Teddy Dondanville

Archives

In Peru, one of the most common ways to say goodbye to someone is “cuidate“. For a group of people, it would be “cuidense“. It comes from the verb cuidarse which means to take care of or to look after. After a while, I found myself saying this a lot. I would even step it up a notch and say “cuidate mucho” which doesn’t really make sense in English. You probably wouldn’t… Read More

My two years in Peru were surrounded by mountains. I lived in the Andes. Between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra. It was epically beautiful to have such towering mountains on all sides of me every single day. They were always the highest things. The sun and moon would always set and rise behind them. My horizon was greatly diminished in distance because of how close I was living to the… Read More

Another thing I have noticed since I’ve been back in the US is that some of my eating habits have changed. The most obvious to me is my concern for not wasting food. While living in Peru I learned not to say no to someone who is offering you food. Along with that, it is very important to finish everything on your plate. Receiving food and being grateful for it is really… Read More

Adjusting back to the pace of Los Angeles has been interesting. For the most part, I do a lot of bicycle riding. I work on my bike as a courier, and when I go to my nanny job, I commute on bicycle. However there are some times when I need to drive. This mostly is when I am commuting to the farther reaches of Los Angeles or leaving the city completely. Since… Read More