ya he pasado navidad ..

BUEEEENNNOOOO , my christmas was DEFINATELY not what i was expecting . all i can really say was it wasnt good or bad it was just different . i was just in my house with my family like a normal day except we has WAYYYY more food than usual . my mom made a turkey and fruit salad and chicken and well , alot more . i bought a cake for my family .. kind of my gift to them in the form of fooood . uhhh , we had a secret santa thing going on so everyone only got one present but i had my mom in the US send a package to me and it had all sorts of things for each of my family members in it so they were all happy . earlier in the night i talked to all of my family back home and it made me cry . i didnt realize how much i missed them ( ALOTTTTTT ) i cant wait to see them all again <3 . today i have my 'prom' at around 7 and all my family is coming :) well , recently i hace kind of been having doubts about staying here but i figure , what the heck i only have 6 months left so why not . itll be over before you know it . i will write more after prom and new years ! love you all :)

<3

mi viaje a ecuador ^-^

have you ever had a surprise trip that you had to go on ? well , i had one of those this past week !! i all the sudden found out that i had to exit peru and enter ecuador so i could enter peru again to renew my visa !! ok so it sounds difficult but really it was no problem . i had to take a bus all the way to a place called tumbes , it took 13 hours to get there from chimbote ( not counting the hour and a half i had to wait for the bus! ) i left chimbote at about 12:3O at night and got there at about 2 in the afternoon ! nobody from AFS could figure out that it was me they were looking because apparantly , i " pass for a latina " .. which isnt the first time ive heard that . anyways , 1O people (students) from AFS were also there so it was fun ! we took a picture while we were crossing from peru into ecuador=D it was fun with them , we went around to kind of get to know tumbes and we were kind of in a nature area , it was so fun i had a great time with my friends .!!!

on my way back to chimbote , i had to take a bus from tumbes to trujillo (where i go all the time) and then in trujillo i bought another ticket to go from trujillo to chimbote and then a taxi from the bus station to my house ! this experience was interesting .. i must say ! but i had a great time overall !

<3>

WELL , alot of things are coming up like christmas and my promocion from school so there will be interesting posts soon :)))) !!

oooh ahhh , xmas spirit :]

TWO DAYS UNTIL DECEMBER !!! it`s getting close to christmas time and im so excited ! it will be my first christmas that i`m away from home and won`t get to see any of my family .. not even my mom or dad ! woooo ! that makes me excited :) . There is a picture of my PANETON ! it`s a traditional sweet that we eat in Peru . . sad to say , i dont like it very much . but it`s ok because there are alotttt more sweets here ! i also found out that i will be going to chiclayo ( LOOK IT UP ! ) for my short term exchange ! which also makes me excited because that means SCHOOOL IS ALMOST OUT FOR THE SUMMER ! :DDD !!

also , i cut my hair short .. if you didn`t already know that ? and dyed it back to my natural color ! woo . . muuuuch better . im getting tan too ! ^^ yay ! my sister vanessa and i put up the christmas tree yesterday which was fun because that means christmas .. im really really excited . my ' familia peruana ' is the best :) . ill post more after Lima . CHAUUU !! :):):D

como es un dia en mi vida ?!

im sure you have probably been wondering what a normal day in the life of kimberly is . well , i will explain it to you :-) well , on a school day , i wake up at 6 :3O ( 6: OO on mondays ) and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. then , i go put on my uniform for school . then , i go to the table and eat breakfast with my mom and dad and brother. i have to be at school by 7: 3O , and i walk there from my house. i get to school and go to my class to hangout for a few minutes until the bell rings . then , when my teacher enters the class , we all stand up to show him / her respect and then sit when they tell us we can . then , there is 3/4 classes each day . here , ill type them out :

monday :
1] EPET 2] EPET 3] comunicacion 4] comunicacion 5] matematica 6] matematica 7] matematica

tuesday:
1] historia 2] historia 3] historia 4]PFRH 5] PFRH 6] ingles 7] ingles

wednesday :
1] comunicacion 2] comunicacion 3] fisica elem. 4] fisica elemental 5] fisica elemental 6] fisica 7] fisica

thursday :
1] matematica 2] matematica 3] matematica 4] civica 5] civica 6] arte 7] arte

friday :
1] fisica elemental 2] fisica elemental 3] EPET 4] EPET 5] tutoria 6] religion 7] religion

those are my classes . its like blocked scheduling in the united states . just so you know , EPET is like computer / training for your future class . math is trigonometry . PFRH is about family and healthy choices . fisica elemental is physics . and tutoria is when whats like my home room teacher comes in and talks to us about important things that we should know about .

