The Cutest Tiny Pinapple Ever

I was biking with my friend Peet (AFS exchange student form Thailand) and came across this little guy... I promptly bought him (a little over a dollar) and upon arrival en casa had a Photobooth sesh.

Health update

Today, finally, two days short of my month sick-erversity the doctor made a house call. I was laying in my bed, feeling bad for myself when all of a sudden a knock startled me out of my self induced sorrows. In came my mother and following her was a little man with a medical bag. I sat in my own bed while he took my pulse and heart rate and told me I had a slight fever and didn't have to go to school tomorrow, yippee. Also he prescribed some medicine to me; I just had my first dose and it tastes like NyQuil and Tylenol had a baby. So far it hasn't helped but since being the patient of a house call at 9.00pm at night my outlook on life has brightened considerably, and I have regained some trust in the Paraguayan health care system.

YAY and NAY

YAY. KOREAN RAMEN HAS BLESSED MY MOUTH ONCE AGAIN.

NAY. DANCE PRACTICE WAS CANCELED. NOT SURE WHY, I DON'T THINK ANYONE IS..

Guarani lessons by Flora

kuuu ah = dirty
sar ram bi sur ro que = disaster
kashi ee = funny
ta boo sha = idiot but I think it's stronger here.. like mentally not well.. don't say it to other people
nem bo ta voo = someone who doesn't know anything
caru = someone who eats a lot
hindu kavayou resa = literally translates to big eyed horse or something, but it's an expression that means something on the lines of a situation being very difficult. Like Flora is hindu kavayou resa with Spanish.
che soweh = I'm broke.
che vare = I'm hungry.
akua ruse = I have to go pee.
di qui = I don't know
mmm bai eh cha pa = Hi how are you?
hindu = suspenseful
hacu = hot but only refer to the weather with it, or else it means something on the lines of, damn gurlll
pu = foot
cam buu = milk
po = hand or 5
cai weh = lazy/bored
al pelo pa = is every good?
uu vu tu = wind
uu vo tu = flor
ka'a tu = flora
ka'a gu = forrest

And I can probably use about half of these words properly.

More hora Paraguay

For the last three days my dance practices have been canceled. Monday because of the rain. The last couple days have been gross and rainy, and so lots of things have been canceled. Like my class meeting to discuss our class trip. Except for that was rescheduled and so I am officially going to BRAZIL with my class at the end of the year. But anyways, not only when it is raining, but when it looks like it's going to rain, or if it's just stopped raining things get cancelled. So I didn't get to go to my harp class on Monday because of the weather, except then I saw my teacher later and he was like, Why didn't you come? And I said it was because of the rain and he said, Igual no mas... so I'm starting to rethink this rain policy. Actually to be honest I have no idea. Sometimes things get canceled legitimately because of the weather but sometimes they get canceled illegitimately because of the weather... the time and scheduling here is just so confusing. 

Tuesday, dance was canceled again. Because of a soccer/hand ball tournament. And then Wednesday too, even though everyone said that there was going to be dance. But then we ended up celebrating the Virgin Mary instead. Ugh. It's so frustrating sometimes. And I am not exaggerating at all when I talk about the lack of importance for commitments. 

So that has been my life lately. I have had quite a lot of spare time on my hands due to all of these cancellations and so I have started a presentation on Alaska because I want to educate my peers that Alaska is my state, not my country, and that my country is the United States, not Canada. I am presenting sometime next week. 

Tomorrow I am off to Asuncion for orientation again with AFS. I'm not sure where we're going after that because no one ever tells me anything here, and when they do it's usually only a 50% chance of being correct. Sometimes I wonder how Paraguayans can function with such a lack of disorganization. But they are all used to it I guess. It's just confusing for foreigners like myself who think that un "ratito" is like 15 minutes max, when in actuality (here in Paraguay) it can mean anywhere form 15 minutes to 2 hours. 

FYI

If I hear Payphone by Maroon 5 one more time... I may have to pull a Van Gogh.

Goal and bananas

Two things I will never understand about Paraguay.

Whenever a point is scored on a soccer game on TV the announcer literally shouts GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL for probably about five seconds. And then they replay the shot. And it's like, GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL again and it makes me want to rip my hair out.

Also brown bananas are considered better than the nasty, unripe, yellow ones.

Frog in the bathroom.

I thought this frog was one of Dulce's toys... so I kicked it. And then it moved.

