School leaver Meadhbh Halpenny will be busy tackling the Andes when her Leaving Cert results come out next Wednesday.
The final warning from our career guidance teacher was: "most importantly, be in the country when the Leaving Cert results come out. Crete and Costa del Tequila can wait." She shoots us dagger eyes.
Hmm - how do I break the news, I wondered? I won't be anywhere near Ireland on August 17th. I will be in Peru, on the side of a mountain, trekking my way to Machu Picchu, with no access to e-mail, phone or internet.
Peru isn't something I had planned. Like many great adventures it just "happened". Last September, faced with months of study, an ad in The Irish Times caught my eye - "Win a volunteer placement in Peru with i-to-i".
Cut to me, on my mobile, answering a 10-word tie-breaker as to why I would like to go to Peru: cheesy as it may sound, my "I want to face the Andes i-to-i" appealed to the judges and I won an all-expenses-paid trip to Peru for two months.
Exactly one week after finishing my last Leaving Cert exam, I was in Dublin airport saying "adiós" to the folks. Nervous, excited, armed with a South American Spanish dictionary, and enough "just in case" medication to open a small pharmacy.
Arriving in Peru, I spent a week in Lima doing a crash course in Spanish, and then moved to Paracas National Reserve, near Pisco, as a volunteer park ranger.
All my friends wanted to know was, did I get the "park ranger hat?". Indeed I did. Panic set in, however, when I saw that toilet paper was top of the list of things to bring with me, closely followed by candles to offset electricity cuts, and an alarm clock for the 6.30am wake-up call.
This is millions of miles from typical post-Leaving holiday. Certainly there is sun, sea and sand, and the national cocktail - the Pisco Sour - but there is also the washing of hair in ice-cold buckets of water, watching baby seals swim with local fishermen, and wearing whaling boots instead of dainty flip-flops.
The reserve is approximately 300,000 acres and the conditions are quite basic. There is no running water at two of the three outposts, but this doesn't really bother me.
The people are very kind and friendly. There are two other European volunteers, and about 20 full-time Peruvian staff ranging in age from about 23 to 55.
They are all trying their best to help me with my Spanish, which was non-existent when I arrived. Now, I can make myself understood - especially if food is involved.
In return, I teach English, patrol and clean beaches, do some cooking - the list goes on. We also have to help at the visitors' centre, and carry out a census of animals, which include Humboldt penguins, flamingos, dolphins, whales, sea lions (my favourite due to their incessant laziness), pelicans, lizards, countless birds and a mysterious sea cat called "gato". I recently found a dead snake, which is a bit worrying.
The food is great, although I did find a chicken's foot in my vegetable soup. There is also a lot of relaxing in the sun, paddling, DVDs in Spanish, puppet shows (don't ask), trips to town, bonfires and fiestas.
There is so much to see in Peru, from the bustle of city life in Lima to ancient ruins of Machu Picchu. Now that I've got the taste for travel I know I'll be back. It is an amazing country, but I have seen so much poverty here - little children selling penny sweets on the street, when they should be in school, and shanty towns seem to spring up everywhere.
I've heard tales of corruption, lack of unions, pensions and social security rights. Behind the romantic facade the tourists see, it is a country riddled with problems.
When I hear of young girls of 15 and 16 marrying, I realise that I shouldn't dread the Leaving Cert results, but be thankful that I got the chance to do it. I never thought I would say that, but it's true.
I think that my friends expect me to return to Ireland as a tree-hugging hippy, but I think they will find that I haven't changed all that much. I am just a little sad that I won't be with them when they open those little brown envelopes next Wednesday.
However, I will be "facing the Andes i-to- i" on the second day of a five-day trek to Machu Picchu, and praying to the Inca gods that all our dreams come true.