This isn't directly related to Paraguay or to exchange, but I think it's worth mentioning. Postcrossing is a project that's been around for a few years. Basically, you sign up with your address, and people will send you postcards from all over the world, provided that you also send out postcards to random people all over the world. I signed up about a month ago, and absolutely love it. So far, I've sent out postcards to Finland, Russia, Poland, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and China. I've also gotten postcards back already from different people in Poland, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Finland.
Check it out, and sign up. Postcards are generally pretty cheap, and so is postage.
26 October 2010
25 October 2010
Ojalá Returning, Por Fin.
I have begun the process of figuring out how to get myself back to Paraguay. Basically since the day I got back to the US after exchange, I've been watching ticket prices from Chicago to Asunción. I've tried every combination of times of day, dates, airports, and airlines. To my dismay, the cheapest round trip available during my vacation times has remained around $1400. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but it now appears as though if I fly on Tuesday or Thursday with TACA Airlines, and transfer in Miami and Lima, I can go for just over $1000, fees and taxes included.
To add to the increased possibility of affording a ticket, I have also discovered several grants through my college that I intend to apply for. I'm still working on creating my formal proposal, but I have multiple unpolished ideas. I'll write more about these when I have them narrowed down a bit more, but for now I'm just excited that a return is even in the financial picture.
Regardless of if I receive funding, I should be able to squeak by. I'll be spending the second half of my summer at Camp Anokijig, which is an amazing place. I got involved with camp in 2003, when I was 11, and the only things that have kept me away for a summer are Paraguay and Turkey. I began volunteering in the fall of 2005 when I was 13 in the midst of a panic about camp's future, and have continued since then. I worked as junior staff when I was 15 and 16, missed summer 2009 because of being in Paraguay and China, and would have been senior staff this past summer had I not accepted the NSLI-Y scholarship to Turkey. I've decided that it's about time for me to be back at camp, and will be working sessions 4 through 9. While a camp counselor's salary can look pretty meager, it should be just enough to cover my plane ticket if I don't get a grant, and it's somewhere that I really want to be. I'd rather be making pennies at something I would do for free than spend my summer stressed out about some hated fast food job just to make a little more money.
As for general updates in my life, I am now a freshman at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. Despite being tiny and obscure, it is an extremely international school. Just in my residence hall, there are students from Senegal, the Bahamas, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Afghanistan, France, Italy, and Japan, not to mention from all over the US. My major is still officially undeclared, but I'm fairly certain that I will be some sort of Education or Youth in Society major. I'll likely have a second major as well, but I really have NO idea what that will be. I've considered Modern Languages, Spanish, and History, but I'm not going to worry too much about it right now.
I'm also planning on spending a year abroad, likely my third year. I still haven't figured out if I would rather spend a year in one place, or two semesters in two separate places. I have so many choices! Beloit has its own programs in a few places that I'm interested in (Turkey, Ecuador), and they're a part of ACM (Associated Colleges of the Midwest) which administers a program in Juiz de Fora, Brazil that I'm very interested in. Then there are programs like ISEP, who is associated with Beloit as well. ISEP has more options than anyone else; I'm looking into Chile, Malta, Belgium, México, South Africa, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Argentina with them at the moment, but that list changes almost daily.
Needless to say, I've got a lot of "figuring out" to do in the coming months, but I think I'll be happy with basically whatever country I end up in.
To add to the increased possibility of affording a ticket, I have also discovered several grants through my college that I intend to apply for. I'm still working on creating my formal proposal, but I have multiple unpolished ideas. I'll write more about these when I have them narrowed down a bit more, but for now I'm just excited that a return is even in the financial picture.
Regardless of if I receive funding, I should be able to squeak by. I'll be spending the second half of my summer at Camp Anokijig, which is an amazing place. I got involved with camp in 2003, when I was 11, and the only things that have kept me away for a summer are Paraguay and Turkey. I began volunteering in the fall of 2005 when I was 13 in the midst of a panic about camp's future, and have continued since then. I worked as junior staff when I was 15 and 16, missed summer 2009 because of being in Paraguay and China, and would have been senior staff this past summer had I not accepted the NSLI-Y scholarship to Turkey. I've decided that it's about time for me to be back at camp, and will be working sessions 4 through 9. While a camp counselor's salary can look pretty meager, it should be just enough to cover my plane ticket if I don't get a grant, and it's somewhere that I really want to be. I'd rather be making pennies at something I would do for free than spend my summer stressed out about some hated fast food job just to make a little more money.
As for general updates in my life, I am now a freshman at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. Despite being tiny and obscure, it is an extremely international school. Just in my residence hall, there are students from Senegal, the Bahamas, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Afghanistan, France, Italy, and Japan, not to mention from all over the US. My major is still officially undeclared, but I'm fairly certain that I will be some sort of Education or Youth in Society major. I'll likely have a second major as well, but I really have NO idea what that will be. I've considered Modern Languages, Spanish, and History, but I'm not going to worry too much about it right now.
I'm also planning on spending a year abroad, likely my third year. I still haven't figured out if I would rather spend a year in one place, or two semesters in two separate places. I have so many choices! Beloit has its own programs in a few places that I'm interested in (Turkey, Ecuador), and they're a part of ACM (Associated Colleges of the Midwest) which administers a program in Juiz de Fora, Brazil that I'm very interested in. Then there are programs like ISEP, who is associated with Beloit as well. ISEP has more options than anyone else; I'm looking into Chile, Malta, Belgium, México, South Africa, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Argentina with them at the moment, but that list changes almost daily.