Sol.

I made a new friend. She's from Korea. Her name is Sol. She plays violin. And now I am taking violin lessons with her once a week. I'm so happy. I'm excited about violin again. Also now I have a reason to practice. If I don't practice she will know and she will think I am bad. Plus she has Korean ramen. If I am bad, she will not want to invite me over for Korean ramen.

Deviled eggs

Since I didn't have school today I made Deviled Eggs for lunch... they do not have mustard here. I was kind of upset. Like August got this stuff that wasn't mustard and I was like, GRUMP I will go to the store and get mustard and then I did and even though it claimed it was mustard it WASN'T it tasted like lollipop lemon. 

No school today.

Last night I taught my host family (mother and other sister who is visiting named Yenni) how to play Go Fish. It was hilarious. My host mother asked for a "dos" every single round. "Tienes dos? Umm.. tienes dos? Y ahora... tienes dos?" I told her that she could ask for other numbers but she was hell bent on getting her set of twos... either that or faulty communication. But I really don't think so because how hard is it to teach Go Fish. So that was a nice host family bonding experience. 

Today we didn't have school. Again. Because Ausuncion was founded today and so that means everyone doesn't have to work. My family minus Paz and I went to the campo. I think this is because my host mother (kudos kudos!!) realized my campo aversion our previous excursion... also I told them I had two dance practices today. My first dance practice was at 2.00pm but we didn't end up starting until like 3.00pm. This is the dance I am doing with my class. I am not sure when, where and why but it is being taken very seriously because probably 2/3rds of my class showed up! Actually we have multiple dances that we are doing together but the one that we ended up practicing the most (baila ritmica) I don't enjoy as much because we're making up the moves as we go along. So it will be like, Flora, do this wiggly thing with your arms- no THIS WAY Flora, and then five minutes later it will be changed and I will be tsk-ed for not catching on faster. And I'm like, Sorry people I do not understand loud, rapid-fire Spanish. I prefer our Folk Dance that we are doing together because someone has already created all of the steps.

After I had Danza Paraguaya at my school, which is a lot of fun. There are so many people we have to be divided into two groups. Today my group went first... today we added in some new steps, including all of the girls getting lifted off of the ground. I tried to find a video on YouTube of the dance I'm learning but no such luck. I will try to explain it here... later I will film it because it really is very cool. 

You start in four different groups, one group in each corner of the plaza. Then you kind of sashay yourself into the middle and mingle with the rest of the groups. Then somehow magically you are supposed form like three circles, a little circle in the middle and then a bigger circle around it and then the biggest circle and I think these circles are supposed to be gender dominated but so far we haven't gotten to that step in coordination. Then the music picks up and the boys start stomping and the girls do this kind of limp/trot (you have to drag one food and lightly bounce on the toes of the other) for around eight beats and then everyone starts doing this step right, step left, SPIN! Then you have to step in a triangle and do this other hop/drag foot thing and then you do the limp/trot to the left if you're a girl like me and a limp/trot to the right if you're a boy. Then the girls step to the right, spin, and get down on one knee. Then we do a filadora I think. You step so you're facing 90 degrees clockwise from the way you started. And then again. And then you make a "rhombo" which is like prancing in a square, and you step to the right first. And then you make an "S." And then you have to crouch down and make a 360 spin. And that is just the girl half, I don't really know what the boys do once we separate except I do know that they also have a crouch spin but their's also involves two hops. 

AFTER all of that we make two lines, one with boys and one with girls. The first girl will run through and then a boy will go and then a girl will go, basically you are running through the spaces in the lines.. and there is a tendency for crashes in this part of the dance. The teacher gets mad when we crash. But it's hard and not all of us have perfect ballerina twinkle toes. And after that... well. I really can not explain it properly so I'll just say that is very pretty but very hard and also I'm thinking a little dangerous because of the speed of the music and the quantity of people darting in and out of each other. Sooo we're not a total SAR RAM BI SUR RO QUE (Guarani for disaster) but things could definitely be better. 

That's it for now. CIAO. Except here they spell it CHAO which I didn't realize until like a week ago. 

Empanadas ETC

The courtyard in my school.

Typical classroom.

Typical desk in typical classroom. 

The armadillo in the freezer (photographic evidence.)

Lunch today! The green stuff when into the empanadas. The orange stuff was made into soup.

The empanada dough... or the start of it.

Chicken for the empanada filling.

