Let the adventures begin!

I love every kind of story, but especially travel stories. I come from a family of travelers, and grew up listening to accounts of motor-bike trips across Europe, casual references to "that time I lived in Singapore", and significantly too much information about when my mom got the flu in Greece. These stories are the result of trips that allowed them to learn about hundreds of interesting places, introduced them to our many multi-cultural friends, and helped to define their lives (and thus my life as well!).

And now, it's my turn to tell a travel story or two(Cuéntame un cuento means "tell me a story" in Spanish)! For the next 7 weeks, I'll be traveling around Peru, studying at two universities, working in a homeless shelter for children, speaking a whole lot of Spanish, avoiding the drinking water, and hopefully taking several pictures with llamas. It's important to set goals for yourself, right?

So here's a map of where I'm going:

- 3 weeks in Lima, studying Contemporary Peruvian Literature at the Universidad Católica

- 3 weeks in Ayacucho, studying Peruvian Politics During and After Shining Path at Universidad Nacional de San Cristobal, and working at la Casa Hogar los Cachorros

- 1 week in Cuzco, home of Machu Picchu and the namesake of this guy

So that's the plan! It's 1am, my bag is packed - somewhere between "light", as the program recommends, and actually bringing all the stuff that they require on our packing list - and I am ready and rearin' to go. The program's seven other students and I have 12 hours of travel tomorrow, and will land in Lima around 10pm CST. Once I get settled in my homestay and have internet access, I'll post periodic updates on my adventures.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you're all having amazing summers, wherever you may be!