Blog Eight: Conclusion
“The Journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” -Unknown
The experience of both traveling abroad and attending university in Peru has taught me many lessons that I will continue to use and remember throughout my career. From the planning stages of this trip, to experiencing traveling to South America, to attending school abroad, everything was completely new to me. I learned many life lessons during this experience, including how to travel abroad safely, what it like traveling in a large group of people and how to successfully attend school abroad. I have learned many culinary lessons and techniques taught to me by the skills Chefs of U.S.I.L’s Culinary Program, from learning about classic Peruvian to practicing within the classrooms, I will be forever grateful for the skills I have learned while abroad. Attending this trip to Peru was definitely outside of my comfort zone, which allowed me to travel fully on my own with no other family members, push me to make decisions for myself and allowed me to push myself to become a better chef by experiencing this trip abroad. I believe I grew into a better traveller, chef and student while attending this trip. I successfully made my way through both airports, learned how to plan and pack to spend 10 days in another country as well as learned how to socialize with the locals respectfully and in a proper manner. I got to see first-hand how other culinary students learn and work, while learning myself allowed me to expand my culinary knowledge. Although I enjoyed my time in Peru very much, I am thank-full to be back home in my normal routine, with familiar surroundings and a lot less traffic. Things I wish I could stay in Peru for are the warm weather, the fresh fruit available all the time, the best coffee and the kindest of people. When it comes to my perspective on South America before this trip was only general knowledge, but experiencing this beautiful country first hand has really allowed me to learn about the culture, appreciate the landscapes and truly learn to respect the people of this country. Going on this trip has really opened my eyes of to how different each country is in their own way, and I’ve grown a large respect for travel abroad. If I could give any advice to anyone wanting to travel abroad I would say just do it, just go, because the experience will definitely be worth it. From here I would like to spend more time traveling, I wish to travel while I am young and this trip is just the beginning to hopefully many more. I have enjoyed every part of this student abroad experience and if I ever had the opportunity to go participate again I would definitely do so. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, I gained so much knowledge from this experience and I will always cherish my experiences I had in Peru.
