One couple, one country – Married student couple heads to Peru for study abroad

David Betts | Argonaut Jordan and Emily Kizer, newly married, will study abroad together in the old Inca Empire capital — Cusco, Pero. The couple met two years ago at the Moscow Bagel & Deli.

The Kizers celebrated the one-year anniversary of their marriage earlier in July.

The couple met two years ago when Emily was working at the Moscow Bagel & Deli. Jordan, who had previously worked there, said when he came in she invited him to make his own bagel.

“So I went back and started hitting on this cute girl, left a big tip and my name and number on the receipt and a year later we got married,” Jordan said, smiling at Emily.

Jordan and Emily will be studying together in Cusco, Peru, the old Inca Empire capital for the fall semester. They were recipients of the Gilman Scholarship, along with University of Idaho senior Samuel Hermann. The Gilman Scholarship is a federal scholarship that helps underrepresented students travel abroad. Part of the scholarship includes coming back after their stay abroad and doing something to raise awareness about the Gilman Scholarship.

“We really wanted to travel,” Emily said. “We kind of would go anywhere, but cost is a huge factor.”

David Betts | Argonaut
Jordan and Emily Kizer, newly married, will study abroad together in the old Inca Empire capital — Cusco, Pero. The couple met two years ago at the Moscow Bagel & Deli.

Jordan, a political science transfer student, said he wants to go into politics or possibly work in an embassy somewhere, so he could have the best of both travel and politics. He hopes studying abroad will help him better understand the relationships between countries.

“There’s a lot of people in politics that have a very insular mindset of the United States being a country that is completely self-contained and doesn’t need to have relationships with other countries,” Jordan said.

Other people from different countries also believe the U.S. looks at other countries as a place to farm out manufacturing to, Jordan said.

Emily, a biology major with a minor in Spanish, hopes Peru will help her become more fluent in the Spanish language.

“I feel like living somewhere for more than a month would actually help me be able to speak it better,” Emily said. “It’s a lifelong skill that you can take to any profession.”

She said she also wants connections with the people there, which is one of the main draws for the couple to choose living in a homestay. They had the option, as a married couple, to live in independent housing, but that would have been hard to find essentials for, Emily said.

Jordan said the homestay was part of the draw of the program.

“When you’re on your own, you go back to your apartment, back to your little America,” Jordan said. “You’re no longer in this country.”

At the homestay they will not be a “tourist,” but a part of a local family and working and fully living in the culture.

“I was talking to some of my family, and the one thing that pretty much all of them said was If I could go back and do it over again, I would study abroad. I wish I had done that,'” Jordan said.

Emily said she has been abroad before, and the experiences have been completely unique and memorable, despite how expensive travelling can be.

“This will be a big ole step in our marriage that we are really excited about,” Emily said.

Jordan said he is looking forward to sharing an experience with Emily that will create special memories between the two of them exclusively.

The Kizers will leave for Peru Sept. 4 and will be back in December after spending three months abroad.

Claire Whitley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Cewhitley24

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