Granny

Today was a day I will never forget. Today was the first day I ever did yard work.  Today was the first day that I wished I could do anything else than have to go to the hospital to see my grandpa in pain.  Today was the first day I got to see T Scott after 2 years.

Today I got the phone call that Granny got called back to live with our Heavenly Father.  I don't feel as though my writing could do her any justice-she was sweet, loving, kind, and an example to all those around her.  I know she is in a better place.  I know she is where she is supposed to be now, but it does not make it any easier to know that she will not be here with us.  I feel blessed to have had the 2 1/2 years that I got to know her.  I feel blessed to know that she will be in heaven as a guardian angel to the rest of us still here.  I wish I would have gone and visited her a little bit more.  I wish I would have gone to see her once I got home from Peru.  I wish I would have given her those slippers that I bought her.  I wish so many things  but I know that when it comes down to it the most important thing that I hope she knows is how much I love her.  Gran, you will always be thought of.  You will always be remembered.  Thank you for caring for me as if I were one of your own.  I love you.

Love,

Morgan Alexis

ramblings of morgan alexis..

sometimes i just have a knot in my stomach and the only way it goes away is if i write my feelings down. since i have come back from peru i have truly felt like a different person. i like who i am now and i am going to work so hard to not go back to the snappy, mean morgan that lived in arizona before going to peru. i have felt so much more at ease with myself and have felt feelings that i didn't realize existed in my body-sometimes i just don't know what to do with myself. often i enjoy just bottling up my emotions and getting angry and upset and crying weeks down the road but i realized that it's just not very healthy for me. this post is really going to just be a jumble of things because as fast as an idea flies into my head another one follows it. tonight i am going swimming with a bunch of girls (hopefully) and i am having a small anxiety attack. i love who i am inside but it's time to change what is going on outside of me cause when i look in the mirror that's not who i want to be or how i feel. i have come to realize how sensitive of a person i really am and it's hard to push those feelings away or hide them somewhere else in my body. i let people hurt my feelings sometimes and i just don't say anything about it because i don't want to hurt others feelings by pointing it out. is that a good thing? i am not so sure but i do just feel sad sometimes when it happens. usually i would channel all of the sadness into anger but i don't have the energy or desire to do that anymore. i want to stay me and be happy and have confidence that people love me for who i am.

Peru Pictures on OVERLOAD

View at the table in Spanish class

Sheep crossing in Puno

Table setting at restaurant at Lake Titicaca

Cristo Blanco with Rachel

Really cool, fluffy, giant al paca hat 

Little boy dressed in costume at festival in Plaza de Armas

View in Plaza de Armas

Me & Rach sitting in Plaza de Armas on our last day

View from the plane from Cusco to Lima

Me, Rach, Nichelle, Heather, Sarah, and Marisee at Qorikancha in front of the flag of Cusco

Me & Rach at Maras Salt mines

Me & Rach at Moray

Me, Rach, & Mamita at our fiesta!

La hija de la guia de Lago Titicaca

Sunset over Lake Titicaca at the top of a mountain in Amantani

Emma, Raf, Me, Rach, Heather, Rachel, Sarah, & Nichelle on top of boat on Lake Titicaca

Me & Rach in Tequile

Me & one of the girls at the orphanage

More boys dressed in costume at a festival in Plaza de Armas

Me & Walter walking down the street on our 2nd to last day of class

Me & Vicentina

Me with some girls at the orphanage

Me & Yina

Us with Walter and our diplomas hahahahaha

Us with Joao aka el diablo

The floors by our Spanish class (I LOVE THEM)

Holding a lamb and paying only 1 sol instead of 10 soles hahaha

Walt loved his present we got him! So precious.

Me in front of the fountain in Plaza de Armas

LLAMA!

Pretending to ride a llama

Incas!

Me & Ilona

Saying our last goodbyes to our mamita ;(

Last day of Class, July 15th

Obviously I didn’t write about the last two/three ish days of my trip yet so I now need to back track about my amazing experience. I think a lot of the reason I didn’t write was because it was a very emotional experience and I couldn’t help but be sad when writing these last few entries.  We went to class and of course gave our big present to Walter. He was quite emotional when teaching us and all three of us knew there was a big elephant in the room.  It wasn’t until Walter gave an example in Spanish that said something along the lines of having to go back to the United States and I just saw the tears well up in his eyes.  Of course I am an emotional bawl baby and couldn’t hold back the tears so I had to excuse myself to the bathroom to get my act together.  Once I recovered we learned more Spanish then took our tea break and hung out. Rachel has an app on her iPhone where you can record someone then speed up or slow down his/her voice so we had Walter say something and then changed his voice. Oh boy did he get a kick out of that! He sang the cutest little song and we loved it. It was such a great last day of class. After taking lots of pictures, we finally went back inside our classroom where we had Walt open his present. He was so SWEET and loved everything we got him (or so it looked). Haha. It was about 11:30 {1 hour before class ended} and Walter decided to end class because he said he was just going to cry for the last hour. He was SO sweet. I love him so much and I feel so blessed to have met Walt.  After class we just got to walk around town and hang out since we had already finished our last day at the orphanage. It was fun being able to hang out and not having anything to worry about for the rest of the day. We eventually came home and watched movies, talked on skype, and stayed up til the early hours of the morning til we finally went to sleep. 

thinkin..

i am missing my bry today. with each passing day it seems as though i love him more. i can't believe he has been gone for 6 weeks already-it seems like it has gone by so slow yet so fast. i love him more than words can express. i feel blessed to have someone so great in my life. B, thanks for being the best friend i could ever ask for! miss you more than you will ever understand.

