Coffee-art!!

A painting made of only coffee :) How fun is that!!

Awesome church of Luque
is alway awesome 

Random swiss alps

                            

Since my last blogpost it seems like YEARS have passed, so much seems to have happened...
So I suck at update my blog regularly, that's just a fact. Once every two weeks is an achievement for me.
Though in this case I have the excuse that in order to update my blog, I need to use the real computer and not my cellphone. That is, I need to use my sisters computer which have the annoying habit of all of a sudden shut down.
Here, I need to add that apparently the developer of Blogspot.com has the same issue, since my blogposts auto-save everytime I stop typing 10 seconds. (Whoever you are, I like you. But still, the fact remains that the positions of the pictures are really fucked up and you should feel bad about that...)

Horse!! :D

 It might be apparent, but I've fallen for what I think is named Coffe-art. If it isn't, that's my new name of it.  Basically it's just black ink drawings on coffee-stained paper, but the effect in so nice. This might just be my thing about loving aged-looking things.

Last night however, I, to the quite doubtful and astonished reactions of my family (Whom sometimes seem to consider me mildly weird, rightfully so) experimented with only painting with coffee. Really, really funny :)

          

Other interesting things this week: the temperature has been up to 43 degrees Celcius two days in a row, after which is dropped down to 10 degrees the day after. 

Only. Ever. In. Paraguay. 

And the sahara desert.

Being from a country that is cold about 9 months a year, I once promised myself never ever complaining about the heat agaim ever. Well, that promise has temporarily been retrieved and I'm fully free to complain about this. 

Actually, if it's one thing that could make me leave this country before my program is over, it's definitely the heat. 

I mean, the people in sweden might like under the impression that heat is amazing and everything, and when I'm in sweden I fully agree. But this is different. This is like being inside an oven without possibility to escape. The air is, as I've expressed on previous occations, really saturated with water. This doesn't help one bit, since it blocks every possibility your skin has to get rid of heat. 

There is an entire chemophysical explanation to this, which would make my chemistry teacher proud of me, but it's just too uninteresting.

The chance of survival increases with the houses that have aircondition. Unfortunately this description does not apply for our house. We have fans, but no cooling except from that.

My gym though, the place that gets alot of free marketing here it seems, only that I don't mention the name, is heaven of those days... Cool, windy, clean. Just gotta love it.

On the same subject though, as people that are friends with me on Facebook will know, I have slight issues with this particular place right now.

Long story short: My favourite aerobic instructor is fired.

The slightly more extended version is that, for various reasons I've been told (By the owner herself who on occations seems to take pitty on me and my poor understanding skills...) but do not fully believe in nor agree with. 

Now, I should point out that the aerobics in no way is bad (Usually, though one episode almost made me leave...), only that this other girl had an energy level that matched mine more of less perfectly and her level of aerobic really grew on me, the perfect combination of having to concentrate, and excersise.

Also, I liked the person in general, because she was really nice to me, and really tried to make me understand what she was saying. 

Now, I don't think I'll ever see her again. Which is really, really sad...

Take care, stay safe :)

Tereré

My new termo!! I've not even had it a week, and it already follows me
everywhere. With a ton of ice in it.

I'm an addict. Not to alcohol. Nor drugs, although I've been told that they are abundant here. No, the subject of my obsession is, since about two weeks back, Tereré.

The. Best. Thing. There. Ever. Were.

Not kidding you, at this end of the world, tereré basically decides wether you live or die. At it's best, it's served so cold that you almost don't know what hit you, and rest assured that you do need that smack on the head really, really much when the temperature climbs to 35 degrees Celcius with air so humid that it sometimes feels as though you could drink it. And we're not even close to how bad it's going to get in the summer. It isn't even spring yet, we still have one week of winter.

Yesterday, a couple of us AFS-ers met to pursue a picnic in the park Ñu Guasu (Again).
 Times and again, I find myself being the leader of our little pack. Yesterday, I had a certain sensation it made me more or less a small source of annoyance for a couple of moments, that is, on the route to the park, including 2 busses in 38 degrees heat. Seems legit, actually, I'd be a bit bothered too if I didn't know we would go on two busses before arriving. We had a really nice time when we finally got there though, it was a quite huge picnic with more food than it was possible to eat. Although me made a really good effort.
Also, riding policemen- and women passed by us on the little island where we were comfortably seated. They continued to have sort of a conference 30-ish meters from us about an hour. Still on horses. That appears to be close to the best job you could  possibly have according to me...

Moreover, this tuesday, on the memorial of the twin towers, I went to the football game I was referring to in a previous post, where I witnessed Paraguay going down spectacularly to Venezuela (2-0) . So I know I have basically NO IDEA about ANYTHING concerning football whatsoever, which means I have no right to say anything. But even I thought Paraguay (In case someone's curoius, the people here pronounce it ´Par-a-oay´) sucked... 

Though I couldn't help liking the spirit at the stadium, at least before it became apparent we were heading down (Upon the most football-enthusiastic person I've met so far here seemed to consider either to hang himself or jump from the stadium. Too well he didn't because he's a nice person...).
If I can, I think I'll be going to another match before long.

Rounding this little update of, I'm wishing my eager followers (Thanks, mom) a really nice week, life and all heath and happiness in the world :)

I don't always participate in running competitions...

...but when I do, I end up as 5th among females.
Today, there was a charity marathon in my beloved Republic Of Luque (I don't know why I like that place so much, probably because of the park and the colors...). Calling it a marathon seems a bit exaggerated,  my leap was only 4 kilometers, and the other was 8, but still...!!



The last week has really been wonderful!