Needless to say, I've got a lot of "figuring out" to do in the coming months, but I think I'll be happy with basically whatever country I end up in.
11 June 2010
La Copa Mundial
Paraguay plays Italy on Monday, 1:30PM Central Time. June 20th they play Slovakia at 6:30AM Central Time. June 24th they play New Zealand at 9AM.
MBARETE ALBIRROJA!
Salvador Cabañas won't be playing, but Roque Santa Cruz will be back, so maybe he can pick up the slack...
MBARETE ALBIRROJA!
Salvador Cabañas won't be playing, but Roque Santa Cruz will be back, so maybe he can pick up the slack...
23 May 2010
Next Stop...
Hey everyone!
It's been a long time since I've had anything new to say about Paraguay, but I do have some exciting new(ish) exchange-related news.
Way back in October, I decided to apply for a program called NSLI-Y that's run by the US State Department. Students can apply for a year, semester, or summer to study Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Turkish, Russian, Hindi, or Persian. While applications are done by language, not country, students go to China, Taiwan, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, South Korea, India, Turkey, Russia, and Tajikistan.
Basically, if I was selected for this program, I would get to go somewhere to study languages FOR FREE. GRATIS. Of course, I applied. My first two choices were Persian (Tajikistan) and Turkish (Turkey); my second two choices were Hindi (India) and Arabic (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan); and my third choice was Russian/Russia. Nothing happened until January, when I was told that I was a semi-finalist. Basically all that meant is that I was eligible age-wise and grade-wise, and didn't waste my time applying or not finishing the application. I had a really chill interview with the same person that had already interviewed me for exchange-related stuff twice, and then I waited. I waited for the oh-so-vague "April" when we would receive our final notifications. April 1st, we (all 3,000-and-some who had applied) started to hold our breath. Notifications actually started on April 8th, when the Russia summer kids were notified. Then there was nothing until the 13th, when the India summer kids heard. After that, we started hearing something for someone most days.
My email came on April 20th. I worked until 9 or 10, but I got the notification on my phone. Unfortunately, all of the actual notification was done via .pdf attachment, which apparently, is not available on an enV3 phone. So on that half-hour drive home, I knew that there was news, but I didn't really know what news. I had a hunch because of one of the names of the attachments, but I didn't know what news there was. Was I going somewhere? Was I an alternate? I finally got home, and miraculously got the ancient desktop to open a .pdf without freezing for more than a few seconds. I was offered a scholarship to Turkey. :)
Thankfully, the dates just-barely worked out, and I was able to accept the invitation to 7 weeks in Istanbul, with an organization called ACES. :) So, I will be living with a Turkish family and attending Turkish for Foreigners class 5 days a week. Seriously, the dates are near-perfect. I'll be leaving only 1 day before my sister (I was worried about leaving 1-2 weeks before her) and returning the day before I move into my dorm at Beloit. In light of this, I started a new blog, since I'm not really sure how to link Turkey into a blog titled "Terere y Paraguay". Maybe after this summer I'll be able to, but for now, you can follow me over at USAtoTurkiye.blogspot.com/. (FYI, I DO know how to spell; "türkiye" means "Turkey" in Turkish. ;) )
See ya in Istanbul! Now to just learn Turkish...
It's been a long time since I've had anything new to say about Paraguay, but I do have some exciting new(ish) exchange-related news.
Way back in October, I decided to apply for a program called NSLI-Y that's run by the US State Department. Students can apply for a year, semester, or summer to study Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Turkish, Russian, Hindi, or Persian. While applications are done by language, not country, students go to China, Taiwan, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, South Korea, India, Turkey, Russia, and Tajikistan.
Basically, if I was selected for this program, I would get to go somewhere to study languages FOR FREE. GRATIS. Of course, I applied. My first two choices were Persian (Tajikistan) and Turkish (Turkey); my second two choices were Hindi (India) and Arabic (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan); and my third choice was Russian/Russia. Nothing happened until January, when I was told that I was a semi-finalist. Basically all that meant is that I was eligible age-wise and grade-wise, and didn't waste my time applying or not finishing the application. I had a really chill interview with the same person that had already interviewed me for exchange-related stuff twice, and then I waited. I waited for the oh-so-vague "April" when we would receive our final notifications. April 1st, we (all 3,000-and-some who had applied) started to hold our breath. Notifications actually started on April 8th, when the Russia summer kids were notified. Then there was nothing until the 13th, when the India summer kids heard. After that, we started hearing something for someone most days.
