Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Culture Shock....

I don't like this one bit. I want to go back!!! I feel so crazy here for some reason...I landed into Atlanta this morning around 8 AM. Once I walked off the plane I just wanted to turn around and go back! It's so, so different here. A kind of different that I just don't like. I went to the bathroom before heading to immigration and I walked into the bathroom and there was some luggage just sitting by the door. In my mind I was thinking "oh no someone will steal that", but then I remembered I'm in the states now, it's not that bad here! Immigration went smoothly, luckily it went fast. When I went to get my luggage I got a little worried! I saw this little beagle sniffing all the suitcases and I had actually put some Lucuma (a fruit my mom really likes) in my suitcase. I was so scared that dog would smell it and then I would get fined or something. But luckily he sniffed mine and just moved on. Phew! I wnet to a little stand and bought some magazines, People and US Weekly. I need to get back on top of the celebrity gossip! ha..Iv'e finally realized I just don't care about that stuff anymore. It's funny to read but who really cares! It was funny though because lastnight at the airport in Peru I wanted to buy a magazine and they were selling it for 8 bucks!!! I was like "No way!".. That price was just out of control.

So I landed to Nashville and it was really wierd. I was wearing long sleeves because it is still cold in Peru and when I went outside to find my mom the weather sucked. It was all humid and gross. I thought it would be nicer being that we are in October now. But no. My mom pulle dup and I forgot about everything I hated about being back and was just so excited to see her! I've missed her so much! It feels good to be back with my family here. We went straight to Jose's house form the airport! I just couldn't wait to see the kids! When I walked in Joy was so shocked she even cried. Jonah ran up to me and hugged me for so long. Joseph was a littel unsure about the whole thing and Emma was kinda shy. Little Bellie was really shy but she did let me hold her and hug her. I was so happy to see them again! I definately was missing something in my life being so far away from them. I love those kids so much. I'm so happy so be with them again...


with little Bellie!!


with my Jonah


I can't believe how big Cali is now!!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Saying good bye...

Today is my last full day here..I'm pretty bummed. But knowing that I will be coming right back is comforting. This morning me, Cinthya, Rosanna, Giovanna and Ashley walked to the market. It was a little long walk but I enjoyed it. The day was so beautiful too. It was sunny but breezy and cool at the same time. I had to go to the ATM so me and Cinthya walked farther out to find one. When we came back we couldn't find Giovanna and Rosanna. So I invited her to get a smoothie with me. We went to this little booth area where they were making smoothies and other drinks. This market kinda sketches me out a little but I tried not to let it bother me.The woman was taking forever to make the smoothie so I asked her if she could just make it to go, that way we could just drinkin it on the way. So Giovanna found us and we were just standing there wiating for the smoothie and the lady asked me to pay. She also handed me a bag which I thought was wierd. So I look in the bag and I though "You've got to be kidding me???" The smoothie was in a plastic bag!! Ahh! I thought it was the craziest kinda gross thing I had ever paid for. And it even had a straw! I was laughing so hard! And I knew once I got back to the house and showed my uncle he would give me a hard time. He always told me never to buy any type of food or drink from people on the street! Oh well. I found it to be quite humerous actually.. I bought a whole bunch of awesome spanish CDs too. I definately want to be able to jam to my favorite tunes while I am back home.

We got back to the house and my uncle was fixing up this little car he had built himself. He's made 2 and they are so cool. They go pretty fast too. We had so much fun driving them around. I drove the 2 seater one last and me and Cinthya and little Ashley were going aound the street then all of a sudden it kinda leaned to the right and wouldn't go. The tire was off the ground and I though I had broke it! But apparantly I had just ran over some huge nail and the tire was flat. After that we just went back inside and ate lunch. We had ceviche and rice, and I made some patacones, fried smashed plantians. I figured I should make some Colombian type food. It wasn't much but they all loved it!

After lunch me, Tio, and Roxanna went to go visit Tia Margarita. She was really sweet and cute. After that we stopped by Tia Nelly's house because she had some stuff for me to pick up to bring to my mom. When we got there she took Rosanna to the kitchen and told her she had a job for her. She handed her a box and there were 2live little pigeons and 1 guinea pig. She wanted Rosanna to kill them and fix her little conctoction. Rosanna said no way because she didn't know how to do it anywyas. I went upstairs to do something on the computer for about 5 minutes and when I came back down somehow she had convinced her and they were already cooking the pigeons! I went into the kitchen and said "What's going on?" and then all of a sudden a little box fell from the counter and out ran the guinea pig! It ran into a closet in the kithen! My littel aunt scooted over to the closet, (it's not really like a normal closet, it's like just a little doorway sized hole in the cement wall and you can walk in it), she started pulling everything out of the closet. It was so funny because she is so little and just seeing her in there complaining was really cute. I told her to get out of there and I would hunt for the guinea pig myself. So after removing practically everything out of closet I finally found her. She was hiding behind some tank. Tia Nelly asked me if I was afraid of it and I said no because where I live these are considered pets! I got her out and handed her to my aunt. She proceeded to lift her up and grabbed one of those wooden garlic grinder things, I could tell she was about to kill it so I ran out of the kitchen because it just broke my heart and I definately didn't want to witness that. The little guinea pig was so cute too. When I went back into the kitchen they had alread boiled it and took off the fur. I was very sad. But I know that eating that helps my aunt so it's not so bad. It's just not the same as ordering it from a restaraunt and not having to see how the process is done. After that we left to go back to the house. I don't think I will ever be the same again....


