Hello, everyone! My name is Jessica and I was born and raised in Bakersfield, California by Peruvian parents. I first traveled to Peru when I was four years old and was flooded by other languages. The more I listened to my family speak, I went from saying “English, please!” at the dinner table to asking my family to speak more Spanish and to send me back on more adventures to Peru. I remember all the stories my dad would tell me about his childhood -- living in an old vacation home his family built in the 1800’s. He also had interesting stories about his mom, who was born to American missionaries in India. I enjoyed every second of it. From then on, I traveled to Peru every five years until I turned 19. At age 10, I went to school in Arequipa for a while. By 15, I was in Lima!
I was also able to travel to other places. When I was nine years old, I was inspired to learn French after visiting my brother during his study abroad in Paris. I got to spend a few weeks at a high school there when I was 16. In 2017, I got to go to Spain for vacation and have never stopped dreaming of living there one day. In 2018, my brother married a Bulgarian woman, so we decided to visit her family in Bulgaria and took the opportunity to visit neighboring Greece, as well.