My email came on April 20th. I worked until 9 or 10, but I got the notification on my phone. Unfortunately, all of the actual notification was done via .pdf attachment, which apparently, is not available on an enV3 phone. So on that half-hour drive home, I knew that there was news, but I didn't really know what news. I had a hunch because of one of the names of the attachments, but I didn't know what news there was. Was I going somewhere? Was I an alternate? I finally got home, and miraculously got the ancient desktop to open a .pdf without freezing for more than a few seconds. I was offered a scholarship to Turkey. :)
Thankfully, the dates just-barely worked out, and I was able to accept the invitation to 7 weeks in Istanbul, with an organization called ACES. :) So, I will be living with a Turkish family and attending Turkish for Foreigners class 5 days a week. Seriously, the dates are near-perfect. I'll be leaving only 1 day before my sister (I was worried about leaving 1-2 weeks before her) and returning the day before I move into my dorm at Beloit. In light of this, I started a new blog, since I'm not really sure how to link Turkey into a blog titled "Terere y Paraguay". Maybe after this summer I'll be able to, but for now, you can follow me over at USAtoTurkiye.blogspot.com/. (FYI, I DO know how to spell; "türkiye" means "Turkey" in Turkish. ;) )
See ya in Istanbul! Now to just learn Turkish...
28 November 2009
A few months later...
It's been almost 5 months since I left Paraguay, but some things in my life are still Paraguayan. I still have mate and tereré on a regular basis, though not as often as I wish I did. Yerba is ungodly expensive here, and postage from Paraguay is a bit pricey, especially by Paraguayan standards, so I'm trying to stretch what I still have.
For those of you who didn't follow my blog while I was in Paraguay or those of you not familiar with Paraguay, tereré is a kind of tea. See the picture for a visual. It's made out of loose leaves
(yerba) and icy water. It is drunk out of a cup made out of metal, wood, or horn called a guampa, and drunk through a metal straw called a bombilla (see picture) that has lots of tiny holes in the bottom so that you don't drink the leaves. Mate is basically the same thing, except hot water is used in place of cold water. Tereré is a social activity in Paraguay. Whenever you go to a friend's house, you can be sure that they'll offer you terere (in the warmer months) or mate (in the early morning and cold months). From the high-class Asunceños (residents of Asunción) to the campesinos (farmers) in the middle of nowhere, everyone drinks terere. On sweltering February afternoons, the best thing to do is just sit with some friends and tomar un terere. Besides terere on a somewhat-regular basis, I've made Paraguayan food several times. Mbejú is a favorite, and I attempted chipa once. One Sunday a few weeks ago, my Japanese AFS sister, the inbound from Paraguay, and I had a cooking day, and we made mbeju, mandi'o chyryry, mandioca frita, empanadas, and pizza de palmito y huevo. Mbejú is a traditional food made out of cheese, tapioca flour, corn flour, milk, and salt that looks something like a pale-yellow-ish white pancake. Mandi'o chyryry is a dish made with boiled cassava/yucca/mandioca, eggs, and cheese. Mandioca frita is simply fried cassava. Empanadas are basically amazing. They're little fried, folded-over pockets filled with some combination of eggs, vegetables, spices, beef, chicken, cheese, mandioca, peppers, corn, or anything else you could want. Most of these were successfully made, but the mbeju was a little crumbly.
All these crazy words like "mandi'o chyryry" and "mbejú" are Guaraní, if you were wondering. Guarani is an Amerindian language spoken in central South America, that happens to be one of the two official languages of Paraguay (the other being Spanish, of course). I put a handy little phrase list and pronunciation guide on the right hand side of this blog, but if you're looking to (for whatever crazy reason) learn more than a few phrases, I highly recommend that you head on over here. "Here" is a blog/podcast designed to teach/help English-speakers learn Guaraní. It's created by a Peace Corps volunteer who's currently in Yataity, Guaira, Paraguay. I've been using it to learn more advanced Guarani, to add to my lovely bank of insults/swear words that my compañeros so excitedly taught me (Apparently teaching the rubia to yell "Japiro! Ñama kota!" is hilarious...who knew?). Ok, maybe I learned more than that, but in all honesty, I'm still a ways away from proficiency with Guarani Guarani as opposed to Jopará, which is Guarani mixed with Spanish.
Nearly 5 months later, and sigo llevando mucho de Paraguay en mi corazón. I'm still perpetually late, though I at least try now. I don't stress about the little things, and I still think our houses are huge, are roads are amazingly smooth, and everything is expensive. School is still dull, and I still think that people have no balance in their lives. It's all school-work-money or all party-drinking-puking with very little middle ground. The empanada/Ades/alfajór/guaraná cravings still come every now and then. Pepsi is too sweet after a semester of nothing but Coke. My brain still switches to Spanish on a fairly regular basis, and a decent-sized chunk of my iTunes library is devoted to Reggaeton, Cumbia, and Bachata.
I see that this blog is still being read quite often, and I assume that at least some readers are perspective exchange students to Paraguay. If anyone is considering going to Paraguay, feel free to leave your email address in a comment, and I can hopefully answer some of your questions. About a year ago, I was trying to research Paraguay and came up with football/soccer scores, colonial maps, and info on the Chaco, Yguazú falls, and the Itaipú dam. I know that there is basically no information out there about Paraguayan school, food, transportation, or really anything else you really want to know.
29 August 2009
Back in the States..
I'm finally back from both Paraguay and China, but STILL part of AFS. My family is hosting a student from Japan for the year, so I'll still be involved with local AFS stuff.
I've been out of Paraguay for a month and a half, although three weeks were in China. I still wish I was with all my Paraguayan friends & family and Paraguayan food and Paraguayan music and Paraguayan schedule and Paraguayan...everything. Re-adjusting to the US schedule and concept of time has been hard. In Paraguay, we would be out at the club until 4 or 5 most weekends, whereas curfew here is 11, and they actually check IDs. I also am not having fun with needing to be on-time. In Paraguay, NOTHING was on-time, except for sorta school. Oh well. I know I'll be going back someday, I just don't know when, for how long, or why...
