i can't sleep

Here's a quick update on my life (after Peru). I guess I just usually tell about the super exciting or fun things, like traveling. And I don't think about the day to day normal life stuff.

So...

1. Music is my boyfriend, music is my girlfriend. That's right, I got an ipod touch. It's so cool...maybe, I dunno...it looks cool in the box. Will someone come teach me how to use it?? It was a birthday present. Yep, free ipod. Pretty much better than any other ipod.

2. My apartment is starting to look like an apartment instead of a storage unit. It's fun, I love living alone. I'll put some pictures on here soon, I just wanna get my place a little more put together first. But it's coming along!

3. How did I ever survive without DVR?...I guess the same way I survived without a cell phone and keyless entry and ziploc steamer bags and IKEA. But I'm glad I have all those things now. I really don't watch much TV, but the TV I do watch is always DVRed. Sometimes when I accidentally watch live TV I get frustrated and think my remote is broken when the commercials don't fast forward. Aww, what a blessing. :)

4. I love Chinese food. I might never get sick of it. Sampan has the best hot & sour soup in Utah. I can prove it.

5. My mom is so cute. She uses those wax number candles on our birthday cakes. The only problem is she only has a 1, 2, 4 and 9. And she also has a few of the regular little birthday candles. So, there's always some kind of equation on the cake at our birthday parties. This year I turned 28. So, there was a 2 and a 9 and then a normal candle lying down (to make a minus sign) and then the 1. 29-1=28. Good job mom! I think I might splurge though and buy her the missing candles. I don't wanna do math on my birthday!

6. I haggled at RCWilley today and I saved $30.00. I thought you could only haggle in Mexico and Peru. But I did it and it worked. Kristin did it last week at Payless Shoes and saved $4.00 so I guess it is possible in the US of A.

7. A couple days ago I decided to do something else from my book of '2,001 things to do before you die.' I picked, send postcards to a bunch of people for no reason. So I went and bought a few postcards of scenic Utah and sent them to friends and family (all in Utah). I got messages from all my family members tonight thanking me for the postcards...I could sense that they all thought it was a bit odd, but come on, its better than bills. I'm gonna try and send more random happy mail. Ooh, And, the mailman in the aves is cute. So on days I'm home I'll watch for him and run out and hand deliver my mail. Genius.

Yanapay

I went to a restaurant in Cusco, Peru that donates its profits to community projects. It was started by the man in the above photo, Yuri. It was a pretty awesome experience for me.

I heard about this place from a guy I met in Lima. I got to Cusco and was pretty "busy"...jungle trekking to Machu Micchu, etc. But a couple days before we left we decided to try and find this place. We sort of had an address but it ended up not being right. After wandering around Cusco for a while we finally went into an internet cafe and googled it. We got the address off the internet and left the cafe. The restaurant was right next door to the internet cafe. Oopsie.

We had lunch at this adorable little restaurant. It was decorated with little kid toys, the walls were painted with clouds, they had all kinds of games you could play, you could sit at a regular table or on cushions and pillows on the floor with little short tables. There was music playing and stuffed animals everywhere and everyone was so friendly. I read the story of the guy who started the whole thing and it was fascinating. I really wanted to meet him, but he wasn't there. While we were there I learned that he'd also started an after school program for underprivileged children. So the next day we found the school. There wasn't many people there yet because it was pretty early, but these two boys and this little girl (in the picture below) took me on a tour.

We went back to the restaurant that afternoon and I took Tom too, (my London friend). We ate SO much food, had drinks, and dessert..."for the kids." It was fun. And finally, Yuri walked in...we were pretty sure it was him from the pictures. I was so nervous to go talk to him for some reason. But I did it. It was amazing! This guy had so much energy, it was awesome. He was so humble and you could just feel by looking at him how much he cares about these kids. We sat and talked and he told me the whole story of his childhood and experiences he had as a young boy that made him decide to dedicate his life to helping others. I've never met anyone like him. It's hard to explain how sweet this experience was for me. When I've told people about it back in Utah, no one really gets it. As my brothers friend Paul said, "It sounds like you two had a moment." We really did. After I was done talking to him I went back and sat by Sara and Tom and said, "That guy did something to me!" Tom said, "What?" And I said, "I don't know!" ...anyway...the best part was when I went to say good-bye. He gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, then he just heald my hands and thanked me for talking to him. He said he felt inspired after talking to me. I have no idea what I said to him, but it made me feel good. I guess it was just part of our "moment." (He's the guy in the first picture with me.) Please read his story and learn about his foundation HERE.

We've been in contact since I've been home. He's incredible. If anyone ever goes to Cusco, Peru. PLEASE make time to visit Yanapay.

Happy New Year...but just to me.

I make my New years resolutions on my Birthday. It makes me feel less like someone is telling me what to do. I struggle with authority figures. Everyone does it on January 1st. Not me, I start new on February 20th.

I'm not a big fan of birthdays but I just wanna say that today I've had an overwhelmingly high amount of Happy Birthday wishes. I feel really loved right now. I've received so many texts, emails, phone calls, wall posts, comments, etc. from friends from all over the world. It really means a lot to me. Especially my new found traveling friends that I met in Peru who remembered me! I love and miss you guys and I'm so happy we met.

Also, thank you to all of my Utah friends and family for the gifts, flowers, lunch, dinner, cards, phone calls, texts, lunch and dinner rain checks, cute little fish named Stephen Fillup (from Kristin). Today was a happy day.

