Altitude Shmaltitude!

It's currently Friday my friends! Which means I've (almost) been in Peru for a whole week! What an accomplishment! Especially considering the week's events.

The first few days here in Huari were relatively uneventful. We had a couple lectures, got to know each other better, and made frequent trips for snacks to the center of town. I thought I was adjusting pretty well. Our group anxiously prepared to leave for our first week of camping on Tuesday, June 28. Well, maybe I was the only anxious one. But that's because I have the most stuff to carry and the least camping experience (despite who my dad is and what our family business sells). 

We embark on the hour and a half long drive up the mountain. The view was great, but I didn't want to kill my phone battery or get car sick, so I don't have any pictures from that drive. 

We arrive at the campsite, which is actually a school yard, surrounded by a brick wall. The walk up for me was pretty difficult, but I really attribute that to the air at 14,000 feet. It feels like nothing. Like three deep breathes aren't enough to help you catch yours. I was already struggling.

As the last one into camp, I fully expected to have the last pick of sleeping tents, which was fine with me. But for that night, it was decided that all the girls would sleep in one of the school houses. So we all set up our sleeping pads and sleeping bags side by side in the middle of the room. In theory, the more people huddled together, the warmer it was going to be for us.

The group then embarked on the walk to the actual dig site, where our leaders would perform a ritual to honor the spirits of the Inca we would be studying. That walk was even harder than the one before it. I watched as the whole group trickled out of site, and I was wheezing and puffing to take twenty more steps. In the back of the line I was accompanied by Bebel (our main teacher/guy who runs the site)'s wife Margurite and her younger boy (she has two). She made me feel a lot better about my much slower pace, and said there's no way to know who is going to struggle with the altitude and who isn't. She also told me to let her or Bebel know right away if I started to feel sick.

We arrived at the actual site, it looks kind of like a house layout where the boarders are made of rocks. I thought it was pretty basic looking until someone pointed out to me the exact places where they found bodies, then I started to feel the excitement.

The ceremony began, and I don't remember too much of it. It involved candy and liquor and cigarettes and animal crackers and coca leaves. During most of it, I was thinking about how crappy I felt, and how it was slowly getting worse. I figured I was just hungry, and was excited when Bebel invited all of us to enjoy the treats he had laid out (literally everything I just listed before). I grabbed an animal cracker and bit into it, and man, my stomach just dropped. I pretty much knew at that point something wasn't quite right, but I didn't even have the chance to say something to anyone because Margurite came up to me and told me I looked really pale. She suggested I drink lots of water and she gave me these mineral pills for under my tongue. 

The walk back didn't feel as brutal as the walk up, and I even had the thought to snap this pretty picture of the setting sun over the mountains: 

 You can kind of make out where the tents are and the wall of the school. I'll hopefully remember to take a better picture of the layout once I'm back up there.

Anyway, I get back to the school and immediately go lie down. I didn't get all the way into my sleeping bag, because I knew once I did there was no getting out. But it was so damn cold. I don't think I'd been that cold since the time I didn't bring a winter jacket to Poland in early March (which I never blogged about, sorry Dad. Do you still want me to?). I somehow had the will power to change from one pair of pants to two pairs of leggings. I literally did nothing during this period of time except keep my eyes closed and shiver, I was not feeling well. I don't really know what everyone else was doing at that point, but eventually someone came and told me it was time for dinner. 

Luckily part of dinner that night was just plain rice, but even that didn't sit too well with me. Margurite gave me more of those mineral pills, and also mentioned that if I continued to feel bad from the altitude, she, Bebel and their kids would be heading back down the mountain the following afternoon. I wasn't happy at that idea, but also I felt like such crap I knew I couldn't rule it out. 

A bonfire was built and I stayed up for a little bit, I even thought I was starting to feel somewhat better. And then I went to bed.

Despite all my layers and extra liners and even taking two melatonin, I could not fall asleep. It was impossible. I tossed and I turned and I pretty much kept my eyes closed the whole time, but sleep eludes me. I got up in the morning feeling just as bad as before. 

