First Day In Peru!

I just want to being with saying THANK YOU MILLIONS to everyone who donated and helped me to get here. It means so much to me and I promise to do you all proud.

I'm going to start the day with the things you guys would want to hear, the day started with me getting showered washed and ready, I made my way to Heathrow airport, boarded my plane to miami, done a bit of shopping in the paradise that is Miami, boarded the flight to Peru and landed in record time. As we stepped off the plane in Peru we were met with a searing sun that screamed a year filled with joy, excitement and hope.

Funnily enough that's not only what you wanted to hear, but its what I wanted to happen. However as you should all know by now, no day in the life of SIMPLY COMPAS is ever simple lol. So the night before I was due to depart I spent the day with my girls Wendy, Eva & Cleo and the night with a certain Sir lol so didnt do the smart thing and check my luggage and how much it weighed. So with around 3 hours of sleep under my belt I woke up had a shower and got on the phone to Alex who was pouring out her heart to me as she obviously can't handle a year without me loool! *Sorry Alex* haha but then i was forced to get off the phone to my dad as he said I have to weigh the bag because it's so heavy even he can't lift it. Not a good sign. So we weighed it and it was over 30kg!!! EEEEEEEEEEEK. The luggage had to be 20kg max so I went into a serious uproar, tearing clothes and toiletries from my bag to lighten the load. So in a huff and puff I did it and was moody as F*ck. So I waved goodbye to the house, hugged the cats and the dog and left with my room still in a state. Got in the car and was half way down the M25 when i shouted out SHITTTT. I had forgotten the 2 things that probably meant the most to me. My massive purple headphones and my ipod. My frickin ipod i spent ages putting music on. We was already late as it is so couldn't turn back so I had to accept the fact I wasn't going to have an ipod which was not something I was willing to accept. We then got in traffic but luckily arrived in time to the airport. After a tearful goodbye *Not from my side may I add* I headed off through security and into the airport. I called some of the other girls who said they were in the airport and we were frantically searching for one another. It got to the point where I was like F*ck this i can't find them so i headed off to the gate. I waited till 5 mins before the check-in closed and called them. They said they were at Gate 34 and the plane was at 9.55am. Confusion literally rushed through my head and my heart started pounding. I was at Gate 46 and my plane left at 9.40am. Was I on the right flight? What was going on? So I ran around not knowing what to do and Amy asked
"Tanya what terminal are you at"
"Terminal 5"
"Well we're at terminal 3"
A rush of relief rushed through my brain, we were on different flights so i then had to run back to the gate where the woman proclaimed "I knew you would be back". I got on the flight and it went very smoothly. Good movies, I watched Avatar and Shutters island *Which messed with my head a lot*, good food and excellent free wine LOL. You see, even when I'm by myself theres always a party when Tanya's involved. So anyhoo as I was enjoying the wine there was terrible turbulance. I mean TERRIBLE. The plane was shaking, half my wine poured over my cous cous *which didnt taste too bad to be honest* and the isles were shaking like mad. All stabled though after the pilot flew at a lower altitude and the rest of the flight was fine albeit lonely but fine all the same. When the plane landed in Miami all i wanted to do was scream

"I'M IN MIAMI BITCH"

But realised I was by myself and people would think i'm too weird loool. But as i was thinking this I looked to my right and saw my partner rachel, I shouted to her and we united for the rest of the journey. Both relieved we had found on another as It is slightly daunting being by yourself on such a long journey. We got a nice burger king with a FAT burger and FAT chips surrounded by FAT americans looool im kidding guys, well not really. Anyhoo we then went too look for an electronics store as I was desperate to buy an ipod but alas they never had one, well they did but they only sold it with $260 headphones. So i thought sod off and we made our way to the gate. With only 15 minutes left till the plane boarded we made it and got on the flight to Peru. Once again noticing the other girls were no where to be seen. Yet again I had a flight with no seats next to me and so could stretch out completley and watch films on my laptop. This plane journey ran very smoothly except for the fact that all the peruvians and anyone else spanish on the flight thought I was Peruvian or Brazillian and were trying to speak to me in spanish and wouldn't give me a visitor form to go through customs with LOL. The fact that my spanish is very limited and my portugese is non existant made it a funny flight and hand signals were a neccesity.
Around 9.45pm peruvian time we had landed, me and rachel got our stuff, went through security and waited in the airport for the rep Maria who was meant to meet us. After waiting about an hour we realised no one was here. So we got a bit worried. We realised there was another flight from Miami arriving around 11.45pm so we assume the other girls would be on that flight and so waited in the arrivals lounge. 11.45pm came and we sat with baited breath with arms open waiting to greet the other girls. Yet again they were not there. We waited and waited and waited thinking *maybe they got caught up in customs?*. 1am came and we decided to call Maria, not only was she not there but neither was anyone else. Rachel and I felt we had been thrown in the deep end and had no one to save us! Well we spoke to maria who said that the other girls had missed their connection flight to Lima from Miami and she thought we were with them! Like Rachel and I she was unaware that all us girls weren't on the same flight. *Round of applause for project Trust, Great means of communication* LOL. So she said that she could come and get us now or we could wait for the other girls. It was already 1am and the girls were coming in at 4.30am so we decided to just wait. So we headed upstairs and me and rachel crashed on the floor outside an internet cafe. Rachel was smart enought to bring a sleeping bag and so crashed in that, me on the other hand just rolled up my jackets for a pillow and put on South Park on my laptop it was not long till I was awoken by a rush of coldddddddddd. I was freezing and this was around 2.30am so I put on my jackets and walked off to warm up. I saw a McDonalds and decided to get a meal, 10 chicken nuggets, drink and chips for the equivelant of £3! Score. And they gave me salsa for my nuggets lol yummy. I ate that and nodded off for a bit. Awoken yet again by the cold I just read and then before I knew it, it was 4am and so decided to wake rachel up.

We got up and headed off to Starbucks *yes like you i was suprised by how many chain stores peru had* and I made full use of their free internet and went on skype. I saw my auntie tina was online and decided to call, it was answered by my 2 little cousins who amazingly knew how to work it and they were jumping up and down on the screen in their football kits and ran to go get my auntie who then ran to get my uncle LOL. After that I spoke to my mum n dad on skype and my mum being the big softie that she is burst into tears on screen which made me laugh. 4.30am came and I had to say goodbye to everyone and went to go and meet the girls.

After waiting around 45 minutes they arrived and I have never been so relieved I'm telling you!!! I ran to greet them and then we turned around and there was Maria and Ruth. They were really lovely and suprisingly young. We all got into a nice shuttle which took us to a hostel which is where I am now writing this. Its currently around 8am here and I just can't sleep. Lunch is at 12pm which i'm looking forward to as considering I've eaten plane food, burger king and mcdonalds all in the span of 1 day I am suprisingly hungry lol.

Anyways off to sleep for me, Gonna catch a few hours nap and then we have a bus tour at 2.30pm so I'll let you know how that is in my next update.

Cheers big ears
Simply Signed, Simply Compas xxxxxxxxx

P.S: Wendy I Still miss you LOL ;)