Peace out Peru

So these past couple weeks, I've basically been counting down the days until I come home. I didn't have any upcoming trips to focus on. I didn't go to the Amazon. All I had was school and my amazing group of girls to keep me busy.

Last weekend I went out to pizza street for the last time  with Yurina. I love going out with her because she is seriously so much fun. We stumbled across a club I'd never seen and we danced the night away. The next day, I went shopping with a very sick Mariah. We went to the inca market in miraflores. It's all culturally unique souvenir kind of things with bright colors and llamas everywhere.

This past week I've been prepping for my finals on Monday and Wednesday. I got to see my grades yesterday and was pretty happy with them. (They're all A’s, Dad.) Then last night we all gathered at our favorite bar, the gringo bar (where else?), to celebrate the end of the semester. We had the whole group there. It was all of us girls, Barbara and Stephen, our professors Roberto and Josue and our program coordinator Monica. Stephen, Barbara, Rob and Monica all gave speeches and we just relaxed and had fun with everyone. I am so glad that we got to do that because it was a great way to bring everything to an end. I'm really going to miss everyone so much. We had the best professors possible. Barbara and Stephen were amazing guides for us throughout everything, they couldn't have done it any better. Our Peruvian professors were amazing as well. It might have taken me until the end of my time here to fully realize that but that's okay. I think I loved last night so much because it made me realize how unbelievably lucky I am to have been able to go on this journey with such amazing people.

However, as I sit here in traffic, listening to constant honking and breathing in fumes, on my way to the airport I can't help but think about the things I'm happy to say farewell to. And first place goes to the traffic. Although, getting honked at and yelled/whistled at every time I walk outside is a close second. My patience for that shit is wearing thin. I want to drink well water and drive my car. I want to make a run to the grocery store and not have to prep for an hour long excursion. Speaking of groceries, I want to buy them. I want to plan a meal, go buy the ingredients and then make my own meal. I miss cooking so much. But what I miss the most, other than Tyler of course, is my independence. I miss the freedom of choosing what I'm going to eat. I miss being able to go wherever I want whenever I want. Not being able to drive really inhibits that because I can't walk everywhere and I don't have the money to pay for a taxi all of the time. But, in other ways I think that I've gained more independence. I navigated through a very large city in a Spanish speaking country, a lot of the time by myself. I learned how to successfully negotiate and barter with taxi drivers and vendors. My confidence has gone up as my willingness to put up with bs has gone down. I'm very excited to return home with these new skills, all of these lessons I've learned and a new perspective on everything. So even though I'm pretty worn out and tired of Peru, I owe it so much for opening my eyes, making me even more grateful for the life I have and helping to shape me into the person I am today.

So thank you, Peru. You were great.