Orientation day!

So! Second day. It was good because I got a full, restful night of sleep (except those couple times some of the other volunteers were up and louding. You do you guys) and we did some walking after breakfast. We walked and bought things with money at a market that was about 10 minutes away from where we're staying. I met more people! People are basically in and out a bunch here as this is a base site for Máximo Nivel for them to send volunteers to the Andes or Jungle or....places (how ominous huh?). But in all seriousness I will gush forever about how awesome Máximo Nivel is, they are legit and responsible and great and I love them. Also major props and gushing to IVHQ for organizing this and keeping in touch with me too. LOVE ALL OF YOU!

Gushing/product placement aside I do feel really excited to be here with all these different people-it's also nice because it reaffirms the idea that yeah, people are good and interesting and lovely.  Not just the other volunteers and staff but also people in general. Of course there have been some creepers but they seem to know to no me jobas. Have fun translating that and famfam I learned that from Máximo Nivel so I can use it. Hopefully I won't have to use it!

The orientation was Awesome. Yeah. Because not only did they tell us basic info about Perú, IVHQ, Máximo Nivel and the general expectations we can have for our programs they talked about sexual assault and how it can happen to men. Yeah, men and women who believe rape isn't something that happens to men, men CAN get raped. The presentation also included the fact that the people who sexually assault others are close to their victims and we were told to be wary of our "friends." Of course there are ways the sexual assault part could've been better but my expectations aren't that high. Because 'merica.

There were also general safety rules, like the best way not to get robbed and how you can stow away your belongings at Máximo Nivel for safe keeping if necessary. The presentation was about an hour long total but there was an extra 20 minutes for medical volunteers like moi. And then I took the Spanish placement test so I will hopefully be starting that soon like....next week! There was also a building tour and a little tour of the area surrounding Máximo Nivel's office. It was awesome, questions are encouraged and I feel like I will always have a ton of them.

After orientation I was so tired I had to go back "home." But I may go out tonight before my 7 a.m. site visit tomorrow, hopefully I'll get to bed by midnight. Anyways....

Until next time!

-Syd

Some things I wish I had known: bring scrubs that aren't white, maroon, turqoise or some other color. I think blue are okay, there's a color system where the colors indicate what kind of practitioner you are. But also, they have scrubs here sooooooo you could potentially wait to get scrubs.

Touchdown in Cusco (first day was 05.06.2017)

I think the hardest part of the trip so far has been dealing with the anticipation of what's to come tomorrow and for the rest of my trip. Of course, the ride to the airport in Lima from Surco didn't completely help and getting to my gate to Cusco was troublesome because it unexpectedly changed. WHOOPS.

Thankfully all of my fears-thus far- have been allayed since the moment I got to Maximo Nivel's main office in Cusco (Peru, just in case anyone's not sure, I've 100% been that person before). All of the staff, volunteers and taxi people have been fantastic, friendly, and supportive. I even chatted with the taxi driver on my way to the office! IN SPANISH. AND I UNDERSTOOD WORDS. SPANISH WORDS. I feel so accomplished sometimes. You multilingual people, I envy you.

The staff were friendly and able to give me some basic information about where I'm living, what I'll have to do to get ready for the week and just information my family felt better about having. When I got to the homestay my host mother was (and continues to be) a great host and person and feeds me and everything and is just so nice.

After I got settled I did some talking+bonding with a few of the other volunteers and we walked around Cusco after drinking some Mate de Coca-or Coca tea- that does a great deal to keep altitude sickness symptoms at bay. Also, getting used to being breathless has been happening. Trying to walk AND talk is hard guys, and not getting enough oxygen does not help with altitude sickness. Acclimation can take days or weeks so I will probably have to get used to being breathless from walking up hill after....five steps?

I could've taken it easy but CUSCO GUYS. IT'S BEAUTIFUL. And the people who sell things can be slightly overwhelming (some harass people nonstop, some are passive) the landscape and the markets are fun to see and walk around in. And we all had dinner together, people had been traveling/come from around the world. France, Canada, the U.S., New Zealand (fantastic accents, second to Irish for me) and other nationalities are definitely #represented here.

