in response to henry`s comment--yes, i facebooked you, but no blogger update because it required so much effort and it`s not polite to blog when you have someone reading over your shoulder...which was the case when i facebooked you. now i understand why that used to make you so mad when i would do it :P:P

and yes, that picture does make me look like a monkey!

wow. peru is....COLD! it could be because i am a) wearing capris or b) have no coat. but STILL. it's cold. i resent cold weather. it makes me whiter and does bad things for my complexion. the feeling of coldness isn`t the bad part. it`s the pinkishness and the shivers and the humidity that makes you feel like you`re sitting in a freezer in a wet swimsuit.

speaking of wet swimsuits--who wants to guess what happens when you put your bottle of contact solution in your backpack without checking to see if the top is sealed? the result--a very wet swimsuit and a very wet pair of shorts, both of which must be put on in order to swim in the hot springs. the only problem? well, not the only one. but one of many. before you actually get in the hot springs, it`s obscenely cold. like really, really, really, really cold. i thought my heart was going to stop. i have a feeling it slowed for quite a while.

as interesting as traveling with the freshmen was (and it WAS interesting), the truly memorable part of life in arequipa was after their departure. and as much as i missed being constantly bombarded by dominic`s unsatisfiable need to tell dirty jokes and his and hee jin`s incredible but ever-so-slightly irritating fascination with beer and dominic`s tendency to tell the story of kento and the two sips of sangria twenty thousand times (that`s twenty thousand times DAILY), it was nice to see a different side of arequipa.

i`m reading this article on msn.com entitled ¨teen has one foot reattached¨. apparently the need for foot-reattachment arose after a gruesome accident on that ride at six flags that takes you up really high and then drops you. *shivers*