Here are a couple resolutions if you're wondering.
-Get regular oil changes for my car.
-Use those Ziploc steamer bags to cook vegi's (those things look so cool!)
-Enjoy the little things in life more.
-Don't text when I'm driving (that's gonna be hard to break)
-I'm gonna "Class it up." That means: I'm soon gonna go from MP3 Player to ipod. I'm gonna buy some cloths that make me look and feel 'professional' and I'm getting rid of a lot of clothes that don't. I'm also gonna embrace my new found love for shoes instead of feeling guilty.

Ok, that's all. Thanks again everyone. 28 probably won't be too bad. I don't feel older, and I probably won't act it.

Home from Peru

I have a good life. There is so much of the world that I haven't seen yet. But there is a lot that I have seen and I think I'm a lucky duck.

Sara (my cousin) took all of these pictures in Peru. We had so much fun traveling together. We were everyones 'Favorite Mormons'. This is the second trip we've gone on together. The first was a week in Hawaii last fall. Hopefully we'll get to travel more together in the future.

I love you Sar, I appreciate our talks in Peru and the things I'm doing now in my life cuz of you.

people

There are so many amazing people in the world from all over the world.

These are just a few of those people I met in my short 3 week trip to Peru.

I hate saying good-bye. I'm not good at it. It doesn't matter if its family, old friends, new friends, a "see ya later" or a "good-bye forever." I hate it. It's the worst part of everything.

I wanna meetchu in Machu Picchu!

Me and Tom at the top of Machu Picchu after a 4 day jungle trek.

The Group. We biked for one day, hiked for one day, walked on the railroad tracks for one day, and on day 4 we made it to Machu Picchu.

Gil, Me, Tomness, Sara, Hot Rod, Pattycake.

This trip was so much fun. This was such a rad group of people. We didn't know each other before we went on the trek but we became tight so fast and had some awesome times together, awesome. Maybe I'll tell more about the trip later, I just wanted to get some pictures up. It was absolutely beautiful.

it's already over...almost.

Me in the plane over the Nasca Lines.

Me trying not to throw up after flying over the Nasca Lines.

Me and Sara eating in Nasca.

Zohar and Asi in Lima. I love these 2 boys. We kinda followed each other for a couple weeks.

...I found a few random pictures on this computer that I was gonna blog a week or so ago but never got around to it. At first the days went by so slow, but now when I look at these pictures and I remember when I was going to blog, and I see how long its been since I blogged it makes it feel like the trip went by really fast.

I'm not gonna write much right now cuz there is a lot I wanna talk about, so I'll try and get my thoughts, and pictures in order and get all caught up next week when I get home.

This has been an amazing experience for me...met some amazing people...had some amazing talks...seen some amazing sights...been to some amazing places. Had alot of time to think about life, people, the world, the future, a little of the past. It was good. Sometimes hard, but really good.

Sing like no one is listening...or do it in another country where they won´t understand you.

I'm back in Lima and I'm leaving for Cusco tomorrow. We were suppose to go today but there was a mix up with our flight, so one more day in Lima. It´s ok, we´re going to a fiesta tonight then we fly out tomorrow afternoon. I´m also watching the Superbowl tonight. If the Seahawks aren´t playing I don´t really care who plays or wins. But it´ll still be fun to watch the Patriots win.

I bought a guitar yesterday, although I don´t play, but Sara my cousin does. So, along with all the sight seein and humanitarian doin, we´ll also be performing on the streets for money. We´re hoping to really blow these Peruvians away with our talent. We´re also hoping to find small towns that don´t have any other gringos in em. My underline motivation for this is from a book I bought a few months ago called ´2,001 things to do before you die.´ One of them is to ´Perform on the streets of a foriegn country for money.´ I want to learn to play the guitar when I get home, and also ballroom dancing. I watched ´Shall We Dance´en Español a couple days ago and I really wanna learn to dance. I don´t think that´s in the book, but I´ll add it. There are some things in the book I´ll never do. Like, eat a gold fish, or wake up next to Brad Pitt. But there are alot I have done and alot I want to do.

Speaking of movies, I went to Cloverfield, or Cloverton, or something like that last night with some boys we met at the hostal. Stupidest movie of all time. Don´t go.

P.S. To those of you who were excited about my Valentines Day/House Warming Party on the 14th. It´ll have to be posponed. The rules of the party were, no couples, and you had to bring me a house warming gift. Rescheduling details will come shortly...maybe it´ll be an Andrea´s Birthday/House Warming Party. Couples will be allowed, but it´ll require 2 gifts. ;) Fun!

Adios Amigos! I´m finding that I understand quite a bit of Spanish these days, and speak a few words too. It´s alot easier than Russian.

the 8th world wonder...or something.

I´m in Nazca right now. About 6 hours south of Lima. Nazca is famous for the Nazca Lines. The unexplainable patterns and lines and images in the desert. I went on a chartered flight today...one of those tiny old rickety planes in the movies that crash all the time and us real humans don´t believe they ever really get used anymore and they hold like 4 people who are just as dumb and scared as me. Yeah, one of those. We flew over the lines for about 40 minutes today. It was so bumpy and swervy and crazy, but so rad! You should read about it here or here. Cuz I´m on an annoying cumputer with sticky keys and I don´t really want to explain it, but it´s really facinating. If you don´t wanna read about it then just take my word for it, it was probably aliens...that´s the most logical explaination. teehee...but really, it just might be.

This is my favorite one. He´s just a cute little alien sayin hi. I can´t upload the pictures from my camera on this computer, but I´ll put some up someday. And for those of you emailing me asking what I´m doing...I don´t really know. I´m flying to Cuzco on Sunday to visit an oprhanage and to meet with a group there that does humanitarian work. But we´re just kinda making the plans a day at a time, so stay tuned.

I got really sunburned today at the pool at my hotel...sorry about all that snow in Utah...