Trujillo, Peru

I left early Tuesday morning to fly to Peru! I had an hour layover in Atlanta, and then my 6 hour flight to Peru got in at midnight. I was on the plane with about 15 missionaries that were going to the MTC in Lima so that was pretty cool. It was the biggest plane i'd ever been on and the first time I was served dinner. I watched What to Expect When Expecting and the Hunger Games. I stayed awake the whole night (writing in my journal and crocheting), until I could check my bags and go to my gate at about 6am. It was a long night, but I was surprisingly not that tired. I slept on and off for about 3-4 hours and then took my flight to Trujillo at noon. It was only an hour flight and it went by very quick.

It was so great seeing Brad again. In fact, I was so excited that I forgot to get my bags! Luckily Brad noticed and told me to go back in and get them. Brad showed me all around and then he had to go teach a class so I decided to go with him to see what it was like.

On their roof.. Check out all those power lines, its amazing it all works.

This is where we live, and doing our own laundry in the bathtub. I'm glad that we live in a gated place like we do, it makes me feel more safe even though the people that live above us got broken into last week. Scary!!

Brad buys some platanos (bananas) from this guy almost everyday for his breakfast. 

We went to the mall for dinner and to see the new 007 movie. The only bummer part for me and Dani (the other wife here) however, was that it was in Spanish so we had no idea what was going on. I fell asleep, not surprising at all. 

Brad and I walked to the Plaza de Armas- the city center of Trujillo. It has some bright colored, pretty churches and a statue and then a blocked off road of stores and other things that you can walk down. 

 We had a busy day on Saturday. After lunch, we took a bus to Chan Chan. We checked out the museum first, then headed to the real thing. Over 600 years ago, Chan Chan was the biggest city, with over 60,000 people living there. The details in this place were amazing and I can't even imagine how long it took them to build it. It was like a maze, and it was cool to walk around and see what it would have been like to live in that time. Each family would have lived in a small little cubical- pictured in the 3rd collage on the bottom right. In the middle of the whole thing was a pretty little pond.

 After Chan Chan, we took a bus to Huanchaco Beach. It took us about 20 minutes to get there. We laid out for a bit while the sun was out, and then went to the little shops nearby. We bought these scone type things that were to die for, except for the dead bee we found on one of them. Then we headed over to a place called, My Friend's for dinner. I got some pasta, with garlic bread and a drink for only 10 soles, which is about 4 US dollars. Pretty good deal! We also got the fondue which was amazing! Oh, and Brad and I played on the teeter totter. ;)

 Sunday, we walked to our church, about 2 blocks away. It was all in Spanish, but it was the primary program so that was cute- even though I didn't understand anything. I did recognize them singing 'The Wise Men Built their House on a Rock' and 'I Will Go, I Will Do'. The people there were nice. When women here meet other women, they kiss them on the cheek. It's not really a kiss, more like you touch cheeks but it's kinda awkward. That white building with the orange rectangle in the top right picture is our church. It's cool to see that even in a different country, and in a different language, our church remains the same.

This is where we eat lunch everyday- El Rincon. Its pretty good, and cheap (about $2 a meal) but I usually get chicken and rice and its already starting to get old. They have 3 choices for lunch and it changes everyday, but the choices are usually chicken (a different kind everyday), some sort of beef/pork (which I'm not a fan of, but I get it every once in a while), and something nasty- like intestines or lamb. They usually come with rice- that they make into fun shapes, or sometimes noodles. Since they come here everyday, they know all the workers pretty well (one of which is the bishop's wife). I like going to El Rincon though because it's nice to have it so simple with only 3 choices. Whenever we go to another restaurant, I get overwhelmed because I can't read anything and Brad has to read the whole menu. I usually just tell him to pick something for me though. Food here is cheap and we love it! An expensive meal here would be 20 soles, which is about $8.

And just for my own record:

Brad and I have been watching vampire diaries. Since I already watched them all, Brad is just getting caught up so while he watches, I usually work on my blog book- which I finished 2011 and now I'm on April of this year. That's mostly what we do in our spare time, or I crochet, organize my pictures or write in my journal.

People here don't flush anything down the toilet. It is so gross. It makes the bathrooms smell so nasty!! We have 2 girls that work here where we live from about 8-8. We flush our toilet paper down but they don't and they go to the bathroom about every 30 minutes. Dani was telling me that some people go to the bathroom outside- and don't wipe so that's why everyone smells like poop here- gross!!!

One thing I hate about being here is the shower! You have to be so careful to not get the floor soaking wet since it doesn't have a sower curtain, and to not shock yourself because there are so many wires by the shower head. It's so annoying. Oh, and I cannot use my flat iron here because its not the right input (or something) and it will ruin it if I use it.

It is very noisy outside our window. Car alarms, honking, people talking (our window is like paper), door slamming, dogs, sirens, construction, parades, you name it. In the morning, I usually wake up sometime between 8:30-9, take a shower and hang out and work on my blog book in my bedroom till Brad gets up- between 10:30-11. 

There are tons of dogs here and you never know where the owner is. Some of the dogs don't have hair and they look nasty and look and feel like a pig. The weather here is perfect- usually 68 and then it cools down at night so we have to wear jackets. The women here pull out their boobs to nurse all the time and don't even try to cover up. I haven't seen it, but Brad says there is this girl they teach and she does it all the time and they don't know where to look and it's very awkward for them.

I'm loving my time down here! It's been such a great experience already. I've already learned some Spanish, but it takes me a min to figure out what to say to people- besides hola and gracias- I've gotten real good those ones! People will start talking to me in Spanish and then Brad will tell them I don't speak Spanish and most of them say that I look like I should.