3rd Trip!

Yesterday I got home from my 3rd trip with Rotary. I, along with all of the other 37 exchange students in Lima, boarded a bus the night of February 12th and headed up north. We spend 12 days traveling around the north of Peru and even into Ecuador for a couple days. Rotary trips are always a blast, but this one may have been my favorite. It was filled with long days at the beach, shopping, delicious food (so much ceviche!), dance parties and of course lots of ancient Peruvian ruins and tomb sites. The entire trip was full of laughs, exploring, and memories that I will never forget.

One of my absolutely favorite memories of the trip, and possibly of my entire exchange took place in Tumbes, the city at the very north point of Peru. We were hanging out at the hotel one night when we heard a familiar but rare noise... The sound of rain. Let's give some background information right now. There is NO rain in Lima. Almost never. And if there is, it's just mist. It's not real rain. Okay, so back to the story... We hear rain. We run to the lobby and step outside, and to our pleasant surprise, it's raining. Our first rain in 7 months. We automatically all run out into the street singing and dancing and letting the rain drench us. My best friend Lea and I were just wearing long tshirts (no shorts) and some of the guys went out in their boxers. We all looked like CRAZY kids, but it was amazing. We spent a good 25 or 30 minutes just standing in it. Standing in circles and singing songs, running up and down the streets, yelling, dancing. Peruvians were staring at us everywhere we went; some even took pictures. It was truly a perfect experience. Standing with my very best friends, letting the rain pour and hit our skin.. It felt like home. The rain gave us a little feeling of being home again. It was amazing.

Another favorite memory from the trip was in Guayaquil. Ecuador. The whole group boarded a double-decker bus to take a tour of the city. Once the tour guide was finished talking, she let us plug in an iPod and listen to the music that we chose, so we spent the rest of the ride blasting the music and rocking out on the top floor of the bus. All of the Ecuadorians were staring at the group of white kids on the top of this bus singing in English. It was so fun to just stand at the railing and sing at the tops of our lungs to random Ecuadorians passing by on the street. Watching the pedestrians laugh and smile as we passed was such a blast. We rocked out to a LOT of songs, but there was one that stood out amongst the rest- Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. We all sang this song together in a talent show once, and we just love singing it. The lyrics to the chorus are ''home is wherever I'm with you''. This lyric has always meant something really special to us. We're a group of 38 high school students living away from our homes, our families, everything we've really ever known. Because of this, we have acted as each others families. We've leaned on each other, we've supported each other, we've laughed with each other and cried with each other. We've become one big family. We may not be at home, but we have each other.. And that's home enough.

I had the most amazing time on this trip, and it's really made me realize more and more how lucky I am. I am living my dream... I am having the most amazing experiences. Choosing to be an exchange student was the best choice I've ever made, and probably the best one I ever will make. These memories will stay with my for the rest of my life, and I couldn't have wished for anything better :)