Smile

Things that make me smile in Lima:

When Paula makes apple pie, cheesy quinoa, seco, or her famous choclo con pollo dish :)

When Alejo cracks a joke at me and starts laughing hysterically, although i have no idea what he just said :)

Waking up to a mixture of Footloose blasting from the school down the street and Alejo´s birds singing in the room across mine :)

Kika´s contagious joy, free spirit, full heart, and bottomless knowledge of Peru :)

Never knowing what´s for lunch. I love surprises :)

Walking down a dark shady street by myself at 1 in the morning and realizing that I feel safe :)

Getting my favorite seat on the micro :)

Realizing that I’m no longer a tourist here, I live here, I know this place :)

When Alejo pulls out the 5 pound box of manjar blanca after lunch because he knows how much I love sweets :)

Finding moments when I’m actually having a legit conversation with someone in Spanish, and loving it because it means so much to be able to just talk to people :)

My awesome gringo accent :)

Meeting someone new everyday :)

When I can go more than a month without stomach issues :)

Getting emails and messages from friends back home :)

When random micro tickets fall out of my wallet, passport, pants, books, bible, etc :)

Sundays. Which always mean that aleja and abuela gringa come over with abuela´s amazing food and we have a cozy family luncheon :)

Taking long walks along the malecon :)

Abby, Audrey, Catalina y Laura :)

Talking to Paula about random life things and getting to know her while she cooks lunch :)

My friends from CBU :)

Giving micro directions to a Peruvian :)

Getting kisses everyday :)

Chancho, our dog, and his lion/teddy bear/poofy creature-self :)

When Mateo breaks out his bag pipe and starts jamming out :)

Watching telanovelas with Alejo :)

Realizing that I´m going to see my family and friends whom I love and have missed so much in less than a week :)

Random realizations that I’m in Lima, I’m blessed, God is ridiculously merciful, and this life is surreal :)

To be continued :)

homesick

This morning, as I was wandering around Miraflores looking for a place to study and grab a warm drink, I decided to wander into Starbucks. I had yet to go into a Starbucks in Lima before today, but that white mocha was calling my name. After ordering that, I found a place to sit down and read. About an hour in a became ridiculously overwhelmed with homesickness. I have been feeling homesick for the past week and a half but this morning just intensified everything. It was hard. And it still is hard.

The starbucks was filled with gringos. Makes sense. Gringos speaking english. And the place was playing typical starbucks music. you know what music I'm talking about, right? Starbucks music. Those soft and calming yet funky tunes. All in english. It felt just like I was at the starbucks at UT. It was all way too familiar. (Except for that fact that my white mocha was waaayyyy too sweet, tsk tsk)

I miss home. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my dogs. I miss my car. I miss the overbearing hot Texas sun. I miss having an extreme sense of belonging somewhere. I miss having a conversation with someone without fear of not being able to communicate well. I miss english. I miss you.
The strange thing is that there are only ten days between me and home, but for some reason it feels like forever. I have so much to do between now and then...final project, final exam, blogs to write for class...but I have no motivation to do it. I keep getting flashbacks of moments from home.

So yeah, I'm officially homesick. Took awhile to get here, but it's finally here.

It's not that I'm sick of Lima, cause I know I'll fall in love with Lima again, and my life here, and all that I'm learning and becoming. But right now all i want is home.

Dang you, Starbucks.