I Am Homesick

A little on Lima...

The last post ended with an optimistic muse about the fact that we would probably be winding our way through the Andes, taking our time in colonial towns while sipping on coca tea and petting llamas. All this would be en route to Lima, our last destination that really only existed on our itinerary as a means of getting the heck back home. Lima has a reputation for several things: fog, muggings, and dirtiness. In this light, almost all of the plans that we made for our time in Peru gave us little time in the capital. Josh was especially ruthless, insisting at some points that we really only needed to spend one night here. I was hardly a champion of the city, especially in comparison with Jewels of the Andes like Lake Titicaca orHuancavelica.

The problem, of course, is that these "jewels" are filled with irrate bus employees who leave boulders on the roads for a song. The other problem is that while coastal roads such as the Panamerican Highway are relatively modern, the mountain and jungle roads of the interior are sorely underequiped (for a 60 page paper on the reasons for lack of foreign investment in Andean region infrastructure, please email). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Josh and I are homesick beyond all get out. We are sick of bus rides (although our last one was pretttty sweet), sick of andean panpipes, and sick of unidentifiable meat. We miss English. With all this in mind, we are in Lima, and having bypassed the mountains by taking the coastal roads.

All the things to talk about! We saw the bones of Francisco Pizzaro and an exhibit on the Shining Path. Josh took pictures of urns with their genitalia sticking out so that he can tag friends on facebook with them (very mature). We rode everywhere in tiny buses where guys hang out the door and scream at you where the bus goes (this has been my favorite thing we've done in Lima). We've made local internet cafes' quarterly profits soar. Last night I won $70 gambling.

Yup, Lima is boring, but it's comfortable. There are tons of things around that are allowing us to pretend like we're home already. On our first day, we went to Burger King and KFC. The next day, we went to Pizza Hut and Burger King. Today, we went to KFC and got chocolate chip cookies. We saw Harry Potter in English, and today we're seeing Transformers. We've been in a mall for much of the day.

To say that we're approaching this city with the same energy that we've had in others would be a bit of a lie.

... and a little self reflection.

I have to admit something. I have always had two somewhat conflicting "dreams," if you will, for my life. The first dream was that of the builder, thinker, and doer, somebody with ambition and passion who finds a path and makes goals for himself. This provided the impetus behind a fairly successful educational experience, a driven career search, and the pursuit of meaningful post-graduate experience. The second dream was that of the adventurer, living by spontaneity and pursuing experience and broad knowledge of the world. This has provided the motivation for my love of travel and the outdoors.

In many respects, the first pursuit has been stronger than the second for a long time. It's what drove me from the comfort of a Pacific coast dream lifestyle to a more focused life among more focused people in the marsh called Washington, DC. It's what has pushed me toward pursuing economics and business over less concrete pretensions toward writing.

Going on this trip was a decision to embrace the second dream for a few months. It's been an unequivocally terrific experience, and I've seen and done things that I will not only remember, but cherish for the rest of my life. It's funny though. Even in the midst of the greatest adventures, I still find myself restless. I'm dying to get back to DC and go back to work, reimmerse myself in issues and start forming a career in which I can have a major voice. Josh has had to deal with an unexpected onslought of heated political conversation over the last month (although he's quite equipped to handle that).

People who advised me against this trip insisted that I make a seamless transition to full-time work right after graduation. They were wrong. If I am going to be successful in my pursuits, I don't want to be bogged down with regrets. That said, the life of the backpacker, moving through the channels of the world without purpose, watching and living without ambition, is not for me. Does that mean I no longer want to see the world, or will never need a vacation again? Not at all. It simply means that I am ready to continue with a purpose-filled life.

In the short term

When I go back to Washington (state, that is) for two weeks, I am going to take some time to sit on the grass in my backyard with a bowl of cherries and a tall glass of lemonade.

I will also eat Cheerios.

This will hopefully not be the last post, as I want to do some kind of recap. I promise the last one will be less sappy!