I tried to eat a little bit of bread for breakfast, and watched most of my new friends climb up that hill to the campsite.

A few of us were chosen to study bones at the school with Oscar. The collection was great, but not great enough to stop me from running to a corner and getting sick once. I just wanted to sleep. I decided in that moment I wanted to go back down the mountain. 

A few hours passed, I had a few more mineral pills, and I packed up all the camping gear I had brought for the five days I expected to stay. Before I knew it, I was hopping into the car with Bebel and his family and finally heading back down. 

 

The view as I went back down the mountain

 As soon as I got back to the house, I just passed out in my lil bed. Margurite brought me a potatoe with salt and black tea to have once I felt ready, but after that nap I knew it was definitely the altitude that had affected me so. 

Let's just talk about how I likely would've cried this whole time if it weren't for Margurite. No matter how old you are, when you're sick you probably wish your mom was there. Well since my mom couldn't be here, I was sure lucky to have Margurite as a secondary mom to step in and take great care of me.

In the days since coming back down to 10,000 feet, I've felt a lot better and still been able to do lots of field school things. I've been helping Anne, a cool physical anthropologist, with a collection of bones that have already been excavated located here at the house. While it's mostly femurs and other long bones, it's really helping me familiarize myself again with the bones of the human body. I'll hopefully post some pictures soon. 

In the end, everything worked out really well and I still will be going camping on Monday. Til next time!

Julia Rosd 

Made it!

Well friends, I made it to Peru! Wonder if wonders! Miracles of miracles! And thanks to a new friend Kaela, I was able to shower and freshen up before my day in Lima! I ended up being the last person to get to the city, when initially I was going to be one of the first. 

I spent a total of 27 hours in airplanes/airports. And you may be asking, Julia, didn't you say on Friday you were only a couple hours away. And I'd say, yes I did. But my flight to Peru was delayed 2.5 hours, and I didn't get in until 8:15 AM. But all my stuff made it (except my glasses, but oh well!)

Kaela and I spent the day in Lima pretty much just hanging out by Parque Kennedy. And let me tell you, there were HUNDREDS OF CATS THERE. I'm not exaggerating, it made me miss my cat an awful lot. 

 

I call it: 1 photo, 16 cats

Anyway, we made our way to the bus station for the long long long bus ride to Huaraz. The rest of the group met us there, and so far everyone is pretty groovy. Only problem is: I definitely packed WAY too much stuff. It has kind of been a pain, but what else can I do?

Anyway, the supposedly eight hour bus ride ended up being about 12 hours. And I pretty much slept the whole time (thanks to NyQuil). 

When we made it to Huaraz early Sunday morning, I thought the worst of the trip was over. But DAMN is the air thin up here. We're in the mountains, so I sort of expected it, but also not really at all. I spent most of the day feeling kind of crappy and sleeping off the sluggishness. But everyone started to get to know each other and I went into the little town for some snacks, and I'm feeling much better today! The current plan is a day of lectures today, and we head out camping tomorrow. I'm really excited for all of it, it's so beautiful here and there's a a whole bunch of skulls with modification AND trepenation (which if you don't know what those are, Google it!), is there anything more a girl like me could ask for? I'm so excited to really get started.

As always,

Julia Rose

 

The view is ok I guess

The Tale of Carlos Martinez

MY GOSH what a day, and I haven't even left the US

My wonderful father drove me to the airport at 5:15 this morning, for a flight scheduled to Miami at 7:15. And we were even on time, for once. 

I checked one bag, a green duffle, that was filled to the brim. If it weren't for my Aunt Jill, a master packer, I would've undoubtedly needed to use an even bigger bag. But she's a genius, so I didn't have to! The weight of the bag was 54 pounds, only 4 pounds over the limit. The guy at the curb service advised me to remove a couple books to lighten the load, I could only find two, which barely changed the weight, and he told me that was good enough and that he wouldn't make me pay the extra $100 those four extra pounds should've cost me. 

"What a great stroke of luck!" I thought, "This must be a good sign!" 

I had no clue of what was still to come. 

