A history of my thoughts on blogging

At one time I swore up and down that I WOULD NOT, COULD NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES keep a blog during my time in Lima. Obviously something's changed.

I used to think of a blog, and have seen some blogs done by students who are abroad, as sort of online journals. "Dear Readers, Oh boy did I have fun today! Let me start at the beginning so you don't miss a moment of my very exciting life...." But even if my life was exciting, picture a heap of poor one-page diaries abandoned in a box in an attic somewhere in PA, the short-lived aspirations of a little red-headed girl who wanted to be a writer....someday....

NO WAY. Not for me. (Disclaimer: I do actually enjoy FOLLOWING these types of blogs from friends...so we keep that straight.)

But just recently I've started to follow some really great blogs online (see here and here and here to get in on a little bit of that action...) And realized joyfully that a blog can be WHATEVER THE HECK I WANT. Cool, right? I thought so too.

And I now feel a little like that girl from the movie Julie and Julia. "I could write a blog you know. I have thoughts...." ( I think you need to picture me ticked off and eating something or the effect is just not the same) Which is what I was thinking at 1:30 in the morning last night when in sugar-induced insomnia I created this page.

So, this is not a blog about Lima Peru or Machu Picchu or studying abroad. This is about me, my thoughts, my life, or the way my midnight cookies just came out scrumdidilyumptious last night. (Yes, I'm fairly certain the hour had something to do with that.) Of course, it'll all probably go into the mixing bowl here.


So onward and upward.


Enjoy some pictures to catch you up (a little?) on my life in the last three months, since I don't plan on making a concerted effort to that end in print.

The mountains around Machu Picchu...because you've seen enough of the city.

Midnight cookies are not always better...but this time it worked out.


Goodbyes to new friends at the airport. I'm not a cryer, but they're still hard!

"The deer are a Pontificia Universidad de la Catolica marvel!
But are not pets and should not be touched."
But you may have to defend yourself.


My morning traffic from the front seat. ( SCORE!) Infinitely preferable to evening traffic.
(risking life and limb by exposing my camera in a micro, Lima public transport. Hope you appreciate it.)



And oh yeah, the title is from one of my favorite poems by Tennyson:

 I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

There's a lot more.

Yup, that was pretty presumptuous of me, wasn't it?