Wednesday, July 28, 2010

What a Wonderful Weekend!

This weekend I got to experience the real downtown of Asuncion. What I had thought was the "downtown" that I drove through every day on my way to work was really just the outside of "el centro". Saturday, my siblings took me to lots of historical places en el centro de asuncion, such as an old train station, el Palacio de Heroes, and the President's Palace. It was a beautiful day for walking around, in the 80s, which was a nice change from the previous weeks of frio. I tried chipa so'o, which is a softer chipa with carne (meat) in the center. Riquísimo!

Sunday, Andrea and I did some Paraguayan cooking after I chatted with my parents in the E.E.U.U. on the phone for 45 minutes :D We cooked chipa guasu, which is kinda like corn bread, but not really a bread. It has corn, milk, queso paraguayo, and eggs, and you bake it. it is still kinda wet on the inside, and crispy on the outside. Very delicious, and traditional! While we were cooking, my dad was preparing his "vaca" or cow that he had bought (yes, a whole one). We had chorizo, a traditional sausage, with mandioca for a "snack" around 1 pm, and then more of the cow for our real lunch around 3. It was really good, and had been Paraguayan bbq-ed (i'm not going to attempt to spell bbq, haha). Later, my mom prepared cocido, a drink with yerba, sugar, and more sugar, that is mixed with milk. It is super good. We drank that with mbeju that my mom and i made for merienda around 7. Mbeju is a tortilla, pancake - like food that isn't really like that, but oh well. it has mandioca flour and queso paraguayo, and a little milk. You cook it in a pan, like a pancake. Love it!

Friday my sisters and I went to the Expo, which is a display of Paraguayan industrial, farming, and artistic products. pretty cool to see it all. I bought a guampa and bombilla so that i can drink terere and mate back home in corvallis.

I feel like I am a ton closer to my whole family now, after this weekend. But, i think that has to do with the fact that i can understand about 95% of what is said, plus, I can respond with more than just Si,Si. I only have a week and a half, which is definitely not long enough. My time has flown bye. Well, I'm too lazy to put up pictures, but you can creep on my facebook page if you want to see them.

chau!

Vacaciones por el frío......huh?

So, as I said in the post before this, some schools get another week of vacation because it is has never been this cold. Hmmmm..... Ironically, no hace frío!! Yesterday was a lovely 13 C, Monday was about 18, and today was well over 20. So, about 60 F + this week, so far. There isn't any school at Santa Teresita because it is a public school, and all public schools got another week. So, this means that I get to continue to spend my mornings watching Barney, Bob the Builder, Hi5, and other "wonderful" T.V. shows in Spanish. haha. but, look at it this way, i'm just learning more spanish... :D

Monday, July 26, 2010

Well, I lied. I'm still working in la guardería this week because all public schools in Paraguay get an extra week of winter break because of the cold. Apparently it hasn't been this cold for so long ever in Paraguay, and the government was afraid that colds were going to be spread around. So, back in la guarderia, and hopefully, next week (my last :( ), I'll be in the school - just to see what it is like.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Last Day in La Guardería

So, I've been here for 4 weeks. And honestly, it has flown by. I can't believe that in 14 days I will be sitting on a plane for who-knows how long, and flying back to U.S. of A.

Friday (yesterday), was my last day working in the guardería, as for the next two weeks I will be working in the school at Santa Teresita. Well, this is as long as Santa Teresita doesn't extend their winter vacation for another week too (Most schools in Paraguay get another week of winter vacation because it is the coldest it has ever been for a really long time. The ironic thing is, it isn't cold right now.:D haha)

I've enjoyed working with the little kids these past 4 weeks, and I'm actually glad that I didn't get a vacation from volunteering when my siblings got a vacation from school. Most days I do a lot of sitting and watching, which is why I'm excited to work in the school cause maybe I can do some teaching. At 9 am they have their mid-morning snack (yogurt, fruit, cookies, crackers, etc). After, I help them brush their teeth. Then, they either get to play some more until lunch, or we go outside to play. So, I guess, they play either way. I bought two books for them a couple of weeks ago, so sometimes I'll read those. Also, after snack we sometimes do an art project, so I help with that too.