I've been out of Paraguay for a month and a half, although three weeks were in China. I still wish I was with all my Paraguayan friends & family and Paraguayan food and Paraguayan music and Paraguayan schedule and Paraguayan...everything. Re-adjusting to the US schedule and concept of time has been hard. In Paraguay, we would be out at the club until 4 or 5 most weekends, whereas curfew here is 11, and they actually check IDs. I also am not having fun with needing to be on-time. In Paraguay, NOTHING was on-time, except for sorta school. Oh well. I know I'll be going back someday, I just don't know when, for how long, or why...
28 June 2009
1 week
One week from right now I'll be leaving Pilar on my bus to Asunción.
I'm definitely not ready to be leaving. A semester is really waayy too short; I haven't even had two culture shock-free months. These last few weeks have been amazing, and I wish I could stay here. For any prospective AFSers/exchangers in general reading this- go for a year if you can. You won't regret it. It feels like I'm leaving in the middle of something...
This will probably be my last post from Paraguay.
This has been a crazy six months. I don't even know how I'm going to begin to explain when people ask me about it. Also, everyone, please stop asking "How's Paraguay?" because there is no good answer that you're going to get out of me in less than 20 minutes. It hasn't all been good, but it's not bad either. It's just different, to fall back on the typical exchange organization's mantra.
5 July: Take noon bus from Pilar to Asunción, get there around 6, for sure seeing Abbey, hopefully Kat, Thomas, and basically everyone else in gran Asunción.
6 July: Fly from Asunción to Santiago, Chile in the morning, wait around in Santiago for a while, get on a plane to Miami
7 July: Arrive in Miami (morning), go through customs and immigration, go to Atlanta, go to Milwaukee..
I'm definitely not ready to be leaving. A semester is really waayy too short; I haven't even had two culture shock-free months. These last few weeks have been amazing, and I wish I could stay here. For any prospective AFSers/exchangers in general reading this- go for a year if you can. You won't regret it. It feels like I'm leaving in the middle of something...
This will probably be my last post from Paraguay.
This has been a crazy six months. I don't even know how I'm going to begin to explain when people ask me about it. Also, everyone, please stop asking "How's Paraguay?" because there is no good answer that you're going to get out of me in less than 20 minutes. It hasn't all been good, but it's not bad either. It's just different, to fall back on the typical exchange organization's mantra.
5 July: Take noon bus from Pilar to Asunción, get there around 6, for sure seeing Abbey, hopefully Kat, Thomas, and basically everyone else in gran Asunción.
6 July: Fly from Asunción to Santiago, Chile in the morning, wait around in Santiago for a while, get on a plane to Miami
7 July: Arrive in Miami (morning), go through customs and immigration, go to Atlanta, go to Milwaukee..
09 June 2009
Ciudad del Este
I know why you can never leave the Hotel California. It's a tangled maze of hallways, courtyards, rooms, and stairs in the middle of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay and happened to be the location of the last AFS camp of the semester.
Friday morning I got on a bus to Asunción with Jana (German exchanger in Pilar) to meet up with the Gran Asuncioñeros whom we got on another bus with to go to Ciudad del Este. I got to meet a lot of people who've been here since August, along with seeing a bunch of my friends from February again. Most of the people are from Germany, but there are also a few from Austria, Belgium, Iceland, the USA, France, Switzerland, and Turkey. Ciudad del Este is about a 4 hour bus ride from Asunción, but as these last two weekeds have taught me: long bus rides are WAY more fun when the bus is filled with 40 other exchangers!! My bus (we were split into two groups) watched some movie with Elijah Wood, but everyone else in the movie had a reallly thick Cockney accent, so I found it easier to read the Spanish subtitles. I guess that's a good sign! The other bus was lucky- Slumdog Millionaire, subtitled in Portuguese. Ya gotta love movies that come on DVD-Rs in a cellophane bag with a office printer labels...
Friday night involved a tasteless dinner and some frisbee injuries at about 1 AM. Saturday was a little more exciting. We went to the Itaipú dam in the morning. It's the largest hydroelectric project in the world, and is on the Paraná river, between Paraguay and Brasil. We got to visit both sides of it (Paraguayan and Brazilian) but didn't have very much time. The sheer size of it is absolutely amazing. I tried to take pictures of it, but they don't really do it justice. After the damn, we had some sessions with the volunteers where we got to write letters to future exchange students and ourselves. We also played a pretty intense game of ultimate frisbee involving an immobile tennis net, some unripe passion fruit, and nice neighbors of the hotel.
Later on Saturday, we watched the Paraguay-Chile World Cup qualifying match. Even though Chile won, it was still fun seeing a bunch of foreigners outdo the Paraguayans with support for the team. Even with this loss, Paraguay is still in first place for the division, tied with Brazil at 24 points. Chile is in third with 23, Argentina 22, Uruguay and Ecuador tied at 17, Venezuela at 16, Colombia at 14, Bolivia at 12, and Peru has a measly 7. Technically Brazil is ahead of us because of goals scored, same with Uruguay and Ecuador, but points-wise, we're tied.
