Preparing to say goodbye

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard”- Winnie the Pooh. This is a quote that I was reminded of today as I was thinking about my final days here in Cusco, Perú. Although it’s not quite that time to say goodbye, I’m feeling sad that I’m leaving. However, I feel happy and excited that I had the opportunity to study abroad, had fantastic experiences here, met many amazing people, and now I will always have a place to come back and visit.

During my time here, I had really interesting interactions that might not seem like a big deal, but to me, they were. When I was on the bus along with my classmates and students from a different university, a woman began to observe us and asked me where we were from and what we were doing here in Cusco. She then asked me questions about what I was studying and she was really happy to hear that in one of my courses, I was studying about the Indigenous cultures of Peru. Then, she asked me what was the best way to learn English. This interaction was important to me because one of my initial thoughts and concerns about Cusco, Perú was about how they felt about tourists and specifically, me. For example, in one of my earlier blogs, I wrote about the fear of how people from here feel about me, how they would perceive the fact that I grew up in the United States, my Spanish, and the like. However, this interaction has changed how I view Cusco, Perú and Perú in general. I realized that many people here don’t think of tourists and me the way I expected them to: to judge and make me feel unwelcomed. On the contrary, I’ve realized that many people here don’t think of me as any different just because my Spanish isn't the same as theirs or because I’m Mexican-American. What this interaction made me realize is that Peru is very welcoming to tourists and students like me but most importantly, when studying abroad, it’s easy to feel like you might not be welcomed or be frowned upon because of your background, but people are more welcoming than you might think.

From this interaction and this whole experience, I’ve been able to have my initial thoughts of being judged based on my background as a Mexican-American, a student studying abroad, and as a tourist be completely changed. I’ve felt welcomed by my host family and locals even if my Spanish isn’t the most perfect or even if I’m Mexican and from the United States. This is something that has made me realize that it’s extremely easy to think that someone is thinking the worst of you, but then I have realized that it’s important to take a step back and begin to notice that they really aren’t and that at the end of the day, we’re all here to help one another.