Weekly Report Nov. 29- Dec. 2 (Half week)

Thursday Nov. 29

Now that I have actually had some interesting things to write about just the normal days seem so boring. Today I went to class till about 10:30 then went to the gym. Started doing "superseries". Meaning I do two exercises rightafter each other. Today I did back and chest. It felt good to go to the gym again. After lunch and a nap I met a friend at their house then went to Saga, the small mall about ten minutes from myhouse. We just walked around for a bit before they were going to eat pizza and play cards at a friends house. Ididn't want to go to pizza, but I ended up going to play cards with them and eating their leftovers. Home, dinner,getting tired and ready for bed.

Friday Nov. 30

No classes today because of the... I don't really know, some holiday at the college. I didn't do much until about ten when I went to the gym. Bi's and Tri's today.

Saturday Dec. 1

Three months. What? Three months? Where did that come from? Overall this was a good month. The Cusco trip was...amazing. It was nice to be busy for those ten days. Still here in Arequipa I don't have enough things to do. Finally Rotary has said that we can start volunteering. The place that I had started volunteering at they vetoedbecause they didn't know personally who ran the place. Anywho...Interesting thing happened today. As I was writing this entry my host mother called up the stairs and said thatwe are going to cook. "Cook?" I said to myself? It was just kind of a random thing. So I went downstairs and Me,my brother and my mother cooked this really simple stirfry-ish dish that came out really well. It was pretty fun too, and after doing just that 15 mintue thing with a couple members of the family I felt a little more of a partof the family as a whole. I still have a ways to go to really being comfortable and feeling as if I am part of thefamily, but it was still nice to spend some time with them. At about four o'clock I went downstairs for some water and saw that my host mother, sister, and cousin were settingup Christmas stuff in the living room. Living Room as in the room that we only use for lunch and guests. The fancyone that always looks perfect and makes it seem like you have money. So I helped them set up the tree and put on all of the ornaments and change the table cloth. The Christmas tree is fake by the way... my first Christmas without the nice smell of a pine tree in the house, and all of the little pine needles all over the floor. Nowas I am writing this I can imagine the smell of pine, and it makes me think so much of Christmas. As we were setting up I was reminded of all of our traditions and how all of those traditions will be changed this year; replacedwith all new ones. This year on the 24th we will stay up and at 12:00 we will open presents. We will have a latedinner with the family. This year only the family on my mothers side will be here. No Murphy's, Duffy's, Judges,Smith-Murphy's or any other relation that happens to find it's way to our festivaties. No spinach balls or CherryJubilee, no Secret Santa or Yankee Peddlar, Christmas Carrols, Pinata, Dance Dance Revolution Wars or Guitar Heroe battles. All of that will change this year. At least I know that next year I'll be able to experience that once again, but my appreciation for what we have will have doubled from the absence of just one year from Christmas at home. I should probably finish this because the more I write the harder it becomes to stop. Christmas carols are playing in my head all along, and I hear them being sung by all of the voices of the family and the sound of the Murphy's piano. "ooooohhh OOOOHHHH Star of wonder star of might, star of wonderous beauty bright, westward leading still proceedingguide us to..." and so on, and so on.

Sunday Dec. 2

Boring but relaxing day. Did nothing until six. Had a rotary meeting where I received my monthly allowance. Afterwent to a movie with some exchange students. The new Ben Stiller movie. Can't remember the name in English, in Spanish it's "La Mujer de mis Pesadillas" (The woman of my nightmares) but it doesn't translate directly, the namein English is completely different.

Besides the Christmas setup really nothing happened this week. It was actually nice to have a relaxing week afterthe Cusco trip. Tomorrow I'll be volunteering somewhere. I found out today about volunteering and still don't knowwhere it is... just one small taste of the ridiculously unorganized rotary program that I am a part of here in Peru. Some big decisions are to be made about traveling in the weeks to come. I would love to visit Giorgio in Chile,it would be great to see Mike Epchook in Argentina, the one month trip for Rotary is coming up, many possibilitiesbut limited funds. I recently found out that the one month trip is now scheduled for February instead of January,and my family goes to the beach for the whole month of February, so I might opt to stick with the family at the beachand save the money from that trip and put it towards other travels. We'll just have to see how everything works out.I send good tidings, health and safety to everyone during this holiday season. I'll be thinking of you more and moreas my favorite family holiday approaches.
Love,
Jack