My STEP signature project was a semester abroad at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru located in Lima, Peru through the ISA program. My semester involved taking four literature classes completely in Spanish with natives, making new Peruvian, US, and international friends, as well as experiencing the diversity of Peru through visiting different regions of the country.
My semester abroad can only be described as life-altering and transformational. I have always been fairly self-aware but being in a foreign country for such a long amount of time deepened my understanding of myself and challenged me to grow and change. I have always considered myself a half introverted and half extroverted person who is good at talking to strangers but being in such a large city and having to make all new friends made me completely clam up in the beginning of my study abroad. I found the city difficult to navigate efficiently and was put off by the Peruvians’ seemingly unfriendly and somber personalities. My assumptions about Peruvians ended up being completely wrong, but it took me some time to understand why they seemed so serious. I had to push aside my timidness and get to know some of my classmates to see that strangers versus people you know better will treat you differently and that it was not meant to be taken offensively. This revelation came after I learned about the history of Peru and it’s experiences with a corrupt government and terrorism. In the end I realized that while I can become more timid in challenging times, I’m capable of pushing through it and accomplishing what I thought was scary and nearly impossible. I made friends with classmates and was able to better understand how different countries in the world and their citizens are affected by their government’s actions.
Two events helped me overcome my timidness and realize that I could thrive in a big city. The first event was when I took the bus by myself to the district of Miraflores. With the help of google maps, I was able to find the store I was looking for without walking too far or getting lost. While this may seem like a small accomplishment, for me it was huge and gave me more confidence to start exploring lesser known parts of the city. Another big event for me was going to a hair salon and having my hair dyed. After serval months of being away from home it was starting to loose its color. I walked into the salon without an appointment since that is acceptable in Peru, successfully communicated what services I wanted, chatted with the hairstylist from Venezuela, and left the salon with a great looking haircut and color and a new, confident personality to match.
My friendship with a local Peruvian girl who was in two of my classes was a relationship that also gave me more confidence and changed my assumptions about Peruvians. We were able to help each other out in class by sharing notes, studying together, and going to extracurricular events. When I first starting talking to her in class to try and get to know her and other students she was always incredibly nice. As I got to know her and her friends more I realized that you just have to give Peruvians time to open up. My host family was also very welcoming and showed me a lot of acceptance. These relationships made me feel more at home and showed me that I can fit in while living in another country. Also, I was struck by the fact that friendship and love really do cross all borders. People are people no matter where you go; we all want the same things in life. As I realized this and bonded with locals and people in my program I grew my confidence and learned to see cultural differences as just that, a difference, not good or bad, and not something that has to separate people.
Additionally, an activity that helped changed my assumptions and widen my world view was going to an exposition on terrorism at LUM(El Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social) or The Place of Memory, Tolerance, and Social Inclusion. I learned that the Peruvian people faced horrible violence by their own government between 1980 and 2000, which is not that long ago. I got to listen to and watch actual videos of several victims’ family members who had even seen their relatives killed. I also got to read about the history of how violence began and how the government responded equally violently. To listen to and read about these murders was extremely sad and made me realize why Peruvians, especially those on the street, are not trusting of strangers. People are not trying to be rude they are just being cautious. In fact, I had a conversation with one of the on site program coordinators who is Peruvian and he said that my observations were not surprising. He said that if he and his friends or family were walking on the street and saw trash bags laying on the ground or an abandoned car was parked on that street they would cross the street to get away from these items just in case there was a bomb in them. After learning more about the history of Peru and getting to know more natives I became much less judgmental and more inquisitive about my host country and other countries in the world. I tried to learn even more by going to see La Hora Final(The Final Hour), a movie about terrorism in Peru. I discovered that my world view had broadened after I realized that many other countries have faced similar issues with corrupt governments and that a nation’s citizens act a certain way not only because of the country’s culture but because of its government.
The changes in myself and how I view the world are incredibly important as I continue to develop myself and a career. Academically, I am now even more sure than ever that I want my future career to involve the Spanish language and culture. I am also positive I want to make an impact in the world and protect the groups of people with less power and representation in society. When I realized why Peruvians are more reserved I was much less quick to judge them. Being slow to make assumptions will help me in the future because I want to work with diverse groups of people from different backgrounds. Now, I will be more competent at understanding why people act the way they do and better able to relate to everyone I work with currently and into the future. I will be more able to understand their unique history and look to their past as a means of how I can help them in the future. For example, say I want to help create a program that promotes healthier eating habits in Peru, but I don’t take into account that Peruvians are accustomed to drinking pop or any other drink but water. Without that background information I could not address a huge health issue of drinking too many sugary drinks. Similar ideas about the use of background information to solve a problem could also be applied to environmental and many other health issues. My new understanding of the importance of people’s backgrounds and the history of a country will be very valuable in my future career. On a personal note, I am always striving to learn more about other cultures and to understand them, and my STEP project and personal transformation have helped me learn so much about another culture and how to be a better global citizen. My STEP project took me out of my comfort zone, helped me develop a better understanding of myself, and will aide and guide my professional goals. In the future, I will continuously challenge myself to grow and to gain as much insight into other people’s cultures and history as possible. Here is link to my blog of the first four days I spent in Lima. https://jravlin.wixsite.com/jackietravelblog/single-post/2017/08/27/Bienvenida-a-Lima-The-first-4-Days
Machu Picchu
Learning about dying Alpaca wool!