saturday

This saturday morning I am...

throwing coffee on paper (and drying them on my mop jeje) so i can write some letters, on fun paper, at least i intend to...

washing dishes...

doing my homework... making homework for the kids...

and washing clothes....

oh you sneaky saturday how you are slipping by too too fast.

today

yesterday: i fell asleep thinking i would wake up in enough time to make up for not taking a shower by taking a shower early in the morning before work.

today: i woke up with just enough time to A) make coffee and toast B) take a shower or C) sleep ten minutes longer.

i suppose ive matured a little because i didnt choose C. and apparently i'm married or its starting to get cold in trujillo in the mornings, too cold to take cold showers because you dont have enough time to wait for the water heater to warm, because i didn't choose B. that just leaves A. so you know how important coffee is to me or someone that eats breakfast with me. and its pretty important to me, yes, more important than showering. maybe i need a to-go mug.

today: i searched out the bag of headbands i hadnt tried to use with our school uniforms yet.

today: little fabiana told me that i was pretty. actually she said "mees Yuli, tu eres bonita" and I said... fabiana... you come here and give me a hug while a tear falls onto the top of your innocent little head.

windows

if you can see this guy clearly... if you look close enough through our window... you can see that he's strung up painting and sanding the building outside our apartment... we live on the 4th floor.. i thought for sure that he or one of his friends feet was going to come through our bedroom window.

now that is a surprise for a girl to come home from work to... to stare in a strangers face peeking inside her window....

uncle!

in a race to see who could draw a picture of "uncle" the fastest and best.... this was the 4 years top pick.

The weight of the world

And the hurt and the dirt

Can make you disturbed

But I heard, but I heard

When I wrap my arms around you

Every mistake we made crumbles

When I wrap my arms around you

Everything echoes a new song

I'm not gonna lie

Saying everyone's gonna be alright

And fine until we die

But what else can you do

But hope and pray and save

And we'll get by

Be prepared to be surprised

Better be prepared to be surprised

You got to be prepared to be surprised

It's all I know

sometimes we fight like kids. but our neighbors cant possibly think that we are too violent... because we laugh too much.

it stars with *poke*

and "julton.. no me fastidias" (dont bother me...)

*poke*poke*poke*

"Julton... i'm going to make you say uncle..."

*po...ahhhhhhhhhhh!*

4 to 6

today the 5 year olds made me want to cry... and made me decide in an explosion of emotion that i have to talk to God about my potential future children skipping the age of 5 altogether. from 4 to 6 they go!

but then later on some of the aids in the 4 year olds classes told me that they thought the way i taught was linda.(pretty) i said... really??? (because i feel like im failing). they assured me that the kids love the classes. well, i win the four year olds over with games and songs... the five year olds?... they think my games are boring, apparently im not mature enough for the 5 year olds. so? they get to work this week! no more passive miss! sadly that also means more work for me...

and the 3 year olds? the swamped me with a hug... until we all went tumbling doooown. haha

they are having a pajama party at the school tonight... allll the 4 and 5 year olds in tents sleeping at the school... and the littler ones inside their rooms... i... am very thankful to be sleeping tucked in tight into my own bed.

such a small sweet gift.

a typical dish

these... are cuyes... guinea pigs.... i realize that when you hear the word guinea pig you think sweet soft fun small furry ...pet. well.... here in peru... thats just not the case.

sorry jenn.

the above picture is from a friends house, they were saving up the cuy for when the family came home at christmas.

and the following.... are proof of my first cuy lunch experience. if you will notice... my plate is actually empty. no-that is not because i licked it clean bones and all. that, is because the plates were too expensive to pay full price for one for a recently turned from vegetarianism united states girl who still has a hard time getting over seeing the small things as food. so i got a side plate. im going to go ahead and admit that i mostly ate the potatoes and rice... but i tried the 'typical dish'

and aparently we are going soon to experience "sopa de cabeza" which is a soup that actually has a sheeps head sitting in it... im trying to get up the courage for this... but im having trouble. they say that after you eat it... you fall into a deep slumber. i wonder what happens if you look at it?

