Machu Picchu is NOT a Pokémon

So I haven`t updated my blog in...a reallly reallly long time sorry! But things are going pretty well.*scratches out* near perfect =)
 I did change my host family about 3 weeks ago (wow it HAS been a while) and they are wonderful! I have a little brother too named Gabriel. He`s 9 years old and he`s so smart and quick with his words he makes me laugh. We love to watch movies together with our traditioanl bag of Heaven..I mean Piqueo Snax!  My host parents are super too! We laugh and joke together (or at eachother..lol well mostly them to me! My host father calls me Rubia Loca (crazy blonde) and my brother calls me La Conejita (Little Rabbit girl---its becusae of my cheeks he says ha!) and pretty much I can talk to them about anything and I`m learning so much from them. Oh yeah! I`m also taking those really scary cramped and crazy city buses to school by myself! Its about a 45 mintue trip from my bustop near our apartment in Pueblo-Libre to the bus stop near my colegio in San Borja and then about a 10-15 mintue walk to my school (traffic determines time). But yeah I`m kinda getting the hang of being Peruvian =)
Im speanding most of my class time in school hardcore studying my Spanish vocabulary. I can speak so  much better. Although its not even perfect Spanish it now feels natural to speak, like english.
So I officially passed my first Holiday test. It was my first Thanksgiving without my US Family. That was hard I got to admit and I know that step 2 is Christmas.
But I can definitely say I didn`t lack a family for Thanksgiving (El Dia de Acción de Gracias)
The exchange students and their families all came together for the American exchange students to have their celebration feast =) It was incredible. We did have a turkey and it was yummy. Althgouh I believe it was the only American like food we had there. It was a very Peruvianized Feast. But yellow potato purée with ensalada roja con betaregas and arroz con leche and Panéton made it very special. I still had the "a tick who consumber too m uch blood and is ready to pop" feeling afterwards. We even got up and made speeches about our home traditions and the things we`re thankful for. I`m thankful for my one great big International family this year.

Muchas Gracias a Todos.

December is coming up so this means SUMMER VACATION! I already got my first sunburn all on my face from helping out at a Rotary function at a camp for people with Autism and Down Syndrome for 2 days. It was nice to be helping people along with the other intercambistas and playing with them like soccer, volleyball, and basketball or arts and then in the night we had like this mini talent show were everyone sang and danced. These are really loving people.
I`m also really excited becuase I`m GOING TO  MACHU PICCHU!
(one more time..i feel like i wasn`t too clear with my last phrase..;D)
I said, "MACHU PICCHU!!!"
..On Wednesday! (Today is Monday!) I bought a new camera and am ready to make some memories! It is ON like Donkey Kong for Machu Picchu!
So, Ojala, I will update afterwards about my trip!

Arequipa and Tacna and Chile, ¡Oh my!

