I didn't know what else to do, so I moved to Peru: January 2011

My New Years Eve started off with a great message from my family back home. My sister Annie and her boyfriend Eric were in Jackson Hole, WY to go skiing and on one of the first runs of the day, Eric suggested that they stop to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery. After taking a few pictures and videos, Annie thought that he was putting the camera away and turned around to look again at the mountains. When she turned back around to Eric, he was down on one knee with a ring in his hand asking her to marry him! Eric has been like a brother to me for the past ten years, and I couldn't be happier for him and my sister. There are now going to be two weddings in my family this year!

Annie with her brand new engagement ring!

Annie and Eric engaged in Jackson Hole, WY

Back down here in Peru, a group of us knew that we wanted to go to the beach for New Years, but it took us FOREVER to finally figure out exactly what we were going to be doing. There weren't enough people left in Lima to rent out a beach house and every hostal was either booked or way too expensive. We finally decided to go down to Punta Hermosa (Beautiful Point) where we found a party at one of the Discos.

The beach is about an hour away without traffic, but considering everybody in Lima was heading towards the beach that night, the plan was to leave around 8:30 to make sure that we were into the bar before midnight. That was until my friend Mari decided to take a nap and not wake up to her alarm (or the 14 missed calls from us...). We finally got on the road at about 9:30 (which I suppose is actually about 8:30 Peruvian time, so I guess we were right on time!) just in time to sit in some traffic!

We got into the bar at around 11:30 and were getting ready for the countdown. There were fireworks going off (the bar is outside) all around us and the party inside is just about to pick up when the DJ said, in English, "7, 6, 4, 2, 1". We weren't exactly sure what he was trying to say, but after looking at our phones, we realized that that was the countdown to midnight. Worst countdown ever. Popping the cork off the champagne made us a little happier. We still had a great time celebrating and dancing the whole night.

At about six in the morning, they finally kicked us out of the place. We weren't quite ready to go home and the sun was just about to come up, so we decided to walk down to the beach to watch the sunrise. At about 8:30 or so, we finally made it back to Lima to get some well deserved sleep! Because we didn't stay overnight on the beach, we decided to head back down on Sunday (after a day of recovery on Saturday!) and spent the entire day there. My back is nice and red to prove it! My goal is to be tanner than anyone else at my sister Katie's wedding in Costa Rica in February. After going to the beach every weekend since I've been back down here, I'd say I'm off to a pretty good start!

This new year is going to bring about great changes for my family and me. There will be two new additions to our family, as both of my sisters will be getting married. If you saw our Christmas card this year, we already decided to include Eric and Seth in it! As for me, I will return from Peru and reapply to medical schools, find a job, and get used to speaking English again! And as my aunt Michele pointed out to me, I am the most eligible bachelor left in the family! :)

Happy New Year to everybody. I hope that 2011 will be great for your families, as it's going to be a year that my family will never forget!