I still had my camera case, full of my most important papers and belongings, and Fisher's neon yellow Patagonia backpack, which was almost my size and held my camping gear: sleeping bag, pillow, blanket, ect. I planned the distribution of my items very specifically: my camera case had pretty much everything I couldn't live without. The backpack held everything else I'd need in case I lost my luggage. However, the plan was always to have both with me on the plane. 

I got through security without a hitch, but my backpack was randomly chosen to be searched and half my belongings tumbled through the hands of the TSA agent and onto to the floor. I picked them up nervously. Careful to grab every item. 

It's here I want to mention that despite my unbelievable fortune in having loving, supportive parents who want to send me to absolutely amazing places all over the world, in the past few years I've developed a lot of anxiety surrounding travel. The fear of not having something I need (whether it's meds or clothes or books or my passport or anything) is a very constant one for me, especially in the airport. I do my best to manage it. But as someone who thinks of themselves as a nester, it's for hard to be in transition between two places. I love adventure and going new places, but it's become harder for me to get myself up and to go.

I got to my gate, on time, probably around 6:30. I say there for 30 minutes before the gate changed and the flight was delayed from 7:15 to 7:45. The group, including myself, got up and moved (I bought some snacks on the way). We all sat at the new gate only to have it be delayed again, this time to 8:30. Irritated, I heard other people talking about a new plane because of a malfunction, and that the flight to Miami before ours had also been delayed. I screwed around on my phone, at my snacks, and sat in silence. We finally heard the call to board. 

I walked up to the ticket people, the ones right before the door that leads toward the plane, and I was told I had too many bags. At that point, I only had the original 2, plus a small strappy wallet purse around my torso. I was told that not only did I have too many bags, but I would have to check my backpack all the way through to Lima. I begged and pleaded to gate check it to Miami, and they said absolutely not. I was very distraught, and I cried a little. But I picked myself up and took out the things I refused to loose, and checked my backpack. At that point it was after 9:15 and I just wanted to get to Miami. 

I sat down in my seat, and was ready to go.  Everyone on the plane settled down, and we finally pulled away from the gate around 9:35. I watch the other planes roll by, and notice a chemical smell. In the past, whenever anything seems wrong on a plane, my method is to pretty much ignore it and pretend all is fine. This tactic has not worked once, because despite rolling up to the runway, the plane turned back around and headed back to the gate. 

By 10:15 they had only really told us that there was some sort of mechanical problem with some tube on the plane, and it would take probably an hour to diagnose. My dad started looking for other flights at this point, I tried watching How to Train Your Dragon on my iPad and talking to my neighbor. Which is a whole different story.

Anyway, at 11ish, they allowed everyone to deplane, but the flight wasn't cancelledz we were almost 4 hours after the scheduled take off time, and they gave us $12 vouchers for food, because that was supposed to make it all better.

I found some McDonalds, which was terrible as expected, and sat by the window of yet another new gate. I met a girl named Emily, who was also traveling to Peru and had also been forced to check a bag she intended to carry on. We lamented together and proposed different flight plans that would eventually get us to Lima, the only problem was no matter what we would loose our bags. We both had initially been scheduled on a connecting flight to Lima from Miami around 3. At that point it would be absolutely impossible to make that flight, and the best we could hope for was a different flight at 6. The flight being 4 hours long, it was determined that the likelihood of making the later Lima flight would be greatly diminished if we didn't leave Chicago by 12:30. The new plan we thought was best would be to fly through Dallas and hope for the best with our bags.

At noon, a guy on our flight was watching the plane, and noticed the vehicle used to load and unload luggage was next to the tail of the plane. I went and looked for myself and saw the unmistakeable neon yellow backpack being unloaded. I panicked a little, I would rather get that bag back into my possession than have it be lost if this flight was cancelled, or have it be left behind. After a sharing only a small bit of what was going on, a girl working at the desk our flight was sharing with a delayed flight to Japan offered to go down onto the concourse and bring it up herself. She is also a hero of this story, and unfortunately I never learned her name. If it helps, this girl had to call security on another passenger (who was a little more irate than me) that day. American Airlines giver her kudos too!