Flora making the juice...

Here they make juice from the fruit. 

August showing Flora how to use the empanada shaper.

The first of many...

Empanada shaper.

After one pan I decided that I did not want to make anymore. August said that I could sell them for 1 mil, about 20 cents. I told her that I would sell them for 5 mil and she laughed. 

Post deep frying.

THE END.

Today I had Spanish class which I did not realize until like five minutes before it started. But we didn't do anything (like always.) Our teacher brought nail polish and we painted our nails... then we got some snacks. 

Poquito triste.

I'm a little sad because I feel a little Andrew-sick. Also my exchange friends, Julie and Nele can't go out except for school and Spanish lessons so I never get to see them. Bummer. I think they are both changing host families... I'm thankful that I like my host family and that I have as much freedom as I do. For example: I went out all by myself about an hour ago to rent a movie! And it was dark. And I didn't even get lost.

Yesterday I played a concerted with the violinists from Pilar. Nothing like Interlochen, but still a lot of fun. We finished with a Paraguayan Polka and by the end everyone was smiling and clapping along. One of the things I like most about here is that almost everything Paraguayans do they do with a ton of energy and enthusiasm.

I am meeting with a violin teacher here from Korean named Sol this Thursday. I met her yesterday and she seems nice and competent at violin so I am hoping that I might be able to get some lessons from her. Because currently I really have not practiced in like three months. BAD BAD FLORA. But I keep telling myself that I did not choose to come to Paraguay to play violin. I came here to learn Spanish. And that is what I am doing.

Birthday boy!!

While I'm posting pictures... 

FLORA AND HER FATHER! 

Padres.. 

LOOK what I found! Twinsies! So cute. :)

IT'S ANDREW'S BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday Andrew!! 

Fights not worth fighting: 

My chemistry teacher doesn't believe in evolution. This was not a fight worth fighting. There are a lot of fights here not worth fighting, particularly regarding religion and politics and fashion. For example, I barely protested against the bright pink eye makeup that went up to my eyebrows and fake eyelashes and giant pink earrings and big bling fake diamond necklace that I had to wear as Queen of the Curso for our school parade. (I thought I was going to be Snow White...) Perception of fashion and style here is very different than what I am comfortable with (minimal and classy.) And by very different I meant polar opposite. 

Dinner party: We (class and Flora) went to a dinner party our teacher's house. There was an eight-minute prayer and then teacher gave the boys beer. But before that, I said a little toast, thanking every one so much for being so nice to me and including me in everything... I got a little emotional. But I really wanted to let my class to know how much I appreciate them. 

Birthday party and ears: We went to a birthday party after the dinner that started about 11.30pm. I politely declined every beverage offered to me, even the non alcoholic ones because the public bathrooms here are unusable. I had fun (I left around 2.00am when the alcohol consumption of others started kicking it) but I think I killed my ears. If I ever go to another fiesta I will have to buy some ear plugs. Ears are precious things, as I've learned from my mother. 

Still doing well. August made vegetable soup today. I think she did that because she knows I like vegetable soup and I am sick. 

Tiendas and Pregnant Girl and Remedios

Yesterday we went to Spanish class... but instead of having class we went to a baby shower. At the school. For a girl who's 17 and 7 months pregnant. We sat around with her and her classmates and ate some cookies... it was... different.

Also I've been meaning to write about the tiendas here. Big lovely grocery stores do not exist here, only little shops that remind me of dollar stores. And in the little shops there is everything from undies to mayonnaise in a bag... so if you need to buy gum, rice and Justin Beiber fan t-shirts all at once, come to Paraguay, save time- they're all in the same isle.

And I have a sore throat and you know what people keep on telling me I have to do? Chew magic plants. NO. QUIERO... I'm like, What about some nice Ricola cough drops?? LOL.

Not going to Spanish class today because I'm sick. 

Danza Paraguaya

I've joined our school dance team, I think. I'm not quite sure what it is but we practice three days a week after school for like an two hours or so and we have a competition in October. The dance that we will be performing is Danza Paraguaya, which is like the national dance...

My first practice, Monday evening, I was too bad to dance with the rest of the people, who have all been dancing Danza Paraguaya since before the dinosaurs were born. I was taken to a special corner where I was taught multiple twirly dance steps... then yesterday I was integrated in the with rest of the group. I was like, YAY promotion at first because I could do the majority of the steps correctly, except then they were like, OK, pick a partner... and I was like, Ummmmmmmm... no?