Julton was incredibly excited for this...

Katy took us to the place... she was equally excited..

and me?...well... im up for new experiences.. and im now into the "your lunch place will be my lunch place" did i mention that julton doesnt eat many vegetables? .... my vegetarian restaurant friends miss me. and i miss my broccoli. if he can get me to eat more meat i can get him to eat more veggies right?

"mama y papa:"

i had to write my first notes to the parents yesterday :S

each kid has their own agenda which the teachers use to send home general announcements as well as personal notes about the students, their way of keeping the parents updated. really, the school system is so much more personal. the parents have the option of being very informed. the parents (or in some cases the maid...) pick the kids up and drop them off everyday, from and into the hands of their teacher. and the agendas get sent home everyday.

yesterday they got sent home with my handwriting under the date. it went a little something like..

dear mom and dad: i want to tell you that your child was not paying attention today in class. for that reason he/she didnt finish his work in class today. please, can you talk to him/her? thank you, miss julie.

i didnt want to do it... but the kids... i dont know what to do!! i think im too passive for this job. i work well with the kids that listen... but the kids that dont listen... i dont know what to do with them! yesterday that group of kids that got the letters, had to sit and watch their friends get to color because they actually listened to me when i was yelling "will somebody please listen to me!!!??"

they pretty much hated me.

but today they were just the same, only they recruited more friends. i cant figure out how to get them excited... we sing, we dance, we play, we color... really ive tried everything i know... and if something even begins to work... it doesnt matter because if i do the same thing tomorrow they will say "ohhh agaaainnn???" and we are back to square one.

no one can say my job is boring.

you can however say that my coworkers are planning when i will have my first pregnancy. that word is just weird for me period. without the rest of the sentence. one teacher is a few months into having a baby... another is planning for the end of the year, then its another girls turn... then apparently its the perfect time for me. we'll see if their predictions pan out....

mis pequeñitos traviesos

(my little troublemakers)

i will admit... the first month of my job was rough. it was rough for many reasons... i was (am) adjusting to many things. I went to a freer schedule to a routine, i went from teaching adults to teaching children babies, i went from teaching private classes to teaching classes of 8-15... i went to teaching little things that ask funny questions and hug you one minute and cry at you the next, ask you to give them your voice as a gift because its so pretty, complain and laugh at the same time, get hungry and tell you all about it, and well just cant go to the bathroom unaccompanied. They are getting used to me too... i have a funny accent, i make them play a lot more than they are used to in class, i dont understand most of the rude comments so they dont get in trouble quite so often, sometimes i dont speak clear... for the first few weeks they really just stared at me.

last week was a breakthrough. the kids hug me, and im starting to hug back (don't judge me... im getting used to this kid thing)... they yell my name in the street when they see me when they are with their parents... i get invited to share their half eaten bananas....

last weekwas a really great week, the kids all participated there werent many criers, they had fun and i had fun and they learned. they seemed more at peace and i felt more at peace... and i am positive that God is seriously working in my heart and working some magic in my work.. and teaching me a lot of things that I am ever so slowly processing slower than the kids process that to win a sticker from the united states you ahve to be quiet attentive and just plain listen to the teacher. i had a little boy cry on me today fiercely cry i might add, because he didnt win a sticker even though i calmly explained to him at least 7 times throughout the class that he wasnt going to win a sticker if he didnt start behaving better.

This week is a little bit more rough... i think that the kids are a little restless, and so am i. we have a break coming soon! Every two months we get a week long break. cha ching! I really do have a great job, I love it :D

I've been praying a lot for this job... my students... me. I want to be a good influence in their lives. I can see in some of their precious (im warming up to them) faces that they don't all have good influences or a lot of love. It's hard to watch some parents so active and other parents be so inactive so much as to be 30 minutes late to pick the child up.

