The Golden Ticket

My college years instigated a caffeine addiction that has stuck with me. My post-collegiate years have ushered in an era of caffeine addiction on a budget. I don't want to even speculate how much money I have poured into Starbucks coffee. My junior year of college, I moved off campus to Clairemont Mesa. The 25- to 30-minute commute combined with a lack of campus parking forced me to leave the house 45 minutes before class started. During that year, I purchased a Starbucks beverage every single day from the Starbucks half a mile from my house. And not just a drip coffee--but a "fru fru" coffee, as my dad says. By that time in my life, I had graduated from caramel frappucinos and upside-down caramel macchiatos to vanilla lattes (I hadn't added in the "nonfat" to my order yet). And at that time, it cost $3.60 per beverage x 7 days a week = way too much money.

My senior year of college saw less financial help from my parents and more drinking coffee from home. The French vanilla Coffee Mate was always stocked, and my roommates and I worked out a routine of making coffee for each other. I kept going to Starbucks, but maybe only once or twice a week. After returning from Peru, Starbucks didn't sound appealing to me, especially with the abnormally hot summer San Diego had.

Now that the chill has set in, though, I've gone back to craving Starbucks. I still drink coffee from home every morning, but I sometimes need a grande nonfat vanilla latte pick-me-up in the late afternoon.

This week has been especially exhausting for me--waking up early to train for a half marathon, writing a newspaper article after work and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life. It's Thursday afternoon (which is like my Friday afternoon because I don't typically work Fridays), I'm running out of work to keep me occupied, and I needed a little liquid energy. I drove over to Starbucks, which was busy for 1:30 on a Thursday, and ordered my beverage. The price has gone up--it's now $3.85 for my grande beverage. I grabbed it from the bar but was a little distracted by a phone conversation. I drove back to work, sat at my desk and continued working when I took my first sip. Blech. I removed the lid--it was the color of mud, not vanilla goodness. I was so mad that my $3.85 Starbucks drink, which is now so rare a treat, was ruined. I stormed out of the office, starting to picture myself walking toward the counter angry, demanding a new drink and a free one. Or maybe a venti one.

Of course, conflict-hater that I am, I patiently waited in line until the ignorant lady in front of me ordered a "medium" mocha with "not that much chocolate." I then got all mousy and my hands got all shaky. I told the manager, "I was here about 10 minutes ago, and I ordered a vanilla latte," and then revealed the color of my beverage. "And that is not a vanilla latte," the kind bearded man replied. He took the drink from my hands and poured it out in the sink before wiping up the spill (from shaky hands) on the counter. The teenaged barista tried to defend himself, saying I had grabbed the wrong cup, but the manager defended me, reading "grande nonfat vanilla latte for Bethany" off the cup. I confirmed with a head nod.

The new beverage was out in a jiffy, and with it the embarrassed barista handed me the Starbucks golden ticket, good for any size or kind of beverage, even with extra shots. Merry Christmas to me.

Engagement Photos

In mid-September, our friend Laura Lewis took some engagement photos for us. I thought it'd be fun to take pictures in the Point Loma area--Cabrillo National Monument, Sunset Cliffs and Shelter Island. Steve thought it would only take about half an hour to take engagement photos (it took us about three hours). He was a good sport, other than the above photo.

In this photo, you can see Young Hall, one of the freshman guys' dorms on the Point Loma campus. There was a big swell that day, and we had planned to go down toward the water. Instead we watched the surfers try to paddle out while avoiding being crashed against the cliffs.

Touring S.D.

One of the things I appreciate about Steve's and my relationship is that we try to take advantage of the fun things to do in San Diego. We spend the last few weekends of summer doing fun stuff with friends around town.

After Oregon, I paid for Steve and I to see the musical "Wicked" while it was in San Diego at the Civic Theater, and we went with our friends Chris and Tiff (Steve didn't want to go to a musical without another guy there). It was amazing -- totally worth it.
We also decided to go to the horse races at Del Mar with Chris and Tiff, and my friend Amy. Amy and I dressed up, as is traditional, and I finally got to wear my big hat (which I bought last summer specifically for the races but never got to wear it). I actually did great on my betting -- over the course of the day I placed about twelve $2 bets and ended up making about $35. Out of the five of us Tiff was the only other person that won any money, and she only won on the last race, so they all kind of hated me for it.
After the races, Steve, Tiff, Chris and I used our Wild Animal Park passes to ride the tram and see the animals for the last hour it was open. We saw lions, giraffes, rhinos, zebras and all kinds of antelope things. So much fun.

Where does everyone summah?

About a week and a half after getting engaged, Steve and I met my mom's side of the family in Brookings, Ore., for a week-long vacation at a beach house. We were celebrating my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary, and since Grandma's from Medford, she wanted us all to spend some time near her hometown. The photo above is the view from the house, and the photo below is some of us on our (almost) private beach.

We saw all kinds of wildlife this trip. The water was freezing, and the beach was very rocky, which was kind of painful to walk on, but eventually your feet got numb (from the temperature or the pain) and then it was OK.

