2 down 4 to go

So I have completed my second month here and am coming on the halfway mark a lot sooner than I would like!
I haven't been posting as regularly as I would like to but I hopefully I will be posting more frequently.
Here are some photos of what I have been up to the past month!
Enjoy! :)

AFS Office

It was my host sister's (Jackie) birthday so we all went out for ice cream. Yum!

Can you guess what this is?

I'll give you a hint: It is my failed attempt at making brownies for my family without coco powder (it doesn't exist here) and I used the wrong sized pan so the outside was burnt and the inside was like soup.

I made Sloppy Joe's for my host family, they don't have tomato paste or brown sugar here so they turned out a little differently than normal plus I forgot to dumb out that fat after I cooked the meat...whoops. But they liked it anyways. :)

This is my host family(minus my "brother") at dinner

I went to a cemetery (by accident) with a friend. Apparently I have family buried here...

Each grave was like a castle!

For Semana Santa (the week leading up to Easter) I went to San Bernardino with the whole family.

We slept in tents.

I attempted to ride a bike (which I hadn't done in a year or so). The road was made up rocks and dirt (like all the roads here), let's just say it was a very different experience. :)

My aunt, two cousins (Franco and Patti) and my host sister

Me and some friends on the trip we took to Encarnacion with my school. (Excuse the fact that I look like that, I had to get up at one in the morning and it was a six hour bus ride and I was sick!)

This is a dam on the border of Paraguay and Argentina.

That's Argentina across the lake!

Paraguayan and Argentinian flags!

Me and my friends at a school carnival

(Melissa, Atenea, Jackie, Sol)

At a birthday with some friends.

Weather in Paraguay

So I was going to spend this blog entry telling you guys about my experience cooking an American meal for my family, however my camera isn't working at the moment so instead I am going to talk about the Weather here.

Since Paraguay is in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are flipped. A few days ago was the first day of Spring in the United States, however here it was the first day of fall. And almost like clockwork the weather changed.

For those of you who live in Tucson, the weather is VERY similar, except that it rains a lot more here. :)

Since I arrived the weather has been in the mid 90-80’s sometimes exceeding 100 degrees during the day. Luckily I caught the end of the summer weather. It’s weird to think they celebrate Christmas with 100 degree weather, I mean it’s never really cold enough in Tucson for snow, but I always associate Christmas with warm clothes and hot chocolate but if you did that here you would have a heat stroke.

Anyways to get back on track with what I was saying.

The weather for the past few days has been amazing, it has been rainy and the temperature has been around 75, which may sound hot to some of you, but for here it is reason enough to pull out some winter clothes. People have actually been wearing jackets to school complaining that it is to cold out. I will admit, I am one of those people; except for the complaining part, I love this weather!

June and July are the really cold months here. They are like our Decembers and Januarys (in Tucson). From what I have heard it doesn’t snow very often but it can get below freezing some days, so fingers crossed that I get a chance to play in the snow!

Oh random interesting fact, in Germany instead of saying “fingers crossed” they say “pressing the thumbs” (die daumen drücken). And they clasp their fingers around their thumb (making a fist).

Also, I heard that there have been TWO snowfalls in Tucson since I left, and I would be really jealous that I missed them except for the fact that I am here which makes it all okay. :) But I hope everyone had fun playing in the snow and enjoy the hot weather coming your way!

I am going to Encarnacion (another city) with my school tomorrow and we are gonna be seeing some of the historical landmarks of Paraguay. So if my camera decides to start working, I will post a bunch of pictures in my next blog.

Chau!

Time flies when...

One month, I have been here for one month. I feel like I just got here but at the same time, I feel like I have been here forever. So much has happened and the time has just flown by.

I realize that I have been here one month and I have posted like 5 photos, so  I decided that for this blog entry, I am just going to post a bunch of pictures of the stuff I have done.

Enjoy! :)

:D

Right before me and my fellow AFSers boarded the plane for Sao Palo, Brazil.

B stands for Brazil.

P stands for Paraguay.

Right to left: Jennifer (B), Sylvia (B), Marley (P), Nevo (B) Ana (P), Nikita (B). Kate (P), Corey (B) and I are not in the picture.

Flying over the chaco (which is code for the middle of nowhere) in Paraguay. About to land!

Virgin Mary. I came here with my family and then my Spanish class.

I went to a foam party with my family and friends.

And by foam, I mean we all got aerosol cans and went around spraying each other.

Fun times. :)

Here we are at the foam party.

This is the pantheon in Al Centro. It is a mix between a church and a cemetery. A lot of things in dedication to past presidents 

and what's this?

