Mi hogar

OH MY GOODNESS. HOLY MANZANAS! I cannot even express how I feel right now. My home stay is heaven on earth. AHHH! ok. Voy a explicar.

The house is a beautiful white washed,3 story, slim home right next to the beach with large fantastic wondows. The front of the home looks out onto the beach, with a beautiful circle of palm trees, beautiful green grass and really big red and orange flowers between the home and the shore. The horizon is not only the beach but also big hills and cliffs (barranco, where i live, means cliffs) and there are cute little white boats out on the water. It's breathtaking. It's like a view out of a movie. Ridiculous. So when I walked in for the first time i couldn't belive my eyes. There is beautiful artwork covering the walls, all painted by Alejo, the father, who is a painter and professor at the PUCP. The artwork is on giant canvases and they are really colorful and amazing. The house is decked out with artwork EVERYWHERE. Canvases, sculptures, pottery, plants, doodads...It's beautiful! So then i walk in past the living room into the dining area and it is a sky roof! Ok I don't really know how to explain it but it's an area of the house without a roof. So the sun shines in and when you look up you see the big pretty windows from the upper rooms and plants along the inner walls. Birds fly in from time to time and eat from the plants. Amazing. Ok so noe for the upstairs. So the second level is a little area with an office and table that overlooks the lower living room and there is a library that wraps around the back. SO MANY BOOKS. When i went up their gabriel, the older son who is a professor at the university as well, was working on a children's book that he was illustrating...it was so awesome and creative and beautiful! The next level is the room of kika and alejo, gabriel, and mateo. And actually between those two stories kika has a studio where she teaches history of art...so i guess that counts as another story. The next story is Alejos art studio. Oh my gosh. It was everything i thought that an art studio would look like. I swear I feel like I'm in a movie. This is so surreal. Anyways, his studio is filled with canvases and paint and it smells like art. haha. There are HUGE windows where the sun shines in and it faces the front of the house so it overlooks the beach. There is this little secretive door to the side of the studio and that is where my room is! I have a secretive space! My room is so cute! there are two huge windows that face the center sky roof thing so when I look down and out of them i see the other windows dining room and the windows of the other rooms that also face the sky roof thingy. Ugh what is it called? Anyway. It has two huge windows, i have my own little bathroom and it is super cozy and i feel like a secretive princess in the top of a tower of a beautiful artistic castle. OH and alejo raises pajaros, parrots, and he has his own outside room of them. there are hundreds! And they make little bird noises all day so it sounds so amazing along with the sky roof, and the sun shining in, and all the artwork. Where am i?! Ok so i'm almost done. Then, above the art studio, the roof is a terrace full of plants. It's a neat place to go and just be, or read, or journal, or think. And of course it overlooks the beach :D

the family is amazing. Kika, my host mom, is so freaking nice and welcoming. She is always smiling and talking to me and asking me questions. She took me on a tour around barranco, and the town is amazing. I could just walk out my door and take a stroll down the street to some really awesome parks, or down the beach. The rest of the family seem fun and i'm excited to get to know them. AND get this. They love Jesus!! yay! Kika told me about her love for christ and it was so awesome. I'm excited to hear more about that :D I think I'm in heaven...yeah?

Despite all the awesomeness, it is still awkward. The whole greeting thing is hard. the greet with a kiss on the cheek and a semi hug. It's hard because half the time a find myself slamming my cheek against theirs, or not really knowing if i'm supposed to kiss them or not, or putting my cheek in a super awkward part of their face. Oh gosh. Embrace the awkwardness. it's also hard because I don't always know what they are saying or what to say myself.

Ok so basically I can't believe how the Lord has blessed this trip. I'm in Lima, Peru, living my dream, in a home where I feel like a princess in a magical land.

Here are some pics. It's just a sneak peek for now because I haven't gotten to take a picture of the rest of the house and the sun house gone down and darkness just wouldn't do them justice. So ill post some more tomorrow :D