One day we all went on a six-hour riverboat tour up the Rogue River. It was amazing... definitely recommend it. On that trip we saw a harbor seal, bald eagles, ospreys, river otters, a black bear and deer. We went over rapids and got soaked, and then we had a quick dinner on an outdoor patio at a restaurant along the river. This is cousin Timmy and I right before we went on the trip (and before my hair got put in a ponytail from being so gosh darn wet and windblown... those boats are fast).
Another day trip took us to the lighthouse at Crescent City in the very northwest corner of California. The lighthouse is on this little island that is only accessible at low tide. We just barely made it back across the rocks before the tide came in.
On the way back from Crescent City, we stopped in Fort Dick to pick some blackberries. Charlie and Timmy were amused by the name.
Toward the end of the week, we went to the redwood forest -- this is in Jedediah Smith, where part of "Return of the Jedi" was filmed. We went on a hike for maybe a mile, but turned around because we were really hungry.
The last night, we went to the nearby state park to watch the sunset. It was chilly but beautiful. Andrew brought that hat back from Ireland to give Stevo.
After the sunset, we had cake and champagne to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary. We also spelled out "Happy 60th" on the beach using driftwood.
Grandma and I posed with the sailor dude outside our incredible rental house right before we left for the airport. It was an incredible week of quality time with the fam. I'm glad Steve and I were both able to take the time off work to take a week-long vacation.

The Proposal

On Friday, July 31, Steve and I headed to Shelter Island, which overlooks the San Diego skyline. We've been planning to go see Jim Gaffigan, a comedian, at Humphry's in celebration of my birthday (because I was in Peru at the time). Steve got off work early, got to my house at about 3:45 or 4, and we decided to get to Shelter early because of traffic and we wanted to eat dinner before the 6:30 show. We got there around 4:30, and--since it was a little early for dinner--we took a walk along the water, something that we do pretty often in San Diego. We walked on the sidewalk for about 10 or 15 minutes when I asked if we should turn around. Steve said, "No, let's go a little farther." I was even talking about people that I knew that had gotten engaged on Shelter Island. I had brought my camera along, and we took a self-portrait (our favorite) in front of the San Diego skyline. We walked a little farther, and Steve suggested we step down onto the rocks by the water (it was his attempt to be lower than me, as well as to make it a little more private for us). I'm standing there, taking pictures, and he asked, "Do you want to take a picture as an engaged couple?" I stood there dumbfounded, thinking, "It's not funny for him to joke about this when I've been pestering him for months." But before I could react, he had the ring in his hand and asked, "Will you marry me?" He went for zero intro -- complete shock factor. I stood there, jaw dropped, for about five seconds before I shreaked, "Yes!" I kissed him about a dozen times, we took another self-portrait (above)-- our first as an engaged couple! I still look a little shocked and amazed and pretty much on a cloud.
The ring is amazing. Steve designed it himself, and he had actually only picked up the ring from the jeweler on his lunch break that day. He had been working for months with the designer to make the perfect ring. It's hard to get a good photo of it, but it has a .7 carat center stone that's round, and it has diamonds lining the split shaft on the sides. On the front and back of the center stone, there's an "M" for Mavis, with the symbol of the trinity on either side. It's completely unique and completely perfect for me.

We headed over to Point Loma Seafood, and while Steve waited for our bread bowls of clam chowder, I called my parents and grandparents, who were very excited for me. Steve had flown out to Texas in May while I was still in Peru to ask permission from them, so they somewhat knew it was coming, but he hadn't given them a timeframe. I think they would have had a little chat with him in Oregon on our family vacation in a week if we weren't engaged. It was so nice that no one really knew about it, except for my family, for a few hours. We were sitting there at Point Loma Seafood and then later at the Jim Gaffigan show as a newly engaged couple, and no one around us knew. It was such a sweet time.

The show at Humphry's was hilarious. Jim Gaffigan is so funny and very clean. Steve and I shared a Stella Artois during the show as my "birthday beverage." On the way home from the show, Steve and I both started going down the list of people we needed to call to share the news. We got to my house a little before 9 p.m., and as I walked to the door, I saw one of Steve's best friends, Josh Lewis, down the hall in my house. Confused, I was all flustered to find my house key. I couldn't believe there was more to the surprise. I walked in my kitchen to find about 15 people--church friends, Steve's friends, Steve's brother and sister-in-law--yell "Congratulations!" I turned bright red. They had shown up with champagne and a beautiful cake (that Josh's wife Laura made) to celebrate with us. Steve made such a sweet toast, and so did Josh. I was so caught off guard, and now that whole night seems like a blur. Josh was the last to leave, and he prayed over us and our relationship before he left. Steve and I made a few more phone calls to family and friends, and then we hung out for a bit before he went home. He felt like a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders--with all the stress of getting the ring in time--while I felt as giddy as ever. Steve slept like a rock for 10 hours, and I had one of the most restless sleeps of my life. The night had been perfect and it was completely worth the wait.

You just can't beat San Diego beaches

Last week, Steve and I went for a walk at Torrey Pines Beach in La Jolla at sunset. We saw some dolphins (which, for the record, I enjoy watching from the shore or petting at Sea World, but not swimming anywhere in a 1/2-mile radius from me when I'm in the ocean). It's amazing that I only live like 15 minutes from these incredible beaches--and so sad that I rarely get to enjoy them.

I've been staying pretty busy with work. I really enjoy my job at Triathlete, and I feel like I'm starting to pick up the lingo. I bet in a month or two, I'd be able to talk traithlon with anyone. Also, I got a short story published on the website yesterday about a former NFL lineman who now races in triathlons for charity. (I'm not sure how long that link will be live, though.)

