Week 2 - Happy 2 year illiversary!

So this past Monday, September 21st, it was Caleb and I's 2 year anniversary. We were super excited to do something crazy and adventurous since we are in a foreign country, but Caleb's stomach decided to start a war with him, so we just had a cozy night in. We bought some fruit salad, and pastries and watched Princess and the Frog on netflix. Not the craziest night we've had since we've been married, but I know we'll have the opportunity to make up for it while living here in Peru. It's actually kind of tradition for us to delay events. We only had one night for our honeymoon since we were both in school, so we went on our "honeymoon" 3 months later in December. So it kind of works! :) 

On Tuesday we went to lunch with Gabi and Diego for her going away party. Let me explain. Gabi and Diego are from Pucallpa which is the Jungle part of Peru. Her mom still lives there with Gabi's 6 year old daughter. Gabi came to Trujillo to work and earn some money, but is going back to the jungle to be with her daughter and to help her mom because her mom is struggling with some health issues. So on Tuesday we went to this nicer restaurant, which had excellent food and took pictures and celebrated her "going away", something else that they do here in Peru. 

At the restaurant with Diego, Christi,
Stephanie, Gabi and Caleb

The same picture with me in it :)

My Salad. It was in a avocado, with carrots,
potatoes, peas and chicken in a mayo sauce,
it was really good!

My Chicken, rice and beans. My staple lunch here.

Gabi and I. Gabi ordered these spring roll things with cream cheese in them.
They are just like won tons but in spring roll form. Muy Rico. (Very Delicious)

Our Dessert, Pineapple in a fruit sauce.
He was still sick so he only ate soup, poor guy.
For this entire meal, the salad, main course, dessert and
juice (and remember this is at a fancier restaurant) it only cost
us 10 soles, which is a little over $3. It's so crazy how cheap
food is here, but we love it!

Caleb went to the Dr. on Monday and was given some medicine. No one really knows why Caleb's stomach decided to attack him, but I suspect Salmonella. He was ordered by the Dr. to eat no meat, fruits, or milk products which was a little rough on him. He was stuck eating soup and drinking Gatorade for the next couple of days. (As you saw in the picture above, he did cheat a little bit and had a bite of the pineapple oops, but who can blame him). I report that he is now doing better..... for the most part, and is back eating a normal diet. I started getting sick on Tuesday with a sore throat, sinuses, and a headache, which is what Caleb had been dealing with the previous week. Thank you Caleb. I think it was a cold or the flu, but I was basically in bed the rest of the week. Because of not feeling well, I didn't go to my volunteer program, so I have nothing to talk about there. 

Aren't they beautiful?

On Wed. Caleb, Stephanie, Gabi and I went shoe shopping! Gabi wanted to buy her daughter some shoes before she left so we went to shoe heaven!! This was the place that I had bought my shoes at with Gabi last week, but it was Caleb and Stephanie's first time in shoe heaven and boy were they in awe. I'll have to take a picture of it next time we go because it's really hard to do it justice. It's literally hallways and hallways of shoes stores and hundred's of thousands of shoes. We didn't buy any shoes on Wed. but Caleb and Stephanie took Christi later on in the week, and Caleb got his new pair of real leather brown church shoes, and a pair of indoor soccer shoes. His real leather shoes were $25 dollars. Right? Crazy huh? So fun fact, Trujillo is known for their shoes. They have a lot of tannery's here and are mostly known for their leather shoes. This is where all the other cities in Peru import their shoes from. Because of this, we can get shoes so cheap! We may be bringing a suitcase of shoes home. Christmas presents anyone?

Tacos

Anyways, Wed. was the day I got really sick, walking around all day really did me in so I just came home and slept instead of going to my NGO (Not for profit volunteer program, NGO is what they call it here in Peru). Wednesday night we held a big fiesta for Gabi's going away party!! Ashley's mom sent her taco seasoning packets so we made ground beef tacos, I made no bake cookies with the peanut butter I brought, and Stephanie made passion fruit pie, which was really good, especially since she had to bake the crust in the microwave because we don't have an oven. We then turned dance music on and had a little dance party. I got the dance fever and started showing everyone how to Latin dance. We danced the salsa, mamba, cha cha and samba. We also did line dances like the wobble, the boot scootin boogie, the macarena and etc. haha. Then Diego and Gabi, (and Ashley's boyfriend Eduardo) showed us some traditional Peruvian dances. It was so fun! Sadly, I paid for the dancing while being sick, the next day but it was worth it to have one last crazy night with Gabi. 

