¡¡My LaTe birthday party!!

a happy "birthday" girl

that was after they dunked my face into the cake, and that's Tefy's mom, my aunt Chela

the one in the blue shirt is my brother Javier, and those are his study buddies. they were studying for a big exam the next day

Ricardo, Carlos, Maria and I

my mom, my sister Kathy and her long term boyfriend Karloncho

Ricardo, Tefy, Maria and I

Ricardo and I (he calls me his little sister, because he is whiter than most peruvians and we both have green eyes =))

Maria and I making the pizza....so did Tefy, but she took the picture =)

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday because on the 30th of december, which is my actual birthday I went to the beach and then in January I was in Chiclayo for two weeks and we never had time to have a little party with cake. So yesterday I turned 16+1 month and a half. =)

In the afternoon Maria, a friend of ours, invited Tefy and me to go eat ice cream. When we got home we started preparing a pizza, which is a rather rare thing here in Peru.

Then Ricardo and Carlos came and we hung out, ate pizza and drank sangria, which is a type of wine. Then they got the cake I had picked out and eveyone sang first happy birthday and then cumpleaños feliz for me. Then they held the cake up to me and told me to take a bite, so I did and Ricardo shoved my face into the cake, which is a peruvian birthday custom. But he didn't shove very hard, so my face wasn't totally dunked into the cake, but it was definatley fun. Then we ate cake, sat around and talked. It was just my clostest friends and family, and it was really fun.

-------> By the way... we took these pictures with Tefy's camera, since mine is now entirely broken, and her camera is kind of old and doesn't work that well, so the date that shows on every picture is over 4 years wrong. *haha*

Boy news =(

So what did I do yesterday? - Break up with my boyfriend =( Just didn't work out anymore... We were a couple for a little more than 2 months...

¡¡Vacation!!

February is one of the hottest months here in Piura. The main cities here in Peru have a nickname and Piura is "city of the eternal heat". Around lunch time the temparature sometimes goes over 40°C. We don't even bother to leave the house until after 3 pm, cause the sun is so hot, and even if you put on sun block you get a sunburn. Well, not everyone - I do, anyway...
There's always something to do around the house like cleaning the windows or sweaping the floor, and I often help my aunt cook lunch, so I'm learning to cook,...more or less =)
The rest of the time I spend with Tefy, my sister/ brothers and my friends.

One day we suddenly didn't have any water anymore in the whole house, so we went to ask the neighbour, who has a water tank, to "lend" us some water, so we could at least cook lunch. Then we showered pouring water from a bucket over ourselfs with a cup, which was a nice experience. =)
But then, the next day the water came back and everybody was relieved.

Back home =))

I got back home yesterday in the evening. Tefy, Ricardo, Jose and another friend Mafer were waiting for me and I spent the rest of the evening with them. Said hi to my mom, my 2 brothers, my sister and my aunt- it's sure good to be home. =)

Chiclayoo!!

Museo de Sipan

Stefan de Islandia y Lucy de Autria tomando Chicha - a really tasty tradicional drink with a little alcohol

Kimmi, the future AFS Chiclayo president - Inca Cola =)

rice fields Kimmi, Daniel de Autria y yo

Carmen and me

Part of the whole AFS is a short exchange to another city and to live with another family for 15 days. Nancy, the AFS Piura president, told me that I would have a sister called Carmen, who was 30, and a mom and a dad.
The night before I left Steve wrote me a message to be at his house at 7am the next day to go together to the bus station and see if we could travel that day because there was some kind of barrier in the road. We asked and they told us that the buses to Chiclayo/Trujillo ( which is where Steve is going ) had no problem passing. So I went home to pack my stuff and then with Steve to the bus station. We said goodbye and I went to Chiclayo by myself, which is an about 3 hour bus ride.

Nancy had told me to wait for an Afs volunteer to come pick me up and take me to my family when I arrived in Chiclayo. I sat and waited and then a lady came up to me and asked me if I was Danella. I said "yes" and she said " hola, soy Carmen". She looked older than 30, so I was a little skeptical, and then I found out she was 41 and her parents both close to 70 years old. Even the guitar they have is 40 years old, so I'm the only young thing in the house. =) Carmen had gone to the US in 1986 as an AFS student and her family had been a host family twice already. They are all really nice!!

FRIENDS

Tefy and Carlos

Sergio, me and Carlos
Sergio and Ricardo My teddy and I

my brother Gian Pierre and I

Tefy and I

"--"

On night we got together with acouple of our friends from our old class. We sat outside Jose's house, talked, laughed and had a blast. Tefy and i took my little brother Gian Pierre with us and we took lots of pictures. =)

Mojann!!! corre!!!!!!!!!!

So, here in Peru in summer the people of all ages like to get water baloons and hit you with them when you're randomly walking down the street, so you always have to have your eyes ( and ears ) open, and be ready to run. It really wouldn't matter, if they'd just throw the baloons at you to get you wet, because it's so hot here, and that would feel good, but the thing is that they don't just get you wet, they come up to you and touch you in all kinds of places, which is rather uncomfortable.

Tefy and I were walking to the main street to take a taxi to the center, when Tefy yelled" mojan!!! corre!!!!", which means " they have baloons!!! run!!!!. She grabbed my hand and we started running back where we came from. About 15 boys of all ages were right behind us.

--------------------------

We asked a man, who was washing his car, for help, and he opened his gate for us, so we could stand in the front part of the building until the boys were gone, but they just kept standing outside. Then one of the boys asked Tefy if she was Ricardo´s girlfriend, and when she said yes, the boy yelled: ¡¡¡no las mojan!!! ( don't throw the baloons at them), which was kind of funny. They left and when we felt safe, we thanked the man and went to the center get some stuff done.

In the evening my parents took me by car to my friend Valeria's house. Later that night we went to buy gum, to the nearest kiosk. We were walking and talking and suddenly like 5 or 6 guys came up to us and starting throwing water baloons at us. I tried to dodge the last one, but it was already too late anyway, because my whole but and part of my shirt in th back were already soaking wet. The only good thing about this experience was that in the evenings it's still kind of warm, so at least we didn't freeze and get sick. This was definatly an experience I will never forget in all of my life. =)