¡Vamos a Perú!

Hola la familia y los amigos! Emily and I are so eager to begin our journey in Peru! We definitely want to keep you all updated as much as possible while we're gone, so this is our first post!

Emily and Lauren's Great Adventure to Peru

Some fun Peruvian facts:

• The country of Peru covers 1,285,220 sq. kilometers, which is about the size of Alaska.
• Indigenous peoples in Peru form about 45% of the total population.
• The indigenous populations of Peru continue to suffer serious marginalization due to their social, economic, and cultural differences.
• 53% of the population live below the poverty line earning just $14 per week.
• 24% of the population live in extreme poverty, living off of $8 per week.
• 37% of young Peruvian children are chronically malnourished.
• More than 600,000 Peruvians still have no access to water, electricity, or sewage infrastructure.
• Peru is famous for pisco sours, ceviche, ponchos, pan pipes, and the Inca ruins.

Why we are going:

Our Almighty God has created a beautiful earth, full of majestic landscapes and unique people that display His Glory. We feel led to explore the earth that God has created in order to know more of Him. By placing ourselves out of our comfort zones, we are able to learn from other people and cultures, embrace diversity, share the life-changing love and grace of Christ and the Cross, and draw closer to our Father. As the Lord goes before us, we are eager to share the Gospel with those that we'll meet. We travel to deepen our understanding of ourselves, others, the world, and Christ, always seeking to bring Him glory.

Our Itinerary:

June 1 - Leave Atlanta 7:10 PM (American Airlines Flight 1945 - Atlanta to Miami; LAN Flight 2511 -Miami to Lima) 

June 2 - Arrive in Lima, Peru 4:35 AM

June 3 - Bus to Huancayo, Peru

June 4-9 - Volunteer with Esperanza Peru. We will be helping to build clean stoves for families living in a rural community.

June 10 - Bus back to Lima, Peru

June 11 - Fly to Cuzco

June 12-17 - Hang out in Cuzco

June 18 - Visit Machu Picchu

June 19 - Back to Cuzco

June 20 - Bus to Puno

June 21-22 - Stay with family on Lake Titikaka

June 23 - Bus to Arequipa

June 24-26 - Trek into and out of the Colca Canyon (It's more than 2x's deeper than the Grand Canyon - Wish us luck and lots of energy :))

June 27 - Bus to Lima

June 28 - Hang out in Lima

June 29 - Fly to Iquitos (It's in the middle of the Amazon Jungle and considered the largest city that cannot be reached by road)

June 30-July 2 - Live with an Indigenous community in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest.

July 3-4 - Relax in Lima

July 5 - Arrive in Atlanta 5:40 PM (LAN Flight 2514 - Lima to Miami; American Airlines Flight 1610 - Miami to Atlanta)

Prayer Requests:

Please pray that we would remain in good health, for our safety as we travel and for opportunities to invest in the lives of others. Most importantly, pray that Jesus Christ would be glorified as we seek to make much of Him.

Thank you for all of your support! We are so blessed to have such wonderful people that care for us and rejoice with us in the opportunities that God has laid before us!

- Lauren and Emily

My most scatterbrained post ever.

Although I've taken a brief recess from my blogging days, I thought it would be a good idea to write a few things to remember my last semester of college by.  So...3 months in I'm finally sitting down to do it.  Actually I'm doing it during my day of classes, but nevertheless, it will be done.  I have mixed feelings about what these next few months will bring, but I do know with overwhelming certainty that God is and will continue to be faithful to me.  This one truth is what keeps me so joyful when the job market (that I will soon be entering into) seems dismal and my future seems unclear.

All in all I'm trying to enjoy these last few months before I enter "the real world" as some tend to call it.  A little more than half way into the semester I've learned a few things that I feel will thoroughly equip me for what lies ahead:

1. It's pointless to attempt to take notes from a foreign professor's lecture.

2. Not having a TV doesn't necessarily reduce the amount of distractions.

3. The ratio of coffee to sleep deprivation is low (aka not enough coffee, not enough sleep)

4. Although I'm sure I would enjoy the country of Germany, I might forever have contempt for the German language because of my Strategic Management professor.

