Peace

Matthew 11:25-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This weekend I was able to share some fun times with my sister in Chicago. My mom unfortunately had to leave because my grandfather's life was coming to an end. God took him yesterday.

Please pray for my grandmother and my mother that God would bring peace to this situation, especially to my grandmother.

HOME

Pipo, our favorite bird. The house pet..very demanding, but loves people.



All the chicas en la familia. La Ultima dia de chicas de Carolina de Norte.



Lima at night. There was a festival going on for independence day of Peru.




Waiting in line at the airport..this is Kelle and Justin, our Amigo from la escuela. He was on the same flight.



The Horseback Riding Group



My family on my Birthday



My street buddy Perrcy. I bought him dinner a few times.



Friends at the Fountain at Night



Me at the Bath of the King of the Incas



The old guy named John who was traveling by himself (at 78). I had a wonderful conversation with him while on the balcony drinking tea in Pisaq.



Wow, I haven't written in quite a long time. The last few weeks in Peru were a whilrwind of a lot of fun, a lot of work, and a lot of stress. I made so many Peruvian friends in Cusco that I did not want to leave, not to mention that I am in love with the dirty city. The last few weeks included my birthday, traveling to Pisaq, gaining two more girls in the house who I became very good friends with, buying lots of gifts for friends, finishing my final presentation on the hoja de coca and cocaine, and saying goodbye to my family and friends.

Now I am home and getting everything ready and packed up to leave for school again. I will return the 18th of August for Resident Assistant training and then orientation the following week with the freshmen (the biggest class that Alma has had in years). So in the next two weeks I am going to go to chicago with my family, Wisconsin to visit friends for a week, and the rest of the time going though everything I own and clearing things out. A fresh start for a new school year.

God was so good to me on this trip. He kept me in line when I needed a kick and provided me with an amazing family along the way. I am so grateful for this experience and can't wait to return to Cusco some day soon.

This weekend was a lot of fun. I went and met some South American gypsies and saw them play a concert at a bar with some new friends. They ended up talking to me for an hour at the fountain in the main square while I was waiting for some friends. I went with a friend from California who speeks fluent polish and russian, and another from Holland. I had some Peruvian chinese food. I went dancing with friends for their last days here. I really am going to miss Jeanie! And went horse riding in the mountains. I met some nice guys from Ireland who Ive been hanging out with. I am having so much fun meeting people from all over the world. Its amazing how many places people are from here and how many different languages they speek. I think that the people from the UK and from the US are the only ones that dont speek more than three plus languages. Its kind of sad. I would love to be bilingual or trilingual.

We have two new girls living at our house. Crystal and Ashley. They are both really nice, and both from North Carolina. I am having a fun time showing them around and taking them around town. Tomorrow is my 20th birthday. I am going to have a fun time with my family and friends here. Ill let you know later how it goes.

Sorry about the crooked pictures. The last one is me in front of the lunar temple.

Nothing Special for the 4th :(

Today I went to the Zoo. It was really small, had a lot of birds and monkeys. It also had deer, bears, and foxes. They had a puma and HUGE condors. Cusco is in the shape of a puma, and its national bird is a condor. Tomorrow I have a big exam. YUCK. To celebrate the 4th, I went to the newly opened fast food resturaunt and got a hotdog that was amazing.

This weekend I am probably going to the sacred valley to ride around on motorcycles. We will see though....

An Average Week

Me at Inti Rhymi day before I got really sick
We are waiting for 4 hours for the thing to start.




I started with a new group of students in my class this week. Gaile, an older lady from England who is soooo bad at spanish. She can´t pronounce anything. A girl from switzerland named Rahel, and another guy from Philidelphia named Ryan. My group is good because they are not very good at Spanish and it makes me look good. Maybe I will get a better grade this week because of it. That would be sweet. I haven´t done much in the last couple days except for shopping around for gifts and sleeping a lot. I´ve been sleeping between 3 and 6 extra hours a day, plus the 8 or 9 at night. My body is almost done with this cold. I dont cough at night anymore and I am not going through as many kleanex. We had popcorn with the family today which was AMAZING. It reminded me of the popcorn we have at home all the time. I´m learning how to speak in the past tense this week. It´s kind of hard, but good. I am also going to take two classes a day, meaning 8 hours of spanish class a day. I think I might go crazy taking this much Spanish. I am hoping it will help with my fluency. Its the fourth of July tomorrow and it really makes me homesick, I never get homesick, but this is doing it. It´s probably my favorite time of the year. I am missing fireworks and good summer food. I have been craving pizza, salad, and pasta lately. Its just not good here. Enjoy some more pictures.