And in the last month, I've had five stories run in the North County Times. The one I enjoyed most was about a woman who was raised in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime, was forced into slave labor as a child and then her father was beheaded and her grandparents died of starvation. Now she's a doctor in Southern California and just wrote a book. She was so sweet -- she kept emailing me to check on how the story was going, and then told me that I conducted my interview like a professional, experienced writer rather than someone fresh out of college.

Steve and I are both busy with work, but we get to see each other a fair amount, despite being in a semi-long distance relationship (San Diego to east Escondido is quite the drive). Next week is our last week of work before we take a week-long vacation in Brookings, Ore., with my whole family to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. I think it'll be very relaxing.

Welcome to the working world

After driving about 5,000 miles in a month, I moved officially to San Diego and started my life as a working adult. I was already working as a wedding server on the weekends in Fallbrook and freelancing for the North County Times (I've had two stories run so far -- one about a missions fundraiser and one about a new rabbi at a temple in North County.) But my third job as an editorial assistant at Triathlete magazine started two weeks ago. It's my first 9 to 5 office job, and it's in my industry -- such a blessing! The job is actually an internship and only 24 hours a week, but it's actually really nice because there's not so much pressure on me. My editor, Somyr (pronounced Summer), is a great teacher and views this as a learning experience. Plus, they're giving me a few writing assignments, which is more than the last intern got to do. I love that they keep me busy those 24 hours a week, and that they're actually using me, which is different than other internships I've had.

After my first day of work, I hung out with Steve, and he bought a bottle of wine to share (to go with our leftover spaghetti) as a congratulations for finishing my first day of real work. He told me, "There's no turning back. Welcome to the working world."


On the 4th of July, Steve and I hung out in the scorching Escondido weather (I realize it's not that hot compared to Texas, but he's also not using air conditioning). Then we went to a sushi dinner in Del Mar with some friends (sushi on 4th of July felt a little weird and unpatriotic, but it was delicious). I really wanted to see fireworks, even though the rest of the group didn't, so Steve and I headed back to Escondido, parked in a parking lot in downtown, and watched the fireworks from the bed of his truck. We had a warm Mexican blanket and some Starbucks because it had cooled down about 30 degrees since the afternoon. Our friends Chris and Tiff, who live nearby, drove over to watch the Grape Day Park fireworks with us. Then we made a quick getaway and beat all the traffic. That may turn into a tradition.

Too Many Road Trips

After a week in San Diego for my graduation and moving all my stuff from storage back into the same house and same room from which I had moved it in December, I flew back to San Antonio for a week to see friends and load up my Ford Escape. I spent a lot of time with high school friends -- Emily Harms, Emily West and Susanna in this picture. Emily Harms and I then drove the 1,400 miles back to California. We took our time -- two nights on the road because we were in separate cars. Last time we drove that distance in separate cars we both almost fell asleep at the wheel. We stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the first night and were able to watch a movie and go in the hot tub at the hotel. The second day we spent a few hours in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Emily even got to try on a few wedding dresses. And on the third day, we stopped by the outlet mall in Cabazon, California (near Palm Springs). We drove straight to Long Beach first to attend my cousin Alex's MBA graduation party (he graduated the night before my ceremony).
We spent the night at my Aunt Becky's house and then went our separate ways -- Emily to Santa Barbara and I went to San Diego (that was May 31).

On June 1, I had a job application due to Triathlete Magazine. It was an elaborate application that I had somehow pulled together in a week -- 2 letters of recommendation, cover letter, resume, three editing tests, unofficial college transcript and a writing sample. Within an hour of me applying, I received an email back that asked for an interview the next day. I had a phone interview the next day with four people on speaker phone. It was a little intimidating, and I thought it hadn't gone very well because they asked me what I knew about Triathlete Magazine... "Not much," I said. "I've watched a few triathlons, but I haven't even actually seen the magazine." Nevertheless, they offered me the job on June 4 (and said they would send me a few copies of the magazine so that I could familiarize myself with it before I started). I wouldn't be starting till June 23, though, so I told me friend Sirena, who was stranded with her relatives in Dallas. She lives in Washington, a few hours outside of Seattle, and her husband is in the Navy. He's on a submarine for 6 months, so Sirena decided to take a road trip -- first to San Diego, where she used to live and go to church with me, and then to Dallas. The clencher is that she has three young daughters -- aged 4, 2, and 11 months. She had to have people help her along the way. I called her to tell her I could help drive her, so on Sunday, June 7, I flew to Dallas and drove back the next two days from Dallas to San Diego. (I saw a lot of the same stretch of I-10... pretty boring). We spent the night in Las Cruces at a Motel 6 and then made it to San Diego the next day by about 6 p.m. We got to hang out a bit in San Diego. Above is Sirena with Ava (age 2) and Bella (11 months). Below, Corinne (age 4) and I are sharing a chocolate milkshake at Hodad's in Ocean Beach.
I had to stay in town through Saturday night, when Steve's family was hosting a birthday/graduation party for me. It was so sweet. Then we left Sunday, June 14, to drive toward Seattle. We made it to Redding, California the first night. The second day was a lot of driving through Oregon, which was beautiful.
The highlight of the trip was stopping in Astoria, Oregon, which is at the very northwest corner of Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River that divides Oregon and Washington. It was incredibly beautiful (and only a 150 mile detour). It was where the film "The Goonies" was filmed, a favorite of both mine and Sirena's. The girls didn't really comprehend the significance of standing in front of the Goonie house, but Sirena and I were so excited.

