Author: claytonglasgow

And just like that, I find myself back in Spring Lake, Michigan. My time in Peru went by in “un abrir y cerrar de ojos”—in the blink of an eye. It is still a little surreal to be back in the United States after an extended period abroad. After speaking only Spanish for so long, I have to consciously think about greeting people in English, which I think is super cool.

I learned a lot during my time in Peru, and summed with my semester abroad in Chile, my Spanish skills have undoubtedly skyrocketed. A big part of this improvement has been grammatical and an increased vocabulary, but I think perhaps the most important improvement that I have made has been my confidence in speaking. Being immersed in a Spanish environment forced me to speak in Spanish all day, everyday. At first, I was a little bit hesitant, not wanting to make a mistake or sound incredibly “gringo” with a poor accent. Now, however, I speak much more freely—mistakes, gringo accent, and all—and have learned that speaking perfectly matters much less than being able to communicate effectively. This ties in to another important lesson I learned: what it means to be fluent. Coming into my SLA, my perspective of fluency was being able to speak like a native. However, as I progressed through my experience abroad, I came to realize that being fluent does not necessitate speaking exactly like a native speaker does. Rather, if I am capable of living my entire day in Spanish without issue—listening and understanding what people say to me, expressing what I want to say in response, asking questions, etc.—even if I don’t do it perfectly, then for me, that’s fluency. Of course, I can (and will) still strive to improve to speak more like a native, but achieving that level, for me, is a level beyond fluency. These were the two most important language lessons I learned in my time abroad: to speak without fear of making mistakes and the change in my perspective of fluency.

To anyone who is even slightly considering applying for an SLA grant or for any study abroad program, for that matter, I would absolutely encourage you to do so. Spending any significant amount of time in a new country, culture, and language is an absolutely enriching experience that cannot be replicated in any other way. Experiencing a new style and perspective of life will give you a new appreciation for the diversity that the world contains, and, as I have learned upon returning to my corner of Michigan, it might give you a new appreciation for your own home. 

To the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures, the Kellogg Institute, and the many individuals from Notre Dame, Máximo Nivel, and Cusco who helped make my SLA experience unforgettable, thank you. I am incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend part of my summer in Peru, and I know that what I learned from this experience will serve me for the rest of my life. ¡Muchísimas gracias! ¡Viva Perú! 

Being abroad, it is sometimes hard to remember that many Peruvians—in fact, the vast majority—have never been to the United States and have a limited knowledge of what life is like in our country. Experiencing this has been humbling, and it has made me realize that I also have a very limited understanding of what life is like for the billions of people who live outside of the U.S.

At various points throughout my time here in Cusco, the topic of the United States has come up in conversation—with my professor, my host mom, various tour guides, and other foreign students who are neither Peruvian nor from the U.S. These conversations have been interesting because a few common themes came up, indicating what many people (or at least the subset of people I interacted with) think of when they think of the United States, but what caught my attention more was that almost every person brought up a topic or asked me a question about an issue in the U.S. that no one else did. This diversity of interests and questions reflects, I think, the unique position of each individual; as might be expected, a person’s interests and experiences are likely to influence what they consider most important.

I’ll start with the common themes that repeatedly arose when any discussion turned to the U.S. First, politics. During every conversation about the U.S., questions and comments about the political climate were a constant, and opinions and knowledge varied. Many people expressed more support for the current administration than the previous, but many more were relatively uninformed and were keen to ask questions. Second, COVID. Unsurprisingly, people were curious about the pandemic in the U.S. and the impact that it had. Many were surprised about and against the masking policies and compliance. In Cusco, it is still mandatory to wear masks everywhere; almost all of the cusqueños (people from Cusco) wear their masks diligently, while the majority of people who don’t are tourists. Third, immigration. Though there are relatively few Peruvians who immigrate to the United States, they still seem to express interest in the issue given the large number of Latin American citizens in general who do immigrate. Many acknowledged that the U.S. needs to address its immigration policy.

Now, the topics that were brought up by only one or a few individuals. There are many, and I won’t have the space to go through all of them, but I’ll describe a few and list the rest. First, gun violence. I had a fascinating conversation with a student from England and another from Italy, and they both shared their unapologetic disapproval of the way the U.S. handles gun rights and violence. Second, I had another fun conversation with my professor about professional and collegiate sports in the United States, and she liked the idea of having many different popular sports to watch instead of just one (soccer). Other specific topics that came up include religion, food, and technology.

Over the course of my time in Peru, I have learned much about its history and culture, but what I didn’t expect to learn was much about my own country. However, being surrounded by people who have never experienced being in the U.S., I have gained a new perspective of our country. The wonders of travel.

