peruuu

peru is a go! i still have to pay some fees (read: earn the money required to pay the fees) but the uvic course list came up and all my courses are in the spring, so my fall is free for machu picchu adventures! i am more excited and scared than i am willing to let on. pete bought me a really nice bag for my birthday (once of those gigantic hardcore trekking backpacks) and everything is becoming real and holy shit i am going to be in peru for two months by myself and the girl who sold us the backpack said that cusco is totally sketchy and all her friends got robbed there! oh gosh. but i am tough and streetwise. aha! i'm from sherwood park, what do i know about streetsmarts? but i'm excited. very very very.

moving up

okay. so it is my first night alone in our new apartment and i am getting a little bit nutty. every light in the whole place is on, except for the bedroom light because i've been too scared to go in there in case someone is lurking. i am absolutely head over heels in love with our place, in the day time. at night, it is a bit spooky. the fire place is on a crazy program and just turns itself on whenever it wants, my cat roams around meowing and jumping at imaginary things, you can hear the neighbors like they are standing beside you.

let me tell you about this place though because it feels like exactly what my life has been missing. it is gorgeous. it's a 1950s building, so all the apartments have a pretty big layout and there are lots of little character traits like a funny ironing board that comes out of the kitchen wall and one of those locks that is on a chain so the door only opens 3 inches or so. it's all hardwood floors, which, despite their general creakiness, looks goooooood. i live in constant fear that something will skid or drop and make a gash in the floor. basically the landlord's number one rule is DON'T FUCK WITH THE HARDWOOD. there is a fireplace! i haven't quite figured out how to work it but it is quite cozy and crackily. there is also a dishwasher which means there will be 95% less fights between pete and i. but best of all

THERE ARE WINDOWS!!

okay, our last place had windows, but only facing the wrong direction and only in one part of the whole place. now we have a window in our living room that overlooks the road and windows in the kitchen and bedroom that face out the back of the building. and it is getting to be summer. really, could my life be any better? it's four blocks to the ocean. four blocks to beacon hill park. and there are shops right down the road.

oh yes. oh yes.
living the dream.

i'm still trying to get pete to warm up to it. he liked the coziness of our last place, but i think this will outshine that place in every aspect once we get a bit more settled in and somehow center our room around the fireplace, which was basically his one true wish for our new apartment.

so. that's the news.
school is going okay.
lots of things on the go, i'm feeling a little bit pressed but i'm working on it.

also.
have you ever seen the commercial that says something like.

"i know. let's blamestorm about it! i blame eileen."
ahahaha.




cross your fingers that i make it outta this night. then the apartment will be tried and true, ready for all kinds of shenanigans.

peru baby

it's settled. as long as the course schedule doesn't change, i'll be spending around 8 weeks in south america next fall. peru, specifically. october and november, specifically. it becomes more realistic every day, as applications for volunteer positions get accepted and payments are made. now it's a matter of flights and leisure time. my mom will come too, for two weeks or so, and we'll live in luxury because she is not necessarily a roughin'it kinda gal. but we will spend two weeks there and it will be the best time ever. i'm sure of it.

i want to see ecuador too, but 8 weeks is not long enough to know even a city, let alone two countries. but i would like to see ecuador. i really have had an obsession with ecuador for my whole life. i love that it is named for the equator, that the equator runs through it and that if i go there i can stand right on it. i can't really explain to you how long it took me to get over my excitement at the fact that the equator runs through ecuador! i'm still not fully over it. so i should probably go, since i'll be so close.

people say "what if they only offer a course in the fall?" and i say "well, then i can't go" like it's the most casual and natural thing. actually i am terrified. i'm the summer schedule away from embarking on the biggest adventure of my life and it could all go south based on an admin decision. but it will be okay. the courses will stay the same, they never change anyway. and i will be all alone in peru, with the leanmeanfightingmachine body that pete says i have to get if i want to go. aha. what a guy.

so that's where things stand. that's my main project right now. i have others, volunteer work and school and amassing fortunes, but this is the one i'm most excited about. if you want to buy me presents i'm interested in spanish lessons, guidebooks, and tevas.

influenza?

man, the stomach flu is an unrelenting bitch. it started creeping up on me during my seminar wednesday night. then it spent all day thursday blossoming, until i was folded over the toilet at pete's aunt & uncle's house at around 8:30 puking my guts out. but it couldn't be satisfied, no. it had to linger through friday and saturday, just enough to make my stomach churn in the face of food and to make me all lightheaded during the critical moment of my attack on bowser.

i got a nintendo wii for christmas. there goes my gpa.
my parents should know better.

repeat

i believe in the sand beneath my toes
the beach gives a feeling
an earthy feeling
i believe in the faith that grows
and the four right chords can make me cry

when i'm with you i feel like i could die
and that would be all right

[third eye blind, semi-charmed life]