It looked a little different because there wasn't a white picket fence around a yard, but as soon as I got back to San Diego, I watched the film and realized that, yes, I have stood where Steven Spielberg and Sean Astin and Josh Brolin have stood. It was very exciting.
We got into Seattle that night at about 11:30 and spent the night at Sirena's friends' house. I got 4 1/2 hours of sleep because I had to be on a 7 a.m. flight back to San Diego with a 3-hour layover in San Francisco. I also had a newspaper article due that day, so I spent some time interviewing people on my cell phone shouting over airport announcements. I'm so glad I was able to help out a friend, though, and that we got so much time to catch up. I'm sick of driving -- 5,000 miles in a month is plenty.

Post-Peru

After a crazy few days of travel from Lima to San Antonio, and San Antonio to San Diego, and packing and unpacking, I officially graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University with a B.A. in print journalism (even though I already received my diploma in the mail in March). My whole family came -- parents, brothers, grandparents, cousins, uncles plus Steve.
With the two crazy brothers. We can never take a normal picture. After all the hooplah on campus and saying goodbye to friends, I had a whole shindig at our hotel suite on Shelter Island. I invited pretty much everyone I knew in San Diego because I hadn't seen any of them in 5 months.

About 50 people showed up. This is my ex-roommate Heather and her husband Tyler -- some of my best friends from college.

With my cousin's daughter, Cailyn, and my Costco cake in PLNU colors.
With the roommates. You can probably see the exhaustion in my eyes. Talking to so many people and telling them the same thing over and over again... yikes. But it was nice to be back in San Diego. And update on everything post-graduation coming soon...

Day 74

I thought I had gotten a tan, but when I'm sitting in the middle of a bunch of Peruvians, I look so pasty. Meredith is even tanner than some of the Peruvians. From left: Christian, Gabriel (lying across the laps), Claudia, Nadia, her sister Cynthia, and Meredith. My last whole day in Peru was pretty cold, smelly (like dead fish) and boring, but I think I needed it to relax a little. Thinking about everything happening in the next week stresses me out -- it's going to be an emotional week. Today I just went to the post office, went to the mall (I'm not good at shopping by myself -- I was in and out in less than 10 minutes), and went to the grocery store to get stuff for my third despedida. A lot of people came -- some Panaggios, some Blocks, gringa teachers, and jovenes from Buen Pastor. They gave me a picture frame with the framed picture of me at the group on Saturday. They joked about how I have a rectangular smile -- like when I smile really big. So, in the photo, they all did the rectangular smile and I had my normal smile. It's so awesome. Cynthia told me that I had to explain that to everyone who sees it or they're going to think all Peruvians are crazy. And Eden gave me a picture that she had drawn -- it's so going to be framed when I get back to the states. After all the gringos left, it was just me and the Peruvians, and they wanted me to give a speech, but I really couldn't. First of all, it would feel like public speaking (even though there were only five of them there); secondly, they wanted it to be in Spanish, which would be pretty difficult; and thirdly, I'm not good at saying emotional things like that -- I can only barely write emotional goodbyes. I started crying! That's why my face is a little splotchy in this picture (and apparently the word "splotchy" doesn't have a Spanish equivalent). They all prayed over me, which of course made me cry even more. I can't believe I'm leaving...

Day 73

My last Sunday in Peru was Dia de la Madre, so the sermon at church was specifically about Christian women. As a gift to all the mothers, the kids had put together a little performance about Moses. I have to say that the costumes were quite a bit better than the actual performance -- there were a lot of little Egyptians with eyeliner on and everything. Awesome. After church, I ran home to see how Bethany was doing -- still sick, kind of flu-like symptoms. Then I booked it (not sure why... Peruvians are used to waiting) back to church to go out to lunch with Eden, Christian (whose mother is traveling), and Josue (whose parents wanted some alone time after celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday). We went out to lunch at a cevicheria in Jesus Maria called Isla del Amor (hahaha...), and I had some really awesome tacu-tacu with a seafood sauce. It was so fun hanging out with those guys -- they all make me laugh so much. Then we walked back to Eden's house, watched Friends (with Spanish subtitles), drank coffee and ate cookies. Josue had to leave, and Claudia and Gabriel showed up, so the five of us went to El Parque de la Reserva, which is this giant, pretty state-of-the-art fountain park. This photo was before the boys pushed me into the fountains and got me soaked (and is to prove that I don't just take photos with gringas). I froze... but it was totally worth it. Only a couple more days with these guys.