Things I wish I had known for my first day here: you'll have some help carrying luggage but you may have to walk up steps to get to your room. Just, wear sunscreen. All the time. Also wear layers! It's nice in the sun but cool inside/in the shade and when it gets cloudy. Try to get MAPS.Me and download the map for Cusco that day because walking around is fun. Oh! And those ladies who get you to take pictures with the al pacas? It's acceptable to give them 1 sol, I mean, more is always better but I'm on a budget guys.

Until next time!

-Syd

Farewells

You may think that this is just a goodbye to my Aussie life, Aussie friends and other Aussie things. Oh nonono, my dearest reader, it's also a farewell to my last summer as an undergraduate student. BUT before I get to the goodbyes let's talk about the trips I took and what went on at the Florey before I left. And did you hear? Macklemore+Ryan Lewis have a fantastic new song with Fences!

Arrows by Fences ft Macklemore+Ryan Lewis

So where have I been the passed week other than slightly stranded in New Zealand (as shown below)?

Well, I was also in Cairns and Sydney!

And here's Sydney:

I refuse to bombard you all with the pictures here, they're all on my facebook if you'd like to take a peek at them:) But my security settings are pretty high...so I'm sorry if you actually aren't able to look at them :( Let me fill you in on what happened through! I was in Cairns first, exploring the Great Barrier Reef by snorkeling at Michaelman's Bay and Paradise Reef with the Lovely Lisa who is from northern Italy who's about my age and was also alone for the reef trip. I wish I could show ya'll pictures of what I saw but, unfortunately, my phone and water (salt water especially) don't mix quite well so you'll have to take my word for it when I say 'twas beautiful and full of sea life. I even saw turtles! And after that day I got to pose with a koala who was probably really annoyed that he had to be there, like that:

But otherwise, he was quite nice. So, other than the zoo I went to the Esplanade's "Lagoon" which is basically somewhere to go to swim and sun bathe without worrying about being eaten by crocs. No guys, not the shoes, living crocodiles.

So there was some sand and cemented land that surrounded a large pool and that was nice to experience. I then proceeded to go to Sydney where I was hanging out with Anneleis who I met in Tanzania that summer I went to Africa to learn about things like education and development and anthropology. We went to Manly Beach and the opera house. Both were beautiful, I wasn't able to walk across the bridge because it costs over $200 to do so which is ridiculous. That's a bit too much so I decided to settle with seeing it from the opera house. 

After being able to meet more of Anneleis' family (who were all wonderfully welcoming and all really interesting, and Anneleis you've got really great nieces and nephews, I miss them already!) I took a secret trip to New Zealand, haha. SURPRISE! I told relatively few people so don't feel bad if I didn't tell you....I really don't know why I decided to keep my trip to New Zealand a secret but I did. Fortunately my family was very understanding about that, I don't know how I got so lucky, not that there was much they could do about it. But still guys, I love you for everything. Especially your tolerance of my craziness like not telling you I was going to New Zealand. The pictures above are from Hobbiton in Matmata/Rotorua. I spent Saturday and Sunday hanging out in Rotorua and met some pretty cool guys all from different places. One guy from Canada, another from Colombia and one from New Zealand. I became pretty close with June from South Korea and Viktor from Germany. I hadn't gotten along with any other hostel mates as well as these guys to thanks! You definitely helped make the trip to New Zealand much more fun and better than I could've imagined.

And for the slightly dramatic end to my trip, I ended up not having the right time for my flight back to Melbourne and successfully missed my flight. The next flight wasn't until the next night but don't worry, I was about 8 hours early for that one so I definitely made it. I did have a bit of a breakdown and yeah, I cried but it was fine! And I knew it was going to be fine BUT I was in another country, wishing I could be back in Melbourne so that I could, eventually, go back to the states and spend a good and full last week at work. So, needless to say, I was disappointed in the whole situation and those feelings wanted some expression! Besides, it's a good stress reliever. Anyways, I got to spend the day sleeping so that was a good thing and I made it back to the apartment safe and sound.

