Bienvenido a Peru! (Day 1)

I've been to Morocco, Spain, England, France, Iceland and Wales. What is it about Peru that makes things just feel...different?

After stepping outside of the Cusco airport and looking at the gorgeous and vast mountains while shivering from the cold, I couldn't help but somehow feel like I made a mistake. Yeah me, Jasmine, thought I made a traveling mistake! 

Whether it was because I felt like I was missing out on the warmth of a country where my friends were out having fun at festivals that I'd kill to go to, or because of it being my first time traveling without a companion, things just felt odd. Even still, I know things are just what I make of them and will only get better when I decide.

In summary, today I learned and experienced quite a few things:

1. I made a new friend, Chloe, who is from Ohio and shares a room with me and is a sophomore in undergrad. Having stayed with a host family and lived in Peru for about a month already, she showed me around the Plaza del Armas along with where her previous host family lived. Apparently there were some problems with her host family so she had to come back to the Amauta main residence. 

2. My hair gel exploded all over my clothes because of the pressure of being so high up in the mountains. I'll now need to find a laundry place so I can have clothes to wear. :/ 

3. I realized my tablet charger doesn't work with the local outlets. Super frustrating. I've gotten super creative at finding ways of charging my tablet without using the outlets though. I'm proud of myself. :)

4. This should probably be the first thing on this list but, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO FLUSH YOUR USED TOILET PAPER. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO THROW IT IN THE TRASH. You may think that's weird but you're only reading about this. Try doing this and living in a room with two other people that share the same bathroom. Not cool, man! Not cool!

5. There's Chinese food just about everywhere. Jackpot!

6. Altitude sickness sucks! Everything I do, whether it's packing my day bag to changing my clothes takes me out of breath and has me gasping for air like I just ran a marathon. 

7. Whether the people here are just being super nice and pretending they understand me or something else, apparently my Spanish skills haven't disappeared much at all. I've had some lovely conversations today and already learned a few new phrases and words. Yay me!

8. Every internet page you go to while in Peru will be in Spanish. I guess it's a good thing that I'm so devoted to becoming fluent. 

All in all, today was pretty decent. I made sure to follow the rules set out for me by my Peruvian friend, Maricarmen (more on that later). Tomorrow I will visit the place where I will be volunteering. Wish me luck. :D

PICTURE TIME!

Views from the Amauta residence (where I'm staying)

Plaza de Armas