Feliz Año Nuevo!

Welcome back a todos (Apparently there's not really a natural expression for 'welcome back' in Spanish),

December was a month! Shoutout my family for visiting me for Christmas. It was really wonderful to have them here and show them around Arequipa! They were impressed by my Spanish which was easy because none of them speak any lol. My favorite part was bringing them to this little corner spot where I eat most days and introducing them to one of the owners, he was very excited to meet them! So was one of the owners of this cafe I love going to. (I actually just sat down here and he came over to chat. We talked about the holidays and it really just felt I am home and this is where I live. Feels crazy sometimes but I think it helped feel like home coming back here after a family vacation instead of Ohio.) ANYway, we spent some time here in Arequipa, then headed to Cusco & Machu Picchu, and wrapped up with Christmas in Lima! It was a lotta travel for the beach vacation Burton's but they did great and hopefully enjoyed every step of it. Here are some family photos:

Lima felt like a whole different country right now- it was 80 degrees and sunny which was not the case in September when I was there. Arequipa, on the other hand, is now cloudy and it rains most afternoons. Bienvenidos a la temporada de lluvia, I guess. I'm hoping the rainy season here will feel a bit more like winter in that it justifies staying inside more and reading or whatever.

2025...

It's officially 2025 which means I'm a quarter a way through my time in Peru! Absolutely wild! Maybe I'll extend and live here another year or move to The Gambia. Maybe I'll move to Arizona and take that Kimley-Horn job. Maybe Ohio is the place for me idk. I don't think that last one is the answer even though Tori seems pretty deadset on me staying there forever. Who know's where this year will take me! I certainly don't.

I'm hoping to really delve into my work with SEDAPAR this quarter and figure out what the next 9 months are going to look like. My role and responsibilities are still unclear and I'd enjoy clearing that up before my supervisor is gone for the whole month of February lol. Worst case, I can pivot to working with another organization if this one just isn't working out. I'd really enjoy staying with them but sometimes orgs say they are ready for a volunteer but don't know quite how to utilize them. The goal is to be useful while also growing as a young engineer so TBD on that.

Another unrelated goal is to stop smoking cigarettes. Yeah I know... I thought only Gambian Evan (Babucarr) smoked cigs but it's a new year and I desperately want to stop so here I am announcing my plans to all 5 of you readers. Shoutout Tori for bringing me some Zyns to help stop. My goals of running some of the weekly races here should also be a good catalyst for me because running, historically, has helped me stop too.

Other goals include

• Figuring out where I'll be in January 2026 (Q2 goal tbh)
• Reading 10 books (including starting over The Defining Decade because it's been a year since I started it and 3 people have read my copy before I finished it..)
• Getting a tattoo (what do we think about a watercolor frog with a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses?)
• Filling up my journal & maybeee try a scrapbook
• Go to church (this is a really new one for me and I don't think it'll be a thing but why not)
• Run the Columbus Full Marathon, if I'm there in October
• Grow out my hair, I think
• Host more visitors! Andy's next but ya got 9 months to get on the schedule

Updated some other pages so check out Food, Bucket List, and Pics for Mom!