This week we learned how to sing "He's got the whole world in His hands" its awesome to watch the kids sing it when they cooperate for the whole song... maybe I can get a video... I see a "competition" coming up.

...To be continued...

se fue

we have some serious history... we've known each other for a while... we lived in the outhouse... we both have anderson degrees... weve got the same group of wonderfully crazy friends... neither of us come from a presbyterian church origionally but ended up in RUF and a presbyterian mission... gillian graduated au and moved to peru... i graduated and moved to peru.. gillian has finished her work in peru and has moved back to the states... i got married and well, i suppose you could say i havent finished my work here and im not moving back to the states. gillian told me not long before the wedding that she was moving to the states around the time i was getting married so that our breakup would look mutual. :)

my life has been great here in peru, new experiences around every corner, but one thing i have been thankful for has been having gillian around to share experiences. sharing in living in a different country together grew our friendship in ways we wouldn't have known each other in the states. im very happy to ahve been able to be here with her, and i'm going to miss her a lot now that she has returned.

life is changing... changing changing... it seemed sudden, but i should have seen it coming for months.

gillian: you are missed. and you know that we have a place for you -when- you decide to come back, even if it is just for a visit!!

otoño is near

on wednesday i ran sacked our apartment looking for my favorite hoodie (the wv one sorry matthew... its the most comfortable i have!)

on thursday i made my first cup of cinnamony hot chocolate in our apartment, theres something about hot chocolate that makes you nestle into the couch a little farther and fall into a quite possibly endless conversation with a friend - while you watch the movie load in front of you.. until it loads and you keep on enjoying conversation until youve talked the length the movie would have been anyway and its too late to press play.

on friday i declared the beginning of scarf season, nevermind that i was wearing short sleeves under my scarf. your neck gets colder than your arms anyway.

and sometime in the week i started sleeping in socks - thats how you know its getting colder outside. when you start unconsciously putting on socks before you go to sleep.

it is getting cooler, although im still sweating out the mornings in the jardin, the evenings are pretty hot chocolate perfect. and its giving me the serious desire to pick up the crochet needles. im getting antsy for it. and looking at websites like... Etsy ... inspires me and makes me wish i could knit. maybe i will pick that up this year. anyway im brainstorming how to fit crochet back into my routine. last year was pretty sad. im not even sure that i successfully completed a single project. m notorious for tearing out a scarf at least twice before continuing and finishing. this year i have my heart set on making pretty wearable creations. Gillian is encouraging me to sell them on etsy, and boast about alpaca yarn, which is very tempting if i can figure out if i would be taxed somehow in another country. there could be an advantage about having opposite seasons to the states here. spend my winter making things and the states winter selling things. its a possibility. seeing all the seamstresses around here and hearing from a friend that thers an institute where you can take classes... is really giving me to daydreams of getting in. ive always wished that i had worked harder on that part of my life. and think my grandma has the only one thing i ever started and finished.

we'll see what happens... for now... back to the kiddies in the jardin... they are starting to warm up to me... yes i might be bribing them with chocolate covered marshmallows... but they are warming up either way.

its a wedding!

a few from the wedding :)

in photos we look like we can dance... but dont ask the video camera...

outhouse!... o mis amigas locas like julton calls them

my mom danced!!!!!

we were counting steps haha

jultons parents

family!

from las huacas... (ruins) to huanchaco (the beach)... catholic churches to setting suns... experiencing moto taxis to downtown trujillo.... we went everywhere did everything and experienced it all. we ate jungle food, we ate criolla food... and no one was sick! (insde the peruvian borders.. i think if you ask florida its a different story..)

we had a really great visit and i am so happy that my family was able to come visit! my grandmother, mother, brother and cousin all braved a plane trip over the equator to come spend a few days with me and be here for the wedding!!!

the ruins of the sun

artists

everyone on the pier at the beach

grandma experiencing the huanchaco sunset from the church on top of the hill

we are a little bit smaller than the church :)

moto taxi!