Dancing Salsa

It was a very bittersweet couple of days for me because I feel like I was getting really close to Gabi. She has such a sweet spirit about her, and she is so sincere and kind. Though I wasn't able to have deep conversations with Gabi because of the language barrier, were able to spend a lot of time together, running errands, helping each other with the language and just hanging out. For those of you who know me, I'm not the kind of girl that has a lot of girlfriends, so getting close to her was kind of a big deal for me. I was able to write her a letter in Spanish (thanks to google translate) and I got us friendship bracelets. Caleb and I are hoping to be able to fly out to the jungle and visit Gabi and her family because it's supposed to be amazing and beautiful. Hopefully that will happen so I can see my new friend again!

The next day, we said our farewells to Gabi and Caleb was able to go to the institute and play soccer and futbol (soccer) with some of the young adults. I stayed home to say goodbye to Gabi, and sleep off my sickness. Blah. On Friday Caleb went to dinner with Alejandro, the boss of Danper's social responsibility department, and the other interns. I decided not to go with them because I still wasn't feeling well. On Saturday Christi and Stephanie went to Chan Chan, which is some Ruins in Peru, but we stayed home because it's like a 5 hour tour and I still wasn't quite feeling my best. Diego said that he would take Caleb and I sometime so look forward to that post in the near future. Caleb went and played soccer with the taxi driver from Danper for like 3 hours while I stayed home and studied Spanish. After he finally got home, Me, Diego and Caleb went to eat some dinner at a place called Roky's. It's a more pricey restaurant but it has karaoke at it so we had a fun night eating and singing. I rapped, Caleb sang two songs, one in English and one in Spanish and Diego sang a song in English. He was so nervous but he did great. Karaoke in Peru is very different then what you'd expect. You just stay in your seat to sing, they give you a microphone and people don't really cheer each other on. Haha they just kinda stare at you, especially when we started cheering for everyone. They were probably thinking, "What's wrong with those crazy white people!" We had a lot of fun though, and Diego is easily becoming one of Caleb's new best friends. 

Diego!

Caleb!

On Sunday, at church it was the coolest thing, Fabiola, the lady that Caleb and I visited with, with the missionaries the prior week, came to church with her two little girls. Her husband was traveling so he wasn't able to make it. It was so exciting to see them there. When the 6 year old turned around and looked at us as we waved, she got so excited and told her mom that Estaci and Caleb were behind them. Fabiola seemed excited to see us, and even came to sit by us. I think it was helpful because we helped keep the girls distracted so it was a little easier for her to listen to the testimonies. She left after sacrament but the missionaries made another appointment with her for later that night and invited us to go with them. We were able to go with them to a couple of other homes as well and listen to the discussions. Caleb and I went with the American missionary on splits to 3 different homes. We went to the home of a guy named Martin, who is a member but just recently became active again, and taught him about service. We went to another members home, who is not very active at the moment, invited him to church and then went to Fabiola's home. We just asked her about church and whether she had any questions. She told us that it was really crazy to see her 6 yr. old daughter, Brenda, love me as much as she does. She stated that she usually takes a really long time to open up to people, but with me, she tested the water quickly and then became attached instantly. This made me very happy to hear because Brenda is adorable and I adore her. I just need to learn more Spanish so I can communicate with her better. 

So not a super exciting week, but there were still a lot of fun experiences. Hopefully this week both Caleb and I can feel better at the same time so we can have some more exciting adventures. We are also looking forward to General Conference that is this weekend, and hearing who are 3 new apostles will be. 

We love and miss all our family members and friends but are loving being here and making new memories that will stay with us forever. 

Thanks for reading and following us on this crazy journey called life.
Until next week,
Chao.