I'm definitely getting good at blowing noses. Haha. I don't think I've ever washed my hands more in my life. And, I'm pretty good at helping to spoon soup into the mouths of little children who don't want to eat :D

But, all in all, these children have really changed my life. They've taught me that you can come from any background, any where, and whether you have a life full of excecities, or one that just scrapes by with the necesities, you can be happy, spunky, and full of laughter. All these children latch on to you the moment you arrive and show that you care about them. They call any one who helps them, and is about 3x as tall, Tía or Tío. It makes me so happy to know that I've helped these children so much these past 4 weeks. Thank you Hogar Infantil Santa Teresita. Thank you ninos!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Half-Way

So, this past Sunday marked the half-way point for my exchange. Which included receiving an email from AFS about my return-trip itinerary. Let's just say this isn't a good thing. So much has happened these past three weeks it is really hard to believe that I came only 21 days ago. It is now a joke within my family about my lack of speaking the first day, which amounted to a lot of "si, si" and a nod of my head. Though, probably about half of my "si"s realy should have been "no"s.

So, here is a summary for you.

Day One: Si, Si, Nod of head, wait, no!
Week One (minus Day One): Ok, i can understand somethings.
- Worked at the guarderia Monday - Friday
- Friday, shopping
- Saturday, Toy Story 3 (which i miraculously could follow)

Week Two: Understanding more every day. Speaking more every day - Thank you Ninos :D
- working with the kids everyday helped me understand so much more. It is quite amazing, the vocabulary that children have when they are 3.
- Shrek 4: understood the majority of the movie. Woot woot

Week Three: Large conversations, understanding the majority of things said
- Well, i thought i was going to get a vacation, but no. Still went to guarderia (but that's ok, i like it)
- Finished my book, and was desperate for another one, so I started reading my Spanish Grammar book (pretty helpful, actually)
- Trip to Villarrica
- 1/2 a dream in espanol :D

And now I am here, Monday, 4:58 pm (16:58). I have exactly 3 weeks left, and I realize now that what I thought would be a long time, sufficient enough to quench my thirst for exchange, is only just a teaser, leaving me hungry for more (You could compare it to how eating snow just makes you thirstier).

This weekend Gabi and I went to Villarrica, a small town about 3 hours from Asuncion. There, we stayed with my abuelo, and I got a taste of traditional Paraguayan music. Here goes. Saturday, we went with some of Gabi's friends to a Traditional Paraguayan (polka??) concert. this was definitely one the highlights of my 3 weeks so far. Even though it was freezing cold outside, I got to enjoy the variety of Paraguayan music. There were two groups that played. The first comprised of about 5 college-age chicos/as. The 2nd, 3 older men who played the guitar extremely well.

Paraguay is rich in tradition and culture. From music to the streets to everyday life, people are immersed in their traditional native Guarani culture. I love drinking Terere and Mate (both made from Yerba, an herb, Terere is cold, and Mate hot). Horses pulling wagons are still used on the streets, and people live a much more simplistic life. No one has a dishwasher, and few have microwaves.

Well, my time here has been excelent. I only wish that I could have gone to school to meet more people. Chau!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Sunday With the Family

I really enjoy the sense of family that Paraguayans have. Lots of their family lives close to one another, and see each other often. At home, I rarely get to see my cousins, maybe once every 3 years, so I really appreciate how we can just go over to my aunt/uncle/cousins´house for lunch.

Sunday, instead of going to Caacupé because it was raining, we went to my cousin´s house for lunch and to watch the final World Cup game. I had lots of traditional foods while there, such as mandioca, and sopa paraguaya, along with a sausage that is eaten a lot.




It was all great fun, and after eating, we watched the world cup (Holanda vs. España). I was for Holanda, and i´m pretty sure most of my family/cousins were too, cause España beat Paraguay, and they weren´t very happy about that. But, sadly, España won 1:0 after about an 1 1/2 of extra time. I also played the Wii for a bit with my cousin Fabrizio, my sister Gabi, and my brother Guillermo. Then, after, my cousin and her friend came home with us. My sister, cousin, cousin´s friend, brother, and I all went to a dance from 11:30 - 3:30, which is clearly the party spot for all Paraguayan teenagers. It wasn´t really my cup of tea, but I guess it was a cultural experience. But, I did see 4 other AFS USA students who are here for the summer, so it was nice to say hi.