¡Wow what an incredible first trip! Our bus trip to Arequipa (a department in Peru south od Lima)
commenced at 4:30 pm on Saturday, Oct. 3rd
20 hours on a bus is totally worth the destination! Plus this bus had huge squishy and spacious seating where you could plug in your headphones to listen to a movie. Did I mention this was a double decker bus and we all got to sit on the top! They even gave you Cruz del Sur logo marked mini-pillows and fleece blankets (i helped myself to the blanket..)
We pretty much occupied our ample time by talking/singing, taking random photos, or finally chilling back and listening to our iPods and jusst watching the amazing sights of endless sand dunes cross our vision. The further you get away from Lima, we noticed, the more of a blue sky you can see.
On Sunday at around noon in Arequipa where we met the host families we were going to be staying with for the next 4 days of the trip. Mine was fortunate enough to catch me off gaurd with a mouthful of Piqueo Snax in my mouth after a long trip.
(I seriously cannot stop eating those things!)
They were so nice! They´re names were Raul and Cecilia and they ran a colegio there in Arequipa and their daughter, Francesca, who is 17 and I ended up speaking French the times we were together and then Spanish, of course, with everyone else. I stayed in their Granmas apartment. It was a pretty sweet set up for an older woman. Everything was so clean and modern! Big screen TV and my room was like hotel clean and white with a fluffy bed containing like 6 huge pillows and a big window with a great view of the city.
The next day on Monday we were all taking a tour bus up into the mountains of a village called Chivy. However, the altitude of Arequipa is MUCH higher and dryer than Lima so I woke up with a pretty epic nose-bleed that morning. I mean it was like someone attatched a faucet to my face and left it running.
Of course if a faucet actually ran blood like my nose, did people would declare a biblical plague..but it was this imperfect metaphor that quickly crossed my mind as I lunged for the box of tissues next to my bed before I got anymore on the white sheets.
So this tour bus was run by a guy named Wilmer. We understood his Spanish better than his English but he had some pretty interesting things to show us. For example the scenery near Chivy was EXACTLY how I first pictured a stereotypical Peru. It was layed out with huge green canyons and mountains with rustic architecture and people dressed in the traditionaly colorful Sierra (mountain region) garmets; like the skirts and brimmed hats and blouses with a decorated llama, alpaca, or lamb in tow as the sell they´re alpaca made clothings, blankets and other trinkets on the side of the road. Part of this altitude change is you get the chance to purchase the Coca leaf (yes cocaine) it came in a chewable leaf, tea and an assortment of candies. We all went for the candies, chewable and or hard-candy. We stopped at this one site for a nice little hike. Of course this hike included a stone staircase of DEATH up the side of the mountain to visit an old stone tower and a theatrical stadium where animal sacrafices used to take place on a stone table in the center.
Anways with the high altitude and thin air, everyone was having difficulties sometimes breathing but it was all worthi it in the end to a relaxing dip in the local Hot Springs.
Tuesday we all woke up early to leave at 6 am to go up into the mountains to hike up above where the Condors nest in the canyons of Colca which apparently is the world´s deepest canyon!


The condors are pretty amazing. Their wing spans up to about 3 meters (9 ft) The deep green and rocky canyons totally gave me the feeling of being somewhere in a Middle-Earth setting in Lord of the Rings..
By the way..these canyons are part of the ANDES! I hiked in the ANDES! Then we returned in Chivy for lunch. The food spread was incredible. At one point we thought we were eating fried chicken...no it was either guinea pig or..Alpaca! And I ate them! Makes sense though..it was copious Alpaca that lined the roads without a chicken in sight...
Afterwards we made the return trip back to Arequipa where we found ourselves rope into another Rotary meeting. But we all took turns singing or playing guitar for the club there, Yanhuara.
Thursday: Honestly not my best day. In the morning I woke up to non stop vomiting and stomach pains. However I still had to make the bus trip to Tacna with the others. Everyone was so helpful that morning. Francesca packed my suitcase and got everything ready for me as i just flaied uselessly in my bed. The bought me medication for the pain but the bus trip didn´t prove much better. I ended up throwing up all over the seat next to me on the bus too. It was my friend, Elisa´s seat but man not a drop on her. That girl saw the warning signs and moved like lightning out of my line of fire. But everyone was so helpful. Adele, the girl from France and others had me sit in another seat as THEY cleaned up after me. Luckily there was never anything in my stomach this whole day so it was just like pretty much throwing up my stomach.
We arrived in Tacna where I met my host family there. They were waiting for me with a welcome sign and a bouquet of pink lilies. And here I was...pale, nauseous me sloshing out of the terminal. I ended up going to the hospital there that night for a fever and stomach infection. Too many injections for my comfort zone. One took my blood, other was for a 4 hour medication drip into my arm and another in my...hip...for the fever. Luckily so miracle allowed me to understand and converse with the doctors about my condition. I was alone during this by the way. So i stayed during the night and early the next morning my host family took me home to rest up for the trip to Chile.
Friday: Still sick but was NOT going to miss a chance to travel to another country! So That morning we took yet ANOTHER bus and drove down to a city in Chile called Arika. Money there was nuts. They have Pesos there which one peso = 180 soles which is about..547 pesos to $1 US. So Arika was beautiful. Blue sky and the city had a lot of clear views of the ocean, cliffs, and trees in the city. (We´re all used to the grey skies of Lima) we visited a market where I got to buy Ice cream for $1,980 pesos and keychains for $300pesos and a nose stud for $1000pesos...I´ve never seen numbers that high for prices before..I kept a $2000 peso note (about $4). It was beautiful. We also visited this museum...28 exhibits...with a tour guide named Maria..who explained EVRYTHING! My goodness that woman could talk. I haveve never heard so much about the origin of a stone before...lots of information but she just kept goin!