Sunday we began the day with a trip to "Salto Monday" (not monday, it's guaraní) which is a decent-sized waterfall. It's absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure why we didn't go to Yguasú, but either way, Monday is beautiful too. After not enough time there, it was back to the hotel for a pretty emotional goodbye/last session. A few hours later, it was back on the bus to Asunción. We had some amazing Chipa in Eusbio Ayala and got into the city around 8. From there I went to a volunteer's house for the night. They told me I was leaving at 8AM to go back to Pilar, meaning I got up at 6AM Monday morning to get to the terminal in time to buy my ticket. There is no 8AM run to Pilar. The first one is at 12AM. I ended up going on a taxi tour of the city, and watching the England vs Kazakhstan game at another volunteer's house. Everyone except for the empleada (maid) was asleep for most of the few hours I was there, but she seemed to enjoy ranting about Paraguayan politics to me and gave me some amazing grapefruit juice.
The bus ride back to Pilar was as smooth as it can possibly be on roads built by a corrupt dictator, and we got back only 4 minutes behind schedule, which is pretty great in any country and amazing by Paraguayan standards. Now I'm back in school, getting ready for exams. Unfortunately, my school is considering moving exams back a few weeks until after winter break thanks to Swine Flu. I know it's mostly passed out of the news in the US, but it's just starting to arrive here, and if it sets in, it's going to be bad. The medical care just isn't here, and even if there are vaccines, the people most at risk won't have access to them. Masks are starting to become a bit of a trend, but nobody's seemed to notice that wearing a mask, then taking it off to drink tereré out of a straw that everyone present is sharing doesn't make much sense. I just hope it doesn't get worse here...
Friday morning I got on a bus to Asunción with Jana (German exchanger in Pilar) to meet up with the Gran Asuncioñeros whom we got on another bus with to go to Ciudad del Este. I got to meet a lot of people who've been here since August, along with seeing a bunch of my friends from February again. Most of the people are from Germany, but there are also a few from Austria, Belgium, Iceland, the USA, France, Switzerland, and Turkey. Ciudad del Este is about a 4 hour bus ride from Asunción, but as these last two weekeds have taught me: long bus rides are WAY more fun when the bus is filled with 40 other exchangers!! My bus (we were split into two groups) watched some movie with Elijah Wood, but everyone else in the movie had a reallly thick Cockney accent, so I found it easier to read the Spanish subtitles. I guess that's a good sign! The other bus was lucky- Slumdog Millionaire, subtitled in Portuguese. Ya gotta love movies that come on DVD-Rs in a cellophane bag with a office printer labels...
Friday night involved a tasteless dinner and some frisbee injuries at about 1 AM. Saturday was a little more exciting. We went to the Itaipú dam in the morning. It's the largest hydroelectric project in the world, and is on the Paraná river, between Paraguay and Brasil. We got to visit both sides of it (Paraguayan and Brazilian) but didn't have very much time. The sheer size of it is absolutely amazing. I tried to take pictures of it, but they don't really do it justice. After the damn, we had some sessions with the volunteers where we got to write letters to future exchange students and ourselves. We also played a pretty intense game of ultimate frisbee involving an immobile tennis net, some unripe passion fruit, and nice neighbors of the hotel.
Later on Saturday, we watched the Paraguay-Chile World Cup qualifying match. Even though Chile won, it was still fun seeing a bunch of foreigners outdo the Paraguayans with support for the team. Even with this loss, Paraguay is still in first place for the division, tied with Brazil at 24 points. Chile is in third with 23, Argentina 22, Uruguay and Ecuador tied at 17, Venezuela at 16, Colombia at 14, Bolivia at 12, and Peru has a measly 7. Technically Brazil is ahead of us because of goals scored, same with Uruguay and Ecuador, but points-wise, we're tied.
Sunday we began the day with a trip to "Salto Monday" (not monday, it's guaraní) which is a decent-sized waterfall. It's absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure why we didn't go to Yguasú, but either way, Monday is beautiful too. After not enough time there, it was back to the hotel for a pretty emotional goodbye/last session. A few hours later, it was back on the bus to Asunción. We had some amazing Chipa in Eusbio Ayala and got into the city around 8. From there I went to a volunteer's house for the night. They told me I was leaving at 8AM to go back to Pilar, meaning I got up at 6AM Monday morning to get to the terminal in time to buy my ticket. There is no 8AM run to Pilar. The first one is at 12AM. I ended up going on a taxi tour of the city, and watching the England vs Kazakhstan game at another volunteer's house. Everyone except for the empleada (maid) was asleep for most of the few hours I was there, but she seemed to enjoy ranting about Paraguayan politics to me and gave me some amazing grapefruit juice.
The bus ride back to Pilar was as smooth as it can possibly be on roads built by a corrupt dictator, and we got back only 4 minutes behind schedule, which is pretty great in any country and amazing by Paraguayan standards. Now I'm back in school, getting ready for exams. Unfortunately, my school is considering moving exams back a few weeks until after winter break thanks to Swine Flu. I know it's mostly passed out of the news in the US, but it's just starting to arrive here, and if it sets in, it's going to be bad. The medical care just isn't here, and even if there are vaccines, the people most at risk won't have access to them. Masks are starting to become a bit of a trend, but nobody's seemed to notice that wearing a mask, then taking it off to drink tereré out of a straw that everyone present is sharing doesn't make much sense. I just hope it doesn't get worse here...
