On June 2nd I woke up at 6:30 to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). Less than twelve hours later, I was catching a cab to take me to the Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima with a destination to Washington, D. C. One year earlier I had been waiting in the Guayaquil, Ecuador airport but if you have read that blog, you know that I was victim of some unforeseen problems that I was hoping not to repeat in Lima.
On June 3rd I touched down in America.
I went home for a total of 8 days although that includes traveling time. I’ve been on vacation in Peru for longer than that. Nevertheless it was a much needed and welcomed trip home to visit everyone. I went to Oxford, Ohio to watch my friend Danielle get married on Miami’s campus to her college sweetheart. Before the wedding I managed to have a beer tower at Skipper’s, get my favorite sandwich at the infamous La Bodega, and get a bagel from Bagel and Deli with the anticipation that I would eat it after the wedding reception (which I did). I spent two days with Maggie, Julie, Colleen, Latta and Pfeffer at Colleen’s lake house where we ate $200 worth of groceries in 24 hours. I saw all of my high school friends. I gained 6 pounds. I went white water tubing with my family down the Shenandoah River. And I spent precious time with all of my grandparents and uncles and aunts. Once again, I am indebted to such amazing parents who made all of that possible for me.
While it’s never easy coming back, this time was more bearable than the last. I only have five months left here and I’m planning on making it home for Pearl Harbor Day. While it’s not Thanksgiving (like my mother would like) it’s still a National holiday and I think December 7th has a nice ring to it. So comparing 5 months to last year’s 17+ is a piece of cake. My projects are all moving (albeit slowlllllllly) but I have big hopes for the next month or so. And if that doesn’t make me feel better, I’m going on a five-day vacation for Fourth of July to Chachapoyas, Cajamarca. I’m going to go see waterfalls or something.
So that’s really all I’m going to talk about my trip to the States; I think if I start reminiscing too much right now I’ll get super depo (short for depressed) afterwards as I fall asleep to the sound of mosquitoes buzzing and the reggaeton playing a little too loudly next door. I will say though (as I have said before) that I cannot believe how lucky I am to have friends that make me laugh the way my friends do, how it feels like no time has passed when we get together, and how much they all care about me. To all of you (and you know who you are), thank you for being awesome. And my grandparents are the four most amazing people that continue to inspire me to be a better person every day. Thank you for loving me.
What I will talk about however is my bus trip from Lima to Tumbes that started yesterday afternoon at 4 pm and finished today at 12:30pm. You do the math- it’s a lot of time on the bus. I went to the bus terminal the day before leaving to buy my bus ticket- all of the good seats had been sold out. Okay that’s fine- the bus has two levels and I would be stuck on the bottom level with 11 other passengers in this 8ft by 10ft box. However, upon boarding the bus the next afternoon, I knew things were going to get creepy when this one old guy got on with a trash bag.
Turns out the old guy had reserved two seats- one for himself and one for his bed. I later found out that this man (who wore really high-wasted pants) brought a comforter, two pillows and sheets in his trash bag and was going to be making his bus seat resemble his real bed as much as possible. He also carried way too many water bottles and brought on his own personal air-freshener-spray. Before the bus even took off, the guy started liberally spraying his comforter and all around him (including the floor). I had ten seconds to mentally prepare myself for the overwhelming smell of cherries and apples. I could feel brain cells dying. At thirty-minute intervals until he fell asleep, he repeated.
Whatever. I could deal with it. I just shut my eyes and tried to think of a happier place.
On these buses they usually play movies. Usually I’m stuck watching an illegal number of Van-Dan and 70s ninja movies. This one was promising though. The bus lady put on some Katherine Heigl movie that was incredibly predictable (but I’m not complaining) and followed that one up with Johnny Depp’s new Tourist. After watching both of these and eating dinner I was ready to take my Dramamine and hit the hay. But some higher power had other plans.
The baby sitting in front of me threw up. And for some reason neither of her two parents thought it would be a good idea to take the infant into the bathroom during her whole 5-minute ordeal. Unlike the air-freshener, I knew this smell would not fade. And I was right; it permeated through every pore in my clothing and left me gasping. This only got better later when the baby had diarrhea. At this point I was figuring the creepy guy in the back would freak out and start spraying everywhere but s my luck would have it, he had fallen asleep!!! I was stranded and asphyxiating slowly (remember how I said this was a closed 8 by 10 foot compartment).
The time at that point was circling 10pm, which meant the bus lady was going to show us one more movie before going to bed. What movie tickled her fancy? TAKEN with Liam Neeson. This is the movie where Liam’s daughter gets abducted while traveling abroad and is thrown into a prostitution ring, gets hooked up on heroin, and is left for dead. Perfect. I would also like to state that I have seen this movie on bus rides multiple times- I think the bus ladies show it just to eff with me. And it works. There’s no way I can fall asleep at this point as I am scared that I will have nightmares about waking up in the back of someone’s trunk. Seriously, there are A LOT of good movies out there, including Jumanji and Field of Dreams– would it kill someone to load up on non-terror/depressing flicks? The lingering vomit smell and baby’s cries did nothing to calm me down either- I was officially up for the night.
At around 8 the next morning, I am given a brownie and ham sandwich to breakfast on- this is good- last time it was hotdog. The baby has finally calmed down and I have called the bus lady to spray something to alleviate the smell but by this point, I’m used to it. Which is almost worse because that means I smell like it now. I look out my window and wait patiently for the next five hours to pass. They do and I catch a taxi back to site.
I’m not taking that bus again until August.
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