Paraguay... It has begun

Friday 20th I arrived to Asunción, Paraguay to begin my year as an exchange student.
Almost 3 days has passed, of which the first were at the AFS orientation camp to learn a bit about Paraguay before we´re thrown into the mash, so to speak.

Some of the very useful things we learned was about body language and signs they use here, and also some about Guaraní, one of Paraguays official languages, and terere, which is a kind of rich, aromatic, cold herbal beverage which almost everyone, from small children to old people drink a couple of times per day. It is a kind of social drink which is more popular than any alcoholic beverages as I understood it.

Yesterday I met my family for the first time. I was quite nervous, but they are really nice people. The family consists of a mother, Marina, a father, Manuel, and a daughter, also Marina but called Mume. Mume is fortunately fluent in english, so I´m not completely lost.

I have not ever studied spanish, if you don't take into account these two months since I recieved message that I was going to Paraguay, in which I've listened to Harry Potter y la piedra philosophal and tried to learn some expressions. Well, the AFS sending coordinator had some idea that I'd get into the language within a few months. Right now, I´m finding that quite hard to believe, but I´ll do my best...

Paraguay is not really what I've been told by friends and relatives... at least where I am, near Asunción, in San Lorenzo, it is a quite civilized country. People here does not live in trees or in mud houses.... The houses may seem a bit dirty or sloppy, and that seems to be one big difference between our countries. I believe that our houses are more 'orderly' and organized because we need to keep the heat inside. My house here is kind of an inside/outside house, you walk from the kithen right out into the garden. And it does not have central heating. Which means it is as the 'cold' in here is about as 'warm' as it ever get during a swedish summer...

Today, we went 'out into the wild life' to a piece of land by a creek that the family owns. There are orange trees here!! (Abit impressed...) and also, I saw a monkey on the veranda of a house... If I want one? YES.

Greetings from Paraguay