On October 10th, a little less than two weeks from now, yours truly will board a plane bound for Lima, Peru in an act that could be characterized in one of two ways. It could be "adventurous," living in another country for about a year, learning Spanish, meeting friends, traveling, etc. Or, it could be completely insane. I have no job, no real grasp of spoken Spanish, I know exactly one person on the entire South American continent, and other than the first two weeks, no place to stow the two 50 pound bags I will no doubt bring with me. Most likely, it's a little of both. Regardless, my excitement to both be in Peru and to leave Duluth (no offense guys!) outshines the nervousness I will completely fail at being a competently wandering traveler.
Here's the skinny:
I'm traveling to Peru with my first ever friend from Duluth circa 1997, Hayley Rectenwald. Our dads are bffs, comforting each other that their daughters will not run into trouble now that they are traveling to this foreign country together. Personally, I think traveling with a friend, and Hayley in particular ;) in fact increases the chance of trouble. TBD. No, but for real, I am SO glad Hayley decided to come with me. Having a wingman will make the quest for Limeno (for those who don't speak Spanish, people from Lima) friends exponentially easier. The only thing I am worried about is the similarity in our names. Both having brown hair and lighter skin than the home team players, we will no doubt be called twins already. Now, to top it off, our names are nearly identical. I'm considering introducing myself as Ali (Nodi, Ryan, and Hallie pronounced Ayeeay were all vetoed). Thoughts?
For the first two weeks, Hayley and I have enrolled in a language program and will live with host families. This will give us a buffer time to find a place to live, make friends who can show us around, and oh ya, find jobs. Now, about that... I really want to work for a human rights organization in Lima, get paid, and have an amazing experience "getting my hands dirty" doing advocacy work. That's option A. Option B, I teach English. This is not the ideal option because Objective #1 of my trip is to become fluent in Spanish. Teaching English all day would be highly ironic and counterproductive in light of this goal. Option C, I work for a hotel and/or restaurant to make money and volunteer on the side. This option would not be so bad, as I could probably make some more friends working at these locales, and the human rights organizations are in need of volunteers more than they are in need of foreign temporary employees.
I mentioned that the main objective of this crazy trip is to become fluent in Spanish. Studying abroad in South Africa a year and a half ago, I had a powerful experience that changed my view of foreign languages. After the trip, I knew I wanted to become fluent in Spanish and there was only one way to do this: travel to a Spanish-speaking country. Peruvians are known to speak slowly and they have no major dialect. Lima is on the ocean and Cusco, the other major city, is notoriously touristy (=bad) so I chose Lima. Objective #2 is a bit more serious and involves the "getting my hands dirty" bit. I have talked about, read about, wrote about, planned a conference around, and otherwise intellectually engaged with, human rights and their violations for the past four years. I'm done with that. I want to DO now. I want to see it with my own eyes and have the power to change it right there and then. I want to be exhausted, dirty, and depressed because I'm knee deep in it. I don't want it to be easy, and I don't want it to be glamorous. If it is, I know it won't be real.
Other lesser objectives include:
#3: Learn to surf
#4: Learn to salsa like the best of them
#5: Learn photography
#6: Learn to cook Peruvian food (ceviche is first on the list)
#7: Find Peruvian amante
#8: Write a short story
#9: Ride a llama
Wish me luck!
