Home, Sweet Home

I made it!

After a day in DC, all 57 of us Peru 20 Trainees flooded into the airport and found our way onto a plane to Peru.  We arrived late, gathered our things, and walked out into the Peruvian night with eyes wide.  We had made it.  We were piled onto buses and carted to a retreat center outside of Lima where we spent 2 nights.  During these days I have met and gotten to talk to so many like-minded people and it is wonderful being in such a welcoming and interesting group of individuals.  I was, however, anxious to meet my host family and settle in. 

Waking up to beautiful mountains at the retreat center

Exploring!

Finally, my prayers were answered, and I met Rita.  My new family consists of Rita, her husband Jorge, her 29 year old son Richard and his wife Pilar, and Rita’s daughter Lily who is my age. We came back to Yanacoto, one of the many small communities outside of Lima, and she showed me my new home.  My room is large, with its own door and there is a small sink and toilet right outside in the hall (privacy added with a curtain).  On this floor there is also a large sitting room and Pilar and Richard’s room.  Lily has a room upstairs.  Also upstairs is the kitchen which is attached to the small store that Rita and her husband, Jorge, run.  Through the store is Rita and Jorge’s room, along with a bathroom that has the shower.  Up another level is a patio with long clothes lines, a bird cage with three small yellow birds, and a small enclosure with a very young chicken.

Rita and I ate lunch, and then I unpacked.  Then, enormously relieved, I went upstairs where Rita was beginning to prepare dinner.  It took a bit of convincing, but eventually she let me help cook and we made soup with squash and potatoes and chicken.  While the soup was simmering, Rita showed me her garden.  She has papaya, banana, fig, and lime trees, and countless other plants.  She brought me through all of them, letting me smell leaves, and explaining the medicinal or culinary value of everything.  While some smells I recognized (chive, parsley, oregano), others were foreign and the translations were completely lost on me.  Rita’s garden is complete with 6 guinea pigs (which she is very excited to eat) and 2 chickens.  Apparently there used to be more chickens, but she also used to have a dog who killed them all.  Despite the loss of her chickens, she seemed very sad that her dog had recently died.  Rita then grabbed some long leaves from a plant and we went inside where she used them made tea that tasted slightly of lemongrass. 

My room!

Rita's garden

Our excursion for the night was to a large grocery store where we bought my Tupper so that Rita could pack me lunch.  We chose two: one for lunch and another for fruit.  After a delicious dinner with Jorge, we relaxed for a bit, and then went to bed. 

It has been a hectic few days, but it is very relieving to have a home.  Rita is very motherly, holding my hand when we cross streets and patiently helping me with my Spanish.  She has promised to teach me to sew, cook Peruvian food, and speak Quechua.  The rest of the family is equally welcoming I am feeling very good about living here for the next 10 weeks.  

Adventure is out there!

Before I strap metaphorical helium balloons to my life and float away to Peru, I feel like I should write about my summer.

I spent most of the summer studying for the MCAT, which wasn't all that much fun.  But while I locked myself away in a small, dark room during the day, I did get to do an extraordinary amount of hiking.  My daily schedule was involved a very wet dog tongue waking me up at 6 am, hiking for a few hours, studying all day while Logan went between sleeping in the sun and sleeping in the shade, then bed early to start the whole thing over again.  

Basically my life revolved around studying and the dog.  In retrospect, it really wasn't a bad life.

A trail off of Berthod Pass

Garden of the Gods

Snow in July?  ...a very happy dog.

The first part of Jim Creek Trail

Colorado did have a few major setbacks this summer, including the Waldo Canyon Fire.  It was much too close for comfort.  This is the view of the fire from our house in Colorado Springs, just before it jumped over the ridge and started burning houses.

 In August, MCAT over, I got to head back to Hamilton and lead a trip for Adirondack Adventure.  The best way to unwind post-MCAT was hanging out and eating copious amounts of Nutella with one of my favorite groups of people in the world.