Day 72

I got to sleep in again and woke up to already-made coffee... so nice. We hung out at home till about noon, when Meredith, Bethany and I went to El Cascajal. For only 35 soles (plus the cost of drinks), you get a giant buffet lunch -- including postres -- and listen to a live band and watch baile folklórico. We went partly because it's my last weekend here, but also partly because Meredith wanted to treat some friends to lunch as a Mother's Day gift -- they were the family that she lived with when she came to Peru during college, I think. This dance is from Cuzco (there are different cultural dances from all different regions of Peru). They did four different dances, and on the one that is typical of the region around Tarma, they pulled me down onto the dance floor. The dancers pulled Bethany down to the dance floor twice (I think they single out gringas -- we were the only three gringas in the whole place). It was so so so fun (except that Bethany was feeling pretty sick by the end of it). Bethany and I took a taxi home (and I gave directions entirely in Spanish!), and while she slept, I practiced my testimony in Spanish. Then I went to the universitarios group at 7 at Buen Pastor. We sang some songs, had a time of prayer, I gave my testimony -- which I'm pretty sure everyone understood -- and then Ramiro taught a lesson. As he closed the lesson, he prayed for the group, but then he prayed a lot for me specifically, which was so nice. And THEN Christian said that they all wanted to take a picture with me because it was my last time there, and they had bought me a cake that said "Te queremos Bethany!" They're so sweet -- I'm totally blown away. Or maybe that feeling only lingered until they rubbed chocolate cake all over my face and in my hair. Apparently it's a tradition, but I'm inclined to blame Eden because it was she who suggested it, or maybe Claudia because she actually carried it out. Apparently it took about five people to restrain me -- there was a lot of flailing. But Cynthia and Eden helped me wash it off, though I'm sure I still have it in my hair. I don't even care. It was such an awesome day. I'm pretty sure I'm going to cry when I leave.

Day 71

The roommates and I had a relaxing morning at home recovering from our quick trip to Tarma. Bethany and I went to lunch together at a little place within the Residencial San Felipe -- we had aji de gallina, another popular Peruvian dish. We went grocery shopping and I got to show her around Metro (I didn't realize how much I knew about this town until Bethany came). Then we met Meredith back at the hotel so we could ride together to Miraflores, to the ADIEL office there. Bethany met the pastors really quickly, and then we toured around Miraflores while the pastors and missionaries had meetings. We went to Parque Kennedy, had some coffee at Cafe Cafe (the first coffee bar in Lima), and walked over to Parque del Amor, which overlooks the ocean. There were some parasailers taking off from a nearby cliff, but the park is really cool because it has all these funky, curvy walls that are mosaics with quotes about love and names of lovers (my favorite: Esmerelda y Cuasimodo), and then there's this giant statue of these two people making out... kind of scandalous. So, of course, all the young couples of Lima go there to make out (and then get in my pictures... ugh). Bethany and I took the bus home in horrible Friday afternoon traffic, which was suspected to be related to Mother's Day. Dia de la Madre in Peru is a big deal because you not only buy a nice gift for your own mother, but you have to buy gifts for all the mothers that you're friends with. I don't think I'll want to brave the malls this weekend because it'll be crazy. After we got home, Claudia came to pick us up and we walked to Buen Pastor and met up with other girls from the group to go to the Zac Efron movie, "17 Again" or "Diecisiete Otra Vez." It was hilaaarious -- even better than I expected. It was a little weird that his character's name in the movie was Mark Gold, and if I were to name the person I know that looks the most like Zac Efron, it's a guy named Mark Gold, the student body president of Texas A&M (friend of Andrew's). Bethany and I went home exhausted but very content.

Day 70

This is the most snow I've seen or will see in Peru. This was on our 7-hour(ish) drive back from Tarma. We got up early, packed, checked out, had breakfast and rushed to the bus station to find out that our 9 a.m. bus didn't leave till 9:45. We mostly slept (but Meredith woke us up for this view). The highlight of the trip was when the bus stopped in the middle of the road halfway down the mountain (by the way, these are like switchbacks in a pretty steep valley). Ten guys get up and get off the bus. I thought maybe there was a problem with the bus, but then we look out the window, and nope. Just a bathroom break. Only in Peru. Then, we stopped for lunch -- they told us we had 20 minutes. We ate as quickly as we could, but the bus still started to leave without us. It had started driving down the road and pulled over to pick us up. Oops. The second half of the drive, Meredith and I sat together to keep going over the Cross-Cultural Servanthood book, and it's awesome because now that I've been here two months, I've started to have a lot of cross-cultural experiences. I know exactly what the author is talking about because I've experienced it. We got to the bus station in La Victoria at about 4, and back to the house by 4:30. Dave Block picked me up to go to my last English class at El Alfarero, and he had bought me a cake that said "Feliz Viaje Bethany." It was so sweet! Everyone in the class gave me a big hug goodbye, and they wished me safe travel and God's blessing. And the cake was awesome -- chocolatey with a little bit of whip cream and cherries. The lesson for those last two classes was using the song "Big House" by Audio Adrenaline, and I had to teach them all the motions. It's actually a really good song for teaching English because the verbs are in present tense or are commands, it's pronounced well, it has simple vocabulary, and it's slow enough that they can sing along. However, I would be fine if I went 10 years without ever hearing that song again -- I've met my quota of Audio Adrenaline for a while. I was telling Dave, though, on the way home that it hasn't hit me yet that I'm leaving. I'm excited for the next phase in my life, but I'm really going to miss Peru.

