I was doing so well with this too. For like a whole month! But I managed to get behind once again. Leave it to me to get busy.

Hmm...last week and this week we've had food! Well, bread, a slice of ham, and some amazing fruit smoothie at least. They go and get it in the morning because I have class right after practice but then for the afternoons I get to get it and prepare it all. It's a bit of work but I like having a little bit more responsibility. The high jump we had last week was definitely not cool. Lol. It was like 5-6 bags of mulch-ish type of stuff and some wood, dangerously nailed together. It was horrible. Luckily, they just practiced run-ups so I didn't have to freak out too much, but when Hector (the coach) jumped, I could barely watch. Yikes. More kids have been coming and I'm pretty excited. Especially with the afternoon group. I really like it. We have a meet on Saturday and I'm the volunteer-coordinator for it. Yes! Lol, it should be interesting. But then again, what here hasn't been? =]

This past weekend was full of dropped plans for me. It was all me though. I was invited to go to Cusco Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and bailed last minute on both of the last two. It would of been fun, I just wasn't feeling the tiny group that was going both times. It was good though. Friday night I ended up hanging out at this little Peruvian bar with one other gringo and like 6 Peruvians. It was awesome! I really didn't talk a whole lot but I felt oh-so-accomplished by just being there and being able to understand the majority of the conversation. It was a lot of concentrating for a relaxing night out.

Saturday morning I went to Cusco with my family. We split up as they headed off to shop for Vale's bday party and I went travel-agency hopping. I was pretty excited once again. I left them from probably 10 minutes away from the plaza and found it all by myself, spent about 3 hours walking around Cusco, and then returned to them for the ride home. It was a pretty cool sense of accomplishment. Just that I could be in this huge, spanish-speaking city, by myself, and be confident. I was so relaxed. =] It was sweet.

Saturday night, after deciding not to go to Cusco, I went and hung out with Aja at her family's bar. We sat around a little outdoor fire and talked. I met some girl from Scotland and another from the Dominican Republic and a bunch of us just sat around and talked in a huge mix of Spanish and English. It was a good night.

Sunday was Vale´s bday party. I was up at a decent time and helped out pretty much all day. As the party was starting quite slowly I was helping this random Peruvian guy put up balloons and decorate and we got to talking. He talked about his family in the states and where he's lived and lived now and about 10-15 minutes into our conversation he was like, "I'll be right back, I gotta go turn into a clown." Yeah, he was the party clown. Lol. The party was definitely interesting. This crazy clown included the adults a lot and I had to get up and take part in a singing contest and dancing in the middle of the circle twice. I'm glad we don't have many clowns in the states. It was really fun though, and really different. Vale is so stinkin spoiled, lol.

Sunday also happened to me my dad's birthday and my 6 month anniversary with Jon. As much as I would've loved to spend more time talking with both of them, I think it was really good that I was so busy. It helped me from being too incredibly homesick. I think I'm doing a lot better now. Although I still do miss the states a lot!

This week something around 25 new volunteers have come in. It's an overwhelming amount! I haven't really gotten to know any of them yet, but some of them seem really cool. We're still supposed to get a group from Duke of like 15-20. They're definitely not getting the same experience that we did. I have 4 new volunteers spread out throughout my programs and it'll be pretty sweet getting to know them. It's weird though seeing the difference between our baby group and their gigantic one.

But, I've run out of time once again. Chow for now. =]