5. Poetry can convey so many horrible horrible things...along with some really good and useless things too.

Funny story: My grandmother called last night but I didn't answer. Her message said, "I just now saw that you called and am calling you back, blah blah, i loooooove you." I had never called her. I called her back today just in case she needed to talk and she answered the phone with, "So how crazy do you think your grandmother is now." I love her more than ever :).

The Home Stretch

Well, it's official...I have nothing to do. I just turned in my final assignment and all that is left to do is go to class. We're struggling to find things to do because most of the other students have a lot of work left to do. So we've resolved to watch the tv show House with our friend Danielle. It's very refreshing to be done with all of my work, but I still feel like I should be doing something haha. I've really been trying to soak up the last few days here with my friends, which is probably what's most important to me (that and sleep). It's very bittersweet that the semester is...

Oh wow. i just have to insert a comment here because I'm in the library and a girl that I'm sitting next to just applied her spray deodorant...in public. That's all. I guess I'd rather her wear deodorant than not though...

So as I was saying...It's very bittersweet that the semester is over. I've so fully enjoyed my time here and don't want to leave this new and different experience that I feel like I've just begun, but I am so eager to get home to my family and everything that awaits me there. With Christmas just around the corner, 9 days...but who's counting :), I'm trying to keep my mind constantly turned to the gift of Jesus, and redemption through him. It really is such a fascinating thought, that the Son of God coming down, humbly but also mightily, to bring us life to its fullest. I know that my words will never do justice to the greatness and gloriousness that Christ brings and offers to us, but in a single phrase, it captivates my heart and always will. Although it's the holiday season in England as well, it just doesn't feel like Christmas to me, which is why I'm so excited to go home. I know that wherever I am, I will always be filled with inexpressible joy at Christmastime, but I believe that joy is expressed so much more when I'm surrounded by those who share in it with me. 

With all that said, for the next few days I will be enjoying my last few days in the UK with my friends, but I can't wait to see all of you soon and am so excited to share joy with you this holiday season!

¡Viva España!

¡Hola! It is with ease and great pleasure that I proclaim that Spain was officially one of my favorite times of this entire trip. Other than the obvious reason (my love for the Spanish language), everything about Spain, minus the throngs of people, was captivating. The weather was around 50 or 60 which is so much nicer than the 30 or 40 we are used to here in Ormskirk. We arrived around supper time on Friday, which we desperately needed. We met our friend Mark at the hostel and headed to go find a place for dinner. There was a nice tapas bar across the street that we settled on and I proceeded to have one of the greatest meals I've had in a long time. Wanting to be authentically Spanish, I went for the vegetable paella and some sangria...I was a VERY happy camper. The paella rivaled some of the best meals I've ever eaten, and the sangria was a perfect mixture of fruit and wine. I definitely want to find a recipe of each when I get home. We walked around for a bit and got some time to catch up with Mark before heading off to bed. Saturday we woke up extremely earlier than everyone else (no one's awake at 10?) apparently because no one was out as we walked around. We headed to La Rambla which is a famous pedestrian street in Barcelona known for it's markets, performers, and (cheap!) shopping. It's also well known for pickpocketing, but all of us managed to come out with all that we went in with. La Rambla was definitely a highlight, and we spent most of the rest of the day walking around and managed to get some very tasty gelato that night :).

Mark left us the next morning, and after a very tasty Starbucks we headed to Casa Batlló, a house designed by Antoni Guadí to look like an underwater castle. It was gorgeous! I might easily get a little nauseous living there, but it was beautiful none-the-less. We then headed to see a Cathedral designed by Gaudí called La Sagrada Familia. Guadí's designs are insane, so this church isn't scheduled to be completed until 2026! I'll be 40! Wow. After seeing the church we decided to get lunch and then some more gelato and after one final visit to La Rambla, we headed back to the hostel to rest and get ready for dinner. We ate at the same restaurant from the first night, had our last toast with sangria and our last scoops of gelato before heading to bed. Monday we headed towards the Arc de Triomf, the Spanish version, to take some pictures and walk through the park behind it on our way to the bus station. 

