As is above, so below.

From salsa lessons to herding sheep and shaving alpacas, I've been playing and living the life. Of course I am technically doing the school thing here, so I'm learning a lot too. My Spanish skills are still laughable, and being able to say more than "How are you?" and "See you tomorrow" in Quechua by the time this is over is seemingly close to impossible. But instead I'm learning things here in Perú that I thought I had already known.

I've always been fascinated by the way thoughts, ideas, and lives interconnect. This is a concept that has been staring me in the face since I've stepped off the plane in Lima. For example, there are two people here in my program that go to the same college back home, yet they had never met eachother until arriving in Perú. It seems to me that the chances of meeting someone on a tiny New England campus after 3 years of attending are a little higher than a small study abroad program in Cusco, Perú. But even further, these two people are friends and classmates with one of my boyfriend's roommates in Rome, Italy. Really, what are the chances? I met a Peruvian man on the bus yesterday who has a brother who lives in Tulsa, OK. I was skeptical until he told me that he really misses Ron's hamburgers and wishes there was a restaurant like that here in Cusco.

Its things like this that remind me that no matter how much I wish I was at times, I'm not some independent individual living a separate life from the people around me. Instead, I am part of a giant web that connects in places around the corner and literally across the world. I can't help but believe that this network goes beyond friendships and relationships and extends through our actions. I learned in 7th grade science class that every force creates a cause and effect. Of course at this time, I grasped that concept more simply such as if i push a needle through this balloon, it will pop. But as I experience more, I am able to realize that every thing that I do affects you and every thing that you do affects me. No matter where I am.

Because in reality, people aren't all that different. Here I am in the Southern hemisphere very far from home and everything that I've known before, but I'm able to live my life here as I would there more or less. This was the case even when I was literally in the middle of nowhere, Perú living with an indigenous farming family for a week. I was stressed. What could I possbily have in common with this family of alpaca farmers? Not the same language, not the same lifestyle, and definitely not the same sleeping habits. But there were more similarities than I had expected. The children graciously thanked their mother for all of her work after meals, the oldest daughter was in a fight with her boyfriend until he brought over a bouquet of freshly picked yellow flowers from the mountainside (which the mother quickly transformed into a sweet, fragrant tea), the parents stressed over money, and the dog wasn't allowed in the kitchen during meal times. All of these things were familiar to me although I had expected to live a completely foreign life. But most important to me, we laughed the same. The grandmother would make jokes about how old and forgetful her husband was getting and we would laugh together. Despite the ever present language barrier and my lack of farm skills, we lived with human similaries that defy all borders.

I wear a brighly beaded hair wrap that reaches to my belly button. On the bottom dangles a bronze charm of a starfish, a symbol that helps me to remember what I am learning. An interconnectness exists between all things far and near, living or inert. Just as there are stars as far our means extend to the sky, there are stars as low as our reach can take us to the bottom of the ocean. As is above, so below.