#1 — The Ordinary World
We leave tomorrow night. It feels really soon but also million years away. This is probably the first time that I really couldn’t imagine what the entire trip and internship will be like. We received enough information just for us to feel safe, but also not enough for us to completely feel comfortable about the whole thing. To make things worse, I was just reading about travel safety in Latin America, specifically El Salvador because we have a layover there, and I don’t feel good about it at all. I found out that El Salvador is one of the nations that have the highest crime rate in the world, and that crime can potentially happen even in the airports. All anxiety aside, I’m optimistic, I want to stay optimistic. I know that I have a fatal flaw of always imagining the worst situations possible and worrying about every single little detail. I am a dramatic person, and I know it.
Right now I am occupied by a mixture of feelings from excitement to nervousness. Paula, Nick and I have been talking and chatting about this trip for more than 10 weeks now (since beginning of Spring quarter), and we have laughed, joked, and worried about packing, passport, visa, down to the tiniest detail such as how many pairs of shorts are we each bringing? When we first met each other it didn’t even feel like we were strangers because we have all seen photos and little profiles about each other, for me at least I just immediately thought: 7 weeks with these two, lets get comfortable.
Besides the usual things I am excited for when traveling — scenery, a different culture, food — I am really excited to get to spend time with Paula and Nick, I think we all choose to apply to Moscoso for different reasons, but our hearts are in the same place and that is something that made us attracted to it in the first place. To be honest I don’t know them well at all, but it makes me feel so much better that we have each other and they are by my side all the way to Bolivia and beyond.
This summer I have goals, and I am the type of person to constantly have goals… but they are a little different this time. Normally my goals involve trying to achieve something big or aiming for an almost-impossible accomplishment, this summer my goals are simple: 1) to genuinely experience and learn about another culture’s lifestyle and values and 2) to slowdown. I feel like in life, especially in school, we all live in such rhythmic and scheduled lives that it is easy to just be caught in a cycle and robotically go through our daily lives. I want to rediscover what it feels like to really live in the moment, to really listen to someone intently when they are talking to me, and to really enjoy something without worrying about missing out on something else.
Paula, Nick and I at the SFO airport waiting for our flight! San Fransisco -> San Salvador -> Lima -> Santa Cruz -> Cochabamba! 22 hours here we go!
