beaches are such beautiful things to have.

you should meet katy

katy is the kind of friend that you can find yourself in themiddle of a street on a dark night taking random pictures with...

she's an architect... .and a good one at that....

and the type of friend you can go 'bungee' trampoline jumping with on trampolines in a mall which are probably meant for children and definitely have a weight limit.

katy is one of the many awesome and great friends ive made over he past year.. i think she might know more about popular english music than i do... teaches me all the peruvian slangs i need to know so i can keep it street.. she is a great architect (if you would like to contract her im sure she would love to work for you and shes improving day by day with her english) introduces me to movies like amelie which we first watched while i had a migraine and in french with spanish subtitulos.. ouch. shes just one of those friends. you know? one of the ones that dont get away. :) everybody needs a friend like that. everybody.

coffee n mugs

i'm not sure which is better, the coffee... or my favorite mug i drink it in.

you put the o in my alfredo

i love 'family' dinners...

making homemade alfredo sauce...

and introducing newbies to alfredo + pasta...

and watching a hardcore meat eater eat some veggies

and spending time with super sweet twins, its has a special place in my heart.

i do not like...

standing out so much since i live in a non-touristy part of town...

and being called 'otra idioma' (another language) by people on my micro whom are complete strangers. and rude.

sir you can take back your comment. and get off this micro right now. besides, i could use your seat.

buckets of water

the advantage of taking a bucket 'shower' is that you can heat up your water before it comes from the shower head 5-gallon bucket

you know, if you have time to wait for the tea kettle. :S

first impressions

things are starting to look different around here....

things have changed... things are changing... things will continue to change... you could say that my old blog was linked to an email i am no longer allowed to enter (universities...) or you could say that i thought the blog could use a new face/name/life in general to keep up with all the changes going on... either way it was time!

patience is a virtue as i am learning a lot about blog formatting. and learning a lot about how i dont know anything about it. bleh. so things will continue to change around... maybe even look completely different as im a pretty indecisive person.

but first impressions isnt just about the first impression of my blog, since well, its already obvious that that isnt limited to a one day debut. (i even started up a blog by another name a few weeks ago... only to delete it and start this one -the indecisiveness remember?) ...its times like these when i wonder how i can have a tattoo. ouh the permanence!

first impressions are also (and more) about how i made some first impressions myself today. whew! through my work with the mission i met a few girls that live close to the church that i go too. some afternoons i would walk the younger one home, and her older cousin would walk me back out (irony?) so we'd have conversations, oftentimes with the whole fam, or whomever randomly was around. they invited me time and again to a game of volleyball, which was obviously popular as there was a net strewn across the street every day i visited. i smiled and kept saying 'one day' knowing in both my conscious and subconscious that sports + julie is NOT a grand idea. it hasnt been since somewhere in my 14th year of life. call it forgetting hand-eye coordination call it timidity call it what you want, its not a good idea and i knew it. but the fact that i kept saying 'one day' kept hanging around in my thoughts. so today? today i committed.

and i had

no.

idea.

what i was getting myself into.

first i headed over to visit an hermana (sister) from the church, the mama of one of my friends since she lives there and knows the people that play also. we visited for a while then came reality. i timidly admitted that i was in the neighborhood to play volley, but that i must find my friend. of course i was thrown into a game in a whirlwind of thoughts something like "wheres katy?....oh i have to pay??...whoa shes serious...oh these are kids it wont be so bad... oh maaaan theyre goood...ive never played volleyball.... wheeeerreeeesss kattyyyy???...." katy came to my rescue, and my sweet hermana mama made sure to tell her in hushed spanish to take care of me, thinking i didnt hear her, but it only made me smile. and i did need her to take care of me! they were serious about their volleyball! and the 50 cents? went in a pot for the winning side! no pressure!!!

their first impressions of me? im pretty sure went a little something like this:

-who is that white girl coming into our neighborhood?

-oh shes going to play? make sure she pays her 50!

-ew she cant play... spike it to her!!! (from the opposing side)

-she only serves to the tree (which happen to half cover the street by the way)

-everyone cover her! (my team)

-what?? shes leaving early?? what do you mean she has to go teach? ) i had to leave to go teach before the last set was finished...

either they liked me or they would like to see me again so that they can have a few more laughs.. because as i was leaving they all asked when i would be back. i just hope my second impressions beef up the first a little. it also really didnt help that it seems like when im put into a new situation, where im doing something new or that i dont do regularly.. it also reflects in my spanish.. or lack thereof is more appropriate. im sure they wouldnt believe ive lived here for the past year after my spanish fail today. ohh man.

so there is your inaugurating post my dear perandom readers. bienvenido, i hope you find it like home. and i hope our relationship doesnt have as rocky of a start as my first day of volleyball went.