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!