Kiki's Crossing

8.25.2015 Tuesday Week one: check. Cheers to many more to come.  Surprisingly, I survived the first week with few crazy stories and embarrassing moments. Though I'm sure that will all change with time.  Honestly, my life is a bit mundane and low key so I can't promise that I'll be updating my blog too often. Unlike my non-stop life in Chile, here I don't have as many activities and trips planned which means day-to-day I don't have much to write about. Not yet anyways. That's alright. Some down time is much appreciated.  During my first week, school days have been pretty consistent. I wake up in the morning, eat breakfast at Daniel's, teach from 8;45 to 1:45, and then return to Daniel's for lunch. In the afternoons Kelsey and I lounge around the apartment, swim, workout to online exercise videos with Jillian Michaels, and/or, like today, walk around Callao, our neighborhood.  I've been thinking about attempting to do some self-studyin...

8.20.2015 Thursday I like it here. Yeah, it's far from what I expected but that's okay. Sure, maybe I have too much free time and the streets smell like a dirty pet store and it's not safe to go outside by myself and my stomach has started to feel a little funky and I don't have a mirror so I have to use my laptop or cellphone screen to do my makeup and when I shower I have to sacrifice water pressure for semi-warm water and everyday I feel like a fool as I struggle my way through conversations in Spanish and try to teach classes in English...  I still like it here. If I've learned anything in this first week, and I promise you, I've learned a lot, sometimes we have to do the things which scare us the most. More than anything, we have to face our fears with an open mind and positive attitude.  I wish I could better describe the feelings I had when making my decision to come here. It was as if I was numb and blind... I didn't think much about it. I ...

8.16.2015 Sunday Well that was an emotional 36 hours.  Hey everybody! We made it to Peru! And cheese and crackers, did we have a major freak out last night.  But before we review yesterday, let's rewind a bit.  About 8 months ago, one of my best friends, Kelsey, and I were asked by our college Spanish professor if we wanted to take a year off of school to live in Lima, Peru for nine months. The adventure included the promise of free housing and food as well as the opportunity to teach English at a Lutheran school. Sounds like a great gig, right? Couldn't agree with you more.  Looking back, my decision to go live in Peru for the same length of time it takes to create a small human was not something I really thought about. It was one of those moments where I didn't really sort through the pros and cons and dwell on the what-ifs. Thinking back on it, it just kinda happened and next thing I knew I was filling out paperwork to temporarily withdraw from MLC. Pe...