We have finally arrived at our final destination, Peru, where I find the people who are so similar to me I was surprised we aren’t blood-related. This episode is with my chocolate soul mate, Jen, whom I shared a room with while working at a chocolate shop in the south of Peru. The friends you meet on the road are a special breed- they see you at your most uncomfortable, your most scrappy and sometimes desperate because of the extremeness of living life abroad. While we were living together, Jen got her backpack stolen and I got painfully sick; we experienced each other at more overwhelming points that not even our own mothers would have known how to handle. When you are abroad, you open yourself up to the curveballs of the world-testing your resourcefulness and perseverance. You don’t even know who you are in these situations or how you will respond. So, when you make friends who witness you at this simultaneously euphoric and tumultuous point in your life- and they still like you afterward- it is a bond like no other. These microwave moments weather your relationship because of experiencing each other in extremes. She understands a part of me that my oldest friends don’t. Jen has cunningly found ways to stay on the road while pursuing her creative career. Find out how she does it in the newest episode of Strangers Abroad!
