Day 01 (Part 2): In It for the Long Haul

For starters – Newark is a much larger airport than I had expected, we barely had time to scratch the surface of one terminal. The food was very good and offered a diverse selection for everyone to choose from. Yay for choices! Upon arriving to the gate, a few lucky people were able to be moved to the Exit Row and gain the greatly envied extra leg room - something I was not fortunate enough to partake in. As I began boarding, it was immediately apparent that my Spanish conversational skills were going to be severely lacking for this trip. However, as Miss Campbell always told us in Spanish 3, body language is 80% of communication, and it became clear that by simple actions (like helping someone close a luggage rack) could transcend language barriers – a lesson that I am sure will be taught over and over again on this trip.

After completing our boarding on our completely full jet, we were informed that we would have to wait on the runway until President Obama and the Air Force 1 had taken off and left the airspace. (A collective “Thanks Obama” was let out by our group.) This ultimately delayed our flight by an additional hour, putting us in the plane for over 8 hours. Thankfully, the air was on on the plane and the TV screens worked, although many people opted to take a short nap before take-off. We were served our in-flight dinner promptly at 4:30 PM. In Mrs. Bansek’s words, “we just woke up into the 65 and older club.” We were all given the choice between pasta and chicken, most opted for the pasta – the chicken was a little… suspicious looking. The pasta was good and paired with a nice baguette, in case you were curious.
Following dinner, we were provided our customs and immigration forms – the latter of which we decided to wait to complete upon landing with the English forms, rather than attempt to test our limited Spanish with the forms available. As a group we were able to figure out how to fill out the customs forms, although many, many mistakes were made in the process. Thankfully, Mr. Bas was there to offer correction before we made it to government officials. After exiting the plane, we were shuffled into various lines and given various official documents that would determine our ability to return to America. (Don’t worry parents, the chaperones are keeping an eye on these – not your children.) All of our many bags arrived with us and made it through customs with ease. The culture shock is definitely already beginning, as many of us realized that for the first time in our lives we would be speaking and no one around us would know what we are saying – for better or worse. However, as we drove through Lima to our hostel, I amazed at the number of American business I spotted – Pizza Hut, KFC, and Samsung to name a few. Please continue to pray for safe travels as we prepare for a ten hour bus ride through mountains tomorrow.