01 June 2009
El Chaco
The Chaco is extreme. It is either unbearably hot, or very cold. People dying of thirst, or drowning in floods. This weekend was chilly and wet. Most of the inhabitants are indigenous people. Some people think there are still uncontacted tribes somewhere in the Chaco. Those that aren't indigenous are Mennonites from Germany, Ukraine, and Canada. The lingua franca is German in the cities, and in the indigenous communites Guaraní and other indigenous languages. Spanish is widely spoken as well, but signs come first in German, then Spanish. The Chaco has no natural resources, save the tannin extracted from some of its trees, and has been called "the green hell" on many occasions. This is where I was last weekend.
Friday I got on a bus at noon with Jana, the other AFSer in my town, and arrived in Asunción at about 7. There, we met up with the exchangers from Ciudad del Este, Encarnación, and Santa Rita and Fernando, the AFS volunteer from Capiatá. From there, we got on another bus (micro) to go to Capiatá. The 10 of us non-asuncioñeros went to his house to wait for the bus that was going to take us to the Chaco to get there, and watched TV for an hour or so, including a subtitled "I Am Legend" and a poorly-dubbed "Fresh Prince", before playing some sort of card game that had instructions in German, Dutch, French, and Italian.
About 15 minutes into our game, we went to the supermercado to get on the biiiig bus to take us to the Chaco. Some people were already on the bus, and some people got there right after. In all, there were 40 of us, from the US, Germany, Belgium, Thailand, Austria, Turkey, and Japan, plus three Paraguayan AFS volunteers. At about midnight, we left with the destination of Loma Plata, Presidente Hayes. Needless to say, nobody got too much sleep. We talked, entertained a gas station attendent with our crazy mix of languages, and watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre while driving through one of the most desolate areas of the world...
Eventually, most of us fell asleep, and woke up in Loma Plata. Loma Plata is home to a grocery store that sells marshmallows, gummi bears, donuts, and a few other really out-of-place foods alongside chipa, mburucujá, and who knows what else. After a grocery store breakfast, we went to tour the Chortitzer Cooperativa, which is run by german-speaking mennonites, and produces dairy. Lots of dairy. And a tinnnnnnnnnyyyyy museum. Next was Neuland, with another museum, featuring poorly-stuffed animals native to the Chaco and Paraguay, including tapirs, anteaters, jaguars, and capyberas.
After that, we boarded a bus to Filadelfia, where our hotel was. We went to a store that sells indigenous handicrafts from the chaco tribes and books. Choice of languages: German, Spanish, English, or Guaraní. A museum filled with poorly stuffed animals and mennonite newspapers later, we went to Fortín Boqueron.
Fortín Boqueron was the site of a large battle during the war with Bolivia over the Chaco in the 30's. There's an indoor museum of photographs and weapons from the war, and an outdoor "museum" of underground bunkers, bottle tree sniper hideouts, cemetaries and monuments. I got to actually sit in one of the bottle trees that was used during the war.
Back to Filadelfia for the evening. Dinner at a pretty nice and verrry expensive (by Paraguayan standards) restaurant, and movie night. AFS USA-ers - NUGGET! jaja
The next morning, we woke up and got on ANOTHER bus to Mariscal Estigarribia. First stop was an indigenous town. Our bus was greeted by about twenty kids, eager for the food the buses of blondes always bring. Most of them didn't speak any Spanish, but I was able to talk to a few of them in Guaraní. The kids loved seeing pictures of themselves, and seemed to have learned the word "foto" in Spanish. A few of the adults spoke Spanish, so I was able to have more substantial conversations with them. One woman, Juliana, came here from Bolivia when she was little. She spoke Spanish, plus three indigenous languages and came to talk to us with her niece, Maria Silvia, who goes to the Mennonite school in town, and is excited to be starting German next year. Unfortunately, they hurried us out of there rather quickly to get on to the next stop, which was the Airport.
At the airport, we saw runways, and listened to a guy talk about how it's one of the best airports in Paraguay that really isn't used for anything. He seemed pretty optimistic about some company coming in to take over and turn it into a busy commercial airport in the middle of one of the most inhospitable regions of the world nowhere near anything else.
After the airport, we went to an army base where Fernando the volunteer's dad was stationed. They cooked us lunch- rice, guaraná soda, and massive helpings of chicken. An hour of ultimate frisbee later, we were back on the bus, headed to Asunción again.
The bus ride back was actually pretty entertaining. Scattergories, Wall-E, fortune chipa gurus, mburucuyá yogurt, Garden State, stories, "Leftist Breakfast", immigration arguments, photography, and a million other things..
Total Bus Time:
Pilar-Asunción: 7 hours
Asunción-Capiatá: .5 hour
Capiatá-Loma Plata: 7 hours
Loma Plata-Neuland: 1 hour
Neuland-Filadelfia: 1 hour
Filadelfia-Fortín Boqueron: 1 hour
Fortín Boqueron-Filadelfia: 1 hour
Filadelfia-Mariscal Estigarribia: 1 hour
Around Mcal. Estigarribia: 1 hour
Mariscal Estigarribia-Asunción: 8 hours
Asunción-Pilar: 7 hours
But worth it.
