reflections.

My last blog post was mainly about activites and things that have happened recently, but another big part of being an exchange student right now is doesn't involve what's actually happened.

I have really started to realize just how crazy, chaotic, and random life seems to be. The things that I thought would be true for me no matter what are changing like sand in the wind - without the slightest form or predictability.

I am also a bit scared to return to Ashland, because I know how different things will be, and I know how much I will miss my friends in Peru. Maybe everything will be better than I ever could have imagined, but right now I have very mixed feelings about July 20th... the day I will fly home. The other side of me, however, is very excited. I have begun to miss my family more than I ever have before and even miss the what used to make me so mad about them. All of those things seem so small now, so insignificant. I am excited to get to know my family like I never bothered to before, spend time with the friends that I became really close with before I left, breathe some fresh air, see some moutains, and eat some Giseppi's Pizza and Sour Patch Watermelons :) I am starting to feel ready to come home, but am still enjoying every day of life in Lima.

Somehow, amongst all of the crazy things that have happened to me over the past year - and finding that things turned out exactly how I didn't want them to - I have managed to become a much calmer, level-headed person. (To the people who know me in Peru: I know you probably laugh at this statement, because I am still extremely irrational and many times over reactive... but I have made some serious progress in this department). Right now I just looked at the clock and saw that it is 11:11 and couldn't even think of something personal to wish for.

I can now confidently call myself a content person - or as content as anybody really is.