First day of school!

So as you may have guessed by the title, yesterday was my first day of school!
I go to Centro Educativo Sagrado Corazón de Jesus or CESCJ for short.

It is a Catholic school in Fernanda de la Mora (which is about a 20 minute drive from my house).
Since it is Catholic School I get to wear a uniform! I don't know why I am so excited by this fact but I think it's just about the coolest thing ever! The uniform is shorts...but it looks like a skirt or pants and a collared shirt . They aren't very strict about the dress code policy, at least so far. It could be partly due do to the fact that even though we already started school, we have done next to nothing. And the teachers that did teach, like Paraguayan history, gave me a headache from trying to keep up with what they were saying.

In Paraguay students stay in one room(for the most part) and teachers change classrooms. I have about 15 classes but you only have each class once or twice a week. I am actually really confused about how the schedule works, because when it IS time to change classes everyone seems to know where to go and I am completely clueless! Luckily Jackie and I  have all the same classes (at least so far) so I just follow her around like a lost puppy.

The school is beautiful by the way! The class rooms are in a building that looks like a giant rectangle, with three flights of stairs. The rest of the school has a lot of greenery. There is an inside and outside dinning area, with a snack bar and lunch line right next to each other. There is some courts to play sports although I am not sure what kind. I think Jackie said handball?

The school is Pre-K through 12 grade although the system is a bit different here. Even so there is only about 700 hundred kids at the school. So classroom sizes are really small!

When class started I was really surprised about how different the atmosphere was. It doesn't feel as official. The desks are set up in pair's of two's and there are three rows, but as soon as people enter the classroom, the desks get moved around into circles, or in clumps. There were kids lying down on the ground sleeping. The teachers seem to be more friends with the students then they are in the U.S. They fist bump almost all of the guys and some of the girls and hug the other girls.

Around 10:20 we have a break and we all head down stairs and a lot of people get food, it is also the time to buy lunch cards. Lunch is $3 (about) when you pay for it they give you a little red plastic card, which you give to the lunch lady.

I have been hanging out with Jackie's group of friends, they are all so nice and helpful and they remind me so much of my friends back home in the way that, I am going to sound like my mother saying this, "They have good heads on their shoulders". And when I don't understand a word they explain it to me in spanish, SO HELPFUL!  They also talk way more slowly than most people and use a lot of arm motions and one of them told me they were speaking slowly for my benefit. Awwww how sweet!
And they are really curious about American pop culture. Most questions I get are:
What is your favorite type of music? Band? Song? Actor? Movie? TV show? What do you think of this person? How do you pronounce this person's name?

A couple of them do speak English and a few times I have caught myself just saying a word in English because I know they will understand it. I really need to stop doing that!

As for the "new shiny object" concept, there really hasn't been that much of it. However,  everywhere I go I can feel people staring at me. A lot of people do come up and say "hi " and kiss me on the cheek. But I don't have actual conversations with a lot of people.
Did you know they did that in Paraguay? Because I sure didn't! Almost everyone you meet or when you greet a friend, you kiss on the cheek, left then right. At times I feel a little weird about doing this. I am not a very touchy feely person especially with people I have never met before. Paraguayan's don't really have a personal space bubble, which is definitely different, but I am getting more accustomed to it as time goes by. :)

Although I am seeing my spanish improving, I still don't understand a lot of people say, especially when someone is addressing the whole class and is talking really fast. For example, a lot of the guys tease each other, and the best way I can think to describe it is as a "Your momma's so fat"joke off. I know it's kinda silly thing to compare it too, but it is almost exactly like it! Every time one of the guys says something the whole class goes "OhhhhhHHHHHHhhhhhh!" and starts laughing. I just sit there and half pretend I understand a word they are saying.

Overall my first two days went awesome!

Vida en Paraguay

I am writing my first blog from Paraguay!
I arrived in Asuncion yesterday morning. I had an orientation with all the other kids staying here in Paraguay. There were four of us from the U.S., about ten from Germany, one from Austria, and one from Iceland. The orientation was really cool, and I got my first taste of Paraguayan food, YUM!
I am with my host family now, I have been here for less than a day but I can already tell that this is going to be the best experience of my life!
When I got to my "house"I unpacked and then we ate lunch. We had some pasta, paraguayan bread chicken and something called yuka(sp?). They offered it to me and I took a bite and they all started laughing...at first I was like "I am not supposed to eat this?" and then Jackie (my host sister) explained that you are supposed to eat it with the chicken. Thank goodness she speaks English! It has been so helpful, when I don't understand something she will explain it to me and I can already see my spanish improving! :)
at around 4 we ate a snack that I can't remember the name of...I ate something that looked like a quesadea, we also had hot chocolate. It was delicious. I don't know what time dinner is...I think it is late considering it is already 7:00.
I am off to the mall with my "sister" and "mom"
Adios!