Roughing It 101

Interview question number 1= How do you feel about roughing it for ten days?

Hypothetical example number one: Let´s say you get to La Guardia International Airport, Queens, New York no problem. There is one big group, and three coming alone. So far so good. The final member of the group, the one with all the information, she gets stuck in traffic. So what do you do? You wait. She arrives, you convene, and it is time to move onto checking in your luggage. First, while in line, random passengers try an tell you what you need to do, ¨go to the machines.¨ American Airlines employees follow. Voices raise, American Airlines argues, and we wait. Things get squared away, we move onto ticket booth C in order to get all checked in. American Airlines employees mumble under their breath. You go through security no problem. You´re not roughing it yet, this is fine. Stop one, Miami for a brief period of time. Flight lands, everything is okay. You´re tired, but you´re going to Peru afterall, so relax. Next flight, Lima. If you are long-legged, it might be a problem. Don´t get me wrong, Lan Peru is an awesome airline, however the leg room is not adequate and your foot may get run over numerous times by the beverage cart. 5 hours later, Lima. Baggage claim. You wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. Everyone grabs their luggage around you, and you keep waiting. The baggage people tell you there is no more luggage coming through. Dilemma, what do you do? Next stop, help desk (mostly for lack of a better name). Your luggage is lost. All of it. Everyone. American Airlines has gone on strike, it never made the transfer from AA to Lan, so they´ll take you´re information. You´re in Lima, no luggage, you smell, you´re tired. What´s the next step?

Reality: See above.

Solution: Proceed to Lima airport bathroom and wash body with hand soap, brush teeth with donated toothbrushes, share women´s deoderant all around. Take hour flight to Cusco, arrive, hike up 70 stairs at altitude, reach the balcony of your hostel and have your breath taken away. Forget about missing luggage, overtired feelings, an all that went wrong with the morning. Sip tea with the seven students you came with.

Present: Reality is slowly starting to set in. We´re exhausted. For many of us it has been more than 24 hours since our last sleep. We´re in the process of taking showers, contemplating our luggage situation, which by the way might not arrive for atleast 24-36 hours. We don´t have clothes to change into (except a lucky few), jackets, showering supplies, nothing. But th9is place is incredible the the journey is the destination. It´s all about the adventure. We all answered yes to interview question number one; would you?

-Christopher ¨Cinnabon¨ Brida