Day 69

We packed a lot into one day. Bethany and I were ready to go about 15 minutes before we had to, so we ran over to get coffee from a local restaurant. Then the four of us went to a store about 5 minutes away owned by a guy named Chicho -- a well-known Tarmeño businessman that owns two "dollar store"-type stores. We led a devotional time with his staff members -- all college-age girls -- and I shared my testimony in Spanish! I was pretty nervous, but I think they understood and it went well. As a thank you, Chicho gave us the cheesiest, tackiest pencil holders (mine has a dog head figurine attached to it -- maybe a Boxer?), but it was so sweet. We ate breakfast and then headed over to his other store, but because Mother's Day is coming up this weekend, the place was pretty busy, so Chicho couldn't let his employees take a break for a little devotional. Instead, we did another demographic survey with Chicho, and learned a lot about Tarma as well as about him and his beliefs. After that, we had quite a bit of free time because a lot of the people Meredith and Elsa would normally visit were out of town or really busy. Meredith and I went to an Internet cabina -- only 1 sol (30 cents) for an hour, so I was there for an hour, and Meredith stayed for probably two. I ran over to Tarmenito, a little store near the bus station on the main street, Calle Lima. I bought two half-liters of manjar blanco, the Peruvian dulce de leche, to bring back with me to the states. And then Bethany accompanied me to the Indian market, a much smaller version of the ones in Lima. We met back up for a late lunch (saw the end of the Chelsea/Barcelona game... wow), Meredith did another demographic survey, and then we toured the Tarma market. That was where I took this photo -- I love love love how the women of the sierra dress, and I especially like the white and black hats that they wear. After the market, we crammed into a mototaxi to head to an English class taught by a guy named Lucas. For three hours, Bethany and I spoke in English to beginning/early intermediate English students. It was more exhausting than I thought it would be. While we were in class, Meredith and Elsa went to a church service and were a little shocked by how the pastor presented some topics. We discussed our nights over some bowls of arroz con leche (amazingly delicious) and then had some coffee back at our regular restaurant before heading back to the hotel. In the style of my friend Emily's blog about her European adventures:

Tarma is. . .
- no toilet seats
- alpaca wool everywhere
- amazing cinnamon-y arroz con leche
- blue skies (which you can't see from pollution-filled Lima)
- the "City of Flowers" (seriously -- they grow flowers and sell them to people in Lima)
- dry weather + no hair straightener = bad hair days
- small-town feel, friendly people
- tasty tamales

Day 68

I think I said the word cansada at least 10 times in one day. We had to leave the house by 7 for the 8:00 bus to Tarma, so I got up early because (of course) I hadn't packed. The bus ride was about 6 hours, and Bethany and I had a good chat before we both fell asleep. We're actually freakishly similar -- not only physically, but also in the way we think and express ourselves. We were asked if we were sisters a few times, and Meredith called us gemelas because we were dressed very similar. We stopped for lunch and just had some soup. We rolled into Tarma around 3 p.m., took at taxi to Hotel Vargas and checked in. We grabbed lunch and some coca tea (tea made from the leaves that make cocaine), which is supposed to help with altitude sickness. The afternoon was made up of meeting people, kind of making the rounds to greet everyone that Meredith knew in town, and Meredith conducting demographic surveys. The surveys were actually really interesting -- they asked questions like, "How do people here perceive God?" or "How do people express themselves?" While the answers to those questions were quite fascinating, Bethany and I were just struggling to stay awake. We ended up getting home about 9 p.m. and she was probably in bed and asleep within 5 minutes. I stayed up a little later in Meredith's room working on translating my testimony into Spanish. The picture is with Bethany in the Plaza de Armas or the Plaza Principal in Tarma.

Day 67

Monday was a blur of people rushing in and out of our house. Sonia was there to clean, so we made lunch for her, but we were getting ready for Bethany Kerr's arrival (she's 23 and is going to be a missionary in Peru for two years -- she's moving to Tarma with Meredith and Elsa). We had someone come to assemble the futon like thing, where Bethany will be sleeping until I leave, and someone else install a bar in Meredith's closet. And then it was time to go to my last missions meeting, this week at the Panaggios' house. We had coffee and basically a time of prayer and encouragement. I realized, though, that I'm at a very interesting point in my life -- in this weird transition stage between college student and adulthood. At the meeting, I stole away for a sec to chat with Maria Panaggio, who is 17 (granted a mature 17-year-old), but then I had to get back to prayer time with her parents and the Blocks and Meredith, career missionaries who all treat me as their equal, even though some of them have children older than me. This was such a perfect time for me to come because I just finished school but I'm mature enough to be on my own. If I had come one year later, it probably would be hard for me to relate to high schoolers and college-age students. After we prayed, we realized we were hungry, so the adults (including me!) went to San Antonio for dinner. While there, we found out that Sonia's 49th birthday was last week... oops. She hadn't said anything, and she was still at our house cleaning. So Meredith and I bought this apple pie thing from San Antonio and rushed home to sing "Happy Birthday" (plus the other two songs in Spanish). She seemed to appreciate it. It's hard to tell -- women from the sierra don't express emotions very openly. Meredith and I left to get Bethany Kerr from the airport. We were running late, but we actually arrived about 2 minutes before she walked out of customs with her five bags -- "smoothest airport trip ever," said Meredith. We got home a little after 11 and had to pack for our three-day trip to Tarma.

