See you in 63 days America!

The other day Lanisa and I were talking, and in the midst of conversation Lanisa said, "Oh, I need to write a blog too..." (I think we were talking about what homework we had to do this week...) and to that I responded, "Why?? We JUST wrote a blog, you're being an over achiever." Little did I know, that is has, indeed, been a week since my last post. 

I wish I could tell you that I knew where all of the days go, but they go by so quickly that some days I don't even remember what I eat for breakfast. The other day I was chatting with my mom on the phone and she said, "Your English in your blogs is bad, your sentence fluency and sjkgheughreighfosgjkfhgkldsfh..." (which I already knew, but having someone say it made me realize that I should put forth more effort...cuz I aint no dummy) so I am making a conscience effort to sound like the educated person I am, in this blog. Although it is painful to write complex sentences in English, I will try my hardest. 

To think that in 63 days I will be stepping off of my plane in Omaha, Nebraska, absolutely blows my mind. Would you like to know what blows my mind even further? The fact that I have been here for approximately 66 days. Peruvian life is becoming my norm, and when I have to get back into the swing of things (work...work...school...work), I am going to be hurting. Why am I going to be hurting, you ask? Because; I will have to wake up before lunch is ready, I will not be able to watch Netflix, I will not be in Lima, I will have to make my own food, I will have to buy gas. THAT is why I will be hurting. But as much as I don't look forward to changing my routine upon arriving back home, I must say I miss America. While talking with my mom, I mentioned how I miss America and how hard it is to be "American" here. By that I simply mean, that not everything is a simple phone call away and you can't just hop into your car and drive to WalMart really quickly. American's are such fortunate people, and living in Peru has taught me that we are also extremely greedy people. We take SO much of what we are offered and given for granted. For example, cars. There are 9 million people who live in Lima and there are approximately 1 billion cars. How many of these cars are owned by families? MAYBE 20%. The other 80% is taxis. For people here, in Peru, to hear us say that most members of every family has their own car is absolutely absurd. If a family has ONE car for all 8 of them, they are very lucky. 

My wish for every American, is that they challenge themselves to live abroad...not "vacation" for two weeks...stay a couple of months. Learn that our "first world problems" are not at all problems. I have found a whole new appreciation for the little things in life just from being here for two months. Air conditioning being an example...in the United States air conditioning is expected. Here? I have felt air conditioning in two places...one classroom, and one privately owned car. Homes here tend to not have air conditioning. At first, I was a negative nancy about it and I thought I would die without it. Now? My balcony door is always open and fresh air is always flowing into my room. Granted, it does not replace air conditioning, but I have adapted and learned that air conditioning is a commodity. 


Enough of my chit chatting and onto the good stuff! This past week, Sam's host brother Kevin took us to a market called Polvos Azules. Now let me just tell you a little bit about what we THOUGH Polvos Azules was...we thought it was going to be a place where we could buy cheap knock-off brand name clothes and shoes. What we did NOT think it was going to be was thousands upon thousands of imported brand name shoes...and a complete mess. It was back sweating hot in this HUGE building with...you guessed it! NO air conditioning. Needless to say, the girls were not enjoying the sweat, but Luke was LOVING the shoes. 

This Sunday, our class leaves for a trip to Ica. Ica is a desert oasis about three hours South of Lima. We will be traveling by bus there and back. In Ica we will be able to sand board down the sand dunes as well as ride in dune buggies through the dunes. I'm sure there is plenty of other fun stuff we can do there, but so far that's all we know of! One of the days we will be taking a boat ride out around the Islas Ballestas where we will see lobos marinos (sea wolfs...look them up they are cool looking) and penguins and some other really fun animals. My mom said she saw a picture of a killer whale eating a lobo marino on the shore...so WHO KNOWS!??! Maybe we will be in for a treat :) Hoping just the sighting of a whale and not the eating of the pobrecito.

Here's the timeline...

Ica: March 10-12
School: 12-13
Daniela's (host sister) Birthday! Woohoo!: March 14
Iquitos (Jungle): 15-17
My high school friend Abby will be in Lima week of March 18th!
Peru vs. Chile fútbol game: March 22 (in Lima)

....we are in for a busy month of March!

So many exciting things to look forward too in this coming week...I know I have promised some pretty great pictures, but don't hold your breath because it will still be another week or so before I can upload some incredible pictures! But I PROMISE you will get some :)

Until those beautiful pictures come, I have some that I would like you all to enjoy. A few of them will be some comic relief, per say. Others, I just find interesting

This first picture is from the week before we were SUPPOSED to go to Cusco and my mom was a little concerned...rightfully so. BUT good news for Cusco, we believe that we have around $400 back from our original trip!! Good good news!













This next picture, with the kind fellow blowing up daffy duck blow up animals...he is just a guy trying to make a living...selling daffy duck blow up animals on the side of the street. These types of vendors are all over the place. Sometimes at stop lights, people will do dances or juggle then go down the line of cars hoping to collect tips for their performances. 



















The picture with the men standing in a group? Those are men in a mall stopping their shopping to watch the fútbol game on DirecTV tv's. Probably the funniest thing I have seen this week. 

Last, but certainly not least!! My friends, FaceTime-ing me with their beautiful faces because our Wi-Fi connection sucks. Miss these fools. 


Until next time :)