At this point, it was almost 12:45 PM . I had been up until 4 and was faced with two options: I could go to my new gate that would take me to Dallas at 2:55 or I could go to a Dallas flight that was leaving at 1:30 and try to get onto the standby list. I chose the latter, because leaving Chicago was proving to be ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE today. & I'm so glad I tried.

Because then I met Carlos Martinez. Carlos, just a regular desk agent, told me there was no way I could get onto that flight, which wasn't the most upsetting, because I already had a seat on the later one. But he also said  that somehow my bag was checked to go to Miami, and not all the way to Peru. It would take off on that original flight, which had been delayed from 7:15 AM to 3 PM. Once in Miami, it would probably sit there until someone figured out it should try to get to me in Peru. This was a very upsetting discovery. But Carlos had my back! I had told him a little bit about my trip, and he knew I wasn't going to be able to go back to Lima and get my bag from Huari (which is an eight hour bus ride away). This human angel decided to PERSONALLY ensure my bag would make it with me all the way to Peru. He asked for a description of my bag, went and found it, and brought it up through the airport to me. He dragged my 52 pound bag up into the terminal, and through to where I was. He walked me to my new gate and said he would sit with me and the bag until it got into the hands of the agent for my new flight, who would then check it through Dallas to Lima. After a few minutes, the gate changed again, and he decided he would instead take it back to the checking area before security and set it with the rest of the bags headed to Dallas. 

As I said earlier, the thought of not having control of where my stuff is, or loosing it is panic inducing for me. But thanks to Carlos, I was able to keep it together and I'll have my stuff once I finally arrive. Without him, I would've been a lost cause without any clothes or soap. Thank you Carlos!!

My 2:55 PM flight from Chicago to Dallas was only delayed an hour on the runway (haha) and now I'm lucky enough to be sitting in the American Airlines Admirals Club, with refreshing drinks and decent snacks. It's all thanks to my Dad. Most of this is bearable thanks to him actually. Without him I'd be stuck overnight in Miami, with no chance of making it to Peru in time for my bus tomorrow night. Thanks Dad! I love you!

My flight to Lima is now an overnight one, and I'll (hopefully) be arriving around 5:30 AM, if this day so far is any indication of how the rest of my trip will go, stay tuned. 

As always,

Julia Rose

 

I took a Polaroid of Carlos, because he really made sure my trip got off to the right start. 

TEST POST

Testing, 1,2,3!

Here we are! In less than twelve hours, I will leave my house in sunny Chicago and make my way down to Lima Peru! I'm testing out the fancy new blogspot app on my phone! So far..I'm not angry with it! 

 

That's my beautiful cat Gulliver, who will sadly not be joining me on this trip. But I wanted to try uploading a photo, so there we go.

A POST UNLIKE THOSE THAT CAME BEFORE

Hello dear friends and lovers, 
You may be finding yourself here for the first time, or for the first time in a long time. But it doesn't matter, because you're here with me reading the words I have written on an internet page. 
For those of you who don't know, when I travel off on my own I write blog posts to share with my friends and family about the places I'm visiting. It's been a grand 'ol time, but we will not be returning to that old format this summer.
Because for summer 2016, I will be traveling to Huaraz, Peru to participate in real life ongoing archaeological research!!! "
What does that mean?" you ask me, confusion distorts your face.
It means my friend that I will be finally working with real human remains. If you haven't been keeping up with my life and studies, I'm currently majoring in Anthropology at Tulane University with a special interest and focus in forensics. Which means I get to study cool stuff you read about on the internet while you're supposed to be doing your organic chemistry homework. At least that's my experience with this subject. (PS I'm currently in a class called "Bioarchaeology of Mummies" and it's really super cool and you should ask me about it). 
Anyway, I will be spending three weeks in the Northern Highlands excavating a site that has has allowed substantial research on the complex mortuary archaeology practices and traditions in the Ancash area of Peru. 
So, before I go into more detail, if your looking for the usual lists of places I'm going to visit and standard Julia jokes, you'll only be getting half of that from here on out. While it's uncharted territory, I'll be trying to describe the interesting and new experiences I have out in the field that will be generally focused around my interactions with human remains. If that's going to freak you out and/or doesn't interest you, read no further.
So back to what I'll be doing and where and why and how.
While I'll be specifically studying death, remains like these are inseparable from the life style that found them in this place. There will be studies of lithics and ceramics, I'm hoping to work completely with bones. My time there will be organized so that I experience and engage in more than one aspect of the project: excavation, survey, ceramics lab, and bone analyses. I'll have to sit through some lectures, which may not sound fun at first, but it's all going to be about the anthropology of the area. So as my mom would say, it's right up my ally.
I will be working and living in Huari, a town 3000 meters above sea level, before continuing up into the mountains another 800 meters to where I will be camping. 
Yes.
Yes, you read that right.
Camping.
For two weeks. 
I only get running water for the weekends.