An exciting thing happened Sunday. As we were driving home from my cousins´house, i realized that I was understanding basically everything that my family was saying. All of a sudden it is so much easier to talk, understand, and respond quickly. :D

When it Rains, it POURS!!

Weather here in Paraguay can be a little finicky. Some days it will be beautiful, sunny, warm, summer-ish (even though it is winter), but other days, it is raining, overcast, and super cold. Last Friday it rained. And when I say rained, I mean it POURED, and POURED, and POURED!!!! All day, non-stop rain, more rain, and more rain. I was at the guardería Friday, and because of the rain, we couldn´t go outside, which meant the little kids were a little fidgety after awhile, but that´s okay. Here are some pictures of the flooded playground, and the kids who were stuck inside.







When my parents picked me up, it just happpened to be raining cats and dogs, o estaba lloriendo a cántaros. I literally had to jump puddles and rivers of water as I made a dash for the car. Then while we were driving home for lunch, it was like we were driving through a lake. Clearly the roads have bad drainage, for there was so much water, and it was splashing up to the windows on our truck. I was just waiting for our car to hydroplane, but we didn´t. Here are some pictures of the road and the rain.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Vida y Comida



So, here in Paraguay, things are different, obviously, but in a good way. In the U.S., people have a small (or large) breakfast, medium lunch, and big dinner. Here, Paraguayans have a desayuno pequeño, or small breakfast (yogurt or fruit, maybe a little cereal, or coffee), a very large lunch, almuerzo, (this is the meal of the day and is like the American dinner, normally meat and some form of pasta, potatoes, or mandioca). Then there is merienda, or snack, where one would drink coffee or hot chocolate, eat bread with jam or cheese, or maybe have a piece of fruit. Cena, or dinner, is also small, and very late at night (9 ish). Normally it is a small sandwich, or a few small empanadas, or nothing at all (depending on the day and person). Paraguay is big on meat (always with lunch, mainly with a small dinner, sometimes for breakfast). Basically a vegetarian wouldn´t last here, so for two months, i´m an omnivore again, or more like a carnivore.... But, all the food is super good, and I love all of it.

To mention a few funny things:
1) Milk, or leche, doesn´t come in cartons, it comes in bags that are about a quart. There is a special bucket thing for the milk bag, cause it doen´t have firm sides, just flimsy plastic.
2)Celusal is common here, or salt without fat (i think)
3) eating ensalada is not what most people think. in the U.S., it is shredded lettuce with tomatoes, vegetables, sometimes meat or fish, salad dressing, and croutons. Here, ensalada is eating whole lettuce leaves with a fork, no dressing, and commonly with salt. people eat the lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers separately, again, with salt.
4) Yogurt you drink, no spoon, as it is very liquidy (but good). A common brand is bebible. beber is to drink, so it translates roughly to a "Drink It".

But, aside from these funny observancies, i love paraguayan food. People love to give you more, and share what they have.

Tereré is a tea that is very common. Basically everyone drinks it here. Maté in the morning, tereré in the afternoon when it is hot. Maté is the same herbs, but with hot water, and tereré is with ice water. i love it. it is very refreshing, and cultural. Here, people share drinks, so you share tereré with your friends and family. i have it every day at the guardería, and a lot of days when i come home with my sister. you drink it from a guampa with a bombilla straw, which prevents the herbs from being drunk.



Here is what my average day is like:

5:30 - 5:40 -- wake up
6:00 -- breakfast
6:10 - 6:15 -- leave in the car with my family (we drop off my mom first, then my sister at school, then me. it is absolutely necessary to leave not later than 6:15 as there is a crazy amount of traffic in the mornings)
7-ish -- Arrive at the guardería
7 - 8 ish -- kids play with toys/breakfast
8:30 -- craft
9:00 -- snack for the niños, then they brush their teeth
9:30 - 10:30 -- go outside to el parque
11:00 ish -- lunch with the niños (i eat a little to be polite, but i have lunch when i get home, so i don´t eat too much. normally it is soup with other stuff in it)
11:30 -- Niños take a nap
12:00 - 1:00 -- My parents pick me up, and we go home
1:00 ish -- lunch at la casa
2 - 3:30 -- nap, read
4 - 5:30 -- read some more, hang around the house
5:30 -- merienda
7:00 -- my sister and i sometimes go to the gym
9:00 -- cena/dinner
9:30 - 10 -- bed (i´m super tired by the end of the day!)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

World Cup!