Peru is an ecologically-fascinating country. Going from west to east, traversing Peru will have you start in the ocean, pass through the desert, scale the Andes mountains, and descend into the Amazon rainforest. Unfortunately, however, much of Peru’s ecological diversity, especially that of the Amazon, finds itself increasingly threatened.

After Brazil, Peru is the country with the most Amazon rainforest coverage, and our understanding of this ecosystem’s importance in mitigating climate change, protecting biodiversity, and providing services to both local and global communities is only increasing as scientists continue to study it. In Peru, however, deforestation of the Amazon has been a worsening issue in the past years, with links to illegal logging groups, land-clearing for agriculture and livestock, illegal mining, and drug trafficking.

I first talked about this issue with my Spanish professor, and we watched together a news clip about a recent attack by a drug trafficking group on a local Amazonian family as well as a movie that partly discusses the theme, “El crimen del Padre Amaro”, in English “The Crime of Father Amaro”). The way she described the situation to me was quite interesting; she said that Peru is an incredibly wealthy country with their food (three Peruvian restaurants were recently ranked among the top 50 restaurants in the world, coming in at #2, #11, and #32), history, culture, people, and natural beauty, but that the current systems in place and the threats mentioned above have prevented the nation from fully taking advantage of its potential. To her, it is devastating what is currently happening (and what has been happening for decades), but she says it is nearly impossible for any real change to happen due to the corruption between all of the interested parties (the government, for example, is known to buy wood from illegal loggers).

I was fortunate enough to take a brief trip down to the Amazon from Cusco, and discussing the issue with some of the tour guides I met left me slightly surprised. The lodge I was at was on the shore of Río Madre de Dios, a tributary of the Amazon, and on the other shoreline were various groups of illegal gold miners. In the distance, you could also see smoke rising from, as the guides explained to me, farmers burning virgin forest for land to cultivate or raise cattle. These tour guides have lived their entire lives in or in close proximity to the jungle, and they know their way around as if it were their home—all the trees and the birds and the reptiles and the insects, their species, their habits, what is and isn’t poisonous, etc. Indeed, they don’t know the jungle as if it were their home, they know it because it is their home. For this reason, it surprised me that for these guides, the presence of illegal miners and of forest-burning farmers has become normalized, as if it were another aspect of the jungle. When I asked them about their presence in the rainforest, they simply explained that, yes, they exist, but no, there is not much to do about it. Of course, they want to see the Amazon protected and conserved, not only for their jobs’ sake, but because this is the place that they call home, but it struck me their lack of intensity regarding the issue. Perhaps they simply didn’t want to dive into the details with me during the tour and instead keep the focus on the jungle itself. Or perhaps it is a difficult topic for them to talk about given that their home is increasingly threatened. Or perhaps what they did share with me is more or less what their true stance is. Whatever the case, what is certain is that the Peruvian Amazon is being destroyed at an alarming rate, and we are all in trouble if such a trend continues.

Peruvians love food, and they especially love Peruvian food. Many of the conversations I have, be it with my professor, my host mom, other locals, or other international students, revolve around Peru’s unique cuisine. The number of classic Peruvian dishes is remarkable: cuy (guinea pig), lomo saltado (beef, rice, french fries), ceviche (raw fish marinated in citrus juice, most often lemon), arroz con huevo (rice with eggs), ají de gallina (hen with ají sauce), pollo a la brasa (grilled chicken), causa limeña (mixture of potato stuffed with various fillings)—the list goes on. In class each day, my professor asks me what I ate the day before, and she gets excited when I mention that I tried a new Peruvian food for the first time. In short, Peruvians (at least those I have met) are incredible foodies.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of Peru’s traditional dishes are centered around different types of meat. This has made it a bit more challenging to immerse myself in the local cuisine being a vegetarian, but one of the plates that I have been able to enjoy is “arroz con huevo” (rice with eggs). This meal is served in a variety of ways, and it does often have some sort of meat, but it is also commonly served vegetarian-style. The base is exactly what it sounds like—white rice with an egg or two (usually fried)—and then there are different extras added depending on what someone wants. In the vegetarian world, common extras include avocado, tomato, mushroom, onion, and, my personal favorite, a fried plantain. It also is usually served with a side of french fries. For those who do eat meat, it’s possible to order almost any kind you can imagine with your arroz con huevo: beef, chicken, sausage, alpaca, you name it.

Arroz con huevo is an incredibly popular lunch dish in Peru, and large sections of the various markets I have visited here in Cusco are devoted to dozens of different stands that all serve the dish. Its popularity is a result of various factors: it’s cheap, easy to make, and versatile, and the portions tend to be fairly large. Speaking with one of the women in the market that served me my arroz con huevo for lunch one day, she said that for her, an important part of determining a good arroz con huevo is the creativity one has in making it. Given that it is such a common dish, for her it was important to find a way to give the plate her own touch (she did this by serving the eggs as an omelet with various vegetables instead of a fried egg).

