My new home

Today marks three months since I arrived in Paraguay, which also means that I have exactly three months left! Ughhh I don’t want to leave!

These past three months have been some of the best of my life. Not a day goes by where I regret making the decision I did to come here.

Of course this trip hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies. I have had my bad days. The ones where all I want to do are cry and go home. Days where I wonder why I came here in the first place. But at the end of the day I know I made the right decision.

Some mornings I wake up and look around and can’t believe I am here and how lucky I am to have this opportunity.

When people ask me if I miss home all I can think is “Yes…but this is my home too.” And it is. It’s hard to imagine that in 3 months time I will be back in Tucson thinking over the time I spent here and wanting to rewind time, wishing I could go back to the place that I was lucky enough to call my home. Even though I won’t be living here anymore, I know that it will always be my home away from home.

As some of you may now when I first applied to be an exchange student, Paraguay was not even on my radar. I had my heart set on France and when I didn’t get in I was beyond crushed. My parents kept telling me that everything happens for a reason but I couldn’t wrap my mind around how something like that could happen for a reason.

But now I know that they were right. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but right here. I love (love actually isn’t a strong enough word) everything about Paraguay and I know even from being here just three months that I am a better person. I have a new outlook on the world, a new way of looking at everything. Paraguay has changed me for the better.

<---This is a picture from a waterfall I went to a few weeks ago! It was beautiful! (Sorry for the random picture, just thought this entry needed some!)

They say that by living abroad you become fluent in the other language after about three or four months. When I heard this I can remember thinking ‘That’s impossible! I have been taking French for over two years and am still no where near fluent!” But now I know that they were right.

Of course I am not completely fluent but I can understand almost everything that people say and not have to think about what they said or how I have to respond. It comes naturally now. Just like having a conversation in English (ok not exactly, but really similar). I no longer have to translate things into Spanish I can just what I want without thinking about it. Which makes me insanely happy! :D

However, I have still had a couple of bumps along the way.

1.) I am still having trouble conjugating verbs but getting better at it every day.

2.) Paraguay has two official languages: Spanish and Guarani. The indigenous people originally spoke Guarani before the explorers came over from Spain. Paraguay is the only country in Latin America to have maintained their native language! And although this is extremely cool, it also makes learning the language a lot harder because people mix Guarani into the everyday language. I only know a few words in Guarani:

a.) Mba'éichapa (pronounced like byachapay) hello, how are you?

b.) Jaha (pronounced like jayha)-let’s go

c.)  Japiro (pronounced like it looks) and che raku (shay haku) but those are bad words so I’m not gonna translate, sorry!

3.) I have also made up some of my own words (In my defense I thought they were real).

a.) Justo-I thought that it it was“just” turns out it’s “solo”.

b.) Dificultitio-I thought that was how you said “difficult” it’s actually “difícile”.

 c.) Actualemente-I thought it was  “actually” but it’s really “en realidad”

I went about saying these (some more recent than I would like to admit) and people didn't say anything! 

Like “justo”. I was talking to my host mom about three weeks into the program and said it and she just looked at me like I was crazy and asked me what it meant. My host sister was there and she burst out laughing. I asked her if that was how you said “just” and she said no and that she understood me when I said it so she didn’t correct me! My friends make fun of me for it along with all of my other make believe words.

<---These are some cookies my host sister and I made they other day. They didn't have cookies cutters so we had to improvise! :)

Soooo…that’s it for now! I actually cried while writing this, thinking about leaving just makes me so sad!

I am actually thinking of posting everyday this week to make up for all the times I haven’t posted. No promises though! But just out of curiosity is there anything that you guys would like me to write about or have any questions? Feel free to email me or comment!

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer heat!

Chau!

<---One Direction CD at a bookstore! It made me SO happy! :D