I have to hike there.

It's going to be a very interesting trip. 

But that being said, internet will not be a readily available resource and I will post whenever I can. I haven't even decided what exactly technology I'm going to bring on this trip other than my digital camera and my father's old film camera. Fun fact: I recently started shooting on film, an art form I previously thought to be a little outdated and unnecessary turns out is really fun.
I do have to say, I probably will not be posting/sharing photos of the actual remains I come in contact with out respect for the culture and site that I am just a mere visitor soon. That doesn't mean I won't have pictures, it just means you'll have to ask to see them. 

Huaraz Human remains, probably

Afterwards I'm going to quickly hop over on a ten hour bus ride to Macchu Picchu, so you'll definitely see pictures of that/probably read all about whatever nonsense I encounter on the way there. Because is it really a trip with me if I don't have a weird story at the end? Probably not.

ADDITIONALLY: if you're a cool human that I know and you're gonna find yourself in Peru during the months of June and July, hit me up! I'd love to see you.

That's it for now friends, get pumped!

As always,

Julia Rose

Week 1! ...Already done?!?!

ThI can't believe I'm already finished with my first week here! Sorry for the incredibly late post friends! 

Anywho, here's what's happened so far:

1. I arrived: normally I would say in one piece, but my bags didn't arrive until after me. Also, the movies weren't working on the plane.

2. I moved in: I'm living in the hip town if Recoleta. What I've come to learn is that when one refers to 'Buenos Aires' they could be talking about two different things. When people outside of Argentina refer to Buenos Aires, they mean the capital city. What is news to me (and I think many of my readers (aka Estie, my parents, and a few very good friends)) is that the city Buenos Aires is divided up into smaller sections, one of which is also called Buenos Aires and is the capital of the capital city. Within that capital is Recoleta (where I am) and Palermo (which is the other cool neighborhood in the area)

3. I met people: first off, I'm living in Mechi's apartment! She's great and teaches Brazilian dance which is really neat, but she's from Argentina. Her mom Fanny is also around a lot, and I usually speak the most Spanglish with her. There are two other girls living here: Clarice and Ilse. They're really great to be around, and they've both lived in Argentina/Buenos Aires/Buenos Aires/Recoleta/Palermo for much longer than I have, so they're great at answering my lost and confused questions. Other than those two, I've met Emma, Alec, Scott, and German at the Roads2Argentina mini-orientation (by the way, GoEco, the program I thought I would be on, just put me into the Roads program, so yeah). Yesterday I did some bumming around with Emma, Alec, and another friend from roads Sylvia. But I'll tell you all about that in a bit.