Saturday: Our last day of the trip. Our day began taking a tour with Maria again out in the desert for a nice long walk...a FOUR hour tour. Wouldn´t have been so bad if she hadn´t kept toting us around overenthusiastically. A good handful of us were still sick, including me. Kristen, Lizzie, and I ended up having more sicknesses. But I got to know Lizzie a lot more as we sat in one of the host families living (making sure a bathroom was really close) with multiple bottles of gatorade within reach. So we were sick here and there; still quite an amazing trip! So at around 5pm we all boarded ANOTHER bus in preparation for our 23 hour trip. Not so bad. We all slept most of the way and watched movies and talked together. That´s always the best part.
Muchas gracias, Chicos por uno viaje increible! Los quiero!

Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube..girls?

So I kinda wanted to add this to my last post but I couldn't figure out how..
So my school (colegio) is super laid back..most of the time..when my friends Roy and Christian had a track meet a group of us were able to just take a taxi during the beginning of school and spent the rest of the day at the stadium.
So I found it hilarious how all these students who competed are supposed to be athletes, right?
I mean that's how usually being a succesful runner works?
I know how that is, after the intense running that I do...

ok so it's from my bedroom to the fridge...but I digress.

So anywho, we're watching the girls' 1200 meter run and when they finish ALL of them collapsed AT the finish line..no post jog to cool down or anything; they just fall on the track or the grass nearby. Now not only do they lay there but their "trainers" rush onto the field and try to pick these girls up for support and these girls literally just flail in their arms; like some sort of possessing force was the catalyst to their long distance sprinting and then after 1200m it exited their bodies leaving them in a heap on the track!
It reminded me of some sort of excorcism as the girls just acted like total zombies as their coaches did what they could to hold them up while another girl sat down ON the track and vomited..right there!
ON THE TRACK!
I was just waiting for the one lying down stretching out a cramp, to just start levitating in mid-air or crab-crawling backwards for a lap like in that movie!

Is this a tentacle?

So let us update. Dont really need to but what the heck =) So I finall bought a cell phone today. I was sick of my host family telling me "Kati its not necessary because you can¨t understand anything anyways and you dont go out much" (yeah becuase they never take me anywhere) haha sooo Lucas and his host mom, Rosa (quien tiene huevos!! lol inside jokes..) took me out today and we bought one (Hallelujah!)

Just have to keep it out of reach of my host parents´ grandson. He is four years old and he always manages to get into my room and get ahold of my iPod simply becuase HE wants what HE wants NOW. The type of child to whom Willy Wonka could teach a thing or two. Maybe a trip up a chocolate pipeline or carried off by oompa loompas to have berry juice squeezed out. lol Like he could win medals if spoiledness was a sport! Un niño con mucho..suerte?
Anywhoooo...

I am happy about that. *happy dance*

Oh yeah. I had food today and it had tentacles.
Que rico.

Bon voyage y buena suerte (por los dos!)

So Friday night my initial "host brother" Jonathan left for his exchange to Canada.
Buena Suerte Jonathan! :D

Sad.
(lol understatement...I cried..like a lot)
but he's in my district near Wenatchee in Salmon Arm (well...300 miles "near") But hopefully in 9 months I'll get a chance to see him again.

His friends are pretty cool too. So far I really know Sergio and Mauricio
(whom they call, "chino" which he's Japanese not chinese..lol also with the twin Korean girls in my class everyone calls "chinas" ..they're Korean. But here it's normal to call someone Asian, doesn't matter what kind, "Chino(a)". I laugh to think about how racist Americans would think that is..hah I corrcted a guy in my class once and said, "They're Korean!" and Lucas just looks at me and laughs at my social activism..in Peru!)
Anyways, his friends showed up at the airport t say good bye to him. However..as the typical Peruvians they are, they showed up too late; so after he left. But we took pictures to prove they were there to send to him. It's coming together for me =) SO is my language. Everything is really brokenfor me but I understand WAY more andcan say more and they Spanish classes I get weekly help too.

