A house full of...?

What's the line between awesome and a loser?

Living in your parents house until your 35? Or living by yourself since you were 18?

Living independently and supporting yourself? Having your parents support you?

Living, working, volunteering or studying abroad? Or having never left the country?

Travelling the world? Meeting people from around the world?

Making millions or just enough to get by?

Living by yourself or living with others (strangers or friends)?

My current living situation right now keeps me wondering these things. Am I living with a bunch of cool people? A bunch of losers? Or something in between.

Our house, called casa Soul is made of 3 separate small buildings. As you enter through a giant rounded wooden door off of a narrow stone streets with the walls made of cillar (white volcanic ash) you enter casa soul. You enter into a little courtyard, the first part big enough to park your car (sometimes there is one parked) and beyond that a little green space with one tree that I found out the other day is Iwaska. To the right is the building where the house manager, from South Africa lives. He is a photographer who has been living in Peru for 6 years. He is a nightclub photographer so he is an owl in a way. As his work forces him to be. However, he also photographs private parties, cultural events and he even used to work for the newspaper here. He must be in his early to mid thirties but he still acts like a young buck. But im sure he's tamer than he used to be. Because he goes to so many events he know most od the city.  Its seems like a fun job, but at the same time taking photographs of drunk people dancing doesn't seem the most rewarding to me. Although his hours are flexible and he's always where the party is at.

Our next victim's name is Patience. I say her name because her parents named her it for a reason... not because she has a lot of patience,  (as we've found out from her telling us to be quiet every night) but for the people who interact with her. You sure need a high level of patience to listen to her complaints, and they're more than a dime a dozen. The first day I interacted with her I found this out as I has my 30lbs backpack on ans just wanted to leave but I suffered "patiently" through a never ending conversation with her. Next week when I came back to move into the house she didn't even remember who I was! I remember the suffering and she remembered nothing!  Never again I told myseld, never again. When I moved into the house she was sick and she made sure to tell EVERYONE about it. About her stomach problems and all, that nobody wanted to hear and I mean nobody. We've all heard about her kidney stones, her hurt back even down to the mosquito (I dont even think we have mosquitoes here) in her room that bites her every night and keeps her from sleeping. She's 60 years old and mostly everyone she's livong with could be here kids or grandkids. At first I thought "who how cool, travelling ans living in another country when you 60!" Now I think how sad it must be. To be by yourself in a country where you dont speak the language and volunteering without any real objectives,  just trying to pass time for cheap. I hope when im that age I have it a little more together. Thanks for inspiration.

This brings us to our next contestant, another 60 year old from California! Welcome, welcome. After college instead of working to pay baxk her student debt she ran away into the remote Guatemalan jungle. Thinking the government would forget or she could run away forever. Until the day came where she received a letter from the government telling her she needed to start paying back her student loans NOW!!! What a shock that must have been to receive in the remote jungle of another country! You gotta face your problems/reality at some point right? She has now been on a similar voyage, leaving the states to live cheaper and she has been doing it for 2 years now! Alone! I give her a lot of props and at the same time I feel bad at times. But she seems happy doing it and doesn't plan on going back anytime soon. Her original plan was to do the whole continent up until the states in 2 years. Its been 2 years and she's only made it to Peru! The only thing that annoys here more than the government and price of living in the US is when patience complains. She has told her off twice now, both times ending in tears.

I then live with 2 other teachers from my institute. One from Long Island and one from Cleveland. I guess the sayings true, you can never fully get away from beautiful Ohio.

Then I live with a couple, one from England and the other from Germany. One works out of the house and acts as young as we are, by going out every opportunity he gets and hitting on the young girls. While the other is always working and not around often.

To round up the crew are 2 girls. One from Peru studying biology who isn't around often and a physical therapist from Uruguay. And last but not least, their bunny Joaquin who has been now restricted to the yard because he was biting everybody.

Haha overall I've decided its a house full of people. Of weird people, fun people, people who are struggling, people who are thriving and people who are just living.

People.