Adios Estados Unidos, Hola Peru!

And the adventure begins!! The day started bright and early at 7 o'clock and out the door by 8 to be at the airport by 9! Thankfully, while checking in, my bag weighed exactly one pound under what it had to for checking. Definitely wiped the sweat off my forehead. My poor mother said Goodbye, tears were shed, por supuesto. My flight was easy peasy, thank the Lord. The 5 hour layover in HOTLANTA, Georgia wasn't too bad either. Got my picture taken by the sign that said the flight destination was to Lima, Peru. And who took my picture? No one other than this gorgeous Peruvian man. Obviously, this piece of eye candy was the pure beginning of my trip! Carrie and I made a friend named John, who happened to be a sophomore at Alma college, he plays the trumpet in the college band, and is going to be a lawyer. We were informed of all this within the first two minutes of meeting him. He was pretty adamant about telling us his entire life story. Ohhh, how I love meeting interestingly odd people.

While boarding the plane to go to Peru, Carrie and I are sitting in our seats when all of a sudden a couple men from Souther Georgia ask us if we want to switch seats for 30 dollars a piece! Of course I wasn't going to turn down 30 dollars, sooooo we gave them our seats and sat in theirs! Actually turned out to be better because then Carrie and I had a lot of room to ourselves and we could sprawl out in the seats. A good 2 hour nap, Dear John, and Leap Year, got me through the 6 hour flight to the wonderful fast pace city, Lima, Peru. Getting off the plane wasn't too bad. We had to wait in line to get our passports checked and go to baggage claim. We had to squeeze through about a bazillion people to get our bags, but because people are so nice, they helped us out and we got outta there quickly. Now, off to customs. (GREAT). Of course, Carrie just walks up and pushes the button and the light flashes a bright green saying she's free to go. But, God forbid I walk up there and hope the light turns green, it flashes RED and I have to go get ALL of my luggage searched. Oh how wonderfully fun and invasive this was. Luckily, these guys were really nice to me and let me go so I could meet my family!!

Once I walk passed the gate, there was a sea of people waiting for others to come out. Nervously searching the crowd for my family, I hear my name being shouted, I look around to see my host mother, Annie rockin' jeans and a huge winter jacket! (Mind you, this is Winter for them so they are freezing and I'm walkin' around in shorts and a T-shirt completely comfortable. I walk outside and all of a sudden Gonzalo is right there with his arms wide open offering a huge hug, kiss on the cheek, and a proper welcome to Peru! Hugs all around automatically making me feel welcome and then we were off to the car. Gonzalo seriously should consider being a tour guide for Lima. This guy was FULL of information the entire car ride home. Chatted my ear off, making me feel extremely comfortable. We then get home after a good 25 minutes of non-stop information on Lima and the family (they are apart of a country club, he wants to go surfing with me, and they have favorite restaurants I have got to experience), Rodrigo runs out of the house greeting me the same way the rest of the family did, huge hug, kiss on the cheek, and a "WELCOME HOME!". We walk into a beautiful home, nice hard wood floors, spacious rooms, beautiful furniture, everything I could want for the next six weeks. I got a nice family tour of the house, such a nice house, with a great cute square backyard. Then we go upstairs and they show me my room, which is this cute, homey bedroom with pastel yellow walls reminding me of home where my own walls are yellow.

Once I'm all settled in, we all just kinda stood around and chatted for a bit. I had to call mi mamacita to keep her sane and let her know her baby girl was all safe and sound. Being the emotional woman she is, she broke down as soon as she heard my voice. So cute, going to miss her. ;) After I got off the phone, the Mr. and Mrs. hit the sack, Rodrigo; to study for his exams, and Gonzalo and I; to the TV room to watch some World Cup and then Sex in the Cit-ay!

The next six weeks of this country is probably going to be the best six weeks of my life. I can't wait to experience everything this country and this family has to offer. Adios.