Yesterday we went to US air express, instead of us air, but they checked us in and we went through security with without waiting in line. It was awesome. We landed in Miami and took a taxi to little havana, calle ocho. In the airport, I heard a guy speaking creole on the phone and I was so proud of being able to recognize some words because I am a dork. Then we were talking to our taxi driver about the different communities in Miami and he said the haitian community is the second largest after the cuban community and that he is haitian. I studied creole for like a week, so I told him ´´Mweh vle aprann kreole.´´ I want to learn creole, and he was entertained by that. He took us to the restaurant I had read about, EL Pub, en calle ocho. IT has a big rooster out front, really big, but we forgot to take a picture. We got awesome rice and beans and plantains and cuban coffee. IT is rainy one minute then sunny the next, so we bought an 8 dollar umbrella for the downpour and walked along this street, where evereything is in spanish and everything is speaking spanish. It´s stereotypical cuban guys smoking cigars everywhere and we pass this assocation of dominoe players, and one guy invites us in in Spanish, while also pointing to an english sign that said trespassers could be arrested. It was kind of a mixed message so we kept moving along. We were looking for shoes for my dad. We kept walking and came out of little havana into rich and fancy miami and it started raining harder and harder but it was warm so it was okay. The wind was blowing so hard it blew our umbrella inside out but my dad kept trying to fix it. It was hilarious. Then we got to this shoe store, super fancy three story glass building and we walk in, dripping wet with our mangled, mangled umbrella that my dad refuses to give up. We find him some cool black sneakers, the coolest shoes he´s ever worn. THe clerk helping us is cuban and only lived in miami two years and was really helpful. More helpful then if she was from here, i think.
We get to guatemala while it is still daylight, and I don´t want to look like such a tourist as to ask our language school to send us a taxi, so we go out to get our own taxi. ok, the bell rang to go start classes! more later

I think I miss Peru. I listened to this latin guy read spanish poetry last night and i am pretty sure he is my soulmate but we will never see each other again. Then tonight I went to a bilingual church in Bridgeton. And I talked to a couple who were in Lima when I was. I miss it!

ps. i didn't mean to invite you guys specifically to read bad poetry. i just made the blog private so i had to invite you in case you ever felt like reading . . . thank you for indulging me.

So I am living at home right now, and I'm actually having so much fun. When I'm home for more than a few weeks, it means I don't have a job. I also have zero friends here. And usually I am going crazy. But this time is so nice. Partially, because I have a plan. I'm applying for volunteer positions with Mennonite Central Committee. One is teaching english in Iraq over the summer. One is a sort of public health liaison type person in Nicaragua. But I have like 6 months before any of those begin, so I applied for the census job, and I am applying to be a substitute teacher here in NJ.
I've also been visiting friends in different places and going back and forth to philly. It's been so cool seeing everyone.
But even just being at my house is so nice. For one thing, I think I'm still not accustomed to the luxuries of heated houses and hot showers. My life in Peru was somewhat uncomfortable. Not because it was in a third-world country, but because I was broke. And living essentially alone in a tiny apartment. So it's luxurious having a fridge full of food, having food cooked for me, sitting in a heated living room with big fat couches. My little brothers have turned from little tiny kids into friends, and my parents are friends, too.
Last night we watched "The Invention of Lying." It was really interesting. Ricky Gervais co-wrote it and produced it and starred in it. I want to say more about this movie later.
This weekend has been so fun. My mom made these awesome soups and we watched movies and went outside in the snow. I feel happier, it's really weird.

“I’m gonna’ miss you like a child misses their blanket” Fergie says.
That’s about right,
how I loved you.

sans reason, logic, judgment
some natural affinity in the beginning of course, and affinity
even still
some esteem interest desire of course
I’m not an animal

but maybe careless, maybe a child, blanket in hand
an instinctive turning toward warmth

once comforted,

dropped forgotten

like a blanket or like
nicotine scotch cocaine

addicted no longer to pleasure, fulfillment
but to adequacy,
maintenance
want you even when I
have you

but you turn out in the end, disappointingly,
to be . . .

a person

requiring something of me and so
I am forced to
decline your
offer of sustenance
but just
barely and
sometimes I am still a child, a junkie, and in my dreams I find satisfaction
but it’s never you.

also, talking about facebook, i loved 30 rock's gentle mocking last week. "on u-face, her relationship status, from "working on it" to "weirdsies."
ha ha. so good.