Day 66

I understood most of Ramiro's sermon -- on hope and how God keeps his promises. The service went a little long, so some of the American girls wanted to get to lunch, but we invited some of the Peruvian jovenes to join us for lunch. It was awkward, to say the least. I think we could have been a little more sensitive to their budgets and their time schedules (it took us about half an hour to get to the restaurant and they had to get back to church for worship practice). Nonetheless, lunch was tasty, and then after the Peruvians left for their practice, the gringas went to get ice cream at this new fancy ice cream place on Salaverry, across from 4D (another ice cream/dessert place). My brownie flavored ice cream was good, but the Swiss chocolate was amazing. Eden and I then walked up Salaverry back toward our homes and went to Metro. I needed some food items, and Eden needed some groceries as well as to purchase some airline tickets. She had been carrying more than $200 cash on her, and then she pulled $500 out of the ATM... wow. I felt bad for the people behind her in line -- they seemed a little frustrated because they had already put their groceries on the little thing (what's it called? The more Spanish I learn, the less English I can remember.) And the check-out girl had to check every single $20 bill to make sure they were legit. Bummer. I went home, put away my groceries, called Stevo, and then took a nap. I woke up after it was dark, so I was very disoriented. I spent some time in the evening working on my testimony. One of my goals before I leave is to share my testimony -- in Spanish -- in Tarma. Meredith is going to help me translate, and then we'll probably go to Elsa for proofreading, since it is her first language.

Day 65

I didn't get up till 10 a.m., and Meredith was making coffee. . . I love waking up to already-made coffee. I hung out at home till about 1:30, when I went to meet Meredith at Plaza San Miguel, where she had been running errands. We had lunch at Pizza Hut, and she had to rush out right after, so I went home on the bus myself. As I was walking from the bus stop to my building, I ran into Nadia, who was walking to meet up with Josue, Christian and Gabriel at a Chifa restaurant, so I went with her. It ended up being a really fun night of hanging out and just talking. After Chifa, we walked back to the church and hung out for a while before meeting up with Eden and Claudia. We went to Starbucks in San Isidro so I could get a hot drink (it actually got pretty chilly tonight) and then walked to this park in San Isidro that overlooks the ocean. We were there probably a full 2 hours talking, listening to music, laughing, and lying in the grass. Then the group walked me home and I watched the movie "Mona Lisa Smile" ("Sonrisa de Mona Lisa") by myself. I recently discovered a stash of movies at our apartment, and the nice thing about pirated movies is that they're in English with Spanish subtitles. Bien chevere (very cool).

Day 64

This was basically how we felt most of the day. I got up at 6 a.m., only half an hour after I'd fallen asleep, to let Adriana out of the house because she had to go to work. Poor thing. By then, since it was getting pretty bright outside, about half of us were awake, including Eden. So we made crepes for breakfast -- with bananas and chocolate. I'm so thankful for Eden -- she's an expert crepe-maker. All the girls said it was "rico," but wanted to know how to say that in English. I was like, "delicious" or "really good," and Eden wanted them to say, "You're the best cook in the world." Yep, any of those would work. Even though we woke up at 6, not everyone left till 11:00. At first, the exhaustion hadn't hit me, but as soon as they walked out the door, I went straight to bed. I slept from 11 till 3:30. I talked on Skype a bit and then finished watching "La Gran Estafa" before meeting up with Claudia, Gabriel and Josue to go see a movie. We walked around and waited for a while at Plaza San Miguel until Christian and Gabriela met up with us. Then we had about a 20 minute argument over "Diecisiete Otra Vez" (Zac Efron movie) or "Wolverine." We ended up seeing Wolverine, which was good. I like those kinds of prequel movies -- like "Casino Royale" -- that give you a lot more context for a character. Nadia ended up getting there halfway through the movie, so we went home on the bus together. We didn't get home till midnight, and I went straight to bed.

Day 63

For some reason, the pre-Inca ruins/hairless dogs/late night ice cream day wore me out, so I slept in. I'm not really sure where my day went, but the afternoon came quickly. I spent the day reading, sleeping, drinking coffee, cleaning my room. I went to the grocery store in the afternoon to buy groceries for the pijamada (slumber party) of Buen Pastor chicas -- hosting the party kind of stressed me out the whole day because -- as you can see -- this room barely holds all 11 girls, but that's where we all slept. I went to English class at 5:20ish with Dave Block and Kay Panaggio (she's kind of researching ESL classes for maybe trying the same ministry). We were a little late because Dave forgot his license (he didn't want to get pulled over without a license again), but the class went well. I love how enthusiastic everyone there is about learning English. I got home right at 9:30, when the Buen Pastor girls were supposed to get there, but the only one already there was Claudia, who had come by herself. We ended up chatting for almost an hour before the rest of the girls showed up (a good chat). And then the insanity began. . . We hung out and talked (as girls are prone to do. . .), and then we decided to eat at about 11 or maybe 11:30. My time all runs together, so I'm not sure on times. Then we had a praise and worship time with Maria on guitar, followed by a time of Bible study, led by Adriana, and then prayer. I really enjoyed that time (but it was kind of weird that it was the middle of the night). Then we decided we needed an extra energy boost, so we all drank coffee at 3 or 3:30 a.m. No joke. It was ridiculous. Then everyone's all energized so they wanted to play this game that Eden taught them where you are basically trying to steal the socks off of the other players. Very fun, but impossible to be quiet. Elsa came downstairs at 4:30 a.m. and said, "Tengo una problema. No puedo dormir." We were pretty silent after that. We decided to start a movie at 5 a.m. ("Ocean's Eleven," or "La Gran Estafa" in Spanish). We all settled into the chairs and onto the couch, and there were about 5 of us lying horizontally on my twin size mattress. I fell asleep at 5:30, just as the sun was starting to come up.

