Tan abrumadora.

Hola chicitos! If you have this address, chances are, I like you quite a bit, and I care about your opinion. I've been dying to share my experiences with you, but my phone/computer time is a bit low so I'm starting this blog. I'm really not sure how often I'll be able to update it, but I'm hoping it'll do for now. I'd love to hear your thoughts, opinions, stories about your summer, etc.

I'm going to try to keep my spanish to a minimum, but sometimes it just feels necessary - living in a completely spanish-speaking environment and all. =]

In our orientation here we talked about some different stages one goes through with an experience abroad, and if it is all true, I'm definitely in the enamored (Steph, I hope you noticed that word) stage. I love everything here right now. Well, exept for the fact that we cannot pet the millions of stray, flea-carrying, biting dogs on the streets.



It's honestly like a scene from a movie. Mountains are the backdrop to every scene, music is constantly playing in the streets, people are walking everywhere. It's freakin gorgeous! The houses and buildings are seriously just as you would imagine, only better. They're old, made of stones or bricks and there are small walls surrounding most of them that line up to the streets. My homestay house is on top of one of the millions of chicken resturaunts near the center of the city.

My homestay is amazing. The house is tiny, but I have my own bedroom and bathroom. I live with Martha (the mom), Jose (I think is his name, the dad), and their 5 year old daughter Vale(ria).




She's the cutest thing alive; I just wish I could understand her more! I hung out with her for like 2-3 hours yesterday, just playing, messing around and it was pretty amazing, despite the incredible language barrier. We listened to one of her alphabet tapes which I think was harder for me than it was for her. =] She loved the cabbage patch doll, the coloring packet, and the bubbles I got her and actually walked into the kitchen today "breast-feeding" the doll (probably the weirdest thing I've seen). It's not only her though, her mom is amazing too. She is unbelievably patient with me and laughs a lot, which is quite necessary. She pronounces my name "Kesley" and it makes me smile. She´s called me "mi amor" a couple times, which she calls her daughter and I really feel welcomed. She wakes me up in the mornings, provides me with a hot shower and amazing food, and pretty much tends to all my needs.

The ProPeru house is pretty amazing and my fears and doubts have pretty much disappeared. It's somewhat unorganized, but it kinda has to be here. I've realized the people really have very little sense of time and walk extremely slow. If my white skin, American clothing, crazy tall figure, English accent and sunglasses don't give me away, my fast walk definitely does. If you say you're meeting someone at 5, don't expect them there until about 5:30 or 6. They also have a million random festivals and holidays and pretty much close work or whatever when they want. My afternoon track practices are actually cancelled this week because the kids need to practice dances for a fiesta of some saint this weekend. There's been music and dancing and crazy hikes all week.

My "work" has gone pretty sweet so far; it's definitely interesting. My first day of work I met with Sarah (ProPeru staff), Hector and Lucillo (the track trainers), and the mayor (yes, the mayor). It was a meeting to talk about finances and it was completely overwhelming, but in a good way I think. I can understand about 50% of what Sarah and the mayor said, but maybe 10-15% of what the trainers said. Oh my goodness. A meeting, with the 4 of them talking back and forth - it was crazy! I´ve been to both track practices (one in the morning and one at 3) and it´s interesting. The running is sooo much harder right now. It´s kinda hard because I feel like I know so much that I am unable to share because of the language thing. Hopefully it´ll come sooner than later. Today will be my first day at Kanchay Wasi which I guess is a women and children´s shelter to help fight domestic abuse. I heard it´s crazy unorganized but we´ll see. The language thing is kicking my butt, like I expected. It´s interesting for sure though!

I´ve had 2 spanish classes so far and that´s pretty fun too. They´re one on one so hopefully I´ll pick it up. I guess I´m at the bottom of the intermediate stage right now. Today I learned the difference between quierer, encantar, gustar, amar and enamorar. I also learned that Jon isn´t "mi novio" but he is my "enamorado". I guess "novio" is like practically fiance stage or something. ¡Ay! If I got everything correct in class, I "quiero" him. (So I guess you were right with your rough translation). It pretty much means that I really really really like him, but not yet "amo" him. I miss him quite a bit.

I miss a lot of people here, but it´s the kind of miss that´s more like "I want to share everything with you" miss. I think of a lot of you quite often. The music, the mountains, the kids, the animals - every situation reminds me of someone and makes me wish they were with me. It´s hard not to be able to send a quick message or a quick phone call to you guys.

Enough with the sappy stuff. My flight was also pretty great - the views were amazing, pictures don´t give them justice (but I'm gonna try anyway.



The only rough part was staying awake in the Lima airport from 11-4 am to wait to check my luggage. I didn´t get the nap I was hoping for. It´s all good though! I had an hour long drive from Cusco to Urabamba with Eduardo who only speaks Spanish so I got to practice a bit on my way here. It´s been pretty cool. I can get across a point I´m trying to make and somewhat hold a conversation, as long as the person is talking slowly and pronunciating well. It´s a million times harder when they´re not talking to me or it´s on tv or something.

But, I think this is enough for my first post. Hopefully I´ll be back on soon!

Keep me in your prayers, por favor.