Love you All,
Mary

This is at a bar/resteraunt one of the last days with the Alma group.

Im sick of being sick

So after a long week of being sick, I´m feeling a million times better. I spent three days in a clinic here on a nebulizer and getting injected with antibiotics. I still can´t taste anything and I am coughing a lot, but this Bronchitis, is on its way out. The worst part of all of this is the week of classes I missed. I won´t be in Kelle´s class anymore and will be starting with a new group next week. They are getting 45 new students at the school, so I think I am going to meet a lot of new people. On the fifth of July in our house, we are getting two new students from the United States. We dont know their gender, age, how much Spanish they speak...so it should be a suprise. Its like having a baby or something. All the other Alma students besides me and Kelle and Drew left this morning so it´s a little less exciting around here. I am resting up this weekend though.

Enjoy the pictures:

I went to inti raymi today (the festival of the sun) and it wasnt as great as I hoped. There was sweet dancing and singing, but I had to climb a mountain, sit for 5 hours without a bathroom before it even began, so I left early. It was pretty, but I dont know that I would do it again given the choice, I could have slept in instead of waking at 6:30am.

Cameron Diez and Bill Gates (who is staying at my host sisters hotel) are both in Peru and went to the festival. They had actual seats instead of hard ground.

I have a nasty cold, congestion in my lungs (the gripe) from the changing weather here. IT was the coldest week of the year last year and it made me sick. I am going to bed really early tonight.

Love

Mary

Matchu Picchu

We just got back from machu picchu. I woke up at four in the morning so we could get on the first bus at 5. It was sooo cool. We hiked up the tallest mountain there (WinuPicchu). It took us an hour, but we did it.We were the first ones up the mountain. We were up soooo high and walking on tiny little stone stairs the whole time. The ruins are really cool too. We chased a couple llamas. I am going to be soooo sore tomorrow from hiking. It was an almost vertical climb, we had to go though caverns, and because of the altitude it was very hard to breathe. The higher we got, the more we had to stop to catch our breath. I have some amazing pictures. but my battery died from taking so many, so I didn´t get to take as many as I wanted. Our train left at 5 pm so we hung out in Aguas Calientes for that time, there isnt really anything to do there because it is a tourist town. It was a four hour ride home. The stars were so clear outside. I stuck my head out the window and the milky way looked so bright on the train. We hung out the whole time with some filmmakers from England who have dream jobs traveling the world all expenses paid, Alma people, Jeanie from the states, and Timone from Holland. There were so many Japanese tourists while we were hiking. I could have sworn that one of them was uncle George because he looked just like him. This one lady started talking to me in Japanese because I think she assumed that I knew it. I thought it was funny. We just came back and ate at an indian food place that has vegan food. It was really good, though, I think that after hiking up and down hills for four hours, everything tastes good. Now I have class again everyday. It have learned so much this week. I talked in spanish so much today that my head was hurting from thinking so hard. Its getting easier though. We went to a market today and talked with people from the market with our professor and learned the names for tons of food. We then had some really really really good juava especiales. It has a ton of fruit in it, some dark beer, and milk. It was amazing. I got my haircut yesterday for 5 US dollars and I love it (as seen above, but this is a bad picture of it). I need to go home and do some homework. Enjoy the pictures.

Cameron Diez is in Cuzco by the way...

White Water Rafting!!!!

I

White water rafting was awesome! Enjoy the pictures. John and Alex were in front. Drew and our guide´s girlfriend from Canada were in the middle (she came for school for two months ¨fell in love¨and now has been living here with him for six months.) Kelle and I were in the back. There were two boats..Julie and a guy from Holland were in the other boat, so their pictures are not on here. As a group we bought a cd with pictures on it.

Family

This is my host mother, Belinda, Julie, and Cesar. This was at his birthday party.

