Life is an Adventure...Drink it Up: A Foreign Summer

Solace along the banks of the pulsing Rio León

It turns out that this summer is foreign in more ways than one. Foreign is defined as being something that is of, pertaining to, or derived from another country or nation; not native. Spending 9 weeks in South America doing research work in the Andes is obviously a foreign experience at the very core. However, this transformational experience is foreign in another sense as well. This is the first summer in 7 years that I am not spending nearly every waking day on the river. While I am very excited to be starting this new chapter of my life, I am also quite intrigued at the many things I miss from my time on the river. While on certain trips quiet times can be rare, I am missing even the shortest respites of quiet that every river provides. Quiet times in South America are very rare- chickens, car alarms, horns, soccer cheers- can always be heard at all times of day and night. While in the field last week driving through the small village of Baijon, the car pulled over and I was allowed several minutes of river rejuvenation along the shores of the pulsing Rio León. For the first time in a month I felt at home again. I frequently ended river trips by making the following toast: "Every river you run stays with you every day for the rest of your life; it bubbles up in little pools and eddys every day to help remind you of who you are." While it was always a meaningful quote for me, and each river trip was a new and memorable experience- I had never been hit with the sheer reality of its words. Finally, standing on the shores of a foreign river, in a foreign land, during a foreign summer I was reminded of who I am and where I will always call home.