Blogs

Culture shock refers to feelings of anxiety, depression, or confusion that often go along with adjusting to life in a foreign country.  The process of adjustment can be broken down into three stages:  The Honeymoon Stage, The Negotiation or Frustration Stage, and the Understanding or Acclimation Stage. The Honeymoon stage generally occurs when you first...
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An American in Peru Between junior and senior year of college, I studied abroad in the rainforest of northeastern Australia.  I spent four weeks living in an open-air cabin in the middle of the forest learning about and aiding local reforestation efforts…the experience of a lifetime.  Afterwards, I spent six weeks traveling in parts...
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An American in Peru What time is it? Every greeting starts with a buenos dias (good morning), buenas tardes (good afternoon or evening), or buenas noches (good night).  This is fine and dandy, but sometimes adds to my anxiety of beginning a conversation, entering a store, or asking for directions.  In addition to figuring out how...
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An American in Peru It’s amazing how much a single interaction, or the successful completion of a task can make my day and contribute to my happiness here.  Conversely, a failed task or misunderstanding can be devastating.  Who knew I was so sensitive? Here’s an example. This weekend, Charlie bought me a cell phone (I had...
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An American in Peru It’s hard to believe I’ve been here 20 days already.  I feel like I’m only beginning to adjust to life in Peru.  I’ve had a lot of comments and email responses to my blog and wanted to answer some commonly asked questions… On Married Life… Married life rocks.  I’m really enjoying it.  I...
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I know I shouldn't complain about business travel to Africa. It’s always a rewarding experience. But it’s also an exhausting one. For nearly three weeks I had been waking up at 6, cleaning out my work emails, and leaving the hotel by 7. We would be on the road all day seeing projects. With...
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An American in Peru If I wrote “Peruvian men are a bunch of scum-buckets,”  that would be stereotyping.  So I will phrase it this way:  I have encountered a lot of Peruvian men who are complete, disrespectful slime-balls.  I briefly touched this topic in the previous blog, and I would like to delve...
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An American in Peru Being a housewife here in Peru is easy when you have a maid who comes once a week.  This is a social norm among the upper and middle class.  She cleans the house, does the laundry, irons, can run errands with me (or on her own), and as I was told...
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Six months ago, I was living in Seattle with roommates, working as an occupational therapist for a home health company. Now, I am a housewife in Lima, Peru. I am delighted to finally be living with my husband who has been working as a geotechnical engineer at a mine here for the past...
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The sun rises slowly but the noises of morning come suddenly. I'm used to hearing roosters alarm sleepers that morning has risen, but here a large community (or so it sounds) is quacking and twittering "get up, get up." As I stand in the yard a parade of animals make their debut, one at...
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