All in all our trip seemed pretty perfect (minus the delayed flight home). I feel as though Spain was the perfect way to end our travels here. With less than 2 weeks left, we all needed some good time to relax and laugh with each other and Spain facilitated that beautifully...gotta love it. Also, as some of you know, I turned 22 last week! I thank you all so much for your birthday wishes and am so blessed to have had another year to be joyful about! The night before, my friends here (we call ourselves the festive friends) decorated my room and we had a little party full of cake and balloons and the movie "The Holiday." We also went out for a superb dinner in town the night of my birthday and I had a glorious glass of red wine with my pasta. I could not ask for a better way to celebrate my 22nd year! Click on the link below for pictures of España!

¡Viva España!

Happy Turkey!

Hey everyone! I finally got our video tour uploaded so that you can all see our house! Just click on the links below to go watch the videos. We had to do two separate videos since someone was in the bathroom when we wanted to show it to you...Enjoy! I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! I am very thankful for all of you!

Video 1

Video 2

Marissa, Danielle, me, Lauren, and Angie at the Thanksgiving festivities!

The Luck of the Irish.

It's almost time for Turkey Day! It's a cold Sunday here, lots of refreshing rain! Sorry it's been a while since I've updated. I've been working very hard on all of my coursework so that I can have some time to relax and enjoy the last few weeks that we're here. Today we went to a church in Ormskirk and enjoyed it a lot. Very traditional, and there's also an earlier service that they said was "happy clappy" (lots of kids) so we might try that one next time. After church, since the dining hall on campus is only open from 11-12 and 5-6 on sundays, we stopped by subway to enjoy a toasted sub :). Now we're just sitting in the library catching up on news and enjoying the warmth. I'm listening to wonderful Christmas music right now. I can't believe in 32 days we'll be celebrating another Christmas! Time has really flown by here.

Well, I got another stamp in my passport! We headed to Ireland early yesterday morning. I'm pretty sure we were one of the first flights out. We had a really nice taxi driver on the way to the airport, so it made the early ride a bit more fun. Once we figured out how to get to the centre of the city, we headed to a cafe mentioned in my Let's Go! book that Chris and Ashley gave me. It had the best scones in the world. Not that I've eaten every scone in the world, but they were really tasty. I had an apple-cinnamon scone with a hot chocolate. It tasted just like fall. We walked all through the city and got to see Trinity College (the "Irish Oxford"), St. Patrick's Cathedral (a graduation was being held though, so we didn't get to go inside), the Guinness Storehouses, Dublin Castle, and a had a wonderful Irish meal at a pub. After walking around a few shops we headed back to the airport for our flight back to Liverpool. I didn't see as many redheads or sheep as I anticipated, but Ireland was definitely a great trip!

Oh and to everyone who doesn't know, I dyed my hair darker. Hope you'll still be my friends after!

My new hair!

Dublin!

Trinity College. Tried to go in the cool super old library, but apparently you have to pay 8 euros to read. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral. They were doing construction on the tower.

At the Guinness Storehouses in front of the Christmas tree!

Christmas time is here!!!!

Free pint of Guiness + me being goofy.

Dublin Castle

The throne in the room where the president gets inaugurated. 

A sitting area in the Palace. It's decorated really pretty so I thought I'd put a picture up.

Bar where we had yummy dinner.

Lauren and me in front of the lit up Christmas tree in the city centre!

Some Pictures!

I had so many pictures that I didn't want y'all to miss out on any of the greatness, so I put them up on another website where you can go through an album. Just click here for pictures...or on the link below. After you get to the web page click on the picture of the Eiffel Tower and then the first picture of the bunch and scroll through using the arrow keys! Enjoy!

Pictures!