Tomorrow is my first day of school. I'll meet a bunch of strangers. We'll spend a good part of the day together. We'll learn a lot from our teacher. And then, a week from now, I'll say goodbye to them as I move on to the next portion of my adventure.
Will they like me? What will they think about me? Will I make friends with any of them? These are the questions I no longer ask myself, because, like all Pokémon must, I have settled into my final form. My adult shell of self-definition is well-enough formed that I no longer care about first, second, or even third impressions. Innocence has given way to cynicism, wonder to indifference. Yay?
I've spent the day before school starts exploring Cusco. Though my stomach decided to thoroughly empty itself in liquid fashion, and though the altitude has me wheezing at the sight of a minor hill, I nevertheless decided to subject myself to the hordes of street pedlers in the hope that I may see something interesting.
After stepping outside, I looked at the map in my hand, a sheet of paper with several points circled. I looked up at the street names around me. I looked down again at the map. I shook it, folded and unfolded it, but still the blue dot displaying my current location would not appear. I shoved it in my pocket and whipped out my other map. After a second, the streets appeared, along with the blue dot and direction I was facing. Now we're cooking!
When I first moved to Rome for a semester, I remember being enamored with the old cobblestone streets. The US is such a wealthy, young nation that even if it once held streets with this kind of character, it had long ago rebuilt them. Seeing so much history around every corner was fascinating. I found the stone streets here of mild interest.
The churches I passed were also of mild interest. The people? Mildly interesting. The stray dogs? Mostly asleep. The constant stream of locals attempting to sell me their wares (including a woman who jabbed a pin into my shirt and tried to force me to pay), extremely annoying.
Let's just say I'm looking forward to my first day of school, because on day two, the classroom is Machu Picchu.