Peruvians love their food, and it’s not hard to see why. The many delicious dishes they have here make ordering at any restaurant or market an incredibly difficult decision, even for vegetarians. It’s a joy to eat!

“¡Qué papaya!” “¡Qué piña!” “¡Es la muerte!” “¡Es de ley!” You’re unlikely to find these phrases in a Spanish dictionary, but you’ll certainly hear them upon arriving in Peru. I have been in Cusco for less than a week, and these phrases have already come up in multiple conversations that I’ve had with the local cusqueños.

Peruvians are incredibly proud of the food they produce, and especially so of their fruit. During my first meal with my host mom, one of the first things we discussed were the many different types of fruit that Peru produces (avocado, papaya, pineapple, lúcuma, maracuyá, blueberries, strawberries, mango, cactus fruit, the list goes on), and during my first class the following morning, we spent a significant amount of time learning about the value of fruit in Peru, both culturally and economically. In this context, it was not surprising to learn that a few of the most common colloquial phrases used here are related to fruits. “¡Que papaya!” or “Es papayita” is used when something is super easy, be it homework, a chore, or a challenge posed by a friend. I’ve heard this phrase used by both my professor and some local students. “¡Qué piña!” is the other fruit-related phrase I’ve heard (piña being pineapple), and people say this when someone has suffered a bout of bad luck. For example, if you missed the bus to class (or got on a bus heading in the wrong direction), stepped in one of the presents left by the many dogs on the sidewalk, or had an activity canceled due to bad weather, a common response is “Qué piña!” I learned this phrase from my professor when she told me the story of an accident experienced by a past student. I definitely hope to put both of these phrases into practice – they’re super fun to say, and I’m also a big fruit lover.

Moving away from fruit phrases, “Es la muerte!” is used to describe something incredible or impressive, especially in terms of food or a good view. Going back to my first dinner with my host mom, when she was explaining to me the delicious fruit that Peru produces, she finished by saying “La fruta en Perú es la muerte!”—”The fruit in Peru is incredible!” The last Peruvian phrase I have learned so far is “Es de ley!”, which is used to describe something that is a must-do, can’t-miss opportunity. I learned this phrase from a tour guide who was showing me around Cusco, and when I asked him what a few things I should do before leaving Peru are, he said, “Hay muchas cosas que puedes hacer, pero ir a Machu Picchu es de ley”—”There are a lot of things you can do, but you absolutely have to go to Machu Picchu.” Like the fruit phrases, I’m working hard to integrate these “peruanismos” into my daily Spanish vocabulary; they’re short, fun to say, and allow me to express myself more like a native speaker. Learning Spanish in a classroom has its benefits, but interacting with natives has allowed me to pick up some new phrases that I otherwise wouldn’t have learned. Es la muerte!

As has been the case for everyone over the past few years, the pandemic has caused more than a few disruptions in my beautifully laid-out plans. I applied to the SLA program to study Spanish in Cusco, Peru for the summer of 2021, but this program was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. Given that I was going to study abroad in Santiago, Chile in the spring semester of 2022 (where I currently am now!), my hope for participating in the SLA program was to improve my Spanish before arriving in Chile. Obviously, this plan did not work out as intended, and I am now in a unique position where I will be heading to Cusco after spending five months in Chile. Though it isn’t what I had in mind, having been immersed in the Spanish language as well as having experienced adjusting to and living in a new culture for the past four months (it will be five by the time I arrive in Cusco) will allow me to adapt more quickly to the environment in Peru, which will be useful given that I will be there for a shorter period of time. However, this is not to say that my time in Peru will be exactly like my experience in Chile; on the contrary, it will be importantly different.

The largest difference will be that I will be without fellow Notre Dame students while in Cusco. This will be a challenge, but it will force me to live completely in Spanish more so than I am now, which will allow me to really focus on my language skills. Additionally, though they are neighbors and share parts of their cultures, Peruvian culture is certainly different from Chilean culture, and this will provide me with the opportunity to compare the two and deepen my understanding of their intricacies.

I’m expecting to use my Spanish with my host family, with my professors and classmates, and with the locals of Cusco I encounter in restaurants, museums, and any other place I can interact with them. As a environmental science student, I intend to investigate the environmental aspects of Cusco and of Peru in general, identifying the main challenges and current efforts to increase sustainability. As a devout Catholic, I am also excited to attend mass in Cusco and learn about that Catholic culture present in the city.

I think it is impossible to not change or grow while spending any significant time in a country other than your own. I hope to grow as a person by pushing myself out of my comfort zone and independently exploring a new city and a new culture. I hope to continue to become more open to new people, perspectives, practices, and platos (foods!). The past few months in Chile have been among the most formative of my life, and I am incredibly excited for the opportunity to pause in Peru before heading home for the fall.