Emotional Roller Coaster, July 14th

Today was a great day-both happy and emotional.  We woke up and went to class and hung out with Walter.  He decided we should go on a field trip today to experience Cusco and talk Spanish.  We first walked to the Plaza de Armas where we happened to find the cutest little parade/celebration going on.  The whole plaza was filled with little kids from about ages 3-6 or so dressed in costumes from different parts of Peru.  It was seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen.  If I was not baby hungry before, I definitely wanted to take a few of them home with me after seeing this!! We walked around the plaza and watched the little kids dance and model their costumes and of course we took pictures.  After a bit we decided to walk uphill to this other plaza close to the main square called San blass? Who knows if I spelled it correctly, but it was so beautiful.  Walter says it’s the plaza/neighborhood for artists-I guess this is where they come to get their inspiration.  I can totally see why though-it’s gorgeous.  We stayed there and talked and sat on a bench for a while til we decided to head back to class.  We talked in Spanish for a little bit more until our time was up and as we walked downstairs with Walter to part our separate ways the cutest thing happened-I hugged Walter and then he hugged Rachel and his eyes filled up with tears and he mumbled in Spanish something along the lines that we were going to make him cry.  I just about died-Rach and I walked the opposite way and the tears soon followed. Why hello, we are just two gringas walking down the street crying, no biggie.  It was seriously the sweetest thing ever.  After this we made it home to eat lunch and one of our roommates decided to make homemade quiche-it was delish. Since it was Rach & I’s last day at the orphanage we decided to have a party.  We bought lots of Inca Kola & Fanta plus 3 cakes and some candy. It was great-the girls wanted us to bring our cameras and of course they put them to good use.  By the end of the night both mine and Rachel’s camera’s batteries were DEAD. They seriously made us take pictures of their every movement. It was hilarious but also somewhat annoying since all of the girls freak out like you’ve forgotten that they all want you to take pictures of every move they make, including breathing.  I shed a some tears as we left-I got some of their emails and we are planning on sending pictures down here for them so it should be awesome to keep in touch.  It was just so heart wrenching for us to say goodbye.  I couldn’t help it when the girls kept hugging us and wouldn’t let us go.  We finally left and of course we got home to our mamita who can instantly read my mood and came to hug us and kiss us-this is where Rachel broke down and I shed a few more tears.  I didn’t realize how attached I had become to everyone here-my life has truly been changed. We were supposed to go out for a Salsa lesson but of course we were emotionally drained so we took a taxi to the store, got some Coca Cola, and watched Emperor’s New Groove (it’s a must when you’re in Cusco!).  We laughed hard and just hung out. We also bought some things for Walter for our last day of class tomorrow.  We bought his favorite tea, pinguinos (basically ding dongs BUT in peru-we talk about them at almost every class), some coupons for 10% off Machu Pizza, Tres Leches cake, and we got him a Book of Mormon in Spanish.  Rach and I wrote a message to him on the inside basically telling him that we want him to be able to understand how important the church is to us and how much we love him. It was nice to not feel so much pressure-our relationship with Walter is great because he KNOWS how we feel about the church.  He KNOWS about temples because of our other conversations.  I hope he receives everything with an open heart because he truly changed mine and Rachel’s lives.  We love Walter (as if I haven’t said that before…)! Well, we have to get up bright and early to get ready for our last day of class and last day with Walter-Goodnight Peru, 3 more nights here and then we are back in America….

July 13th

Today was a pretty low key day. We went to class, came home and ate lunch, and then pretty much laid in bed til work.  We talked and cried about a lot of different emotions we are feeling here.  We then decided to watch some episodes of Friends and laughed and laughed.  We have a good mix of crying and laughing here-it’s the best.  We finally went to work and hung out with the girls. I have grown to love them a lot.  We came home and met up with a friend that we met in Houston when we had our flight delay.  Rach and I just really wanted McDonald’s ice cream but when we showed up to meet him he had planned this huge get together with a bunch of people to go out and party and dance.  We decided to be lame and just get ice cream and go back home-the ice cream was bomb, p.s. It was hilarious at McD’s though cause I of course picked the crappy line and was standing behind 3 chinese girls who did not speak a word of Spanish. They were taking forever and I finally could hear what was going on so I just started shouting things in Spanish behind them so they could just get out of line already.  Then, of course, they had the most complicated/picky orders ever so one of them asked me if I could tell them she didn’t want any breast meat of the chicken, only drumsticks….WHO THE HECK JUST KNOWS THE WORD FOR CHEST IN SPANISH?! Apparently I do because Walter talks about swimming breaststroke in class and taught us that “pecho” is chest.  Thanks for being the BEST teacher ever WALTER!

July 12th

Rach and I went to class today and then decided to take a little field trip to the Cristo Blanco on the top of the hill.  We grabbed a taxi who agreed to be our private driver while we were up there-it was awesome. We took a bunch of pictures and then went back to the al paca store where they fixed my sweater that I had bought there earlier. What kind people they are! We hung out and finally went back down the hill back to our house.  We pretty much just hung out until we had to go to the orphanage that night. It was a great day.