Settling in...plus things that no longer surprise me

Hey everyone! So my second week in Paraguay is done. It was another great week and now I’m starting to feel like I have more of a routine. This week several things happened. I started my Spanish classes, some friends came over to my house, I got my uniform and my cousin came to visit.

First, the Spanish classes. AFS requires all of its participants in Paraguay to take Spanish classes. We have them every day except Sunday for two hours. They are sooo boring. We are learning beginner’s Spanish such as greetings, the alphabet, family members and food. These are things I learned in Spanish I. And we have to do this for a month… There are three other AFSers in my class, a girl and boy from Thailand and a girl from Colorado. The only thing that makes the classes bearable is that I can talk with the other American, Amy. We both have taken several years of Spanish in school, so we are able to help Bang and Natcha from Thailand, since they don’t know any Spanish at all.

On Tuesday night after Spanish class, my friend Ricarda came over to my house for a little while. Ricarda is an AFS student from Germany and she’s the host daughter of my host mom’s best friend. She’s already been here for 6 months and will be here for another 5. When she came over we talked for awhile and bought ice cream from a store across the street. It was fun J When she arrived here, she didn’t know any Spanish and now she is basically fluent. Listening to her gives me hope for my Spanish skills! Yesterday (Thursday) afterschool, one of my friends from school, Dahiana, came over and hung out with me and my sister. We looked at my pictures of America for a while and then hung out in the yard. Funfunfun.

On Wednesday I came home and found out that my cousin was visiting from college in Asuncion. I don’t know how long he is going to stay here but he’s been living with us, in my brother’s room. His family has an exchange student also, from Germany. After we had lunch, my mom took me to get my uniform for school (finally!). I got measured for the uniform last week, but they didn’t have it ready until this Wednesday. As if I didn’t already stand out enough, I had been wearing jeans and my school’s polo instead of a uniform for the first week and a half. My uniform is a brown and white checkered jumper with a light blue collared shirt underneath. I also have to wear white knee high socks and brown leather buckle shoes. Pretty fashionable… haha.

Otherwise, this week has been pretty normal. I feel like I’m settling into my routine here. Usually I wake up at 6, get ready for school, eat some bread with dulce de leche (my new obsession!), get my notebooks together and my mom drives us to school. School is from 7-11:20, except for Tuesday, when it goes until 12:20. I love being done with school for the day and knowing that my friends in America are still in first period (I get out at 9:20 DC time)J. After school, my sister and I walk or take the bus home, depending on the weather. When we get home we read or watch TV and just relax for about an hour and a half. (Speaking of reading, I just finished the book Three Cups of Tea, about mountain climber turned school builder Greg Mortenson. I recommend it!) My mom makes us lunch, which is the main meal of the day, and we eat at about 1:30. After lunch, we have a siesta (naptime!). At 3:45 I walk to my Spanish class and then I walk back home when it's done at 6. After I get home, I usually hang out with my brother and sisters and sometimes run errands with my mom. I’ve been talking a lot with my brother because he’s trying to learn English. And we’ve been watching Skins together (we get MTV here!). On days that I have homework (which are rare), I do it before dinner. We eat dinner between 9:30 and 10. For dinner we usually go out to get empanadas or burgers or something. After dinner we watch TV and shower/ get ready for bed. And then I start over the next day.

I also wanted to post a few things that really surprised me when I first got here, but now seem normal:

· The buses are all painted with bright colors and patterns, like murals.
· There are dogs and cats and chickens in the streets and everywhere.
· People here shower two or three times a day (because of the heat).
· Horses or mules with wagons walk right alongside cars in the streets.
· Drivers here have no regard at all for other cars or people. Pedestrians fear for their lives.
· People put their whole families on motorbikes. I saw four people on one yesterday! And it’s common to see babies riding on the lap of the driver.
· People drink soda with every meal here, including breakfast. I now understand why Coca-Cola is a multibillion dollar company.
· I get more English channels here than I do at my house in DC.
· The dirt is bright red.
· In the country, women sometimes have 16, 17 or 18 children. They start having children when they’re 13 or 14 years old.
· EVERYONE is Catholic.
· Even though there are differences, the people here are really just like us!

sd Photos from top: The basilica in Ca'acupe, me with Martha and Dahiana (my friend from school), roadblock!, the calm before the storm

PP