after school , i walk home with my friends and my lunch is waiting for me there. i eat with my mom, dad , brother and then later on my sisters come home from their work to eat . everyone goes back to work around 3:30 and then im at home with my mom and brother for the rest of the day until everyone comes back home in the evening . unless im outside with my friends or go to chimbote with one of my family members :)


so now , you know about a day in the life of me , lil miss peru !! :D

noviembre :)

Hey everyone . life has been pretty good over on this side of the world . ive been a little sick with a cold / flu type of thing, but its over now . i went to trujillo again with my mom and sister and went shopping like usual . its getting to be closer and closer to summer which means going to the beach and pool !! im really excited because with a change of season comes a new way of life . types of clothes change, activities change , more being outside , etc . also , that means less computer which is something im really excited about ! im also REALLY excited about navidad ( christmas ) from what i can tell so far , its about the same but there are a few things that are different . we are going to put up our christmas tree and decorations the first week of december so i am counting down! things with school are great , yes , now there is homework but i am understanding things by myself without my friends help . i know there will be alot of work to do when i qet home , but thats ok because this experience is worth it . daily life here is different than i thought it would be , i thought my attitude towards things would be different . for example , when i was in the US i never wanted to help around the house or anything , but here i ask what i can do to help or i do things when im first asked to do them .. i hope these customs stay with me when i come back because they are great traits to posess . well , until next time ! heres a picture of me sweeping the front sidewalk ! :) :) :)

^^ my beautiful familyyy :) !! so,
things here have been pretty normal, i went to Trujillo with my mom and my
sister, it was really great. we went shopping and i met my uncle marco; the
brother of my mom and his family.. they are very nice and they treat me like im
just another part of their family. i am so happy here and as of right now, i
feel like i could never have a problem here. i can already talk to my parents
and my siblings about ANYTHING. im not sure if i could be any happier. anyways,
school is getting better.. everybody knows me now and im pretty much normal now.
my friends call me "morena" which is like.. a name for people with darker skin
(as a joke, of course) haha.. i think its funny. and im starting to go out and
do more things after school with my friends. about a week ago, it was my
friend bryans birthday and we all put in money to buy him a cake and we
all just hung out at his house, it was fun. and two days ago me and my
friend shirley went to the "center" in chimbote... it was fun then we went to
her cousins house so we could do some homework. so im happy that im getting more
friends. i looooooooove my peru <3 VIVA PERU! ill update more when more
happens :)

ect...!!

There are a lot of things I didn’t mention in my previous posts because I didn’t have the time at that moment so I’ll take the time to fill you in now. The picture of me and the two guys, which is my brother and my dad! We were all in the front of the house at 11 in the morning with my sisters Melissa and Fiorella and their boyfriends Gustavo and Jorge. Sad to say, Melissa and Jorge aren’t together anymore L it was sad to see her after the break up, she was crying... I am coming to the conclusion that my family here is actually really different than my family in the US. At first I thought they were a lot alike. There are still some similarities but not as much as I thought. There are more rules here, but there are rules about different things. Things I had rules about in the US I don’t have here... and vice versa. My parents in the US pretty much have restrictions on where I can go, with whom, and what time I will be back (also, grades.) Here they are different because I don’t really have a time I need to be home; when I go out with my sister, we usually leave around 10:30 or 11:00 (that would NEVER happen in the US, believe me.) and come home around 4 or 5 in the morning, which, again, would NEVER happen in the US. Another thing, everyone here has a Nextel. I have one but I never use it. I never thought I would have a cell phone and not use it! Another thing, I really miss baking! I have grown to appreciate supermarkets in the US because there are not really any here… just in the bigger cities like Trujillo and Lima and it’s hard to find things like chocolate chips for making cookies! About school, I understand nothing about Trigonometry J haha… I guess I will figure it out eventually. I am doing better and better with my Spanish. Now, I can almost understand everything without asking them to repeat it or anything! I also found that it is hard when people are having a bad day because they seem to get annoyed with me easily because I ask a lot of questions all the time (not just in Spanish, I used to ask a lot of questions in English also) I am really learning a lot of things here. Things that I didn’t even think I needed to learn before I came here. I know this year is going to be full of excitement; both good and bad. I MISS RUSSELL!!! I’m sorry if you don’t know who that is, he is my ex boyfriend in the US L I listen to music here a lot to get my mind off things if I need to… well, I will try and take more pictures of my city and the places I go so you can get a glimpse of the life I live here in Peru! Peru is actually really pretty! The structure of the streets is confusing, though. For example: I live off the main street of Argentina in the Urb. of Santa Cristina. Most of the stores in Nuevo Chimbote are on the main street of Pacifico. That street is walking distance from my house, so I got lucky! I didn’t realize how much I hadn’t said! Well, until next time J

Kimberly Milner-Loli Vargas