Solo Un Mes Mas & La Copa Mundial

June here was World Cup madness. Let me start by saying that Paraguay is serious about soccer. For those of you that don’t know, this year Paraguay made it to the third round of the World Cup! All of the Paraguayan games were shown in school so that people didn’t skip the whole day to stay home and watch. I thought the first two games were a big deal, but after we won the third game, against Japan, the country just exploded. Winning that game put us on to the next round and made us one of the top 8 teams in the world. Everyone stormed the streets, let of fireworks and huge caravans of cars and motorcycles drove around honking their horns. In Asuncion it was even crazier, with thousands of people celebrating. In our next game, we lost in the last few minutes to España, but everyone was still really proud of the team. On Monday morning at 4 AM, I went with my mom and sisters to welcome the Albirroja in at the airport. There were 40,000 other people there to welcome them back too! It was so cool to be a part of something so patriotic and so big.

Wearing my Paraguay jersey:)

Watching in mi colegio

Fuerza Paraguay!

In other news, I have less than a month left in Paraguay…

I remember before I came to Paraguay thinking that six months would be such a long time to be away from my family, friends and everything familiar. Now my opinion has completely changed. Six months is way too short for an experience like this. I feel like I didn’t completely settle into life here until around the fourth month, and now, just when I really love it here, I have to go. For the first part of my time here half of me was in Paraguay and half of me was in the US. Now this is really my life. Tengo mi vida aqui. I have my friends, my family, my school and everything here. Right now, time is my worst enemy. Every week seems to pass so quickly, and it always means one less week until I leave. I am dreading saying goodbye, but for now I am trying to just enjoy the time I have left.

My last few weeks here are going to fly by. Today was the first day of Vacaciones de Invierno here. It’s pretty weird to have winter break in July haha. Tomorrow I’m going to a friend’s birthday party and then straight from there to the bus terminal in Asuncion. I’m going with my family to Pedro Juan for a week! Pedro Juan is right on the border with Brazil and actually, part of the city is in Paraguay and part is in Brazil. We’ll stay with family there until next weekend. For the second week of winter break I don’t have any solid plans yet but I want to go to see Iguazu Falls at the beginning of the week. Thursday through the next Tuesday I’m going to work for an organization called Un Techo Para Mi Pais to help build homes for homeless families. It’s like Habitat for Humanity in the United States. Then the folowing Wednesday through Friday I will just enjoy my last week at school. That weekend is my last weekend in Paraguay L. My friends and family are planning several despedidas (good bye parties) for me. Monday and Tuesday I have a feeling I will be busy doing last minute packing and other stuff to prepare. And then Wednesday, August 4^th is chau.