A Warm Welcome
EMI PETERS writes: The idea of traveling to another country always excites me. Traveling is one of my greatest passions, and getting a sense of how people and cultures different from my own live is, to me, an important thing to experience.
However, the actuality of being in Peru did not hit me until I walked out of the Lima airport (being in two airports and two airplanes for more than 16 hours can have that affect on you) and felt the warm and breezy night air hit my skin. I was finally out of the frigid Chicago winter and into the sultry Peruvian summer.
So far, in the past 24 hours of my Peruvian expedition, I've learned that there are many differences as well as similarities between the people of Peru and the people of the United States.
How many people do you know would randomly invite a group of 13 students and two instructors into their home to check out the sweet ocean view after just meeting them on the street? That's just what happened to our group yesterday, when we met a wonderful Peruvian woman by the name of Elba Wheeler, who invited us up to her second floor condo to see the beautiful scenery, and to meet her husband Frank, who just happened to be a Chicagoan himself. You really can't find that kind of spontaneous hospitality in the states.
Speaking of hospitality, our group had the awesome privilege of being the guests of honor at a reception our host school, Instituto Peruano de Arte y Diseño aka IPAD, threw for us the second night of our trip. Both students and teachers of the school attended the event, and everyone was incredibly warm and inviting. I was pretty nervous about talking to some of the IPAD students because of my lack of Spanish-speaking skills, but a few of them spoke English and were able to translate. In the end, everyone mingled, had a good time and shared their similarities, as well as embraced their differences.
