I’m a day away now and things are definitely looking up. I have a place to stay, [just enough] money in the bank, passport, boarding pass, and now I’ve even got my sister’s camera. (I found my camera, took it apart and fixed it with my tech savvy skills, and then lost the freakin battery..typical)
The best news, of course, is that I won’t be completely wanderlust in Peru, bouncing from hostel to hostel with 5 months worth of crap. I made a profile on couchsurfing.com and found a chica named Liliana, who lives with 3 other girls pretty close to the university and is looking for a roommate. Score! $270/month, everything included. Wifi, cable, etc but I”m not sure about hot water (We can only hope.) All these other people responded, too, extending their friendship, their couch, whatever it is they could offer. Lima already seems like a smaller place, or maybe just friendlier.
I wish I had more time to spend with my friends before I go, though. It just came on me so fast. I feel really bad that I didn’t spend more time with my family before I left, especially my sis, but I guess there’s nothing I can do now. Write lots of letters, I suppose.
Last night I got spoiled and taken out to the Melting Pot, a really nice fondue restaurant that I used to work at in high school. It looks completely different now though-remodelled, new menu, management, etc–go figure, and I had to stop myself from being that old-school ”things aren’t how they used to be” person. It was realllly good though, and somehow I managed to avoid the after-date indigestion that so often happens in a place like that.
Well, I better be off to my duties: call the credit card company to let them know where I’ll be, order a new camera battery, stash away the crap that I don’t want to leave for my mom.
I’m supposed to have packed up my room before I go because they’re trying to sell the house, but I couldn’t handle that. A) Too much work but B) packing years of memories and momentos into boxes is infinitely more intense than packing clothes into suitcases. Plus, I can’t really handle the thought of coming “home” to a place that’s as foreign as the place I just came from, but worse without the novelty and comfort of knowing that you do, in fact, have a home somewhere.
One day at a time. For now, I’m just working on packing for the next 6 months.
