One month down...

Well, it's been a month since I've left the country and it's been an interesting and amazing experience thus far.  Here are a random collection of thoughts in a nice bulleted list:

• Empanadas are awesome.
• Spanish is hard to learn when everyone seems to speak English.
• Living out of a backpack just gives me an excuse to not shower.
• I might be too old for this to be a life-changing experience.
• But, my concept of a long bus-ride has been forever changed.
• Growing up Chinese-American means that food-wise, there's no culture shock.
• Wine in a bottle might be better than wine in a box.  Maybe.
• Living in a hostel isn't all that different from college.
• Someone may have stolen my watch.  Or I just left it somewhere.  Either way, I've completely lost track of time.
• I need a haircut.
• Never plan on getting anything done in South America if it involves buying something on a Sunday.
• Not having a job is awesome.
• Not earning any money sucks.
• I have become completely dependent on the internet.
• Travelling is amazingly fun.
• Travelling is amazingly tiring.
• There are no beans in South America.
• Hannah Montana is apparently one of the more famous Americans right now.
• The soap in public bathrooms here is rare.  When it does show up, it's just brilliant.
• Listening to stories about other people doing coke makes me realize that I'll never do it.
• I haven't stopped following sports.  Not as closely, but I still check scores and standings occasionally.
• It's hard to not love soccer while living in South America.  I'm very excited for the World Cup.
• Making blogs interesting is hard.  Posting pictures is easy.

That's it.  One month.  Three countries.  I've made mistakes and probably missed out on some sweet places and amazing experiences, but I've gone where I've gone and I've done what I've done and that's all I could really do.  I haven't seen too many quotes that I've understood, but I saw this one at a restaurant in Tilcara (from memory, so the spanish might be off.  The english version, though is accurate):

 Turistas nunca sabe donde estuvo.  Viajeros nunca sabe a donde van.

(Tourists never know where they've been.  Travellers never know where they're going.)

Not sure the first half is accurate, but the second definitely is.  I'm off for 3 days to the Colca Canyon for some trekking to see the second deepest canyon in the world and also as a bit of a warm up for Macchu Picchu.  I'll be out of touch until Tuesday, so see ya on the other side