More than a month!

I am so sorry to everyone who might be a loyal follower just waiting for updates from my life. (Who am I kidding, this is just something fun to read when there is a new post. No one is going to die if I don't put something up.)

Well, I can tell you one thing for sure. It has not been boring and there have been many exciting things that have happened and/or are going to happen soon.

First, I have an awesome violin teacher who has tons of years of experience teaching suzuki and playing all over the world. She is not only giving my lessons but once a month I go out to her awesome house in Coya (one of the poorest towns in the Sacred Valley) and we have a yummy dinner and the following morning we have a good 2 hour pedagogy session. I am going to give her husband some English lessons in return.

Second, I have recently gained four more violin students which puts my total to 20! I couldn't be more excited! This is only going to help me save a little faster for my trip home to Evanston and camp in May! Which brings me to my next happy point...Marco is going to come with my when I travel home next May. He is going to stay for 10 days and I am going to stay for a month and a half so I can work a month a camp. I am beyond excited to bring him home. He will already have met my brother and my mom by that time so it will just be a new meeting for my dad and him and Judy of course! He has to wait until January to reserve tickets and get a resolution from the military that will allow him to go. He has to have an interview in Lima as well before he they issue a visa. It is a super long process which is the complete opposite for any American wanting to come to Peru. Just hop on a plane and ask for your amount of days when you go through immigration at the airport in Lima. I am really hoping that the military official and having ties to Peru will make getting the visa a sinch. We shall see but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

In other happy news, we are adopting a dog named Pepe! He is a 2 and a half year old English cocker spaniel and is absolutely adorable He is somewhat trained too but he doesn't get cars so it is unsafe still to let him off the leash near cars; only in big fields. I walk him twice a week. Actually, I am running with him twice a week. He has given me the motivation to run and get some exercise. I find it funny actually because the first few times he was super flojo (lazy) and didn't want to run. He was just out of the habit though. He is much better now. His momma is Australian and she is headed back there at the end of November and because of that she was looking for someone to adopt Pepe. She wanted to bring him home with her but the laws regarding bringing pets back to Australia are really difficult to go through with and Pepe would most likely be living with the Australian government for a while. Not cool. Anyway, Marco told me he wanted to get me a puppy but he is happy now. I brought Pepe over to his new home for a visit last Sunday and daddy to be and Pepe played together. The one thing we agree upon is training him not to sleep in the bed with us. Unfortunately, he has that habit with Zara so it might take a little bit to break it out of him but he is still young so it shouldn't be too difficult. We shall see.

I sent in my matriculation fee for the classes I am going to take in Lima in January. I might be staying with a friend of Marco's family in San Isidro which would be really nice. I will be there for almost 2 full weeks taking the certification courses in book 1 and book 2. I am totally stoked and all I have left to do is turn in the video of me playing two songs from book four for the possibility of getting a scholarship! That would rock but if not, it's only 160 bucks for the two classes.

Finally, my mom is coming to visit in less than a month! I am beyond excited! We are going to see Machu Picchu together and possibly the Sacred Valley tour but the most important thing is that she is going to be here for my birthday and for Thanksgiving. I am going to make a sweet potato and pumpkin pie. The only down side is that we won't have the extra room anymore. My roommate's mom came for two months and stayed in the extra room and now my roommate wants another person to live here. I don't blame her for wanting to make cheaper rent but it would've been nice if she had waited one more month. It's all good though because I have a big bed and mom will stay in it and I can stay at Marco's. I am pretty much there all the time already.

That's it for now! Have a great Thursday everyone!