{"id":115,"date":"2020-07-16T14:27:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T18:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/?page_id=115"},"modified":"2020-07-28T09:15:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T13:15:28","slug":"peru-land-of-the-incas-and-force-of-change","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/2019-writing\/transformative-cultural-experiences-abroad-or-away\/peru-land-of-the-incas","title":{"rendered":"Peru: Land of the Incas and Force of Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Olivia Snyder | International Studies | Class of 2020<br><strong>Education Abroad Program<\/strong>: SIT World Learning- Indigenous Peoples and Globalization, Fall 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr style=\"dotted\"><p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I suppose I wouldn\u2019t be the first student to say, \u201cstudying abroad in _________ changed my life!\u201d \u201cIt completely turned my worldview around!\u201d or \u201cthis place is so different from back home!\u201d In fact, such phrases have become so cliche that they are now often used in mockery of others. As study abroad has become much more popular and common among college students, it\u2019s difficult to make each travel abroad experience appear unique. But we as individuals are inherently unique; we have different mindsets, beliefs, and prejudices about the world. This individuality is what I believe makes every study abroad experience special for every student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am spending this fall semester studying abroad in\nCusco, Peru. Cusco is one of the largest cities in the country, sitting at an\naltitude of 3,400 meters above sea level and bustling with tourists every day.\nI must admit that I\u2019m not used to city life; I have grown up in the suburbs of\nDayton, Ohio my entire life, and Oxford isn\u2019t exactly a busy city either (we\nare in the middle of a corn field, after all). Here in Cusco there are cars\nwith crazy drivers that don\u2019t obey traffic rules, stray dogs that bark and\nfight during all hours of the night, and discoteca dance clubs that blare music\nuntil early morning. At the very least, it has been an adjustment for me. At\nfirst I was terrified of getting lost in my small neighborhood, and being\nmugged was one of my biggest fears; but over time I have become more\ncomfortable with this city, and have grown to love it. I had to let go of the\nfamiliarity of home and the Miami campus, and learn to adjust to a new city in\na foreign and unfamiliar country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My study abroad program is titled \u201cIndigenous Peoples\nand Globalization.\u201d Our coursework includes Peruvian history, like Spanish\ncolonization and discrimination against indigenous communities, as well as\nmodern studies of how indigenous cultures are changing in an increasingly\nglobalized and Westernized world. Thanks to my International Studies classes at\nMiami, I wasn\u2019t a stranger to the whole idea of how modernization and Western\nhegemony are changing the world piece by piece to fit their ideas of \u201cproper\u201d\nsociety. However, despite my previous knowledge on the matter, the classes I\nhave taken through this program have been eye-opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coming from a Western country, you never really stop\nand think seriously about how much the West has influenced the rest of the\nnon-Western world. Here in Peru, the effects are obvious; the Spanish\ncolonizers worked to destroy indigenous religions and promoted Catholicism, and\nnow almost all of Peru is Catholic. Even the indigenous people we\u2019ve met, who\ncelebrate Pacha Mama (their version of Mother Earth), have integrated Catholic\nelements into their religion. It\u2019s disheartening to see how oppression and\ndiscrimination have forced indigenous peoples to assimilate into the \u201chigher\u201d\nsociety, observed both in the classroom and out in the field during our\nacademic excursions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But whenever I feel guilt about these changes, I have\nto remind myself that I am not here to feel pity for these people and their\nculture. I am here to learn, to educate myself on these matters, and to give\nback to the community in any way I can to thank them for this learning\nexperience. As my professor always says, \u201cwe are not tourists; we are\nstudents.\u201d I have been incredibly lucky to be able to visit indigenous\ncommunities throughout my time in this program. Our direct immersion in the\nculture and the communities we are learning about beats any lecture held in a\nclassroom. In Peru, everywhere is a classroom; every place and person that we\nencounter is a learning opportunity for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have visited the impressive stone city of Machu\nPicchu, way up high in the mountains; the women of Huilloc that are extremely\ntalented at weaving; the island of Taquile, in the middle of Lake Titicaca,\nwhere the stars shine brighter and clearer than any place I have ever seen; the\nmassive condor birds of Colca; the burning hot city of Puerto Maldonado; the\nwild animals and birds in the Amazon jungle. So far, my time in Peru has truly\nbeen life changing. I have seen places and interacted with people that I would\nnever have the chance to know otherwise. I still have a month and a half left\nof this program, and I can\u2019t wait to see where it takes me next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Olivia Snyder | International Studies | Class of 2020Education Abroad Program: SIT World Learning- Indigenous Peoples and Globalization, Fall 2019 I suppose I wouldn\u2019t be the first student to say, \u201cstudying abroad in _________ changed my life!\u201d \u201cIt completely turned my worldview around!\u201d or \u201cthis place is so different from back home!\u201d In fact, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":59,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-115","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/115\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/international-education-week-contest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}