Leavin' on a jet plane...

A quick update: I am in the Lima airport.  The countdown: six hours and 57 minutes until my plane takes off for the U.S.  Prayer requests: safe travels and no lost bags!  Also, no swine flu.  Haha!  There are so many people wearing masks in the airport that it's a little creepy.  But I regress.  Looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Me and Gregory sitting in Starbucks.  Yes, I am 23 and I have a bear I take with me on planes.  They are excellent pillows in a pinch.

  

Machu Pichu/The Fam continued

Dad and me in Huanchaco... drinking Champagne 

Squatting on a cool rock in Machu Picchu

The fam... can you guess where?

Thomas, Mom, our tour guide (Percy???) and Me

Me... and Machu Picchu

Parents, brothers, and Machu Picchu

My parents came to Trujillo last week.  We spent Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in 'The land of eternal spring' and then headed to Lima to meet my brother and fly on to Cusco.  It was an awesome week and, although it made me a bit more homesick than before, it was wonderful getting to hang out with them and show them where I've been living for the past nine or so months.  Here are some pics from our amazing week.

Dad and Me atop the Arevalo church.

Mom and Me atop Arevalo

Mom, Dad, and Me at Big Ben's in Huanchaco. (Correction, thanks to Janelle!)

Mom and me in Huanchaco... I can't remember the name of the boats behind us... ask my Dad if you know him =D

Thomas, a llama, and me in Machu Picchu.

More to come...

P.S.

P.S.:  My parents will be in Trujillo tomorrow night!  Yay!

Adventures in Traveling

Now that I am safely back home in the good old U.S. of A, I can look back at my travels to get here and laugh.  At the time most of the things that happened were not funny, but now, especially with a much clearer head, I can definitely chuckle.  

It actually started out Tuesday morning when I woke up with a sore throat.  At first I thought that it was just allergies so when I got to SALI I took some allergy medicine and hoped for the best.  Unfortunately, as the day progressed I started feeling worse, but of course I needed to head out, so I tried to ignore it.  Things came to a head when I reached the Lima airport and stood in line for at least 45 minutes in the line to check my bags.  I was starting to feel dizzy and was having more and more trouble swallowing.  By the time I got through customs I was hot and cold and having an extremely hard time thinking, much less speaking in Spanish or English for that matter.  When I couldn't find my gate I asked for help, or rather, signed that I needed help.  The woman, who thankfully spoke English, became instantly worried, got me to buy some water, and then took me to an airport employee.  Almost immediately, he called the airport doctor.  After checking me over and discovering that, big surprise, I had a fever and (I think) strep, told me that I needed an antibiotic and that unfortunately all they had was a shot, no pills.  Furthermore, they needed to give me the shot in the butt.  Yeah, I wasn't exactly cool with that, but they told me I might not be let on the plane.  So after finding a female employee who would go with me, I went to the bathroom and got my first ever shot in the butt... in the Lima airport...

Amazingly, a few hours later I could actually swallow and the fever had gone away.  I was so relieved that the fact that I couldn't really sleep on the plane didn't bother me.  After that the trip was fairly uneventful and I finally made it to Texas to enjoy a glass of wine and hot wings (great combo believe it or not) with my Dad.  

I'm so thankful to be back for a while and that I got sick while I was traveling and not working.  God is so good and I'm so thankful for His love and protection.  He was just reminding me of how He is in control and that no matter how bad things seem at the time He can take me through it.