Oh, so that's how it works!

Today was better than yesterday. I went to the library early before class to see if I could find the articles I needed. I found the collection of El Mercutio Peruano and went through each book and couldn't find the articles I needed. Fail. Then I went to film history at ten and realized class started at 9. Oops. I won't be late again, lol. But we went way back to the very beginning of film. Like, the very beginning. And we watched like a million shorts. One of my favorites was the documentation of a sneeze by Thomas Edison. Yes, it was exactly that. We watched a series of shorts/clips by two French guys named Auguste and Louise Lumiere. They have a famous clip from 1896 called Arrival of the Train, which was one of my favorites. All it is is a shot of a train pulling up to a station and people getting on and off, but the shot was well set up. It was really cool to see the train arriving and the people in different layers of the image. We watched tons of others that were really good. We got up to 1903. Then I came back, ate, and took a ten minute nap. Then I went to class. I had a lot more energy for my afternoon class than I did the last two days. I think a power nap is just what I need sometimes. It'll save money on coffee. I contemplated that option before my afternoon class yesterday. At class this afternoon, I learned the other American girls found the articles. I ran all over this school and no one told me there was a copy center on the basement level of the library with the articles I need. I didn't bring enough money to buy it, so tomorrow I'll go buy the stuffs I need. I worry about this class. I have a feeling I won't do well on the tests. I don't know. I'll try my best and hope it works out. I took a nap after class. I came home and laid down to read. I got really tired so I set my alarm to wake me up for dinner. I then fell asleep for like, must have been a half hour before my alarm went off. I felt so much better. Luckily I don't have afternoon class tomorrow, so I'll have lunch and go to sleep then get started on my reading. I think that's all I need. I've been tired this week, but I think I just need to sleep, so we'll see.

One reason I was glad I went on my pre-Lima adventure is that I learned that that's not the kind of travel I enjoy. It has it's advantages, but it was not as fulfilling as my trip to Mexico, and it will not be as fulfilling as my time in Lima. I don't think I will do the wanderlusting again. It's strange, though, as opposed to feeling pressure from co-workers to do better/work harder/make more money or whatever, I feel like there's some kind of pressure/competition within the travel community too. It's a strange kind of competition, though. It's how many cities and countries you can visit before your trip is over. For me, though, that isn't fulfilling. I prefer this. Living in another country instead of travelling another country. See, I like to live. You don't necessarily live when you wander around. You do learn problem solving and to be flexible and other valuable skills, but I don't feel like I give back to the world at all. Yes, I grew as a person, and I feel like I grew into a person that will benefit the world, but I need to move towards doing that: benefiting the world. My roommates told me about some volunteering they do on Sundays that I think I will do too. But see, I still feel pressure from other travelers. Like in the business world, I feel like I have to "keep up". Like, I only did Peru. People spent two weeks in Peru and moved on. I spent four weeks and I have another five months left. I just have to learn to detach myself from that and embrace what truly fulfills me. Volunteering on Sundays would be the first step toward that goal.