4. I volunteered: saying it like that implies I only did it once, when in fact I did it twice, so yeah. And I plan to do it many more times. But let me give you some details! The organization I'm volunteering for is called L.I.F.E which stands for Luchemos para una Infancia Feliz y con Esperanza. This translates to "We strive for a childhood with happiness and hope." We work with children in the most impoverished area in Argentina, la ciudad oculta, the hidden city. It's called this because in 1978 when the World Cup was held in Buenos Aires, the military dictatorship in Argentina wanted to hide the extreme poverty from the world press, to have the image of  Buenos Aires and Argentina,

remain, in the eyes of the public, pristine and sophisticated. Their solution hiding this area of BA was to build a wall around it. Since then, it has had a terrible effect on the people who live there. It has become the part of town nobody stays in after dark if they don't have to, not even the police. Drug use, robbery, rape, and swatting are everyday occurrences. What LIFE does, is provide a small window of time for the children to come and play and color and be children. Many of them don't have parents who can or will care for them and they suffer from serious lice and tooth decay. Two of the girls I've met had lice so bad, they had to just cut their hair. Despite this, these children have adapted to this life. They know they will be hungry and cold most nights, and they do not complain. They know no other way of life. It's very sad, so you try your best to bring smiles to their faces. On Thursday of last week I brought my camera, and captured some of the moments I experienced. It was also birthday party day, when LIFE brings cake and celebrates the all the birthdays of the children that month, it's very touching. 

My friend Natalie who's really great with the kids, and I've also been hanging out with outside of LIFE!

Myself and Luna, taken by one of the slightly older girls

5. I hung out: there is SO much to do in this city. Just yesterday I went out to the Recoleta cemetery, and it was a beautiful day to walk around. We saw the tomb of Eva Peron, and just had a nice time! Afterwards, we walked around the market that's set up right in the park outside of the cemetery and listened to some music as well. Then we got crazy and went and saw X-Men: Days of Futures Past which confused me a lot, but overall, it was a really fun day!

Friends!!

There was a singular moment when we all wondered if this cat was sleeping or dead..it was sleeping. 

As far as this photo goes, I had taken a much nicer one...except for the couple making out in the corner, so skipped it and chose this one instead.

I really am having a great time here, stay tuned for more exciting fun times. 

As always,

Julia Rose

Surprise! I'm back!

Welcome to all my friends and semi-dedicated readers! I understand some of you are less than excited that I'm posting in our mutual Facebook group [Rory, I'm talking to you ;)] or that I've come up in your newsfeed or again, but I'll soon be heading off on to another adventure, so I've got to let ya'll know, its practically tradition at this point.
So, I'm sure you'd like to know where I'll be going this summer. I didn't want to make any announcements and here it is: Buenos Aires, Argentina!
Though I doubt many of the people reading this are unfamiliar with this wonderful place,  I don't feel like writing a ton about it, so read this fact monster page here! Or if you are too lazy to do that, you could just watch this video of Madonna. I will tell you a single fun fact: Argentinians pull on the earlobes of the birthday boy or girl for each year of their birthday. Which sucks for me since I'll be there for my 20th birthday.
This trip will be significantly different than the ones I've been on in the past. For starters, this trip will not be with Travel for Teens. Obviously, I would still love to be a counselor for them in the future, TFT is how I fell in love with travel. If I had never found TFT, I would not have had the courage to take a year off before college and travel if it weren't for the amazing counselors that taught me so much about the world we live in. I would still love to change someone's life the way they changed mine. But for this summer, I'm headed down a different path.
The program I'll be with this summer is Go Eco! They actually have a lot of cool different programs on their website, and it was definitely a tough decision picking one. I was really interested in their Great White Shark conservation in South Africa, where I could've gone cage diving multiple times a week. But there was a 60% chance I would get there, get on the boat to the sharks, put on the scuba gear, and completely back out. But maybe one day!
The program is a type of community immersion. I'm hoping to work with children teaching English and generally having fun. Plus kids are 45% less likely to use words in Spanish I don't know. While there I really really really am hoping to improve my Spanish. I changed my Facebook language to Spanish, but all that's really done is make me read the disclaimers from different iPhone apps about posting on my wall more closely.
I'll also be taking Spanish classes and living with other young people like me interested in volunteering.  Hopefully I'll make some hip new friends who are interested in traveling around with me to visit some of the sights.

 Hm... What am I missing? Oh right! I leave Saturday. My accommodations have been really unsure until today---so here's this post coming to you within 72 hours of my leaving.
So you should start getting ready to read about my newest adventure sooner rather than later.
As always,
Julia Rose