Friday I got on a bus at noon with Jana, the other AFSer in my town, and arrived in Asunción at about 7. There, we met up with the exchangers from Ciudad del Este, Encarnación, and Santa Rita and Fernando, the AFS volunteer from Capiatá. From there, we got on another bus (micro) to go to Capiatá. The 10 of us non-asuncioñeros went to his house to wait for the bus that was going to take us to the Chaco to get there, and watched TV for an hour or so, including a subtitled "I Am Legend" and a poorly-dubbed "Fresh Prince", before playing some sort of card game that had instructions in German, Dutch, French, and Italian.
About 15 minutes into our game, we went to the supermercado to get on the biiiig bus to take us to the Chaco. Some people were already on the bus, and some people got there right after. In all, there were 40 of us, from the US, Germany, Belgium, Thailand, Austria, Turkey, and Japan, plus three Paraguayan AFS volunteers. At about midnight, we left with the destination of Loma Plata, Presidente Hayes. Needless to say, nobody got too much sleep. We talked, entertained a gas station attendent with our crazy mix of languages, and watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre while driving through one of the most desolate areas of the world...
Eventually, most of us fell asleep, and woke up in Loma Plata. Loma Plata is home to a grocery store that sells marshmallows, gummi bears, donuts, and a few other really out-of-place foods alongside chipa, mburucujá, and who knows what else. After a grocery store breakfast, we went to tour the Chortitzer Cooperativa, which is run by german-speaking mennonites, and produces dairy. Lots of dairy. And a tinnnnnnnnnyyyyy museum. Next was Neuland, with another museum, featuring poorly-stuffed animals native to the Chaco and Paraguay, including tapirs, anteaters, jaguars, and capyberas.
After that, we boarded a bus to Filadelfia, where our hotel was. We went to a store that sells indigenous handicrafts from the chaco tribes and books. Choice of languages: German, Spanish, English, or Guaraní. A museum filled with poorly stuffed animals and mennonite newspapers later, we went to Fortín Boqueron.
Fortín Boqueron was the site of a large battle during the war with Bolivia over the Chaco in the 30's. There's an indoor museum of photographs and weapons from the war, and an outdoor "museum" of underground bunkers, bottle tree sniper hideouts, cemetaries and monuments. I got to actually sit in one of the bottle trees that was used during the war.
Back to Filadelfia for the evening. Dinner at a pretty nice and verrry expensive (by Paraguayan standards) restaurant, and movie night. AFS USA-ers - NUGGET! jaja
The next morning, we woke up and got on ANOTHER bus to Mariscal Estigarribia. First stop was an indigenous town. Our bus was greeted by about twenty kids, eager for the food the buses of blondes always bring. Most of them didn't speak any Spanish, but I was able to talk to a few of them in Guaraní. The kids loved seeing pictures of themselves, and seemed to have learned the word "foto" in Spanish. A few of the adults spoke Spanish, so I was able to have more substantial conversations with them. One woman, Juliana, came here from Bolivia when she was little. She spoke Spanish, plus three indigenous languages and came to talk to us with her niece, Maria Silvia, who goes to the Mennonite school in town, and is excited to be starting German next year. Unfortunately, they hurried us out of there rather quickly to get on to the next stop, which was the Airport.
At the airport, we saw runways, and listened to a guy talk about how it's one of the best airports in Paraguay that really isn't used for anything. He seemed pretty optimistic about some company coming in to take over and turn it into a busy commercial airport in the middle of one of the most inhospitable regions of the world nowhere near anything else.
After the airport, we went to an army base where Fernando the volunteer's dad was stationed. They cooked us lunch- rice, guaraná soda, and massive helpings of chicken. An hour of ultimate frisbee later, we were back on the bus, headed to Asunción again.
The bus ride back was actually pretty entertaining. Scattergories, Wall-E, fortune chipa gurus, mburucuyá yogurt, Garden State, stories, "Leftist Breakfast", immigration arguments, photography, and a million other things..
Total Bus Time:
Pilar-Asunción: 7 hours
Asunción-Capiatá: .5 hour
Capiatá-Loma Plata: 7 hours
Loma Plata-Neuland: 1 hour
Neuland-Filadelfia: 1 hour
Filadelfia-Fortín Boqueron: 1 hour
Fortín Boqueron-Filadelfia: 1 hour
Filadelfia-Mariscal Estigarribia: 1 hour
Around Mcal. Estigarribia: 1 hour
Mariscal Estigarribia-Asunción: 8 hours
Asunción-Pilar: 7 hours
But worth it.
19 May 2009
Crazy Week
Last week Monday was a normal school Monday, but EVERYONE (teachers included) told me that there was no school on Tuesday. Of course, I didn't wake up to go to school. When I woke up at about 9:00, I found out that there WAS school. Wednesday there were classes too, so I actually went. Thursday was Paraguayan Independence day, so there was a HUUUGGEE parade through the "municipalidad" in the center of town. All the schools had booths with food and soda to raise money. I helped out at my class's booth for a while, we were selling ChoriPan which is basically like a hot dog, except with grilled chorizo. They're eaten with ketchup and mayonnaise, and are for some reason really popular, even though I think they're disgusting. Most of the Paraguayan food is great, but I do NOT like the chorizo here.
