whoa!

It has been an interesting couple of days for sure!I will just start from last Thursday....Thursdays are the nights that we have family dinner at the house.. it is usually cooked by the newest volunteers to come into the house.. so this time.. it was prepared by two girls from argentina, Julieta and Noellia.  They prepared empanadas.. YUMMY! while they were preparing it they realized the only glitch ewas the fact that we only have one very small oven.. so they walked to the empanadas to bakeries in the area to see if they would cook them for us.. everyone said no but one place a few blocks over.. i can't imagine walking into a bakery in the states and asking them to cook something for me! We finally ate around 10 PM and the empanadas were delicious.. both julieta and and Noellia have vowed to never make empanadas again in Peru!
    Friday night Danny, a girl who has been here almost a year, volunteered to teach us how to make pizza for dinner!! A lot of people were out of the house so it was nice that only a few people hung around for the pizza making! it was a great night.. good music. dancing around the kitchen and lots of laughs! my kind of night!!!
      Friday night was an early night because all of the girls had decided to get up early and go to the Sol Market. Sol Market is the nme us gringas gave it because the currency in Peru is Soles (Sol) and everything at this market is basically a Sol... unless your name is Liz and then they always charge you FIVE SOLES!!! So the Sol Market is a bout a ten minute walk from  our house.... it is basically a street where people lay out all sorts of clothes on a giant blanket .. and i do mean all sorts of clothes!! there were people sleeping on piles of used clothes too.. not just children.. but adults too.. laugh out loud.. kinda funny seeing grown adults sleeping on piles of clothes they are trying to sell!  it was fun seeing the american shirts that were being sold there.. i even saw one from Dallas with the Ernst N Young symbol on it! Small world huh! i found a great shirt that on the back said "Goodbye Michael.. from Baltimore to Beijung"  i loved that stupid shirt because it was such a personal shirt and i had no clue who michael was..i know i am a weirdo! the woman tried to sell it to me for 5 soles which is roughly a $1.15.... i felt like she was trying to scam because i was a gringo and i declined their offer... i realize as i m writing this how ridiculous i sound though! I ended up only buying a really cute dress that was actually brand new! i think i have even it sold in the states..
     One of my housemates, Zoe, suggested we do a ten sol challenge where we can only spend 10 sols and buy the most ridiculous outfits and have a modeling session! that would be hysterical!!!!
    Saturday night we celebrated our volunteer coordinator's birthday, Karolina, at a fancy house in the country.  Liz, an English volunteer, is dating a guy named Javier.. we had the party at Javier's uncle's house ... it was a great little house.. you would never know it was there because it was on this street that looked like rubbish.. but when you got inside the gate it was a bit of paradise.. lush green grass, an area for dancing, a small little chapel, horses, it backed to the mountains.  it it such a stark contrast from what we see everyday in El Porvenir. This is the same Uncle that owns the fancy nightclub that we went to a few weeks back.
   Sunday we bussed it to Huanchaco and laid on the beach all day! it was awesome because the sun was finally out... i feel so sun deprived here.. so it was great!

It was great chill weekend and just what i needed!!