Sweet Gift

Over the past few months, I have been considering moving to another part of town, but about a month or so ago, I started searching for a new place.  I had been living in a townhouse and knew I would be looking for an apartment for the area of town I wanted to live in, so I had been preparing myself for apartment life (noises from neighbors above, no yard, etc….)

After looking at a few apartments, I found one I really liked (of coarse not perfect, but what is?), so after a few weeks of going back and forth with the owner about various things, I’m finally moved in and trying to get settled asap.

It’s a great new place for me and I’m enjoying so many things about it.  I’m so excited to live closer to other families on my team here and to be living closer to suburbia.  In my old neighborhood, I could hear cows and guinea pigs when I walked down the streets and now at the new place I see trees and grass, and plenty of cars.  It’s been quite a change and has taken some getting used to as it’s been a long time since I’ve lived in an apartment with another floor above(actually this is the first time ever for me).  My neighbors upstairs are pretty quiet, except their dog is quite lively. I can pretty much hear his nails clicking on the floors whenever he’s walking around up there. Every time the dog’s walking around, my cat just goes crazy and appears to be a bit confused, pretty funny.

All of these small adjustments are worth it though.  I’m not sure if I’m a huge fan of the orange and yellow walls, but I’m loving the wide open spaces in the living area. I now have a view of the mountains from my balcony that’s just gorgeous, lots of windows in the apartment to let the warm sunlight in, and a nice sunny space on the sofa for reading(or maybe napping....).  I’m so thankful I no longer live in a cave(my old place)  I’m also super pumped about my new kitchen and all the counter space, which means now I can cook and bake for fun! 

Relatively speaking, the whole process of finding my new place to moving in has been pretty smooth and settling in has been really nice.  All and all, this new place has been a pretty sweet gift to me! 

Any and all visitors are welcome!

Just say no.....

Since I’ve been living in Cusco I just don’t go to the center of town all that often.  Mostly because it’s a bit far from where I live and also because it’s always swarming with tourists, which means there are always people trying to sell stuff and don’t want to take no as an answer. 

When being harassed to buy something (anywhere from a painting to a foto of me with a baby llama, or a massage), I try to politely say no or not today(maybe another day...). Well, I guess I made an impression on one of the dudes selling paintings from a previous time I was in the center.  The other day, I told one of the venders no and they he proceeded to tell me, that I had said no the last time he saw me in the  center and that this time I should actually buy something.  I think I actually had spoken with him a while back.  I couldn’t help but laugh to myself….

Another day as I was walking along a side of the plaza with lots of restaurants, trying to ignore everyone trying to sell me something, there was one girl outside a restaurant who started to approach me, but before she really said much of anything, I bluntly told her I didn’t want to eat at her restaurant. All of a sudden I realized I actually knew her and she wasn’t trying to sell me anything, but was just saying hi.  Oops!!  It was nice to talk with her and hear about how she’s doing, but when we parted ways, I was glad to have seen her, but was a bit embarrassed.  I guess I should take another look at my “say no to everyone” policy…..