Survival of the Fittest, or, Adventures in International Travel

Picture this: a lone American girl, with a very large backpack, blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, sitting at a table in a cafe in the airport in Lima, working on Sudoku puzzles. Not too out of the ordinary, no? But wait, kids, it gets better. As that lone American girl sits there working on her puzzles, all of a sudden a voice comes over the loudspeaker, asking (in Spanish, of course) for a "Señor Clark Laurent" to please report to the customs officers. Imagine, furthermore, that said American girl is fully cognizant of the fact that her luggage tags say "Clark, Lauren T." Picture the look of panic that spreads across her face as she realizes they are, indeed, paging her and not some strange Frenchman whose name is oddly familiar. Now watch her gather everything in one big swoop and go racing back through the airport, pausing to ask permission of at least 10 security guards to pass back through every single checkpoint she had cleared just an hour before. Imagine that.

Now imagine the look of relief on her face when she finds out that nobody had stowed illegal substances in her luggage and that, instead, the airline simply wanted to make sure her luggage was going to be put onto the proper connecting fligh. Ah, my friends, imagine that sweet relief. Just imagine.

So I managed to arrive safely here in Cusco and basically, it has met and surpassed all expectations so far. My host family is warm and welcoming. The children are loads of fun to play with (little Mariana is watching me type this at the moment, but I swear I would have said that anyway!) and my Spanish appears to be better than I give myself credit for. I even got over my personal space paranoia and kiss people on the cheek in greeting now, which I know would make Mary's mommy very proud of me. Also, I just now figured out how to make an apostrophe on this keyboard. Go me!

Expect massive blog fodder in the weeks to come. Cusco is full of things to write about.