Day 4?

Hey Guys!
I am sitting on a cold floor to write this because the best place to connect to the internet is in my parents bedroom and the only three pronged (is that the right word?) outlet in their bedroom is in the corner. But I am so so SO glad to have internet!

So today was good. I slept in, and when I finally got up I wrote a bit and then watched a movie. There isn't much to do here. I have already cleaned out my room and bathroom and have unpacked. There is still work to do around the house, though.
Marissa had mutual at 7 tonight, and I could have gone, but I am shy and prefer my bubble. That, and I turned 18 on Saturday.

 After they finished, though they all played with a volleyball in the gym so I played with them. They seem really nice and a lot of them spoke a bit of English. Marissa was even more shy than I was! I wish she would talk more!She did laugh at my efforts to play though. I still have a phobia of flying things coming toward me... It was a lot of fun. That was my day in a nutshell.

My Arrival in Peru

July 27, 2013

Hola! Bein venido a Peru.

We arrived in Lima, Peru around 1in the morning. The plane ride was crazy long. First, there was a 2 hour delay because they needed to work on the plane, after a little more than an hour they told us we might have to get on another plane. A while after that they said it was in shape to fly. I won’t lie, it scared me a bit when we took off because I was worried about something going wrong. I prayed a lot. When  I was sure I wasn’t going to die, I watched Juno and had dinner. I have to tell you Juno wasn’t as good as people kept telling me. I sat by two boys, probably around 14 and  their dad. They were going to Peru to do some service with a church youth group. They didn’t talk to me so it was a bit awkward the whole time. The flight was around 6 hours, give or take a few minutes.  I could not sleep the whole time, even though we had been up at 5 am. We flew from Salt Lake, Utah, to Atlanta, Georgia, to Lima, Peru so it was a long day. And the food was horrible.

Anyway, so we got in around 1am. It was cold, wet and we were all tired. Luckily, the customs line was short; unfortunately, we had problems getting Zoey, the family dog.  We got all 11 suitcases and 6 carry-ons into a bus (we would have had to take 4-5 taxis to get everything!) and then my dad told the driver we had to go get Zoey from the cargo bay area. We went to these offices with a large gate around it. Then my dad and Marissa went to go get Zoey. We waited  and waited and waited. For an hour. Then we started getting really worried. Finally, after watching around and getting a bit scared because there was people outside the bus (and we couldn’t figure out what they were doing, they had a cash box and a lot of wires, and were collecting papers from people) we saw them walk towards the bus and go right past! We figured it was a god sign, that they were going to get Zoey, but it wasn’t. It took another hour and a half before they came out. We were worried and tired and the bus driver had locked us in making us even more worried! They didn’t even come out with Zoey!

So we went to our new home.
 

After we slept for some time, it was 1 pm when we woke up, we found my dad gone. He went to go get Zoey. It took him 7 more hours of running around and paying people to get her! What a nightmare!  He was mad because they hadn’t given her any food or water since Alanta, or let her out.

When he got home we decided to go get some food, since we had been stranded at the house with just a few snacks. My dad drove, which is scary, because they do NOT have any laws here and they only stop for red lights. They don’t use turn signals and they will cut you off randomly, and  are just very reckless. Luckily, it wasn’t too busy and we didn’t have to go too far.
 

We ate at a restaurant called Bravos! It was pretty good. I had Lomo Saltado, a Peruvian dish that I love! It is pieces of beef with onions, peppers, french fries, and rice. They eat a lot of potatoes and rice here.  I had Inka cola to drink, which is a favorite. It is actually really good.

For dessert I had a custard with sugar. It was sweet and rich but also a little bitter. It is not my favorite, but it wasn’t bad either. 

We went to the store to get a few needed items. It was  big and it was busy.  It took us a long time to find things and make decisions because everything is in Spanish and its very different.

July 28, 2013

This is my 2^nd day here in Lima. I took a  VERY cold shower this morning. It turns out that the only bathroom that gets hot water is my parents. So from now on I will be using their shower. Today we went to church. It is a Spanglish ward because there are a lot of English speakers, and expats. Sacrament meeting is in Spanish, but there is a guy who translates. They have these headsets so you can listen to him. As my birthday was yesterday, I went to the adult Sunday school class that was in English. There is a young single adult class, but it is in Spanish and I am shy so I went with my parents.  Relief society is in Spanish, but a woman in the ward was nice and offered to translate for us, and two other ladies.

It is a nice ward, everyone seemed really friendly. Marissa made an impression on the boys. One of them told my dad that she was just so nice and so cool and he thought it was cool that she was taking notes and stuff. My dad said he was 16-17ish. Maybe Marissa could date him! We teased her a bit.

When we got home, we changed. I of course put on 2 sweaters, because it is freezing. It is winter here so it is a bit cold, especially with the humidity. Also, the house is cement with LOTS of glass doors and windows so it is COLD. And we have hard wood floors so I am always wearing socks.

I had to move my bed around because there was only one outlet where I could plug in my lap top and it was on the other side of the room and it is too cold to sit on the floor.  I unpacked all my clothes and things and put them away.

We went out to dinner. We went to a place that serves chicken, I can’t remember the name though. It was good. I had chicken with fries and a salad. I had chocolate cake for dessert.

We met a family that lives down the street. They have a 16 year old daughter. She is learning English so we talked for a bit.

It is cold so I am going to go grab another sweater and get in my pj’s and then curl up and watch a movie….