home again

I am sitting in my parent's house right now! That's crazy!

Yesterday we had a free day in Lima. We had to be out of our hotel rooms in Lima by 12:30, but we weren't leaving to go to the airport until 6, so we shoved all of our stuff in one hotel room and went out for a few hours in the early afternoon to eat some food and do some shopping. I must say, I was quite tired of shopping, so while my friends shopped, I sang songs and kept suggesting that we find food. Eventually they listened to me, and we went to go eat! For my final meal in Peru, I took advantage of the delicious fruit juice, which I will miss very very much.

Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel room where all of our stuff was and we spent a few hours there just relaxing and laughing.

At 6:00 we loaded everything into a bus and road to the airport, where we hung out some more for a few hours! At about 2:00 AM we took off and headed to Atlanta. When we got there, we had about an hour to get through customs, get our luggage, check in our luggage again, and go through security before our next flight, which was on a different terminal. We were almost literally flying through the airport, but we got to the gate in time and made our flight to Grand Rapids where my lovely family was waiting for me!!

And now I'm back. It's been nice to relax with Mom and Dad and Ben. I feel like my mouth has been running non-stop, telling them all about everything that has happened in the last week, and other stories that keep coming to mind. I keep starting to talk in Spanish, only to realize that they don't understand me at all. Oops!!

This semester has been amazing and I am so grateful! As I think about it now, I realize that I was never ever sick this semester (unless we count when I threw up over the Nasca lines... but we're not going to count that). My body never reacted badly to the food, or to the altitude. And my computer worked all semester, only by the grace of God!

There are so many things about Arequipa that I am going to miss. It is hard to not be there. But there are good things about being here, too, and I know that God has a plan that will blow my mind, just like this semester has blown my mind. I trust Him, though I don't have any clue what is ahead. That's a pretty good place to be, I think.