Oh yeah I tried this thing called Salchipapa or something like that..it has fried potatoes, egg,cut up hot dog and its covers in ketchup and Peru mayo..holy molar it's amazing.

lol so you may be wondering why my title is bilingual^^ I miss French very much ^^ I love it and I miss studying/speaking/reading..breathing! French haha
I actually got a chance to teach a guy in my class some french. He's trying to learn so he asks me to teach him. It's just he doesn't speak any english and I speak just enough to get by haha so I have to translate everything form English to French to Spanish. Ming boggling (yes, my mind was quite boggled. It's a word. Google it.)
But so much fun. I love his Spanish to French dictionary!

One Month--mark it up

Ok, so I figured yesterday marked the first entire month I have been on my exchange in Lima, I should kind of update.

So this week I´m really sorry to say I found myself in some trouble. Let me tell you now, make sure you thouroughly know ALL the rules before you get into your designated country. I found myself in a meeting with the heads of Rotary here in Lima pleading a case to keep my exchange after a lot of trouble I got into. I never thought I would have to do something like that...especially not my first 4 weeks. I want to apologize to my club back in Wenatchee for the mistakes I made based on poor judgement. This certainly wasn´t my intention to disrespect or set a poor example as a Rotary exchange student. When and if this is fixed (I´ll find out soon what will happen) I will try and make up for the mistakes I made here. Again, I´m so sorry. I still really hope I can be the exchange student you think I can be.

Anyways I seem to be understanding more of what´s being said and knowing a little more of what to say. so it´s improving. I think I´m irritating Lucas and Mariah a bit. My spanish is very poor and they only want to speak Spanish nowadays (duuuuh!) but when they try to speak to me, it´s verrrrryyyyy difficult to understand the vocabulary and I end up speaking English. So I just try not to talk as much as I can so I don´t end up speaking English. I know how important it is and if I knew more I´d speak it but right now it´s so hard. I´m feeling kind of alone for the past week or so. I can´t talk to anyone about it because no one wants to hear english but it´s all I can do right now unless some french speaker wants to here my lament. Sometimes I find myself asking why I ever agreed to come here. And trust me..I´m not the only one wondering that about me now either.. =(

But I knew it wasn´t going to be easy and I´m sure I´m not leaving now. If I can help it. I´m going to do what I can to learn all of this even if it means flying solo in everything for a while.

Today was the 38th aniversary of my school Colegio Santa Rosa de Lima and we had a day of ¨deportes¨or sports. It was pretty fun. We all for jerseys and since I was put into the 4th secondary my jersey is that of the Barcelona soccer team. Other grades got other countries like ,Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and etc..
Tomorrow is a big celebration for the school (yes, it is on a Saturday) I was asked to sing for the event and Jetze and Sonja managed to get a music professor to come in and accomapny me on the piano. The song will be Ï´m beginning to see the light¨ by Duke Ellington. He changed the key on me to make it higher and I believe it sounds really good. He seemed to like my voice with the dramatic throwing his hands up in the air saying, "Perfecto!!" after I sang my song and continuing to play other songs that I sang along to. This made me really happy =)

Mariah and I were asked by Jetze to put together a country dance (how stereotypical) to perform at the celebration tomorrow too. So us, with Lucas got a small group of about 8 of our classmates to participate and the dance is pretty cool. It´s a really fun line dance in the mix of the electric slide and the cowboy strut to the song "Good Time" by Alan Jackson haha...country songs...but everyone caught on soo fast surprisingly and it looks really good. And we also have to make a plato typico de los EEUU...so we´re making rice crispy treats...or Lucas and Mariah are; and we ALSO have to present a poster of the culture, polictics, and geography of the US too.

MUCHAS COSAS!

Drop and give me 20!! Entiendes??

