Meet Danielle, a recently married twenty-something, taking a hiatus from her career as an occupational therapist to move with her husband to Lima, Peru. Read about her adjustment to life as a married woman and her daily challenges adapting to the language, customs and cultural differences in her new country.
1) The Plaza de Armas in Arequipa. Arequipa is also known as “the white city” because many of its buildings are made from a white volcanic rock called sillar. The city rests in the Andes around 7,800 feet above sea level and is the second most populated city in the country (around 904,900 residents)
2)...
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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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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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