Getting Ready to Say Adios
This will be my last blog post written in Perú and I'm not entirely sure how to feel about that. There's a lot I think I'll miss about the city I've called home for the past month and a few things I don't think I'll miss at all.
Last night as I was driving home the moon was so bright that I could see snow-covered peaks as we drove through the dark. Out of nowhere I just felt this intense love for this country that has taken little ol' me in and made me feel at home. The Peruvian people have been nothing but kind and I think that's one of the main reasons why I've enjoyed myself so much here. They've nodded politely and given encouraging smiles as I mis-conjugate my verbs and forgotten to roll my r's. They've given directions when I was lost and hungry and frustrated and answered every one of my thousand questions about their culture. I'll miss the random shrieks throughout the day from the school next door and my professors coming into class fifteen minutes late and shrugging about how, "it's what Peruvians do." I didn't know what to expect when I stepped off the plane a month ago but the people of Cusco have exceeded every expectation I might have had.
I would be doing Perú a disservice if I didn't talk about how much I've loved the food here. I have no doubt that I'll be incredibly disappointed when I return to the US and I'm not offered choclo con queso with my hamburger. Lomo saltado is one of the signature foods and it's basically chunks of steak with stewed tomatoes, onions, and rice. While it sounds simple, it's the spices that really make the dish and there's just something about a huge plate of lomo saltado at the end of a long day. It's even better if you exchange alpaca meat for beef. Chicha morada is one of the signature drinks here and it's like nothing I've ever tasted before. At first I think it kind of resembled really sweet cherry cough syrup but that sounds disgusting even as I'm typing it and chicha isn't gross at all. It's not even an acquired taste, you just like it right off the bat. I'm going to miss getting soup, a main course, and a drink all for around five dollars and street vendors lugging huge carts full of fruits down the street. I'm not ready to give up all of the tropical fruits that are so easy to come by and the little empanadas that are so much more filling than they seem.
As I'm sitting here typing this I realize how few things I will not miss about this country. The bad still exists though and they're things I'm eager to leave behind. It's tough being a pedestrian in this city because drivers don't care about you at all. Cars will whip around corners and stop mere centimeters from you or they won't stop at all and just swerve wildly out of the way. Walking to school every day is its own adventure and I've thought I was going to get hit at least once a day. It's also a little difficult to practice Spanish here, even though it's the main reason why I chose to do a study abroad. Most locals just assume that because I'm white I don't speak Spanish which, after seeing the amount of white tourists here that don't speak Spanish, I'd say it's a fair assumption. A lot of people are also eager to practice their English so I've had quite a few conversations where the person I'm talking to is answering my questions in English while I ask them in Spanish. It's dysfunctional but hey, it works.
Last night as I was driving home the moon was so bright that I could see snow-covered peaks as we drove through the dark. Out of nowhere I just felt this intense love for this country that has taken little ol' me in and made me feel at home. The Peruvian people have been nothing but kind and I think that's one of the main reasons why I've enjoyed myself so much here. They've nodded politely and given encouraging smiles as I mis-conjugate my verbs and forgotten to roll my r's. They've given directions when I was lost and hungry and frustrated and answered every one of my thousand questions about their culture. I'll miss the random shrieks throughout the day from the school next door and my professors coming into class fifteen minutes late and shrugging about how, "it's what Peruvians do." I didn't know what to expect when I stepped off the plane a month ago but the people of Cusco have exceeded every expectation I might have had.
I would be doing Perú a disservice if I didn't talk about how much I've loved the food here. I have no doubt that I'll be incredibly disappointed when I return to the US and I'm not offered choclo con queso with my hamburger. Lomo saltado is one of the signature foods and it's basically chunks of steak with stewed tomatoes, onions, and rice. While it sounds simple, it's the spices that really make the dish and there's just something about a huge plate of lomo saltado at the end of a long day. It's even better if you exchange alpaca meat for beef. Chicha morada is one of the signature drinks here and it's like nothing I've ever tasted before. At first I think it kind of resembled really sweet cherry cough syrup but that sounds disgusting even as I'm typing it and chicha isn't gross at all. It's not even an acquired taste, you just like it right off the bat. I'm going to miss getting soup, a main course, and a drink all for around five dollars and street vendors lugging huge carts full of fruits down the street. I'm not ready to give up all of the tropical fruits that are so easy to come by and the little empanadas that are so much more filling than they seem.
As I'm sitting here typing this I realize how few things I will not miss about this country. The bad still exists though and they're things I'm eager to leave behind. It's tough being a pedestrian in this city because drivers don't care about you at all. Cars will whip around corners and stop mere centimeters from you or they won't stop at all and just swerve wildly out of the way. Walking to school every day is its own adventure and I've thought I was going to get hit at least once a day. It's also a little difficult to practice Spanish here, even though it's the main reason why I chose to do a study abroad. Most locals just assume that because I'm white I don't speak Spanish which, after seeing the amount of white tourists here that don't speak Spanish, I'd say it's a fair assumption. A lot of people are also eager to practice their English so I've had quite a few conversations where the person I'm talking to is answering my questions in English while I ask them in Spanish. It's dysfunctional but hey, it works.
Comments
Post a Comment