Yesterday, I made my own little excursion to Luque, apparently it's my destiny to spend time there... It's such a nice place though, and as a Swede (Not that I'm a hardcore swede.. not really. But still.) it's hard not to appreciate a city (Republic, whatever...) which is all tinted in yellow and blue. No shit: lampposts, busses, some houses, the flag (I think Luque has a blue/Yellow flag, correct me if I'm wrong), the football team...
I didn't really do much more than walking around and wathcing everything. Oh, yeah, someone told me "I couldn't get lost in Luque" so I decided to prove that wrong -.-' Only for a moment though...

It's a bit scary actually, since I came here, my sense of direction is totally off track. I find my way okay in San Lorenzo now, but I really can't point out north, to such a degree that I was wondering if north still is north on this half of the globe. (Which might have been my most stupid thought since arriving here. Oh no, north isn't north down here, it flips over when you cross the equatorial line. Facepalm)

Returning to the topic of football, that's a HUGE deal here. As a complete neutral in the question, I feel a bit misplaced at occasions. Honestly. Couldn't care less. So I'm working on that. I've decided Luque is my team (THE COLORS..!!) and also, I'm going to a game sometime.
I was thinking about going to Paraguay-Venezuela 11/9, but then my mother wisely pointed out that that was the WTC attack day and questioned the wiseness of attending an event that date. Now, I'm not all too supersticious or something, but she has a slight point. We'll see if I go or not :)
And, friday Paraguay lost spectacularly to Argentina, which is, as I've understood it, a bit of a touchy subject, since there's lots of rivality between the countries. The football game meant that my gym (Aka my favourite place here in san Lorenzo ) was almost completely empty. Which was nice in a different way. We were 4 people at the aerobic, including the leader. Reminds me a bit of Friskis&Svettis on some saturday mornings ;)
I also talked half an hour to the gym owner and aerobic instructor (This week they've been two separate persons, sometimesd they're not) over some terere afterwards. Now, people may or may not realize that keeping a conversation going for even five minutes in spanish only is a huge achievement for me... It's cool though, I understand most things now, like basically what people are talking about, without translate the words in my head. Reading and writing isn't much of a problem, but the talking is worse.
Most words you can guess what they mean and also understand, but they just aren't in my 'ready-to-use'- vocabulary. I'm sure we're getting there though, I mean, I've still only been here seven weeks. I have 37 left to learn ;)

Stay safe, take care

LUQUE- and everyday life

So the last week has really just swished past, and it has been really really nice. The cold spell is now gone and we're enjoying the 30-degrees-and-sun- weather. I really, really REALLY have to work on finding (Read: convince myself to go and buy...) sunscreen. I still havent burned myself though, not even while being in the sun the whole day. But it's not a very nice feeling, considering skin cancer and the risk of getting badly burned. The sun is supposedly very strong here.

MANGOOOS!!! These trees are
everywhere :)

 

 It seems like a lot has been going on this week.
Monday was really chilly, windy and rainy, and since my sister was ill, she didn't have to go to school, which in some way I don't quite understand meant that I didn't have to go either. Me and Charlene, another exchange student, had decided to go to the aerobics in the evening, and seeing as I all of a sudden could go to the earlier class I went to the gym to look exactly when it was, and more or less by accident ended up in a spinning class. For the first time in my life.
In Spanish. That was more or less 40 minutes of "I have no idea what I'm doing" and moreover I thought I would go under at one point (I had no idea it was that exhausting...) But damn it was fun! :) Also, the music was almost only music I recognize from my Swedish aerobic classes.
So this week I went to that a couple of times as well as aerobics and gym.
 It's really funny though, at the beginning I was really dubious about both the gym and step aerobic, but now, after two weeks,

it's one of the highlights of my 'everyday life'.
I had this one intreresting bordering on awkward evening there this friday though.
The teacher/Instructor was ill or hurt or something, and didn't really participate, but more just told us what to do.  Keep in mind that I have no real idea of what the name of all the different 'stepcombinations' and jumps and thingies and usually just rely on being able to follow. I'm not sure I've been that amused since I came here actually, for some reason I found it really, really funny. Everyone is very nice at the gym too, probably the reason why I like coming there so much...

 Had this kind of embarrassing moment afterwards though, when I, after been wondering for the last week, asked the teacher what her name was and subsequently found out that she's the Rossana Beltrán after who the gym got its name. That's one of the moments you just smile and really use the excuse '...No hablo Español...'

Grapefruit flowers on our tree in the garden :)

Just enjoying the sun. ask me again in two months...

School uniform!! With hat :)
Everything's funnier with a hat!

Random picture

Yesterday was a really, really nice day. And LONG. Some of us AFS participants and volunteers decided to go on a little daytrip to Luque, which is in theory a suburb or a part of Gran Asinción, but in practice is more like a country within a country (INCEPTION. Or the Vatican state in Rome..)

As a swede, it was interesting to comethere, because football is a HUGE deal in Luque, and the team colors are blue and yellow, subsequently the whole city is more or less blue and yellow. Like a swedish souvenir shop..

As always, it was very nice to meet some people, just walk around and relax... We bought a kilogram of icecream and ate that, not too bad :) 

Also, it was a real bustravel-day. I've completely fallen in love with 'el colectivo', which is probably a good thing... So first we took the bus to Asunción (about 40 minutes), to meet at the head office of AFS Paraguay, then we took the bus to Luque. Then, for some reason, I decided to go back to Asunción (probably because I didn't have much else to do and I like spending time with nice people...), then back to Luque with the AFS-volunteer and then to San Lorenzo. The day was more or less 10 hours of fun, we've got to do that again :) With a camera next time...

Finished a painting too. More or less... :)