My dog.. is (not) dead..

Hey everybody, it’s been a while. I love how in my last blog post I committed to writing more frequently, and then I was silent for almost three (it’s now been 6) months. In my defense, the WiFi was down all of the following week, and then I lost access to a computer for a while; but I’ll explain all that later. SO much has happened, oh my gosh. Luckily I’ve been keeping a list of all the things I want to write about (it’s a typed full 2 ½ pages of bullet points), so hopefully I can do a decent job of making up for all that lost time. For a really long while, I felt so guilty about “losing” so many memories that I’ll now never write about. But I think I need to just let it go, so I’ve decided I’ll just write and write until I’m completely caught up, which will probably mean many more blog posts coming very very soon. I’m actually writing this on the airplane, we’re about 2 hours away from Salt Lake, and the rain on the cabin roof is really helping to ease my stress and just relax. It was kind of a very long and stressful day; but once again, that’s another story. Having said all this, I guess I’ll start where we left off. 

Last you heard from me, I was facing the prospect of coming home within a month and a half. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but I’ll recount the story anyways. It was a couple days after putting up the last post (Falling), and I was still feeling so defeated. I started the day crying in the shower (pretty on-brand for me), feeling so heartbroken and disappointed. It was a rough start. After recollecting myself I just went on with my day, acting as if everything was fine and I was handling it well (I wasn’t). Later on as I was sitting at the dining room table with Tania, feeling sad and disappointed, Andres walked in and broke the news that Andrea had changed her mind about living in the US. Basically the whole reason for me not being able to stay was a mix of her not wanting to live abroad anymore, plus them moving and lots of unexpected expenses. I couldn’t blame them for doing so either. Paying for an extra person gets expensive, and unless there’s something like an exchange (whether it be money reimbursements or their daughter doing the same) there was no reason to keep me there living on their income. Her changing her mind (again) and deciding that she did want to live in Provo. Basically it meant I got to stay. Honestly I was so relieved I’m surprised I didn’t start crying for, what would’ve been, the third time that day. They told me that I could stay the full 10 months, or even longer if need be, and that they would figure out all the issues with them moving and everything. So that’s why I’m still here, 6 months later. 

Now let me clarify that I started this paragraph in the beginning of February, on the plane to Salt Lake as I stated earlier. After that, however, I never came back to finish it until now, May 23. There were a couple reasons for this, the biggest one being that I desperately needed to catch up on my online classes. I like writing for several hours at a time instead of in short bursts just because I don’t get anything done. That means though, whenever I had several hours of freetime that I could’ve used writing, it almost always got spent on my classes. I did three semesters worth of classes in three months, and as of two days ago I am officially finished for good. (yayayayayayaaa)! Take that Dad, you didn’t think I’d finish! (To be fair, there was a point where I didn’t think I’d finish either ekisde) I didn’t do PreCalc or Fitness4Life, because there was no chance of me doing them in a month, but I can just take them next year and still graduate so isallgood. And History took wAy longer than it should have, which is kinda why it's been so long. Also because I had lots of weird weeks when it was really hard to do anything; either because of lack of time or lack of motivation (usually the latter). It’s been a journey of self-discovery, and I have discovered that I need to work on self control and making myself do things especially when I really don’t want to. It’ll probably be something I’ll deal with my whole life, and I apologize for it. Not only to the handful of you who have told me they look forward to these blogs, but mostly to my future self who will now forget the daily details of life from more than half the time I spent in Colombia. Twenty years from now, I’ll still be kicking myself for it. But here I am, and I can’t redo the past; so I guess better late than never. 

Before we start filling in the big 6 month hole that spans where we left off and now, I just want to bring you to right now. Currently, I’m sitting on my bed in our Airbnb in Ibagué. Tania and Andres are doing another out-of-town seminar here for their business, and we got to tag along this time. Andrea went with them, and I think Caro and I are going out for lunch soon, but I’m not really hungry :/ Emotionally, I’m glad to be done with my classes, my friendships are good, and I’m lowkey kind of relieved and a little proud to finally be writing again. There’s this mild but deep sadness that I didn’t do so for sooo long, but hopefully I can forgive myself. We’re getting there. As far as my relationships go with the family, we’ve had our ups and downs the past 6 months (more details coming another time) but right now I’d say we’re at a 7 overall. Alright, now let’s tell some stories.

