Editor’s Note: Myers Jordan, a cadet at The Citadel, has been studying abroad. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jordan. He is sharing his experience with our readers.
I have just completed my stay in Lima, Peru. Following a two month stay in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Peru was quite a culture shock and a taste of South America that was nowhere to be found in the previous city. Peru contains an entirely different culture, climate, and lifestyle than Argentina. The people here for the most part are poorer, but the food and hospitality are incomparably better.
Families are closer, the cities are smaller, and English-speakers are much more of a rarity. I live in a house with seven other people: a mother, father, grandmother, three brothers, and a cousin who has recently moved in to the small bedroom on our roof (all roofs are flat in Lima because it never rains; this allows the simple roof of a building to be converted into a third story-ours contains a bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, and storage closet). Although I live in a room by myself, two of my brothers share one bedroom, and my grandmother shares a room with my youngest brother.
Adjusting to life in Lima has been very simple compared to the transition I faced in Argentina. Thanks to several intensive Spanish classes, communication is getting easier (but I still have a long way to go!), and it is easier to understand the culture of the country.
My schedule varies every day, but Peruvians generally wake up early and go to bed before midnight. We eat big meals which contain plenty of starch, but remain active throughout the day, which is why all three of my brothers are thinner than I am.
Peruvian food ranks in the top ten cuisines in the world. Although the typical meal consists of rice and chicken, Peru also boasts great seafood, wonderful fruits and vegetables, and several dishes that seemed very strange, but wonderful, to my American palate. One of the most famous dishes is called ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish soaked in lemons, onions, and other juices to get rid of the fishy flavor and replace it with a slightly more acidious one. Sushi is also common and delicious. Water must be boiled before drinking, so Peruvians typically boil it with fruits, add sugar, and then serve it as lemonades or fruit drinks. Rice with milk is a common dessert, as well as flans and puddings. Anticuchos are made of cow hearts that are put on skewers and charcoaled over a fire, and are sold on the streets like hot dogs in America. Overall, the food was incredible, and will probably be one of the things I miss most about Peru.
I attend the University of the Pacific and am enrolled in foreign business classes and a Spanish course. The teachers are highly qualified and the classes remind me of Honors Courses at the Citadel (very small student to teacher ratio and discussion based classes).
My classmates and I have been incredibly blessed with the opportunity to study business and international negotiations from the Peruvian perspective, which will give us a very different point of view when we return to business classes in the states. We primarily look at relations within Latin America, but also study their involvement with the United States, Europe, China, and other countries important to global trade.
I had the opportunity to take three trips in Peru. First, before classes began, our program went to Cusco, a small town in the Andes Mountains better known for its Incan ruins—the village of Machu Picchu. Here we had the chance to see the lifestyle of the indigenous people who live in the mountains of Peru. A friend and I went hiking through a set of ruins, followed a herd of sheep down the back of the mountain, and met the shepherds-some of whom did not even speak Spanish (they spoke the native language Quechua). These men and women lived in extreme poverty and had very little apart from the clothes they were wearing and the flocks they were herding. After returning to Lima, my group went to the rainforest for Easter. Here we saw an even more impoverished side of Peru, but enjoyed getting to know the people and see the jungle and Amazon. Finally, a week before I left, I went with a friend to Ica, a small desert town three hours south of
Lima. We stayed in a desert oasis, and spent the weekend sandboarding (like snowboarding-just on sand dunes), riding dune buggies, and exploring the desert area.
Although I am now in Africa, many of the members of our program have decided that Peru is in fact their proper home. A couple of the students love Lima so much that they have decided to return to live after graduating from college. Others have extended their stay in Lima by getting jobs for the summer.
I loved Peru and hope to return to visit, but am happy to have the chance to move on to Africa!