Oh, i forgot to mention. Paraguay loves soccer! The played Japón on Tuesday and were tied by the end of the game. but, they needed a winner, so each team had five penalty kicks. Japón y Paraguay each made the first two, and then Japón missed the 3rd, but Paraguay made it. Then, they both made the 4th. So, if Japón made the 5th and Paraguay missed it, they would be tied. BUT.... Paraguay made it, which meant that they won!!!!!!!! everyone was estatic!, and immediately all these fireworks went off around the city. it was pretty cool. plus, there are all these paraguay soccer t-shirts for sale on the streets, and almost every single car has a flag on it. thought i´d just mention that.

but, on the sad side, one of the really good Paraguayan players, who i think made the last goal was shot yesterday. he wasn´t killed, but is in the hospital and will not longer be able to play soccer :( :( :(

Familia, Niños, y Asunción

I love my family! i was picked up by my host parents from the Paraguay orientation on Sunday around 11:30. Everyone here greets each other with a kiss on each cheek. We climbed into their car and drove home. they insisted that i sit in the front because i am so tall. When we got home, my siblings Gabi, Guillermo, y Andrea came out to greet us. Everyone was very excited. Everyone here is pretty short, and i´m pretty tall, so I´m about a head taller than everyone in my family. I share a room with my sister Gabi, who is also 15. We are already really good friends. About 10 minutes after i got home, we all got in the car (again, they insisted that i sit in the front because i´m so tall), and we went to lunch at the Club Internacional de Tenis (CIT), which is a very nice sports club. Everyone eats a really big lunch here and there was a buffet of food that we could choose from. it was all very good. then my siblings and i walked around the club, and came back for dessert.

i love talking with my host siblings. The first it was hard to understand most things, and i ended up nodding my head a lot and saying "si, si." But Monday (day 2), was much easier. Everything wasn´t blended together, and i could pick out more. my sister and i listen to the radio sometimes, and i can understand some of what the radio guy is saying. We watched at paraguayan T.V. show Tuesday and i was surprised that i could understand most of it. I can tell that everyday i pick up more things. responding faster is getting easier, i´m understanding more, and not feeling as lost as the first day. Working with the kids in the guardería is super helpful too because they talk to anyone and don´t care if you don´t understand. i know i´ve picked up a lot of simple words from them.

Asuncion is the capital in Paraguay. i live basically in the city, not a suburb or anything. We leave around 6:15 most mornings when i drive with my parents and Gabi to the school. We drop off my mom at the office (it is some kind of mail/package business), then Gabi at school, and finally me at the guardería around 7. so it takes about 45 min to get there, but that´s because there is a ton of traffic! Oh, and by the way, driving in Paraguay is crazy!! People like to go fast, plus, they don´t like to slow down for a bus or anything, so they just zoom around. people literally have to run across the street because there are so many cars/buses/motorcyles in the mornign that they would never get across otherwise. Lots of students take the city bus to school, and if you look at the buses when driving by, almost all of them are crammed with students (who all have to wear uniforms :D)

i go to the guardería everyday from 7 - 12 (ish, Paraguayan time is never ontime). There i play with the kids, who are all about 2-4, most of them 3. The place i work is called Hogar Infantil Santa Teresita. it also has a school for kids ages 4-6 ish. the school is run by the government for children who have single parents who mainly work street jobs. Some children spend Monday - Friday there. Those who do sleep get baths and new cloths. All the children get breakfast, snack, and lunch. Those who spend the night get dinner. All of this is completely free. I feel like this is such a great program. We don´t really have anything like this in the U.S. (or at least in the Corvallis area). all the children are so cute, and latch onto you the first day you are there. They all call me Tía, or auntie. i work with two other women, and one of the woman´s daughter comes to help after snack. All these kids want to be with you, sit on your lap, have you play with them. they love going down the slide on my lap. i feel so lucky to be able to work with them, and i know that they will always leave an impact on me. Yesterday a little boy came up to me, grabbed my hand, and gave me a dead fly. ¡Que suerte! haha :D I hope that i might be able to work with some of the older kids later on.

overall, i´m having a great time hear!
Chau!