Whew talk about lost in translation today. Apparently behavior in the classroom in Peru is a little different than in the States; even in P.E.,..who knew? ;D
Well it started off in PE where Lucas threw something to the other exchange student, Mariah. Well my "Prof" thought Lucas was disrespecting her so he made him do all these jumping jacks in front of the class. I thought it was funny over the cultural misreading and I..well laughed at him...well then Prof called me out after doing that! Problem is, when a teacher is trying to regain authority over some lesson teaching speech, but the student can't understand a word they're saying...problems happen.
Apparently he thought I was being disrespectful to Lucas when we were just joking around like we always do. However, i was sure at all what he was trying to say to me so he calls me to the front of my class (which by the wasy THEY all understand what he's saying to me..I had no idea) So he told me (as I was too late to find out) that he was telling ME to do jumping jacks as a consequence, and then to apologize to Lucas..but in a demanding way of "APOLOGIZE! IN ENGLISH!!" but I didn't understand. Then Lucas whispered to me in efforts of helping me cut this embarrassing lecture as short as possible, something along the lines of, "apparently you offended me.. he wants you to say sorry" I was so confused. I ended up just repeating, "no, no" (as in No entiendo!-I don't understand you!) in hopes it would remind him that gringa no habla español.
Needless to say, it didn't.
He thought I was just defying him, so he calls me up again and starts yelling, "I'm the teacher, you are the student. You are to show me respect." Unfortunaelty that was all I could pick out from his little esteem-boosting shpeel.
I wonder how proud of himself he felt after giving me such a "meaningful" speech even though he know I had no frikken idea what he was saying.

Anyways, I think my Spanish is improving.
During my CTA class today (it's like science..) I was able to pretty much understand everything I was reading in the textbook..of course..it was all about sex, vasectomies, and contraception...
(yeah, My first speech ever in my new school and I'm to describe what a vasectomy is..)
And does anyone else find it wierd that the only things I was able to understand most that was in Spanish was all about Sex Ed.?? And that I can tell you the word for a castrated male in Spanish (castrado) but I can't remember how to fully conjugate the Spanish verb of "to say" into the present tense yet?
The girls in my reading group certainly got a kick out of it.

oh yeah..I love Discotecas. Insane night..maybe not blog-worthy ;D

Mi Colegio de Lima

Ok, so I feel like I should update once more on wha's been happening this week. It's been a little while. For one, this week I started school at Colegio Santa Rosa de Lima. We start at around 8am and then on some days we end at 2:30pm and others it's 3:10pm.
The school requires the students to wear (on mon.,wed., fri) that includes a blue and black skirt, dark blue knee socks, black dress shoes, white dress tee with the school symbol, with a blue sweater vest over and then a cotton blazer over that. On Tues. and Thursdays we wear our phys. ed. uniform that resembles a dark blue track suit with yellow stripes going down the sides with a yellow school symbol on the top with either a white or yellow school polo underneath (I managed to wear my yellow Inca Cola tee shirt under mine today!)
This is such an interesting experience going to school here! For the first time in my life I'm the exchange student! This is something 've always wanted to know what it's like. And I'll tell you, it's difficult! Wow you can't really imagine it until it happens to you. It's such a learning experience! First of all, my English still sucks so it's pretty funny to watch myself try to explain things or just stared balnk faced at the rapidly lecturing teachers. The teachers are all very helpful so far and my classmates are really nice.
This all makes me confident of just how much easier learning Spanish and becoming fluent is going to be when I'm emersed into the school and acidemic setting like this.
I had a pretty rough day yesterday. I felt just more out of place than usual yesterday. I felt frustrated with my classes for not understanding, and for my teachers for pretty much patronizing me all day. Then no one was talking to me because they all wanted to talk with Lucas. Haha, I can hardly blame them tho! His spanish is very good and he's always fun to talk to no matter what language it is. But it just wasn't my day to feel optomistic. And it was a moment where I just felt really alone and realized I really cannot communicate with my peers right now and it makes me feel really restricted. But Lucas and his host mom did a really good job at cheering me up by taking me all over Lima, like to the Plaza Mayor (where the president lives) and to see massive and exquisite cathedrals and it was incredible! .
Muchas Gracias a Lucas y Rosa!!
However, it got a lot better today. I was able to find it easier to talk to people and my classes went a lot smoother.
I've also managed to add a few new interesting items to my cultural menu...this includes Chicken Blood Sandwiches and slow cooked-cow tongue.
The Chicken's blood I knew I was trying; I didn't want to, but I was up for the cultural experience (grosssss) and the cow tongue wasn't revealed until after I ate it...I wondered why my beef had little bumps on the "skin." Gross to think about, and somehow I knew I was eating some other unusual animal past but denied it until it was too late haha, but it's all worth it for stories =P

Maldito idioma barreras

Langauge barriers suck.

