Back to Lima

Well, today I flew back to Lima...so much fun. I am praying that I will get all my paperwork done before I leave again on Tuesday. But at least for now I am having a pretty good time. David and his cousin, Ed, got into Lima about an hour after I did. So I waited for them at the airport and we came to the guest house. After dropping our stuff off and talking for a bit we headed out for dinner. It was good food and fun company. It is nice to be around someone I already know...there is just a huge difference between hanging out with someone you already know and hanging out with someone you are just starting to know. Plus they aren't making me speak Spanish which is a nice break. =)

So I am not entirely sure I will be able to get everything done tomorrow like I had hoped. It sounds like the guy that is supposed to be helping me finish this all up seemed to think that he was meeting me on Tuesday instead of Monday morning. But Chris and I are going to go anyway and hopefully be able to get things done. But if not, at least I have Tuesday morning still to do things. I am very thankful John suggested that I stay Monday night just in case. So I guess we will see how things work out tomorrow and pray they actually get done. I would just love to have all my carnet paperwork done, that way when I come back to Lima at the end of July my carnet can be done and waiting for me. We will just have to wait and see.

Huge step!

So today was my second day of classes and my second day taking the combi. Christy went with me again this morning on the combi, which was nice because it helped me feel a little more confident about where I was going. By the time I was done with classes I felt comfortable enough to take the combi by myself...but I didn't have to. However, I now know that I feel comfortable enough to take the combi by myself to and from school. Now taking it other places...not yet. But little by little I will get there. Second day of school and plenty of homework to do already. But I might take a nap first...we will see. Thinking in spanish all day really wears me out! I am very thankful for the time when I get to speak english...it is nice. I don't have to think about what people are saying to me and how I need to respond. One of these days I hope to be close to that level in my spanish. Until then...I will take naps!

New friend and spanish...

Well, today was my first full day of language school. I think it went pretty well. Some of it was hard and some of it was easy. I think I will definitely learn a lot during my time here. I have made a new friend already...her name is Christy. She is my classmate for grammar. She was the lucky one to show me the route on the combi and we have already started studying together. It is nice to have someone already to hang out with and get to know the city with. Having Christy to hang out with should be a big help for me. For the most part, the areas where I know I really struggle, she seems to be better in. And the areas I am a little better in, I can help her out. Besides the Kooistras, there is one other person here that I have met already. It is nice to at least see a face that I recognize. Plus Marshall will be coming soon and that will be another person I know already. God is definitely working here and helping me to feel a little more comfortable. Now if it would only not be so cold here... oh well, I guess I can't have everything.

As far as my carnet stuff, I will be heading back to Lima this Sunday and staying there until Tuesday afternoon. I should get everything else done during that time and have my carnet ready to be picked up when I am done here in Arequipa. Sadly, this means I have to miss two days of classes, but there isn't much I can do about that. Well, time to finish my homework and then hop in bed to stay warm!

Paperwork in Peru

So today has reconfirmed the fact that I hate doing paperwork in general, but I especially hate it in Peru. Today Chris and I went to take care of my paperwork to get my carnet (Peruvian ID). I was told to be at the CONEP office at 8am to meet the guy who was going to help us with everything. I was also told that I should be able to get everything done in one day. So of course I already bought my ticket to go to Arequipa and left myself only one day to do all this paperwork.

Chris and I arrive at the office a little after 8 and the guy we are supposed to be meeting isn't there. So we call him and he says to meet him there at 10am. Of course that means we have about a two hour wait and we are about 20-25 minutes away from the guest house. So we decided to just hang out around the area and maybe try to find some place to have coffee while we wait. Well, we didn't find a coffee place so we ended up just sitting in a park and talking...in the chilly gray morning.Finally we go back to CONEP and the guy is there. I sign some papers, pay some money and then we take off. He took us to a bank to pay something else and then we had to head to the Interpol office for me to be finger printed and have a dental record taken. After we were done at Interpol the guy with us said we were done and that I would need to come back in week to finish up. I couldn't believe it! I had not planned on having to come back and do more stuff...I was planning on it all being done today. So now I have to figure out when I can come back and finish up everything that I need to do. I have to try and work it out to when there is someone around who can go with me to help translate...so that is my job this afternoon...find a day to come back and find someone to go with me. I am praying that everything will work out smoothly and that it won't take too many days away from language study. I will keep y'all posted on what is happening.

Funny friends

So today I traveled to Lima with Chris. It was hard to say good-bye to Kelly when I left Pucallpa...I am really going to miss having her as my roomie. So we got to Lima without any problems and we got a taxi to take us to the guest house. Chris and I were sitting in the taxi on the way out of the airport and he noticed that it was a really nice taxi...it even had power windows. So what does Chris do? He sat there and played with the power window button making the window go up and down just because he hadn't seen power windows in such a long time.

Chris, Emily and I then went out to TGI Fridays for supper. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good. We had a blast in general but there were a few really funny parts. One of them was after we were done eating. I went to use the restroom and when I came back I just had to tell them how nice I thought the sinks in the bathroom were. Well, when I said that Chris was very interested and thought it was cool that I thought the sinks were nice. Emily on the other hand just starts busting up laughing. Now of course I started laughing just because I realized that I was impressed with the sinks in a bathroom...you know I have been in Pucallpa too long if I am impressed with bathroom sinks. But then Emily stops and clarified what I actually said and when I tell her, she laughs even more. Apparently both of them thought I said the bathroom has really nice seats instead of sinks! Of course that does make it even funnier because why would I comment about the seats in a bathroom?!? Oh man...I love my friends and I am really going to miss them when they leave. Here are a few pictures from our night in Lima.