It poured rain in Philly and NJ today and it was surreal. Aside from a brief thunderstorm in Ayacucho, I haven't seen real rain since February. I took the bus from philly to nj after crashing with greg, diana, melissa and jorik for several days and crashing several parties. Not in a wild way, in more of a sit around and eat crackers and kick the dog when he comes over and force people to come over to me and talk. and they did. and it was nice.
It's kind of funny seeing acquaintances after a long absence. I have a huge circle of acquaintances from circle of hope. ha ha. circle of acquaintances. that was sort of my experience with circle anyway. ok, now i am getting too personal i think. i never know when i'm being too personal. i'll talk about almost anything with almost anyone. i make fun of people for putting very personal things on their facebook updates when they know that they count casual acquaintances among their facebook "friends." I suppose this isn't much different. Except it is slightly more difficult to get to than simply signing into facebook and being bombarded by status updates like "getting ready to cuddle and watch a movie and lick chocolate syrup off my boyfriend's face" and "i cried myself to sleep last night because my girlfriend dumped me" from people whom I've never been more than acquaintances with. Anyway. Running into casual acquaintances from circle with other circle people after 10 months or so is funny because i remember every face so I'm always like "hey how are you?" and kind of smile at them. And so after that no one wants to ask me who the heck I am, so they just kind of smile back and we chitchat but it's impossible for them to ask my name or where they know me from. I take no pleasure from this. I just observe it. I don't forget faces. I don't know how people can forget FACES. And I may be going way out on a limb here but are you aware of maybe not wanting to be the person who remembers someone if they forget you? Either their name or their face, or anything. It's like if you remember someone but they don't remember you than it's like they are more important or interesting than you? I don't really feel like that, and it doesn't describe the encounters I'm thinking of. (I've heard that I am now able to end my sentences with prepositions but I still feel guilty.) But I am vaguely aware of that sentiment in the back of my mind when someone doesn't recognize me. But I'm not complaining. It actually doesn't bother me. I don't even know why I'm writing about. I just enjoy overanalyzing things.

well, i'm back. and it is weird. My family was so cute to me and made me food and took good care of me and bought me slippers and pajamas for the wretched winter weather. I went grocery shopping with my mom and it was bizarre to hear people speaking so loudly in english. there are tons of latino people in my town and i just wanted to try to speak spanish with them. i am pretty tired but i did sleep on the plane. after a bus ride of 18 hours from arequipa to lima, no heat or airconditioning and i'm pretty sure no bathrooms, 7 1/2 hours on a plane with food and drinks and movies and fresh air circulating and people there to help me was lovely. we took off two hours late because of snow in newark the previous night and then customs and immigration and luggage pickup took forever. but none of my bags got searched for customs, either to or from peru, so that was awesome.
Jorge and I had such a nice last few days together. We ate enchiladas and ceviche and laid around and watched movies and went shopping and then he packed my suitcase for me and we took a cab to the airport and took pictures together and he bought me chocolate. so romantic. and the night before that i got to say goodbye to most of friends over over icecream.

last weekend we hiked down into colca canyon, some say the deepest canyon in the world. the mountains were amazing.

this is what we hiked down into. it took us four hours to hike down and five to hike back up. but at the bottom they had this lush valley with gorgeous pools and thatched-roof huts to sleep in.


here we are the next morning. we are exhausted after two hours, but still have 3 hours left to climb up to make an 11:00 bus. only to discover that the bus company has sold our tickets to another bus company whose bus didn't leave for three more hours. jorge missed his bus back to lima so we got another day together in arequipa :)




























I spent two weeks in arequipa teaching english and playing with these kids after school. they were really great.

















this is the apartment and the room where I lived for the last eight months.
and this is my room.