Oh dear, I think it's time guys. Time for some goodbyes and so longs. I haven't done much this week except pack and do some last-minute shopping for those I love:) There have been a lot of times on this trip when I've been thinking: why didn't I just stay in the States? Why did I think this was a good idea? What's research good for anyways? Why am I even here? Well, I didn't necessarily find the answer to all those questions but I'm definitely living with the consequences and what beautiful, amazing consequences they are. I have been so fortunate for the support from all my friends here and back in the states. I have made some mistakes that I'm definitely still learning from but it was all worth it. Yeah, I have things to add to my resume, awesome, but I hope I'll also bring back the sense of confidence and self-possession I've found along with the knowledge I've gained. Thanks all of you Australians, I hope you've enjoyed me as much as I've enjoyed all of you. And hopefully, I'll be back.

Love,

Syd

Somebody to You by The Vamps ft Demi Lovato

Trips on Trips on Trips

Helloooooo readers readin' mah stuff. I have some really fantastic news about work, I got to cut open some MICE! It was awesome! I don't really like surgical stuff necessarily, these mice were already dead, but I love anatomy. I love it, I loved being able to actually see the parts of the mice's body and Terence even let me dissect and basically tear apart the brain! I helped to collect the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus, and the left and right hippocampus. We also needed to collect the left and right frontal cortex but Terence wanted to do that himself. I also helped with RNA extractions, a new procedure I hadn't done before! I also learned how to kill mice, it was definitely harder and more unnerving than I thought. 

And what could be better than the end of a week that included dissecting and extracting RNA? Well a weekend that ends with a trip to Healesville Sanctuary. I went off to the sanctuaty with Erin and Terence, Terence drove us both up to Healesville in his pretty awesome two-door black car, which was a bit hard to finangle at first because the front seat had to be moved in order to enter the back. So....that was fun! :) I was also super worried I would meet them both in the wrong spot but we all ended up in the car. We were soon on our way to the sanctuary....

These are pictures of the platypus handler scratching the platypus and her shaking one of her back legs, just like a dog. THE. CUTEST.

This beautiful love story has many renditions, I have only heard two thus far and the second one is far more family friendly:)

Birdies!

Stick insect!

I saw some koalas, walked by some wallabees, had a bird land on me and learned where platypuses came from. It's a beautiful, yet disturbing, interspecies love story. AND OH MY GOODNESS THE FOOD. We had the most delicious pizza I have tasted thus far, and yes, that is including Pronto's Pizza (that was to clarify for Erin)! I would definitely recommend the Innocent Bystander if you're in the Healesville/Yering area. The area we were in is also home to some pretty nice wine vineyards and I participated in my first official wine tasting! I would only spit out the wine, of course, I'm definitely continuing my not drinking (although does wine tasting count as cheating?), and the wine tasting experience has actually strengthened my resolve to continue not drinking. Well, as some of you may know my palette isn't really refined at all and since I don't drink it was hard to pay attention to the flavors (notes?) of the wines aside from the alcohol. But aside from that I really enjoyed trying the wine, I even liked a couple of the wines, especially one of the white wines. 

And we ended the day with cheese and sweets. We had the most delicious cheeses at Yarra Valley Dairy Farm and I even brought some back to the apartment. I had never felt so satisfied with food even though I had eaten too much. I want my afterlife to be filled with the cheeses and other foods we had eaten in Healesville. That was how amazing it was. And if you don't trust my taste buds now that I've admitted how awful they are (I totally understand), Terence and Erin also agreed that the cheese and sweets were amazing.

I will soon be departing for Cairns, and Sydney, and other places for one week! I'm really excited to be experiencing some warmer weather and to see the Great Barrier Reef, the Sydney Opera House and more. I'm sure you guys'll read all about it as soon as I get back. And after that week I'll have only one week left! WOW! Man, do I have bittersweet feelings about leaving...although I have to admit they're definitely leaning on the happier side. I think this experience has been really fantastic but I miss people from home and things like school, and as silly as that may sound to some of you guys, 'tis absolutely true. 

Also, this has been my soundtrack for the entire week. I have become obsessed with Sleeping At Last. This obsessed:

While writing this I am trying my best not to get too excited about going to Cairns and Sydney and going snorkeling and eating out and such but it's kind of an uphill battle since I'm leaving in about 12 hours. 12 HOURS! Needless to say there won't be another blog until after next week since I'm not bringing my laptop but I will find my way to Facebook and other such places as well.

Once again, thanks for readin' through everything. I leave you with a song about the color gray or grey. I'm sure I'll see most of you soon back in the states! And I can't wait.

Lots of love,

Syd