Time to fill you in on what's happening in my life!

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Well, it has been a while. It is safe to say that a few things have happened since I last posted on this blog. Almost a month and a half has flown by, all sorts of adventures and new requirements have kept me busy. Every day I try to keep myself busy from beginning to end, being down here has made me realize that I do not know how to sit down and relax. To tell the you the truth, right now I am writing lesson plans, looking at schools, and writing this blog.

First things first, I am looking into returning back to school, graduate school after finishing at MLC. I am not looking to necessarily turn my career away from teaching, I still have plenty of time to figure that out down here, I just want options to be available if this does not work out for me. In the past two weeks I have been incredibly busy with applications and planning out all the different ways my life could play out. But hey, I am 21, I am not stressing it too much, heck I am in Peru and experiencing a whole new way of life, I would consider myself pretty lucky. My options for school would be to return to MLC and finish it out and receive a call, I could go back to MLC and cut it a semester short, only getting my Education Studies degree and look into graduate school, or drop it all and return to Madison. I think the 3rd option starts to sound a little more ridiculous each time I look into. I would love to go back to Madison, but that would guarantee me another 3-4 years in school, making mean old fart upon graduation. The intriguing idea is to go after graduate school, maybe doing a business major or some other type of heavy math and engineering graduate program. Who knows right now, I am just keeping my options open.

Friends are aplenty down here, there are many people that are willing to reach out a helping hand and just hang out. I am definitely missing my friends back in the states, but there are opportunities down here to make new friends. I will let you in on a few of the adventures. First, going to Gotica basically until the sunrise came up. A super nice night club, discoteca that juts out of a cliff and overlooks the ocean. We went with our friends, Jesus and Sergio, and they ended up knowing people who were able to get us bottles of Jager for free...perks of being an American here I guess 😉. We danced the night away and met a few girls who we ended up hanging out with until about 1 yesterday :0. Judith and Ximena, they are fun and they speak English (most important quality become Spanish is always a struggle:P). I know, wild boys, don't worry, we have that reputation with the family that we are staying with too. We usually make a few trips monthly down to Miraflores to grab a drink or enjoy the touristy area and the beach. It really is an awesome little area and I think we will next be branching out to Barranco. I hope that we can keep up our torrid pace of exploring the city. We went to Oktoberfest also! This was kind of a different experience! We went out with Daniel and it was definitely a sight seeing an all-German celebration in the middle of Peru and the Peruvians dancing some German dances. Definitely as the days roll by and the sun comes out more often, I am going to be doing a lot of surfing. It is my first time living by the ocean and I find every excuse to make my way down there. Our adventure tomorrow is Huancaya...a natural reserve with mountains and waterfalls. We are going with a group of 30 tourists and will be doing that all weekend. Exploring the city and hiking around...living life!

These are just a few of the endeavors we have found ourselves in, there are plenty of adventures in our own little neighborhood too. I have gotten into the habit of playing soccer in the afternoons with the people from the neighborhood. The kids are about 16-18, so I feel bad when I get competitive and try and push them around, but I don't think my competitive spirit will ever die! There are also the classic neighborhood drunks that have become quite friendly with us and love to shed their drunken intellect about their lives, we even saw a guy past out on the sidewalk two days ago!




In the family, there is Danielito. He is basically like our little brother, he won't replace you Austin, but he is a nice guy and I have this sort of big-brother, look after him mentality. You also better believe that we love giving him a hard time and making him feel awkward! Asking him about his love life usually does the trick! But talking about family makes me excited to say that my parents will be here in basically a month! I am sure they will love the different world of Peru, considering they have never been out of the United States, except for Niagara Falls and some stints in Mexico. I try to hide my excitement, but in all honesty, I am really really excited to see them!!! It has been about 3 months, easily the longest time I have never seen them in my life and I am missing them a lot. I miss the whole family, brothers, sister, grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, you really can see what is important to you when you are so far away. I guess now my secret is out that I miss my family a lot...but hey you guys mean a lot to me!! and I cannot wait to see my parents and eventually the rest of my family and friends when I get back!!! Less than 7 months until I will be home! I am looking forward to it all! Hope everything is going well with whoever might stumble upon my blog! 😊

Salud!

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Comments

[grams]

Your time away
Hi Eric Nice to read your blog again. Sounds like you are realizing the ups and downs of trying new adventures. Just enjoy all you can in Peru, it's a great experience to go through. Your fortunate to be able to do this and I'm sure you'll keep busy and the time will go faster. Lots of time to think about your future. This experience can only make you a stronger person. Just don't change too much. I love and miss the Eric that took on this venture and want that same Eric to come home. Miss you too. Love you Grams