Day 62

I wanted to sleep in but woke up at 6. I went to class by 10 (it was about a 15-minute commute because of no traffic) to get my grade on the test and in the class. I got a 97 on the test, but an 87 in the class, which was again the highest grade in the class, and again the perfectionist in me says, "That's a B." Then I went to coffee at Starbucks with Ludvig (Swedish guy) and Vanessa (Irish girl), other students of Spanish. We had a good chat while I drank much-needed caffeine, and then I invited Vanessa to join Eden and I as we explored Huaca Pucllana, some pre-Inca ruins in the middle of Miraflores. So we picked Eden up from school (she had a half-day) and started walking on Angamos to some ruins that she "supposedly" bikes past everyday, but according to the hand-drawn, detailed map Meredith had given me, we were going the wrong direction on Angamos. So I asked a guy in a business suit which way on Angamos to go -- he said it was far (and by far he meant 10 blocks) and offered to drive us there. We all looked at each other like, "Is this safe?" but I figured there were three of us, so we could take him. If it were two, I wouldn't have gotten in. Actually, I probably wouldn't have asked a man but would have waited to find a petite woman to ask for directions. He was nice -- worked for an insurance broker, a British company -- and dropped us off right at the entrance. It was 7 soles and an English tour began 15 minutes after we got there. Perfect timing -- we would have missed it if we had walked. We took the tour (photo taken mid-tour), and it was very interesting, though our guide's English pronunciation was pretty off -- "earthquake" became "earkquathe," "skeleton" was "skeletumm," and "construction" was "constraption." If English weren't our first language, we wouldn't have understood her. At Huaca Pucllana, I saw my first Peruvian hairless dogs. I'm not going to lie -- pretty gross. Their skin looks like elephant skin. After the tour, we had a menú for lunch (cheap lunch that comes with two plates and a drink for usually less than 10 soles). Then we took the bus home, I got to hear my friend's London proposal story (yay!), and then I met up with Eden at the bus stop at like 7:15, which turned into 7:35 because Eden's turning Peruvian. We went to meet Claudia and Gabriel for ice cream in Jockey Plaza. The best moment of the day was when Eden accidentally knocked her two giant scoops of ice cream off of her cone onto the floor. It was like a cartoon or a movie. I would have taken a picture if she hadn't said "I don't even care!" and picked it up off the floor right away with her hands. I'm not sure what her eating plan was with two scoops of ice cream in her hands. The lady behind the counter ended up making her a new one and then put it upside down in a cup for her so it wouldn't happen again. We hung out for about 2 hours maybe before we came home. I went to bed exhausted.

Day 61

I woke up to a very foggy, smelly Lima. It smelled like dead fish. I thought it was something in the kitchen, but then I was walking to the bus stop and thought maybe I smelled like dead fish because the smell was following. Then I got to San Isidro, where it still smelled like fish, and I knew that the smell was coming from the ocean, still 15 blocks away. I've heard three theories on this: (1.) it's just the smell of the ocean being wafted up to Lima, (2.) someone dumped a lot of dead fish into the ocean all at once, or (3.) there are powerful waves sometimes that just kill a lot of fish at once. Don't know who to believe. I had my final exam for my Spanish class, and then bought some bananas, Gatorade and crackers for my roommate Elsa on the way home -- she had been throwing up violently for about three hours in the middle of the night, apparently. Poor thing. Meredith suspects food poisoning, although we have no idea the source. I hung out at home, helped Meredith make lunch and then we ate together. Since it was the two of us, we got to speak in English, which was nice. Later, I went with her to run an errand or two, and we ended up getting some ice cream and sitting on the steps outside the residencial eating it. Good quality time. Then Dave canceled class because he's still sick, so I hung out with Eden. We had considered going to the Andrea Bocelli concert, but it was sold out, so we went to some art galleries, the Inca market, and dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant instead. The market was fun -- I'm starting to load up on souvenirs. We went to two different art galleries (the first is pictured above). It was really fun, especially to go with an art teacher. We had dinner at a place called Cafe Beirut, which was quite tasty. We got a little bit molested on Pizza Street, where all the discotecas are (Eden's still a little traumatized...) And we ended the night with some carrot cake, coffee and playing Mancala at a little coffee shop in Miraflores. It was a really awesome little place, but neither of us could remember the rules to Mancala, so Eden won. It was almost like Calvin ball with her just making up rules all over the place... (just kidding).

Day 60

I got up early to try to finish my homework (because I was uninspired at midnight), and I did some research online. Our final project was to speak in front of the class for two to three minutes, and I spoke about San Antonio -- how it was founded (did you know that it was colonists from the Canary Islands?), the climate, the Battle of the Alamo and of San Jacinto, Fiesta, and Tex-Mex food. Due to my procrastination, I left the house later than I intended and then traffic was worse than usual, so I was a few minutes late to class (but I did get to work on it on the bus because I got a seat). It was really interesting -- I think I want to go to China in the winter because they have all these buildings made out of ice and then lit up with super colorful lights. I think it looked a lot like Rainbow Road, the last level in the Star Cup in MarioKart -- bien chevere (very cool). I came home after and had lunch with the roommates. I didn't do much but lounge around the apartment all day, which I think was what I needed after such a long weekend. Sonia was here to clean the apartment, and I watched the third season of "The Office" for a while, which was fun. I needed to go to the grocery store, but I didn't really want to move. I was actually craving popcorn, but I didn't know how to make it without a microwave or JiffyPop on the stove. And then -- awesome -- Raquel comes home and makes popcorn (canchita) in a pot and offers me some. I have wonderful roommates! Then I went to bed early.