Peace

Matthew 11:25-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This weekend I was able to share some fun times with my sister in Chicago. My mom unfortunately had to leave because my grandfather's life was coming to an end. God took him yesterday.

Please pray for my grandmother and my mother that God would bring peace to this situation, especially to my grandmother.

HOME

Pipo, our favorite bird. The house pet..very demanding, but loves people.



All the chicas en la familia. La Ultima dia de chicas de Carolina de Norte.



Lima at night. There was a festival going on for independence day of Peru.




Waiting in line at the airport..this is Kelle and Justin, our Amigo from la escuela. He was on the same flight.



The Horseback Riding Group



My family on my Birthday



My street buddy Perrcy. I bought him dinner a few times.



Friends at the Fountain at Night



Me at the Bath of the King of the Incas



The old guy named John who was traveling by himself (at 78). I had a wonderful conversation with him while on the balcony drinking tea in Pisaq.



Wow, I haven't written in quite a long time. The last few weeks in Peru were a whilrwind of a lot of fun, a lot of work, and a lot of stress. I made so many Peruvian friends in Cusco that I did not want to leave, not to mention that I am in love with the dirty city. The last few weeks included my birthday, traveling to Pisaq, gaining two more girls in the house who I became very good friends with, buying lots of gifts for friends, finishing my final presentation on the hoja de coca and cocaine, and saying goodbye to my family and friends.

Now I am home and getting everything ready and packed up to leave for school again. I will return the 18th of August for Resident Assistant training and then orientation the following week with the freshmen (the biggest class that Alma has had in years). So in the next two weeks I am going to go to chicago with my family, Wisconsin to visit friends for a week, and the rest of the time going though everything I own and clearing things out. A fresh start for a new school year.

God was so good to me on this trip. He kept me in line when I needed a kick and provided me with an amazing family along the way. I am so grateful for this experience and can't wait to return to Cusco some day soon.

This weekend was a lot of fun. I went and met some South American gypsies and saw them play a concert at a bar with some new friends. They ended up talking to me for an hour at the fountain in the main square while I was waiting for some friends. I went with a friend from California who speeks fluent polish and russian, and another from Holland. I had some Peruvian chinese food. I went dancing with friends for their last days here. I really am going to miss Jeanie! And went horse riding in the mountains. I met some nice guys from Ireland who Ive been hanging out with. I am having so much fun meeting people from all over the world. Its amazing how many places people are from here and how many different languages they speek. I think that the people from the UK and from the US are the only ones that dont speek more than three plus languages. Its kind of sad. I would love to be bilingual or trilingual.

We have two new girls living at our house. Crystal and Ashley. They are both really nice, and both from North Carolina. I am having a fun time showing them around and taking them around town. Tomorrow is my 20th birthday. I am going to have a fun time with my family and friends here. Ill let you know later how it goes.

Sorry about the crooked pictures. The last one is me in front of the lunar temple.

Nothing Special for the 4th :(

Today I went to the Zoo. It was really small, had a lot of birds and monkeys. It also had deer, bears, and foxes. They had a puma and HUGE condors. Cusco is in the shape of a puma, and its national bird is a condor. Tomorrow I have a big exam. YUCK. To celebrate the 4th, I went to the newly opened fast food resturaunt and got a hotdog that was amazing.

This weekend I am probably going to the sacred valley to ride around on motorcycles. We will see though....

An Average Week

Me at Inti Rhymi day before I got really sick
We are waiting for 4 hours for the thing to start.




I started with a new group of students in my class this week. Gaile, an older lady from England who is soooo bad at spanish. She can´t pronounce anything. A girl from switzerland named Rahel, and another guy from Philidelphia named Ryan. My group is good because they are not very good at Spanish and it makes me look good. Maybe I will get a better grade this week because of it. That would be sweet. I haven´t done much in the last couple days except for shopping around for gifts and sleeping a lot. I´ve been sleeping between 3 and 6 extra hours a day, plus the 8 or 9 at night. My body is almost done with this cold. I dont cough at night anymore and I am not going through as many kleanex. We had popcorn with the family today which was AMAZING. It reminded me of the popcorn we have at home all the time. I´m learning how to speak in the past tense this week. It´s kind of hard, but good. I am also going to take two classes a day, meaning 8 hours of spanish class a day. I think I might go crazy taking this much Spanish. I am hoping it will help with my fluency. Its the fourth of July tomorrow and it really makes me homesick, I never get homesick, but this is doing it. It´s probably my favorite time of the year. I am missing fireworks and good summer food. I have been craving pizza, salad, and pasta lately. Its just not good here. Enjoy some more pictures.







Love you All,
Mary

This is at a bar/resteraunt one of the last days with the Alma group.

Im sick of being sick

So after a long week of being sick, I´m feeling a million times better. I spent three days in a clinic here on a nebulizer and getting injected with antibiotics. I still can´t taste anything and I am coughing a lot, but this Bronchitis, is on its way out. The worst part of all of this is the week of classes I missed. I won´t be in Kelle´s class anymore and will be starting with a new group next week. They are getting 45 new students at the school, so I think I am going to meet a lot of new people. On the fifth of July in our house, we are getting two new students from the United States. We dont know their gender, age, how much Spanish they speak...so it should be a suprise. Its like having a baby or something. All the other Alma students besides me and Kelle and Drew left this morning so it´s a little less exciting around here. I am resting up this weekend though.

Enjoy the pictures:

I went to inti raymi today (the festival of the sun) and it wasnt as great as I hoped. There was sweet dancing and singing, but I had to climb a mountain, sit for 5 hours without a bathroom before it even began, so I left early. It was pretty, but I dont know that I would do it again given the choice, I could have slept in instead of waking at 6:30am.

Cameron Diez and Bill Gates (who is staying at my host sisters hotel) are both in Peru and went to the festival. They had actual seats instead of hard ground.

I have a nasty cold, congestion in my lungs (the gripe) from the changing weather here. IT was the coldest week of the year last year and it made me sick. I am going to bed really early tonight.

Love

Mary