Team Kale, about to start moving kids into their rooms

Welcoming the Freshman to the Hill

My on-trail birthday cake

The Ausable Avengers!

And of course, scattered throughout the summer were family gatherings and various parties!

A family picture at my dad's 60th birthday party

My graduation/birthday/going away party

Finally, packed and ready, I am about to head to DC for staging, and then its off to Peru!

Graduation Trip

It wasn't really the gown or diploma or cane that made me feel like I graduated, it was walking across the map.  For those of you who aren't from Hamilton College, we have a map in the middle of campus.  The myth goes that if you walk over the map then you won't graduate.  Call it a silly superstition, but I've been a true believer ever since my friend from freshman year walked over the map and ended up leaving school because he had Lyme Disease.  Walking around the map becomes second nature, but when I really stop to think about it, that map has stolen from me.  Trying to get to class during a busy passing period, weaving around people, carefully skirting around the map, all together I have spent a significant amount of time and extra steps avoiding that map.  So on graduation day, we stood on the map.

Before I knew it, my room was packed and I was on a plane to Amsterdam with Denis.  Our graduation present from our parents was a 10 day trip to Europe.  We got off to a rocky start.  The plane was overbooked, and Denis was the lucky one who was randomly taken off the flight.  Thankfully some people volunteered to stay behind and they put Denis back on since he wasn't travelling alone.  Then we had another glitch because Denis got the dates mixed up and we arrived in Amsterdam at 7 AM the day after Denis had thought we were going to.  So our 24 hour speed tour of Amsterdam began.

We checked into a hotel, rented bikes, went to the van Gogh Museum, sat at a cafe and drank espresso, went to a brewery, then a distillery, then a pub, then another pub, and went to bed.  Really, we couldn't have done it another way.

I really liked Amsterdam.  Everything in Amsterdam is nothing less than quaint.  The whole city has a warm feeling.  Biking along the canals and finding little pubs in side alleys was the perfect way to spend our short visit to Amsterdam.










Then we were off to Paris.  Unfortunately, Paris is a difficult place to be for 2 days when neither of us speaks any French.  We spent the first afternoon doing the tourist thing, so we went to the Lourve, saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.  The most startling part of the Lourve, however, was the building itself.  You could literally get lost inside for weeks and never see it all.  Feet aching and eyes full of artwork, we continued to fight our jetlag, got some dinner, and made plans for the night.  We decided that the best way to spend our evening was to see the normally very crowded attractions when no one else would be there.  So we grabbed a bottle of wine, stopped at Notre Dam, and then headed to the Eiffel Tower.  After finishing our wine, we were off to the Arc de Triomphe.  By this time it was fairly late, so Denis grabbed a McBaguette as a late-night snack and we went back to the hotel.

We spent the next day in a much more relaxed manner.  We grabbed our books, another bottle of wine, some apples and found a park to spend the day napping, reading, and drinking wine.  Paris really is incredibly romantic and the parks are astonishingly beautiful.  Plus we needed to rest up for London.

Our 2 days in London were a blur of pubs, pub food, and good beer.  We made sure we did some non-drinking related activities, though, by going to the British Museum.  Once we had satisfied ourselves looking at the Rosetta Stone and mummies, we headed back to the hotel to take a quick nap before going out.  On our way we stumbled on the Museum of Health and Medicine.  This was an amazing find.  It is an odd mix of medicine and art, and we spent hours wandering through their special exhibit on the brain.

















Then it was back to happily sitting in pubs.  Of course we spent a little too much time in those pubs our last night and almost missed our flight to Munich.  Fortunately there were some Spaniards in the bunk next to us in the hostel who were incredibly loud at 7 AM, helping us get out of bed and make it onto the plane.


Once in Munich, we miraculously met up with our parents, who whisked us out of our hostel living.  We drove through Austria, hiked a bit, drank more good beer, saw Mozart's birthplace, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.








Then we spent our last day in Munich, sitting in cafes under the shadow of the enormous Munich Cathedral.  And of course, we celebrated my parents' 29th anniversary.