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.

Bits and Pieces.

Recently nothing much has changed from day to day of my life as an exchange student... but starting June 4th things are going to start getting very exciting! My dad is coming from Ashland and he, Steve Gretzinger and I are going to la selva!!! Then (possibly) we will have the opprotunity to spend a couple days en la sierra :D I am so excitied and am constantly thinking about the trip. So in a couple of weeks, check back here because I will have some very intiresting blogs coming up...

Since I don't have much to write about at this moment I will share some funny or intitresting things that have happened to me or facts that have happened:
- A while ago I had to take a combi (one of the public transportation buses in Lima) by myself, which was very scary. These buses have only about 10 seats but carry sometimes over 20 people. I had no idea where I was going, which combi to get on, or where to get off. After walking out into the street and talking to a bus driver at a stoplight, I found a combi that would take me within a few blñoxks of my street. On the bus there were so many people that I had to sit on a windowsill and hang out the side. Other combis were rushing past and swerving all over the road. It felt like being in what I had always imagined Tijuana would be like in rush hour. Somehow though I manages to make it home in one piece.

- Bus stops are something new to Lima, in the past few years. Before combis could stop where ever they wanted in the middle of the street.

- Combis do NOT always follow their route. Therfore, you have to know where you are going and how to get there so that you can tell if you are being taken in the wrong direction.

- I found a new kind of chips called camote fritos that are made from sweet potatoes. These are the most addicting, delicious variety of chip on the face of the earth. Dad, when you come you have to try these!

- Zoos in Peru have cows next to animals such as zebras, giraffes, and hippos. People who go to these zoos are just as facinated with the cows as the zebras... but couldn't care less aboout the llamas (which I took about 50 pictures of).

- I wondered up until a few days ago how the parks amd center dividers of grass in the streets are watered since it never rains in Lima and there is no sprinkler or drip system anywhere. I had the privelage of recently seeing how this is done. La Municipalidad de Lima comes around in a big truck with men standing on top with pressure hoses. As the truck slowly drives by (bloxking up most of the road) the men spray the grass below. If you are in the way of the power pressured water... you had better run fast.

- I have my new winter school uniform, which I am completely in love with. I feel like a little school girl from Hogwarts in my plaited skirt and button up shirt... also, school this bimester is going much more smoothly because my spanish is so much better and I can participate more class.

For now, this is all I can think to report... but I will write again soon. I miss and love you all so much!