I actually have no idea what this is but it had the U.S. flag on it which I thought was pretty cool.

At the grocery store you pick out how much of each you want and then pay for it based on the weight.

Bakery :)

This photo was taken durning my 1 month after arrival camp.

There were people from Thailand, France, Iceland, U.S., and Paraguay present.

This is my Spanish class.

From left to Right:

The teacher, Me, Simon, Julian, and Hreinn.

This is a really bad picture, and it's unfortunate that I didn't take another one but it is what it is.

There is actually water in Paraguay, can you believe it!

It is really dirty though and you can get sick if you put your head under the water. :/

Hotel in Ypacari.

Well that's it for now. I am actually going to be posting either tomorrow or Tuesday, so be on the lookout for that! :)

El Colectivo!

In Paraguay, everyone uses the bus. Okay, yes, some people have cars, motorcycles, and bikes but I am guessing that more than half use the public bus as their main source of transportation. The buses here look like they were transported from the 70's. They are really colorful and and just have this way about them...I am not very good at explaining, so here are some pictures:

Each number bus has its own design. For instance the bus that I take to get home is number 45 and it is green. It really nice when you can just say look and be like "Oh that giant green bus coming towards is mine"  Instead of having to wait until the bus is close enough to see the number in the window, and right as you realize it's your bus, it passes you. Not fun because the chances of the bus you need to take coming by again soon, is slim to none.

(This is the bus I take!!!)

I have taken the bus a handful of times.

Four with my spanish class

Once with my family

and as of today, three times by myself.

During my excursions on the bus, I have come to learn many important lessons. However, it hasn't been without trial and error. But lucky for you it makes for some pretty interesting stories.

I rode the bus for the first time with my Spanish class about two weeks ago. I hadn't heard much about the buses, and I just expected it to be similar to those in the U.S.

I honestly don't know why I thought this. Since arriving in Paraguay nothing, NOTHING has meet my expectations. I feel like I just need to stop having them, because things always turn out differently.

Since I am guessing most of you aren't familiar with the bus system here, I will briefly explain how it works. And then if you ever come to Paraguay, hopefully you won't be confused!

1.) Stand on the side of the road, it doesn't really matter where. I believe there are a few bus stops, but people usually just get on wherever they want to. IMPORTANT: not all buses pick up on every road. So know before hand if you need to switch buses to make it to your final destination.

2.) Stick your hand out or wave to the bus when it gets close enough. It is similar to hailing a cab.

3.) As soon as you step on the bus, grab onto the railing because the bus starts moving immediately. Also, know how much the fare is before you get on or else you may sit down before the driver gives you your change.

Also just something to note: the doors never close, remember how I said to hold on to something when you get on? Well the alternative would be flying backwards onto the street. Your choice.

4.) Find a seat as close to the front as you can because I have heard some weird stories about things that go on in the back. (I'll explain later) If there isn't a seat, which happens often, grab onto a handrail. Either on the ceiling or on the back of the seats.

5.) When you realize that the bus is close to where you need to get off, get up and head to the back of the bus.
Running along the ceiling is a rope. When you want to get off, pull it, and the driver will stop.

6.) And, walah you are now that much smarter!

So this sounds simple enough, right?

Well maybe for your average person.

However, not being the best at spanish, at having no sense of direction. I have found myself in some pretty...interesting...situations.

Let's start out with the day my host sister and dad decided to show me how the buses work.

Our story begins on Tuesday around one o'clock. We boarded the bus and I took a seat next to Jackie.

When my host dad signaled that it was time to leave we got up and slowly began walking to the back. I wasn't really paying attention and my hands were only slightly gripping the railings when, all of a sudden the bus stopped and I was thrown backwards and onto some guy. Not only that but I took Jackie down with me.

Now, when things happen really quickly I have a tendency to start speaking in English. So I began apologizing in English, which I'm sure made me look even crazier than I already did.
He just started at me, actually everyone was staring at me.

When we stepped off the bus, we all burst out laughing. Yes, laughing at my pain and humiliation seems to happen a lot here.

Now, we skip ahead about a week. I am on the bus by myself, for the first. I have followed my host parents instructions and all I can think is "Please let me be on the right bus." Luckily I had gotten a phone earlier that day, so I could have called my parents if I had gotten into trouble, but luckily it didn't come to that.

My host mom kept checking in on me making sure I was okay.

However, about 30 minutes into the ride I had no idea where I was. Nothing looked familiar, and I wasn't sure I was even in San Lorenzo. I was going to ask someone for directions but then I remembered "I don't speak spanish well enough to ask for directions, and even if I did, their answer would have no meaning to me."