Late November, Valeria asked if I wanted to go running with her. She used to run every morning with her boyfriend, Gabriel, but he left on a mission so I guess she was looking for a new running buddy. By the way, Valeria is the girl my age who lived in Orem, speaks English, and has an incredible voice. Just for clarification, her younger sister is Fabiana, and the older one is Daniela. They’ll come into play in other stories. She was all, “Come by around 7, I want to sleep in a bit because it’s Saturday,” and I was all, “girl are you okay? I mean, sure, but don’t get mad if I’m a little late. I usually wake up around 9:30 or 10 hehe.” Sleep in.. until 7?! Idk, she’s wild. I was actually down for it though. I’m thinking it’ll become a routine thing. I’m imagining I’ll come back home super athletic and in-shape, exercising regularly and running a mile every morning. A changed person. Ya.. well let me tell ya how well that worked out. So Saturday rolls around, and I’m actually looking forward to this. I show up on time, and we start running, and everything’s all good. My lungs burn a bit, but that’s to be expected. We reach this road that basically spans across the base of the mountains, and oh ma heck, it was gorgeous. Seriously, Cota has some real charm. It was kind of hard to appreciate, however, when my ears started thrOBbiNg as much as my heart was (cuz it was vascularly strenuous, ya know?) You know that feeling when you sink to the bottom of a really really deep pool, and it hurts your ears a lot because of the pressure? That’s exactly what it felt like. It was super weird, and I can only assume it was the altitude cuz idek. It’s actually happened several times since then, and usually when it’s really cold so that my have something to do with it. Anyways, other than the weird ear aches, we ran forEVER (well I had to walk a lot, cuz I was dying) and I could hardly breathe. And it wasn’t just because of the exercise. Like, I would inhale, and it would feel like there was half the air that there should be. I genuinely felt like my lungs were doing nothing. Kinda like when you go somewhere humid, and it’s hard to breathe; like right now cuz Ibagué is so freaking humid and I’m literally sitting on my bed and having to take deep breaths. Anyways, this time I know the lack of air was because of the altitude, and lemme tell you, it makes a big difference. It’s more than double the altitude of Provo, and I could feel it. I wanted to really push myself and force my legs to keep running, but I chose to, for once, follow my mantra: “don’t be stupid.” So ya, basically I was having a hard time. Now listen, I’m not an out of shape person, but I had to take so many breaks. I would walk or jog and act like my life was ending whilst she did high-knees and lunges because she said she wanted to “push herself”. Yeah. I know. She could’ve run the whole thing without stopping, but slowed down to keep pace with me, bless her heart. That girl is a machine, I was super blown away. Other than the horrible I-swear-I-was-dying moments, it was a good run. Not much else happened except for when we passed this guy terrorizing this poor dog. I was really angry, and he stopped and let it go once he noticed us, but yelled something as we passed. Valeria just told me to keep going and later told me he said something along the lines of “with eyes so pretty like that, you shouldn’t give such dirty looks”...It was probably better I didn’t understand it when he said it the first time. But yeah that put a bit of a damper on my morning, and then we finished our run. Later on I hopped on google maps and tracked our course. We ran four miles. I feel justified for my complaining. Oh, and as for the whole new running buddy thing? I haven’t done it again. Whoops haha. 

Now I’m going to talk about the time I almost killed our dog, Juanes. I think I mentioned this briefly in another post, so here’s the full story. We made some super good kebabs one day for lunch, and had some leftover that we ate for dinner. Everyone (including sisters and husband/then-boyfriend) was sitting in the living room watching something on TV and eating their food. I was just chilling eating my kebab, when I noticed that one of the larger pieces of beef was a little raw on the inside. Whatever, no need to make it a whole deal, I’ll just leave it and eat my other kebab. Now here’s where the stupidity begins; I guess this time I didn’t follow my mantra. I set the kebab, with the piece of meat on it, on my plate; which was on the 1-½ foot or so tall side table. I can see Juanes eyeing it, but he knows he can’t touch it. This dog is many things (loud, needy, annoying, spoiled, just to name a few) but he is not stupid. I look at him as he looks at me and give him a very stern look that 100% says “nuh-uh boy, don’t you dare.” He knoooowwwws. He looks back at the food, then back to me, and in a split second grabs the meat and runs of. Little brat. Everyone saw it happen, and now I get up to go after him trying to act all cool, as if their dog did not just run of with a very long sharp stick in his mouth. I set my other kebab down on the same plate (idiot) and go into the dining room to look for him. I find him under the table and just as I pull a chair out to get closer, he runs of towards the living room. Luckily, I found the skewer. Meatless, but in one piece. Relieved, I pick it up and throw it away. Just as I’m about to go back though, the little demon grabs the other kebab that I left, and tries to escape. Now, eating the first one was bold, because he knows he wasn’t allowed to, but going back for the second? That was just straight up insulting. This time however, I was blocking his exit. Now everyone is yelling at him and trying to catch him because he’s being naughty, and he just went berserk. He’s growling and barking and trying to bite any hand that gets close, and all the while with the skewer in his mouth. He had broken it in half and, with him moving around so much while attacking us, he had the sharp end down his throat. It was in that moment that I was convinced I had killed their dog. I was horrified. Everyone else was pretty freaked out too. Fernando, Alejandra’s fiance, quickly tried to grab his head so he could get the skewer out, but Juanes saw it coming and bit him. Hard too. Nobody knew what to do, because trying to stop him seemed like it would just make it worse. Everybody just kinda froze, and the dog ran off. After several gagging sounds and a few coughs, that cheeky little creature just walked back in the room, jumped up on the couch, and sat down. He wasn’t dead. Oh man, I’ve never been in such a tense atmosphere. Slowly, everyone started to relax. Someone went in the other room and picked up the two halves off the skewer, and then no one really knew what to do after that. I remember faintly apologizing, and everyone just nodded their heads. Man, I was mortified.

Juaneslendislauslendermancalcuta. He's cute on the outside, but a real stinker on the inside

Anyways, Juanes survived, and everyone else seems to have forgotten about that night. ….Sometimes though, I kind of wish he hadn’t.
Nonono I’m just kiddiiiing haha! 
But seriously.. That dog is a huge pain in the @**. Just look at how he's hoarding that phone. Crusty.
I was always open to the idea of being a dog person, and probably owning several in my future, but after living with Juaneslendi the fiend, I’m not so sure. He kind of ruined it for me.  

And for those of you confused by the title, it's an inside joke with my family. They know what I'm talking about haha,

Aaaand that’s about it! If I made this any longer you would all hate me, so I’m ending it here. Genuinely, I appreciate your dedication if you read that all. I get lazy reading missionary emails, and they only get 20 minutes! Okay, so yup I’m back, yee yee. Talk soon, and stay chévere!