The top of the mountain...the whole city

Me at the Plasa

Me and Julie at school

My host sister and her boyfriend at the soccer game

This weekend was so great. White water rafting was amazing. Our guide was soo good and we had two boats. We are buying a picture cd plus I brought my water proof camera so I should have some good pictures. It was between a class 2 and class 4 rapids. At the end he asked us if we wanted to tip over the boat and we said yes, which was fun, but sooooo cold. The guide in the other boat kept trying to pull me in the water the whole time we were rafting. The trip took all day which included lunch...all for thirty US dollars. The best 30 dollars I´ve spent.

Then on sunday we went to mass, which was interesting because i knew what was going on, but could not understand what the priest was saying. After mass with our family we went to the country about an hour away to this resturant right by the mountains. It was gorgeous there. We ate outside underneath an awning (sp?) made of branches and bamboo. Kelle played futbol (soccer) with our papi and one of our sisters boyfriends while the rest of us girls played volleyball. It was so much fun. It reminded me of when we play croquet in our backyard. Our mami was shaking her but and twirling in circles when her and Ursula were beating me and Adrianna. Adrianna and Ursula were throwing the ball at each other...it was great to feel a part of their family. We ate a salad with huge potatoes and a huge chicken leg all baked in earthen ovens at at this outdoor resteraunt. Our host mom told us if Adrianna gets married they will probably do it there.

Today we had classed again, with a new teacher though who is AMAZING. He is so nice and will goof off with us while we are learning. He actually makes the four hours fly by. He kept telling me that I was a Nina (little girl) because I was 19 and everyone else in our class is between 23 and 27. This week class should be a lot of fun.

After school, we paid for our matchu pichu tickets and went went out browing though the streets and stores. Mom, you would love it here because everything looks like something you would wear. Its all baby alpaca and you can get things here for 5 dollars that would cost around 60 in the us (like shawls and blankets and hats and gloves made from alpaca). Oh, did I metion that is winter here? It gets so cold at night. So drew and me and kelle walked around for a couple of hours.

The one week mark...

We left exactly one week ago for Peru. Its amazing how much we´ve learned since then. I feel like ive been here forever. I had my first exam today which went really well, except for the fact that I can´t spell..but whats new, I can´t spell in English either. We are going rafting all day tomorrow. It should be a great time. Then we are going out to eat with our host familia on Sunday. Other than that...nothing new. For some reason everyone is getting burnt and tan...they are even using sunscreen. I don´t use anything other than my spf15 face lotion and I´ve hardly gotten any color. I haven´t burned at all either even though I wear no sunscreen. I guess I´m not white enough to get burned.

If you want to see more pictures you will have to look at them on facebook because it takes forever to load them on blogger. I will load a few more another time though.

Love you all,

Mary

Corpus Christi

Kelle and Julie at corpus christi

Night soccer at the court

Last night we went to a court were the school has rented the soccer field. I watched with my host sister as a bunch of students from our school played.

At this court there is a giant slide that is 80 feet off the ground with a spiral staircase going up, Kell and I went up the stairs and slid down twice! It was crazy because I thought I was going to die from falling off it. We raced (there were two slide ports). It was awesome.

Today was CRAZY. First we had class in the morning which was another headache. We have an exam tomorrow and there is so much information that we are covering. Its going to be crazy. I hope I do well. I am not too fond of our teacher.

After class we went home and had dinner. It was our host brother´s birthday AND corpus christi on the same day. We had an awesome lunch and then braved the crowded streets at the Plaza de Armas. They parade the saints around and people watch the whole procession. There are 14 saints total. It was SOOOO crowded! I got my butt grabbed by two stupid chicos as they passed and there was nothing I could do about it because I was trapped in a moving crowd. It was so interesting to see the food on the streets, the people watching the saints, and all the weird crap they try to sell people, like eyelash curlers..who is going to buy an eyelash curler off the street during corpus christi?

Kelle and I came back home after getting lost for a while...the problem was solved when we took a cab, cabs by the way only cost around 70 cents to go anywhere in the city (2 soles). We came home and had a birthday celebration for Cesar, he turned 15. All of his friends were over and playing video games, typical boys. We had cake and a sangria thing that is like jello. All the food here is SOoo good and good for you. It has soo much flavor without all the fat and greese and salt and sugar. I dont know how they do it. We gave Cesar a sports jacket for the peru football team. The whole family was over. It was crazy. We sang happy birthday in English and Spanish. And then our mami tried to push his face in the cake.

