Peru: Parque del Amor, San Antonio's & Catacombas con't

This was the lovely group of people I had the privilege of spending time with this break. Here's to Peru! And more random photos from the first day.

Peru: Parque del Amor, San Antonio's & Catacombas

I'm back in Evanston and raring to go. Honestly, I don't really have much of a choice because my flight got in at 11 a.m. yesterday morning and I was sitting in a classroom going over the syllabus for Digital Art by 1 p.m. I skipped my first reporting class in three quarters, which I do not consider a great way to kick off the quarter, but I could have not asked for a better way to spend my spring break than doing service with Northwestern Rotaract (Please excuse the mess. I started to revamp the site).

Volunteering with Pisco Sin Fronteras, we met a great group of people whose travelling stories reminded me that it is totally acceptable to slow down and simply enjoy life sans extravagant luxuries and constant to-do lists. Many of these wonderful individuals spent weeks travelling South America and the weeks quickly turned to months. I soaked in my eight days without internet or phone. I lived in the here and now and I absolutely loved it. The entire experience was rejuvenating for my soul and my encounters taught me so much. I am definitely going to go back in the future. The work that PSF is amazing and it's wonderful to be able to talk to locals (or gesture and smile awkwardly, which is my case due to my lack of Spanish language skills) and see their reaction to the work we have done.

But before all that happened, we enjoyed a quick tour of Lima after we met Amanda at the airport. A Northwestern alumna, Amanda was an absolute godsend. The fact that she had spent the past 15 months in Lima on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship made it possible for us to fly to Peru. She helped make every day run smoothly, communication between both the Lima and Pisco Rotaract Clubs as well as PSF.

At five in the morning, no breakfast joint was open, so she told the bus driver to take us along Costa Verde to Parque del Amor in Miraflores. The view was absolutely breathtaking, at least it was once the sun cast its morning rays over the city. I cannot remember the last time I was looking over the Pacific Ocean and the smell of salt in the air just made my heart melt. I could instantly feel all the stress that had been weighing me down all quarter lift and just roll off my shoulders.

We ate a delectable breakfast at San Antonio's, where I shared a macedonia de frutas with Liz and drank jugo de maracuya. In the early afternoon, we received a tour of the city plazas, walked through the Museum of Peruvian Literature and saw the Palace of the Government. The best part of the first day, aside from finally being by an ocean, was the Museo del Convento de San Francisco de Asis de Lima, which carried so much art history from its architecture to the paintings hanging on the wall that were brought in the 17th century from various countries. It was also my first time seeing catacombs underneath a church, and seeing the femurs and skulls of the dead piled up underneath the church was just as eerie as it sounded. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited and I could not capture any bit of it, aside from the blurry shot I sneaked before walking out of the catacombs. I won't be posting that because I still feel like I somehow cursed myself by doing such a thing.

Then we ate traditional Peruvian food, buffet-style, at Kasa Mama to round out our first hours in Peru before heading of to Pisco and settling into our hostel. Unfortunately, it's late. While I could go on and on about how amazing the trip is, I have plenty of days to do that and have sleep to catch up on.

Cheers.

Rollin'

How can you see these two rollin' around the Lakefill and not think, "Damn, I want to be their friends?"

Friendly faces

I am so ready for this quarter to be over, to put things behind me and look forward. Drowning in projects and homework, I have recently forgotten the importance of setting things aside -- no matter how important and timely they may be -- to simply sit and just be. The thought reminds me of one of the baccalaureate speeches from two years ago. My memory has been failing me lately and high school seems so distant now, but I think it was Dr. Richard Hartzell who reminded us that sometimes, especially in this day and age, being is sometimes more important than the accustomed and often robotic "doing" that we find ourselves falling into.

So forget about the final projects, the study abroad applications and miscellaneous assignments. I'll be keeping those on the back burner for now as friends begin to leave for spring break. For now, there are sunny days, bikes and frisbees. I am so excited to be living above these people next year, and I am grateful to have wonderful friends here in Evanston.

Gorgeous day

How can someone study for finals when it looks like this outside? Sun, please don't tease me.

Are we there yet?

I realized I posted this on the wrong blog. Woops:

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The end of winter quarter decided it would be really fun to tackle me with Rod Blagojevich, Dance Marathon and final projects galore. My body has decided to retaliate by seducing me with sleep and the coziness of my bed. The combination of all of it has made for a rather overwhelming few weeks. But I have had some time to make some mean dumplings for an nuAsian magazine assignment.

But Peru is almost here and I am dancing in my seat with excitement. To make a long story short, Rotary International is filming our involvement in Peru for a upcoming documentary, we are working on some great, sustainable projects with Pisco Sin Fronteras and I am looking forward to forging connections with those in the Rotaract clubs of both Lima and Pisco. Especially with the recent devastations in Haiti and Chile, the efforts with PSF are a reminder that rebuilding and recovery takes longer than the six months that most NGOs and large organizations choose to stay. It has been two years since the large earthquake.

So this year, the Rotaract Club of Northwestern will be heading to Lima and Pisco for spring break to help. While ten days is hardly enough time to leave a substantial imprint, I trust that our efforts will still be valuable. Amanda, former NU alumna and a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, has been a godsend for helping us with our itinerary and communication with the Peruvian chapters.

While constructing compost toilets, rebuilding community homes, redoing roofs, painting murals, working on biofuel projects and removing rubble and construction from beaches and homes does not sound like a walk in the park and a day tanning at the beach, I would not spend my spring break any other way. These are only a fraction of the opportunities with PSF and I am stoked.

My personal goals for the trip? Exposing myself to a new culture, forging friendships within our own club and with others and raising awareness about what students like us can do. Oh, and of course, eating delicious Peruvian food.

Learn more here. The WordPress blog speaks to a collaboration between multiple Northwestern student organizations who are travelling and volunteering with a focus on water. It is still rough, so please mind the construction.