of Spain sent two iconic virgins to Perú, one to Puno and another to Cusco (which made its way to Paucartambo). Every year the festivals in these two towns end up being carried out as a form of rivalry between those from Puno and those from Paucartambo. I was happy to hear that Paucartambo´s festival is by far the best so I think we´ll be in for a treat!

Paucartambo is normally a tiny village in the mountains with very few residents and almost no turistic "value" throughout most of the year. However, when the festival comes around the city fills with crowds that come to watch las danzas y los desfiles (the dances and parades) that are meant to honor la virgen. There are 19 dances that will be carried out and they are all extravagant and distinct one from another. If you check out you will get an idea of the typical dress of these dances and you will get so see somewhat what we will be doing. I will, however, have photos when I get back.

This festival lasts all of today (thursday) and goes well into the night. After that, we are scheduled to depart very early to watch the sunrise at a place called Tres Cruzes in the Andes Mountains. This event is a tremendous opportunity to see something which you can rarely see anywhere in the world. Here, because of the elevation, you see the sun rise through the clouds which are actually below you. As the sun and the clouds rise together the sun actually appears to peek through the clouds many times so it is almost like you are watching the sun rise more times than once in a single day. If the weather is good I will try to bring some spectacular pictures to share!

Lastly, as Paucartambo is an area where Quechua is very prevalent (almost the entire festival is carried out in Quechua), I will be bringing my recording equipment to try to get my first recording in Quechua to study the sound system. I am bringing both money and rice to use as payment because our guide has told me that sometimes the people would be more attracted to the food than the actual money so it may work out better for me that way if I go to a village like this.

Well, the time should go by quickly but I definitely won´t have internet access until friday night at the latest so I hope you enjoy this and that you will be anxiously waiting for pictures! Thanks everyone,¡hasta pronto!

Acostumbrándome/Settling In

Hey everyone, I´m back again with a late post, sorry about that.

So, today started off fine when we went to school again for the second day. We realized that school actually doesn´t start until 8:30am instead of 8 so we got to sleep in a bit more and made the most of that. Today in class we talked about the development of the Andean Culture and how it may have arisen from many different sources. Theories range from a mother culture located in Mesoamerica (Mexico/Yucatan area), to cultures from the coast of Peru moving up the mountains, to an established culture in Ecuador diffusing both north and south and ending up in the Andes. It was all very interesting and I will be keeping my mind sharp on this topic so I can get some great information for when I go back home to share with my professors and such.

One especially interesting part of the lesson had to do with rituals of the Andean cultures that involved hallucinogenic plants and tactics, as administered by priests and shamans, to keep the common people in check. This method allowed the government to not have to keep an army or military up and running to quell peace, but rather to utilize the religion to keep things orderly and safe. We even found out our professor participated in such a ceremony a few years ago as part of his research!

After class we went to the cheap restaurant up the street again and sampled the fare for the second day in a row. It was still fun and we left there on our way to la avenida el sol to go shopping again at the shops full of artesanías or handicrafts from the local campesinos in the area. Here are a few photos of what we found:







I have had a great time shopping so far but I´m ready to get going on some trips I suppose. Tonight we had dinner at a pizza/italian restaurant, which was a treat for many, as you can see:







The evening closed out with me participating in a research study by Kelly Lovejoy, our assistant director as seen in the above picture, through a short interview that was recorded to help her with her study of pragmatics of second language acquisition. It did, however, remind me that I have to get moving quickly on my quechua research which will begin next week :( No bother, I will be ready.

Lastly, we played Scrabble which we assumed to be Spanish but turned out to be Catalán so we had some interesting shocks trying to get going. All we had to do though was take out the ç pieces and we were all set. Just for the record, I won with 130...

Have a good night everyone, hope to hear back from anyone who has a spare time to comment!