I ´ve only been here five days but it feels like five weeks. I love it here.

Yram

So i had my first few days of classes which went well. When I read outloud in english now, I keep using spanish pronunciations. We cover what we would normally cover in a week in one day, so new things pile up. Its not going to be a walk in the park to get good grades here. We are having an awesome time! Tonight we are going to the stadium to play soccer with a school group. We may go river rafting this weekend, but we are about to go to the travel agency...so we will see. We are also planning a trip to Matchu Pichu.

Yesterday we went to see our host brothers concert (he is 15 turning 16 tomorrow!) he plays the violin in the Cusco children´s symphony. He is SOOOO good. We were really proud of him.

Well that is all for now.

Later...

Ok, because everyone keeps bothering me about this, in fact they do say Chao here for goodbye. They use it more than Adios. So eat that.

My host family is AWESOME. I love our host mama. They have a little bird named pico and a dog named chocolate´ who are super cute as well. The bird will sit on my shoulder for hours.

I had a tour of the city today and my orientation for my classes that I will have every morning. They have so many activities for us to do. I went with Kelle and Drew and we climbed a mountain to the Christo Blanco, you can look it up if you wish. It is the most beautiful view of the city.

Kelle and I both had really bad altitiude sickness. But our host family took good care of us and we slept for basically two days.

Its a little scarry here because of the bocharos who are drug dealers and con artists that prey on tourists. They will plant drugs on you and call the police if you are rude, which is automatic three years in prison, no questions. But this school is freaking awesome and I feel really safe.

That is all for now, I have a limited time in this internet cafe.

Bye

We made it to LIMA

Kelle and I made it to Lima after a long long long day. We got to the airport in the morning and because we were two and a half hours early, we searched the airport to find Jake Hanley. WE FOUND HIM and got to chat for a while and give him a hug before his flight to NY.

We got to Georgia, got on our flight and it was delayed for an hour and a half because of a dumb person that lost their passport and also because they didn't have the airplane ready.

Kelle and I had amazing seats with unlimited leg room because we were in the exit row right by the stewardesses {who were really nice}. We arrived at the airport at 12am peru time or 1 am michigan time, and had to go though a huge line in customs. After that was over we had to figure out how to use the phone. We fought with it for about 20 minutes and were feeling very defeated when Kelle asked a very nice peruvian man for help. He used a different phone and the number worked. Turned out the phone we were using was broken. Just our luck.

To top that off, we didn't need to use the phone because the driver was already waiting for us with a sign with our names on it. So all that stress for nothing. We were however an hour late because of our plight. That sucked.

Our driver is extremely nice, speaks good English and gave us a bunch of helpful infomation and tips. We are still worried about tomorrow because our bags might be overweight for the small flight..I have 60 lbs of stuff rather than 50 and kelle probably has 80lbs.

So we made it to the Hotel El Carmel and it is very nice. Nice rooms and nice people working here. Except that they laugh because we don't know any spanish. It is really crappy being here and not knowing spanish. Hopefully that will soon change.

We are also worried because the altitude is going to change by 1100 feet when we go to Cusco. Drew was sick for a week..throwing up, hopefully that won't be us too.

Well, Safe and sound so far. I will update later when I get settled in Cusco.We are nervous but having a lot of fun so far, and we aren't even there yet. Love you all.

Chao

-Mary

LEAVING!

Tomorrow we leave, and I am starting to get really excited and anxious about it!! We leave around noon.

FYI to anyone who needs to know, I don't have my cell phone with me, it is being used at home. So, don't call that number. You will only be able to get in contact with me though email.

Also, I will be getting a new phone shortly after I get back because the contract to my other one is running out, so if you want to delete my number from your phone all together, that would be cool. I'll let you know what the new one is soon.

Cusco, Peru!!

This is my traveling journal for all those who want to know whats going on in my life while I'm on my two month Peruvian adventure. I will be living in Cuzco, Peru from June 1st to July 28th to study Spanish. My good friend Kelle and I will be living together with a host family. We will also have the company other Alma students.

I will try to update when I can, it just depends upon how frequent the internet is available.

This should be an amazing summer !
Cuzco, Peru