Like a lot.
My host sister is the only one in my family who can speak English.
But she gets in trouble for speaking it with me, but honestly what good does it do if everyone speaks Spanish to me and I for the most part, don't understand a word?
The other intercambistas won't really talk to me because they think I don't care about being here because I can't speak Spanish, or I didn't take classes like THEY all did.
They don't know how hard I worked in French. But they don't see that, they just see someone who can't speak it.
I got asked yesterday how long I studied Spanish in school, and I said, i thought I'd be going to Europe first, so I studied French, and then she said, "are you serious? why did you even come to Peru? That's kinda stupid."
It's not like I came here expecting them to speak French and English to me! I just didn't get the chance to study for three or four years like they all did.I know how dumb I look with the blank expression on my face everytime they try to speak to me.
I'm trying, and it's my first week, I'm assured I'll learn more, but this adjustment period is difficult.


I have to give a presentation tonight..in Spanish.

FAIL. (but let's still see how that goes)

I sing and play piano for my host club on Thursday night, at least singing is one thing I can do right, here. =)

Ahora, sus casa es mi casa! Mucho digression

Ok! So it's about 8:38am (to all of you back home it's around 6:38a)

I'm just beginning my fifth day in Lima, Peru and things are going pretty well.
My host family has been very nice and good to me. The only one in mi familia who speak english is my host sister, Carla. Everyone else speaks spanish to me...wooooww I really suck at Spanish right now lol But I've learned so much just in my first 5 days! And they're all so patient with me while I perfect the art of smiling and nodding or find that it's near impossible for me to roll my "rr's". Jonathan was trying to help me roll the "rr" so we made up a sentence:

"Espero mi perro este en mi carro caro"

which just translates into, I hope my dog is in my expensive car, but it has me sound out the "rr" in contrast to just one "r" to a similar looking word...

we all still laugh at my pitiful attempts.
He also tried to teach me some guitar. I really like it but my fingers are so short! the "SO" note is painful!


I'm really enjoying their pets here too haha they have a cat, Garfiel, which generally I'm not a cat-fan but this one is pretty cool, and then there's Loba, their wolf huskie. She's adorable! She's such an attention whore but she's one of the sweetest dogs apart from my own basset hound.
I pretty much get to go to a different place every night whether it's to go shopping or out to dinner (which meals are different here, the custom is a good breakfast, then at about 2-4p you make a really big lunch which is like the American dinner, and then at about 9 or 10p you have a light "dinner" which usually consists of what our lunches in the U.S. look like)

The food here is really different! Y me gusta. I've tried new breads, frutas and vegetables. Muy muy bien! They have really small banana things here that are really good! They taste better than the bananas at home. I eat a lot of them. I also tried this one purple drink that i wasn't too crazy about called Chica Morada, which is made from a Peruvian purple corn grown here up in the mountains; apparently it's very popular. Another very popular drink here in Peru is called Inca Kola. It's kinda the equivalent of the popularity of Root Beer or Coke (except Peru has Coca Cola) in the US. It's this yellow soda and, to me, it tastes between a mix of bubble gum and cream soda; sounds weird, but it is pretty good. I drink a lot of that considering I really can't drink a lot of the water here, so mi padres bought me a huge water bottle the day I arrived.

(and that's the 7th car alarm i've hear outside my window since I woke up at 7am this morning--city life is very busy here, I've memorized the patterns of the car alarms=P)
Yesterday, con mi hermana Carla, we took a taxi downtown
(yeah a taxi, they're pretty intense, the driving here is crazy! Pedestrians do not get the right of way and I haven't really seen a stop sign yet and you pretty much just kinda push your way thru via vehicle)

anyways, Carla took me to this one park in Surco called El Parque de la Amistad (Friendship Park) which was very beautiful!
http://www.peruinside.com/galeriah/parquedelaamistad/
It has this big arch which according to mi madre is a copie of one in Spain. It has water features, a circus, train, lights and a little flea market inside the park
(note to self: still need to find good wool hat for George..)