So about 5 minutes after I decided that I was lost, my host mom called, She was talking really loudly and kept saying the same thing over and over again. As you may know cell phones don't always have the best reception, so add:
The loud noise on the bus+the bad reception+my limited knowledge of spanish= Me understanding nothing.

I kept telling her that I didn't understand and I was asking her if I needed to change buses but nothing was getting through. It was like we had a one way radio, and I was starting to freak out.

At this point I noticed that the bus had come to a complete stop and everyone was staring at me. I started to think "Why is everyone looking at..."
However my thought was interrupted by this:

"Erin, What are you doing?!?! You passed the stop 10 minutes ago!"

I turned around and saw my host mom standing in the back of the bus. Apparently she had been waiting for me and when the bus passed by she followed it.

I got up from my seat and I could feel my face turning red. Thank goodness I will never see those people again!

However my family found the story hilarious and decided to tell it to everyone we encountered.

Not sure I am ever going to live that down.

When I got home, my host dad showed me how to use the navigator on my phone, so I won't get lost...again.

And as for the weird things that happen on the bus...I will talk about them next time because this entry is already reallllllllly long.


Buenas noches! :)

...

So it has been awhile since I last wrote, and a lot has happened so sit back, relax, and enjoy.

About two weeks ago I started taking a Spanish class through AFS (mandatory) the class is about three hours long but it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. There are three of us in the class: Simon, Julian and myself. Both of the boys are from Germany and live in the city where the hamburger was invented. Hamburgers are probably one of the most amazing/delicious creations of all time! Visiting Hamburg has officially made it onto my bucket list. J

They are both super nice and friendly, although at times it can be difficult to communicate with them in Spanish. Our Spanish conversations usually turn into Spanglish and eventually into English. 

Their English is good, like crazy good. When I have a conversation with them (in English) it doesn’t feel like I am talking to someone whose first language isn’t English. Except for the fact that they have accents, but I have an infatuation with accents, so it’s all good. J

However in class we all speak in Spanish (what a shocker!). And the teacher doesn’t speak any English, but she talks slowly and explains everything which is really nice, but sometimes I have absolutely no idea what she is talking about. The German boys will sometimes explain to me in English which I think is crazy. They must have to translate from Spanish to German and the German to English. Their Spanish is better than mine, but that isn’t saying a whole lot.

On that note, my Spanish is improving, I am still having a lot of trouble conjugating verbs, and there are a lot of words that I don’t know, but when someone says something to me, I can differentiate the words even if I don’t know what they mean. It is really nice because then I can repeat back the word/s I don’t understand and ask them to explain instead of just staring at them like a dear in headlights.

One of millions of really interesting things I noticed since I arrived is that most of the Paraguayan flags don’t have the emblem in the middle of it. Just in case you are unfamiliar with what the official flag looks like here is a picture:

My host sister told me that it is a sign of "respect" I believe she said and that only certain flags have the emblem, like ones on flagpoles or on some government buildings.

So instead, this is the flag you usually see: 

 I have seen it on:

T-shirts

Cars 

Buses

Flags that people own

Signs

etc.

On Sunday I went to my host dad’s sister’s house for lunch and Karaoke. The family is about the same size as mine. There is a Grandma, her four kids plus all their spouses, and each couple has 2 kids.

We were there for almost two hours before we ate, which was very different for me, because normally when my family comes over we eat within 45 minutes and there are appetizers before hand. It was nice though, very relaxed, and it gave me a chance to talk to some of the cousins, because when is was time for dinner they ate in a different room they the adults and Jackie and me. I think it had to do with the fact that they are all younger, but I am not 100% sure. After dinner, it was time for Karaoke…somehow they got me to sing, a Jonas Brothers song no less. Luckily I knew the song and because they knew I was so nervous a bunch of people came up and danced around me while I was singing.

It was my first real taste of how Paraguayan families are when they get together, and I loved it!

Today we didn’t have school Wednesday or today. Wednesday was some big day for Fernando de la Mora (not sure why) and today was hero’s day (Día de los Héroes) see it more as a day to sleep in and stay in PJ’s all day. It is like our Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We learn about the day’s significance, get the day off school and most businesses are closed, but other than that it is a very low-key day.

I did hear that there are some parties and speeches in honor of the day, but my family isn’t going to any.

I decided I am going to try and update my blog at least twice a week. Not sure what days yet, maybe Monday and Thursday?

Oh and one more thing completely non-Paraguay related,

I heard about the shooting in Ohio, my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who was effected. 

Stay safe and remember that like is a gift that is why it is called the present. :)

....

Don't you love cheesy inspirational quotes?

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!