So, in Danza Paraguaya basically there is a lot of twirling: synchronized twirling, weaving in-and-out-of-eachother twirling, solo twirling... etc. My poor partner, Ruben basically spend a good solid hour dodging my twirling. Like, probably if he had not been as good at dancing as he was, one of us would have left with a minor concussion.

I am also doing baila ritmica, which is more like American hip hop line dancing or something. We have practice in 15 minutes.

I am really happy here, I think the worst of my homesickness has past!!! Today we didn't have school, we went and watched volibol and futbol in the Poli. Tomorrow I think our school is having some sort of competition between classes... we are doing sort of a parade thing before the beginning of another soccer tournament and I was elected as Snow White. And on Monday we don't have school so I am going to help August make empanadas for lunch. That is what is new.

And the armadillo, Abby, is definitely for eating... they say it tastes like chicken.

Ro hai hu Paraguay

I just returned from a class meeting, we had to discuss our end-of-the-year plans: big prom and small trip vs big trip to Brazil and small prom.

I was on Team Brazil (not that my opinion really counted, or that I could understand anything) but unfortunately, Brazil was vetoed due to financial/logistics/etc. issues. Understandably... planning a trip for 30+ minors is no small task.

So now the plan is to have a big, fancy prom-type thing (they have a special word for it here, coalition maybe) and take a small two day trip to Incarnacion, a city a few hours south of here. I'm a little disappointed but not really, because I am so thankful for all of these people in my "curso" who have been so nice and so inclusive and really have just taken me in as one of them. Although it was kind of a rough start at the beginning, every day I am becoming more and more charmed, if not even found of all of their cultural quirks, loudness/forwardness included. :)


Since my last post I have:
1. Eaten a probably poisonous "pancho" in the Poli (the sports center) topped with mayonnaise and ketchup. I was wrongly convinced that it would be "rico."

2.  Went to a dinner party that started at 10.00pm... and ended at 5.00am. I did not stay that long, I left around midnight... Paz came home around 5.00am. This is normal, if not early.

3. Found an entire frozen armadillo in the freezer.

Fotos

View from house. 

 I got lost a few days ago and found this little birdy.

Trash on the street... 

CREP girls watching the semi finals of the futbol game..

The Poli (a soccer stadium)

Cows that live across the street from the Poli.

One of the many stray wandering dogs.

The Poli from outside.

The concessions stand.

Rough day in Pilar...

Walking back to my house.

These are common here... 

My school.

My uniform....

.............................

Soccer is a serious thing.

Soccer is so big here. Actually, sports (in addition to futbol: hand ball, tennis, basket ball...) are in general and I think my classmates are a little confused when I say I play violin. Like they keep on asking me if I play any sports, even though I´ve been in school with them all week and I really don´t think it´s a language barrier... more like, Wait you don´t play sports? Don´t you have legs? Props to me though, I happily accepted an invitation to play tennis this Sunday with a girl... whose name I cannot, for the life of me, remember, even though we´ve been introduced like five times. Probably another Josafina. 

Anyways, this morning, instead of having class (and this went for all of the high schools in Pilar who though anything of themselves) we walked about 30 minutes to this indoor soccer stadium and proceeded to watch our girl´s soccer team get their butts whipped (4-1... maybe 3 I don´t really know) to super loud and obnoxious, drum-beating, balloon-bearing Santo Thomas. It´s only been a week and I´ve already developed quite the school spirit, so it seems. But it was ok, because really, for me at least, the most intersting/amusing/fun part of watching this game wasn´t the game itself but the spectators. The whole stadium was exploding with noise, I think the best comparison I can think of at the moment are giant cymbols banging  in a raquetball room. Spanish people, I´ve learned, really don´t mess with their soccer, even when it consists of 17 and under, mediocre (except for this one beast girl from Santo Thomas who like, hip thrusted after every goal...) girls 9.00am on a Thursday morning. 

Flora

PS. No school tomorrow again! Second half of the tournament. I´m so glad I don´t need school credit...  

Idea

If anyone wanted to move to Pilar, Paraguay and open a little gourmet salt shop I bet they'd make millions (of Guarani, that is.) Salt here is like a dish of its own. Salt goes on salad. Salt goes in rice. Salt goes in noodles. Potato chips here are like the ocean in your mouth. FYI.