smoothie in a bag!!


making Patacones


riding the little car with Ashley






Cinthya, Ashley and I


little puppy I saw when we went to put air in the tire


me and little Ashley

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I Love Puppies!!!

Today Lucho came and picked me up from Stefani's house. We stopped by his house to say goodbye to all the kids and my cousins and my aunt. We had so much fun. Those kids are so hyper! But so cute too. They have 3 little puppies. Apparently the mother dog snuck into the house when she was pregnant and gave birth under Lucho's bed! He said he came home from work one night and found a whole family under his bed. They moved them all to the roof and thats where they have been kept. I saw them a few weeks ago and they were so tiny. So they took me to the roof to go play with them. They were adorable! They were all walking around and whining and falling over. I just love puppies! We played with them for so long. They had fleas but I didn't care, they were too cute not to hold. I hope they don't get rid of them before I get back!




they had fleas!


Yara with the puppies


Yara, Renato, and Me




I think this one is my favorite one




they are sooo cute!!




Yara, me and Dera






Tia Choco


Yara and Renato


in the end they fell asleep in a tire


the puppies trying to get milk from their mama

Friday, October 3, 2008

I have to come back...

So my mom called me today and it looks like I have to go back to the states. What happend is that we had decided that I would just have to take a road trip to cross the border. I was excited about it but kinda stressed too because I was already planning to travel some but I didn't want it to be some destination to have to do something in a certain amount of time. Then my mom called me this afternoon and she told me that my dad was thinking about it and figuring out all the costs for the trip and it turns out that it will actually be cheaper to just have me come back to the U.S. and then travel back to Peru again. My dad has plenty of frequent flyer miles so it's not going to cost a thing for my ticket to go back. I am actually really excited! Because I miss my family terribly AND I get to come back to Peru! It's like a vacation within a vacation. I am going to stay in Nashville for about a month and then I come back and stay until after Christmas. I really want to spend Christmas here with my family and my Tio Efrain that is coming from Brazil, who I have never met before.
I'm looking forward to my trip back home and seeing my nieces and nephews again! Ah I can't wait!!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Happy Birthday Tio Ruben...

So now we are on to a 3rd birthday. So many birthdays this week. Crazy!
This morning I went with tio Benjamin to immigration. I had to find out about extending my visa time here. They only gave me 90 days when i came in and that expires at the end of October. So anyways, they told me that there is this new law that came about a month before I traveled to Peru that says you can't extend your time anymore. The 2 options I have is to cross a border to another country or pay 1 dollar per day that I stay longer. So I'm thinking the plan will be to just cross a border. Which will be cool for me because that means more traveling and new sights!

So we got to Tio Ruben's house around 3. Everyone was going over there for his birthday lunch. Tia Mimi had cooked everything. She made carapulcra which is this dried potato thing with pork which is awesome! She also made some fried fish and rice. Everything was so good! We had some good tunes and everyone was just dancing and having fun. I laughed so much the whole time. More than I have ever laughed before I am sure. It was so cute to see all my little aunts and uncles dancing and having fun. The house was so loud and frantic. It was great. So I realized that noone had gotten my uncle a cake! So I went to the store with Lucho and bought one for him. I snuck it in the house without him noticing. We had another meal come out too, escaveche de pollo. It's this chicken that is served cold and it has onion and rice. It was really good too. After we got done eating we brought out the cake and sang and sang. Well my cousin Israel ended up pushing Tio Ruben's face into the cake! It was hilarious! everyone was screaming and laughing and Tio Ruben put frosting on the rest of my uncles. It was out of control. They are so funny! Luckily the whole cake didn't get ruined just a little corner. The cake was amazing too! It had about 4 different kinds of fruit in it. Yum!!! Everyone ended up dancing and dancing until late. What a fun fun night! I couldnt believe that it lasted all night. My family is great..


eating lunch


Tio Ismael dancing with a mop


Tio Ismael, Tia Nelly, Tio Ruben, Miriam, Tia Deborah, Tio Daniel, Tio Benjamin, Tia Mimi


Tio Benjamin dancing with a glass of wine on his head!


Ruben, Nella, her baby, Tio Ruben and I


with Rubencito




singing Happy Birthday


face in the cake




the singing begins




trying to figure out how to use his cell phone