Happy New Year from...The Steel City

Roberto Clemento bridge welcomes me into the "City of Champions."

From the very beginning, the end was in sight. In my first blog post, I talked about how the six "Real World Lima" interns--Millie, Maureen, Caroline, Eric, Andreas, and myself--were in the position to have a "brief, uncomplicated fling with Lima." More naive words could not have been written.

The honeymoon phase of life in Lima is over, but there are unresolved feelings to explore. Half of us are home for the holidays, while the other half remain in Lima with new jobs or are off-the-grid somewhere in South America. Even though I'm glad to be in the company of family and friends, my experience here in Pittsburgh can only be described as...disorienting. I keep looking for bins in which I can toss my toilet paper (instead of flushing it) and noting the general absence of noise--and traffic--in western Pennsylvania.

Everything has started to bloom in South America, but it's time for me to slow down for awhile, to settle into the fog and gray of winter.

For now, Yaka 'Lita is going into hibernation. But I've made it my New Year's resolution to not be away for long.