I've also seen street markets which remind me kind of of Pike Place Market but more crowded. I've never seen a de-feathered dead chicken hanging from a hook with its head and feet still attatched...or it's insides on display right next to it. Tulio, mi host padre, got a laugh out of my first reaction. They also bought me some slippers una mujer was making at one of the booths in the market, they're really comfi and are to keep my feet warm because they don't walk barefoot in their homes.

*********************************************************

Ok, took a break, it's like 4:45p now haha I went to visit my new school Colegio Santa Rosa de Lima con mi familia and I went to the museum with Carla, Lucas, and Roy.
Wow, I just got a snapshot of how difficult this is going to be =) Everyone was speaking Spanish...I think I'm the only one who can't right now that I know...(DUH) So it's really wierd not being able to join in conversations with people. I found myself a little frustrated that I really can't understand most of what's going on.
Why, oh why didn't I take Spanish in school???
Lucas does so well =) I'm really proud of how well he can communicate, but as for me wow, this is going to be hard. It kinda hit me that right now, I really don't have any friends in this country apart from the ones in my family, and it's going to be difficult to meet mroe people if I don't know the Language.
Well, Jetza y mi madre are setting me up for school, I met my Spanish teacher, and once school gets going, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get into the swing of things. Like mi madre y Jetza keeps telling me "poco poco!!" ;D

My Peruvian adventure-una dias mas!

Tomorrow morning-early morning, my flight to Houston then Lima begins!

(Departure and arrival time approx. 7:50am-10:35pm)

This will mark the beginning of my amazing life changing experience in Lima, Peru!
I am very excited. But the fact I'm leaving still hasn't hot me yet...probably won't until I either board the plane or land!.

Anyways...I gotta go make sure everything is ready for departure and packed properly!
The next time I blog, it'll actually be from South America. I'm not sure when though, I know it won't be too long =) I'm just not sure when lol

Thank you so much again, Rotary!

Adios y un abrazo, (goodbye and a hug)
Kati

Intercambista-to-be

July 18, 2008

On a more serious note, this requirement is a privilege I have been blessed with.
I have always wanted to be an exchange student.
It has been a life dream of mine, and here I am; creating my own Rotary Exchange student blog. It's almost surreal to me still that in a couple weeks time, I will be immerse myself within a new country/continent/culture of Peru as an American "Intercambista."
(Which I hear is Spanish for Exchange Student.)
This is a step I have wanted to take in my life for many years now.

Can you tell how many times I write "Exchange student?" I think I'm just subconsciously trying to get it through my own mind to fathom it. =P

I've been in contact with my host family for about a month now. My first host parents, Jorge and Marianela, seem very nice. They've never had a daughter before and they seem very excited that I love music as much as they do^^

I will have two brothers. One is 8, Gabriel. I haven't heard much about him yet.
The second is 18, Jonathan. I have been in contact with him more than anyone. I'm excited to see we have so much in common and get along well! He leaves August 12/14 for his exchange in Salmon Arm, BC Canada. So we will know eachother for about 2-3 weeks before he leaves.

I AM SO EXCITED TO MEET THEM!!

Okay, I'd like to point out, I speak French..yes, I have studied French for the last four years of my life...
I'd also like to point out Peruvians speak Spanish.

Let's show off my math skills here:

4(years French) 2(months Spanish)

This equation can only give you the product of, "No, Kati doesn't speak Spanish; she has never studied Spanish; and she has been frantically trying to cram sloppy basics into her mind to avoid an awkward silence amongst the people she will be living with the next 11 months of her life!"

Wish me luck on this one. Although, I've been commented on some sort of talent in comprehending foreign languages by a large selected few.

Thank you for your confidence and support.


Kati

So this is kinda like that big hill on a Rollar Coaster before the first plunge..

July 18, 2009

Alright, so I'll admit, internet blogging/journal keeping/or just plain writing updates about my life for people to view across the web isn't really my thing.
However, Lucas (my amazing, Peru buddy) has inspired me to keep one.
(Also, I hear it's requirement by my sponsoring club to keep one so they can keep their eyes on me.) ;D

I'd really like to Thank God, Wenatchee Rotary/Rotarians, The DeRocks, and My friends and Family for their support in getting me here.
I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers as well (Lucas, I took that from you, Dear)

So here is my Blog, bringing Peru To You!