Arrival and Orientations

So. I left Corvallis Wednesday around 2:30. We got to the airport, checked my bag, and headed towards the plane. My dad had a business meeting in San Francisco, so he flew with me. We met Granny Jeanie at the airport and had dinner at this nice little Italian restaurant, Buno Gusto (or something like that). Then i got back on a plane and flew to Miami, which is where the orientation was. It was a five hour flight and i got about 2 hours of sleep, so i was exausted when i got there at 8 in the morning. I had to go get my luggage and then catch a small hotel bus to the Embassy Suites in Miami. the bus comes every 20 minutes or so, but i was lucky and only had to wait about 5 minutes, though most of that time was spent figuring out where to stand, etc. Confusing.

I got to the hotel, and they had an AFS table set up, so it was easy to know where to go. They didn´t have rooms for us yet cause Argentina and Chile hadn´t left yet, so i got to sleep on the couch in the lobby. Yay! plus, i was the first AFS-er going to Paraguay or Costa Rica. But when i woke up, there were a whole bunch of people there.

The orientation stuff was super boring. And basically was what we went over at the PDO. But, we did watch a movie in Spanish. i think it was argentinian, but it was super confusing, even with subtitles, and everyone was lost. costa rica had to get up at 5:30 to go to the airport, so we had to cram all the important stuff into 7 hours (4 - 11). But, in the morning we got to sleep in, and didn´t start until 11. and all that we did was some surveys and watch the movie. We left at 4:30 for the airport. We had an AFS person take all 19 of us to the airport and help us check our bags. Then she gave us our passports, sent us through security, and we were alone. Everything went well, and we had lots of extra time getting to the plane (about 2 hours, but international flights board an hour before departure instead of 30 minutes).

It was a 8 hour flight to Sao Paulo, but we had a really nice plane. We flew Tam, which is a really big Brazilian airline, kinda like Lufthansia, if you fly to Europe. There were 3 rows (2,4,2), and i sat on the aisle, which was nice cause there wasn´t much space and my legs are long. The man sitting next to me was Brazilian, but lived in the U.S. He was very nice, and we talked about AFS for awhile. Across the ailse from me was a woman who went on an exchange to Spokane,WA for a year when she was in high school. i don´t think she went with AFS, but some Brazilian program. She lives in Florida now, but was going back to visit.

Airplane food is pretty weird. The dinner was good (i had pasta and salad), but the breakfast had the strangest eggs i´ve ever had. i have no way to describe them, except for that they were super weird. someone said that they add cream cheese to them. We got into Sao Paulo at 5 in the morning, which is 4 in the morning in Miami. We were all super tired, but luckily we didn´t have to go through customs. We had about 2 1/2 hours to kill, and i just sat around the whole time. but we did meet this man who is from Paraguay and went to the UK for a year with AFS. He talked to us for awhile and all his info was super helpful. He said that he now goes to Georgia Tech, i think. Then we also met a woman who went to Paraguay for an exchange two years ago. She is from the U.S., and did community service for a year. i think she said that she worked in a school. but, she was coming back to visit.

we got to Asunción at 10 in the morning, went through customs, and met an AFS woman who had gotten most of our bags for us already (they all had yellow AFS luggage tags). The whole time that we were flying from Miami to Asuncion we got these funny looks cause there were 19 of us all wearing bright yellow AFS t-shirts (but it got people to ask what we were doing, which spreads the word about AFS). Anyways, the Asuncion airport is tiny. it seemed smaller than the Eugene airport, but i don´t really know. We all climbed on a bus and were taken to the retreat-ish place in Asuncion for ANOTHER orientation. But this one was actually useful and was all about Paraguay. we were there for a night and then our host families picked us up.