After the parade, at night, everyone in town went to Mi Viejo, which is the only disco/club in my city. They elect the best marching band, colorguard, and leader from all the schools. My school had the best marching band, Juan XXIII won for colorguard, and CREP won leader. I'm sure there are better English words for those things, but I'm definitely starting to notice my English deteriorating.
Friday was Mother's Day in Paraguay. My local AFS rep showed up at my house with a cake for us at about 9 AM. Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful day. My mom didn't really want to do anything, so we didn't..
Saturday was fairly uneventful in general. In the evening, I went to my friend Antonella's house for dinner and a party. Because there really isn't anything to do in Pilar (no movie theatre or "shoppings" as malls are called here) we usually just pile into her SUV and drive around blasting music for a few hours. Somebody found a semi-functioning microphone, and it turned into a karaoke party. I'm still hopeless with understanding most music in Spanish, but they were all pretty impressed that I actually could understand the words to Avril Lavigne songs. Not sure why, but everyone LOVES her here.
Yesterday my older little brother Victor came home from soccer practice with a crying puppy. He found it in the street, away from any other dogs that could possibly be the mother. I'm estimating it at about 4 weeks old. It doesn't bark, and it shakes when it walks. We've been feeding it a bread and water mash because it can't chew anything solid. We're in the process of trying to find a veterinarian who can look at it. Most of the vets here only deal with animals like cows and horses, dogs and cats generally don't get any medical care unless they're really sick, and even then it's rare. It's absolutely TINY. It's all black with one white paw. I don't know what's wrong with it, but it's obviously sick. The other family dog, Olivia, is jealous! They're planning on keeping the puppy (who's been dubbed "Maria Elena Encarnación" by Victor) so I guess Oli will have to get used to her...
Almost all of my time left is planned out already. I should be leaving with the AFSers who've been here since August in the beginning of July, giving me about 6 weeks in Paraguay. In two weeks, I'll be going on a trip to the Chaco, that's being organized by AFS Caapiatá with a bunch of my friends. The weekend after, I'll be in Ciudad del Este for an AFS orientation/camp, and the weekend after my friends Abbey (Ohio to Asunción) and Kat (Oregon to Luque) are going to come to Pilar to visit me, and we might go to Encarnación to see the Jesuit ruins. That leaves me about 3 weekends in Pilar! =0
To any prospective exchangers out there reading this, DO A YEAR PROGRAM! When you get over culture shock, you'll only have a little bit of time left if you do a semester, and if you do a summer, you'll be lucky to get real culture shock at all. I'm finally over most of my culture shock and can function in Spanish (and a little in Guaraní!) but only have a little more than a month left. Granted, I'm leaving a few weeks early, but it still wouldn't be enough if I was staying.
After the parade, at night, everyone in town went to Mi Viejo, which is the only disco/club in my city. They elect the best marching band, colorguard, and leader from all the schools. My school had the best marching band, Juan XXIII won for colorguard, and CREP won leader. I'm sure there are better English words for those things, but I'm definitely starting to notice my English deteriorating.
Friday was Mother's Day in Paraguay. My local AFS rep showed up at my house with a cake for us at about 9 AM. Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful day. My mom didn't really want to do anything, so we didn't..
Saturday was fairly uneventful in general. In the evening, I went to my friend Antonella's house for dinner and a party. Because there really isn't anything to do in Pilar (no movie theatre or "shoppings" as malls are called here) we usually just pile into her SUV and drive around blasting music for a few hours. Somebody found a semi-functioning microphone, and it turned into a karaoke party. I'm still hopeless with understanding most music in Spanish, but they were all pretty impressed that I actually could understand the words to Avril Lavigne songs. Not sure why, but everyone LOVES her here.
Yesterday my older little brother Victor came home from soccer practice with a crying puppy. He found it in the street, away from any other dogs that could possibly be the mother. I'm estimating it at about 4 weeks old. It doesn't bark, and it shakes when it walks. We've been feeding it a bread and water mash because it can't chew anything solid. We're in the process of trying to find a veterinarian who can look at it. Most of the vets here only deal with animals like cows and horses, dogs and cats generally don't get any medical care unless they're really sick, and even then it's rare. It's absolutely TINY. It's all black with one white paw. I don't know what's wrong with it, but it's obviously sick. The other family dog, Olivia, is jealous! They're planning on keeping the puppy (who's been dubbed "Maria Elena Encarnación" by Victor) so I guess Oli will have to get used to her...
Almost all of my time left is planned out already. I should be leaving with the AFSers who've been here since August in the beginning of July, giving me about 6 weeks in Paraguay. In two weeks, I'll be going on a trip to the Chaco, that's being organized by AFS Caapiatá with a bunch of my friends. The weekend after, I'll be in Ciudad del Este for an AFS orientation/camp, and the weekend after my friends Abbey (Ohio to Asunción) and Kat (Oregon to Luque) are going to come to Pilar to visit me, and we might go to Encarnación to see the Jesuit ruins. That leaves me about 3 weekends in Pilar! =0
To any prospective exchangers out there reading this, DO A YEAR PROGRAM! When you get over culture shock, you'll only have a little bit of time left if you do a semester, and if you do a summer, you'll be lucky to get real culture shock at all. I'm finally over most of my culture shock and can function in Spanish (and a little in Guaraní!) but only have a little more than a month left. Granted, I'm leaving a few weeks early, but it still wouldn't be enough if I was staying.
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