vegas bombs and quiz night

Monday night is always Quiz Night here at Loki, and we kind of make a big deal out of it. Pub quizzes are way more popular in the UK than they are in the US, but I did Scholar's Bowl in high school (don't tell) and kind of rock at Jeopardy! when I watch from home (don't tell anyone about that, either), so they're kind of right up my alley.

A couple weeks ago I participated in the quiz with some British boys under the team name 'Bird is the Word' and we came third, and my team last week came third as well. This week, I teamed up with barladies Cass, Jocelyn, and Jane to form a team called--wait, let me set this story up first.

I came on last night at seven in the evening, and was met straightaway with a drink order for four 'Vegas Bombs.' What is a Vegas Bomb, you ask? Well, it's a magical creation that our own French-Canadian Jeremie has come up with, comprised of a normal-sized glass about three-quarters full of Red Bull and a little cranberry juice, and then a shot glass three-quarters full of Johnnie Walker, with splashes of rum and triple sec. You drop the shot glass into the larger glass and drink it as you would a Jaegerbomb or a Blood Bomb. Jeremie really sells the drink by telling anyone who will listen, "Is like when a angel pee in your mouth! I love when a angel pee in your mouth! Is incredible!"

So of course we called ourselves Jeremie's Angels. Jane was a little concerned that we wouldn't know sports questions, but I told her not to worry, because I had that covered. And I did. The first round was general knowledge, and we nearly swept it (who even knows what the end of a shoelace is called, anyway?!).

Round two was about movies. We were momentarily stumped when asked what the only film to feature Sam Neill and Samuel L. Jackson was, because half of our team didn't know who Sam Neill was. "You know, he's the guy from Jurassic Park; wears a hat like that," I said, pointing to a guy in the bar. It wasn't until like five minutes later that we realized Samuel L. Jackson is in Jurassic Park too, as the tech guy who gets his arm ripped off. We pretty much swept this round as well (who even knows how many Oscars Forrest Gump won, anyway?!).

We knew we had a large lead heading into the final round, which was 'Famous Faces.' We had to identify caricatures of celebrities, not the characters they played, and the only one we got wrong was the guy from Prison Break, because our emcee had mixed up his character's name with his actual name. So basically we rocked Quiz Night.

The second place team had originally called themselves 'Destiny's Child Featuring Jeremie,' but then changed their name to 'My Body's Too Jeremielicious For You Baby.' With all of these Jeremie-inspired names, you would think Jeremie would be around to celebrate with us--but he was nowhere to be found. Taking multiple Vegas Bombs and stealing other people's spaghetti had proven too much for him, and he'd passed out in bed before 10pm.

the great 12-sided stone of cusco

Did you know there's a rock here in Cusco with 12 sides? I sure didn't. I was totally unaware of this epic stone until I walked past it last night with a friend and he pointed it out to me. This rock even has security guards.

I had to take a picture with it. Behold: me, in my hideous sweater jacket, presenting the great 12-sided stone of Cusco. Why is this stone important, you ask? Well, I'm not entirely sure. I know that a lot of buildings here are built with modern stones on top of the Incas' original foundations, so it actually is super old. Someone told me that the 12 sides of the stone correspond to the months of the year or something, but I think it's more important because it shows the care the Incan elite put into their buildings. They carved this stone out to fit the other stones in the wall, and it holds the whole thing together seamlessly. Stonework like that is why the Spanish decided to preserve the original foundations of Cusco and build onto them.

I saw the stone while on the way back from Jack's Cafe, apparently another Cusco must-see. I wasn't terribly impressed because it's a little overpriced, but they did have chocolate milkshakes, which I have been craving for a few weeks now.

And the most important part of this post: I'm bringing legwarmers back. Single-handedly. Or. . . double-leggedly? You can see them in the picture above. I already have three pairs, and I want to get them to match every Loki tee I have. Which is like six tees. So far I've got black legwarmers, maroon legwarmers, and hunter green legwarmers. I need goldenrod yellow and royal blue. . . and maybe pink. We'll see. I'm open to suggestions though.

things i love about this town

1) Tandoori veggie burgers from the hostel kitchen. I'm gonna hit that up tonight.

2) My new alpaca sweater jacket. It's red, purple, black, and green, so it might be the ugliest thing in the world, but it just felt so right when I put it on.

3) Cheap street food. I had a killer cheese empanada the other day for 3 soles, and that was actually on the more expensive side.

4) All the stairs. My glutes are gonna be kickin' by the time I get home. The date of which, by the way, shall remain a mystery unto you until I arrive.

5) Cheap camera repair. See my last post.

6) My coworkers. They're so much fun--even Jeremie, the French-Canadian creeper. I walked down to town with him and Mitch yesterday, and we saw an ugly dog, and I said, "Ugh, what is wrong with that dog?!" and Jeremie responded (in a heavy Quebec accent), "Oh, that dog totally has rabbis." Rabbis.

There are more things, but there's a live band playing tonight and I need to order my veggie burger before madness ensues.