Kiki's Crossing

11.28.2015 Saturday Feliz dia de la accion de gracias!  Even if it was already two days ago, I still have so much to be thankful for, especially in this last year.  Last year, on the eve of my 20th birthday, I made a Birthday Bucket List. It was the first one I'd ever made, but this year I continued the tradition. As I wrote my new BBL, I looked back at the old one for the first time in many months. Without my knowledge, I (at least halfway) fulfilled a majority of my wishes: eat healthy exercise read God's Word step out of my comfort zone make a difference in someone's life be the type of person I admire meet new people travel take lots of photos (that aren't selfies) put others first study hard journal Granted, some of them I didn't complete in ways I imagined or in the time frame I wanted to, but that's the funny thing about life - it runs on it's own schedule.  Heck, nearly all of my goals are things I still strive to achieve...

11.21.2015 Saturday I suppose it was really quite inevitable. It's not as if it was some grand secret, kept locked away in large locked metal file cabinets whose single key is buried in the middle of the secluded forest. Birthdays are much more exciting as a child.  In truth, I already knew this. For the past several years it seems that my birthday is a nice day, maybe even special in a certain sense, yet, I am always left feeling like something is missing. The wispy magic that once surrounded my birthday has faded as maturity and reality has set in. I expect that this, in part, is because I have celebrated my last three birthdays away from my family. Nonetheless, even in my teens, as the sun set marking the end of various birthdays, I was still left longing for something more.  I would never be delusional enough to utter that I've had a bad birthday; how far from the truth! Friends and family always find methods of making the day fun filled and of reminding me of how ...

11.7.2015 Saturday How the first week of November, my twelfth week in Peru, has already flown by, I honestly do not know. In many ways, I am completely comfortable here. It really is home. I have established routines, I've adjusted to cultural changes, and I have expectations and understandings of what each day will be like. Yet, it still is a new life to me and perhaps that is why time refuses to slow down. When I ponder my time in Callao, it feels like so much has happened and that I've lived here for more than three short months. Still, at the end of each week I am left thinking, "Another week is gone already?" Such is the life of having two homes on two different continents: constantly craving your old home while knowing that your present home will someday change into your old home. This past week was full of many blessings, as always. Last Friday, the night before Halloween, Kelsey and I went with our Peruvian "siblings" (Berli, Wesley, and Danielito...

10.22.2015 Thursday Hello friends! All is well in South America! Though I still feel as if I’m dreaming, my Peruvian life is starting to feel more and more real every day… But I still often need to remind myself that I’m living in a foreign country – takes my breath away every time! It’s been over a month since I last wrote and I feel the need to explain. So, why haven’t I written? To be completely honest, I’ve been somewhat avoiding it for various reasons. On the one hand, I have been busy… in the mornings at least! Every day I teach three to five English classes. For all but two of my classes, I walk into the room when the bell rings, am handed a book and markers, and told to start teaching. Constantly I’m kept on my toes because I can never properly prepare lesson plans. Instead, plans I’ve never seen before are thrown at me and I must present grammar and vocabulary on a whim in a way that the students will remember.  Needless to say, this proves frustra...

9.11.2015 Friday I love Peruvian food.  I feel obliged to mention this as I don't think I really have written about the amazing-ness that is breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but the cuisine definitely has it's moments. Beautiful, shining, mouth-watering moments.  I have tried so many new foods and culinary creations. Day-to-day meals are usually pretty consistent - chicken, rice, potatoes - but each meal is embellished with different seasonings and sauces and it's so fresh that it's just incredibly tasty. The fruits and vegetables are the freshest and juiciest you could ever eat. The juices and smoothies are made fresh every day. The meat is bought at the market moments before it's prepared.* The combination of spices is tantalizing. And, the desserts, naturally, never disappoint. I could list everything I've had the pleasure of tasting, but half of them have super bizarre names that you've never heard of, nor can p...