LADY GAGA!

I haven't actually been to a concert in my life- before Monday the 26th of November. Imprint the date, that's the day I lost my concert-virginity spectacularly and grandiosely at Lady Gagas 'Born this way'-tour.

I've said this before, but every so often, I'm struck by the thought "this is the most awesome thing I'll ever witness or experience". And this country is just all like:



How brilliant is my life??!!

So I actually wasn't going to this concert, since I really couldn't justify the money spent on it to myself.
But turns out, when my family got the ticket for my hostsister, that there was an offer where you could get two tickets for the price of one. So the night before they just casually tell me that "oh, you've got a ticket to Lady Gaga too". Oh get outta here carajo!! Gosh, that is just too kind of an act! 

So we went. At 3 pm. The show began at 7,30. That is, some random band began playing at 7.30. The concert began at 9.15... Basic math gives that we were standing in wait for 6 hours.
Not that it was just boring.
So in line, before we could enter, we were standing with the first transvestites I've actually seen in real life. And some gay people. It was hilarious. I mean, they are a little more than just "normal people", let's face that. But it doesn't bother me, since it is really widely accepted in Sweden and the major part of the west world. 
However, this country in general is not used to it. So those couple of hours before we could enter the actual arena were majorly spent watching outher peoples' reactions to seeing these people. And I wasn't sure if I should be sad about that a majority here are still very narrow-minded or amused by how horrified some people looked....

So then we got in. And got a reasonably good spot, with our realtively cheap-ass tickets (150 SEK, 15 Euro or 23$). Next to a group of gay guys. To be fair, I was standing in the middle of them, and they were REALLY nice to me, and too goddamn funny. I was on several occasions during our 4 hour wait together just literally laughing my ass of at their jokes and remarks... 

My little portrait of this fascinating woman

 Your could also say that we got unvoluntarily close to each other. This had nothing to do with attraction or flirting, but was merely due to the HUUGE crowd of people pressing on everyone from all sides. In some moment during the hours we were squeezed together a kind of cooperation merged and we kind of kept track of each other to make sure so one got lost in the crowd, and also we alteriorated the resting moments where one would sit on the ground while at least one person was keeping check so that they weren't run over in the dark. 


The reason I get so explicit on this subject is that it was so fascinating to me, I mean, there was this group of gay people, two other girls they didn't know before, me and another guy, with Lady Gaga-inspired eyeliner. This guy is, btw, one of the persons I could have considered befriending... Only that I did not have the presence right then to ask his name to track him on facebook. Well Shit. I do need some more friends down here.  
And so the show started. And from that point onwards... my mind was just totally blown away by how awesome it all was. How Grand it all was. I wish I could have described it all exactly how it was, but honestly, it was beyond words. 
And so, I mean, I've always liked Lady Gaga, her music. I have been very natural towards her as an individual so to say, I've never been this fan who knows everything (or anything for that matter) but neither have I been negative. Just neutral.
But the feeling... we were at least 5 000 people in the crowd. EVERYONE was singing along, jumping and cheering. I was sharing one experience with a huge crowd of people, united. And the feeling of that... you cannot simply describe. I think it calls on something within you, your instinct to be connected.


And the love! EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. Was just oozing of love towards Lady Gaga. Whatever she said was recieved with agreement and love. Even if some people didn't understand her as she spoke in english, everyone was so excited that she actually was speaking. Everytime she said Asunción, everyone lost it.
And let me say this: If every one of my attempts to speak spanish had been so warmly cheered, my spanish would be SO DAMN GOOD by now :)

And I was really touched by what she said. We all were. At one point, more of less every person present was crying. Me included. What was I saying about connection?

So a bit that I loved about the show. It was SO rightout. She was showing so clearly, that we are all people, regardless of skin color and sexual preference. She had a black, gay dancer whom, if I'm not confused, also kissed at a point. At another point of the show, she basically had sex with one of her female dancers. but with clothes. And it was no big deal. I think this country needs that.

All in all, and you can tell I'm absolutely awestruck bu this show. And you would have been too. I promise.

Take care, Stay safe.

One does not simply...

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over HOW AWESOME THIS IS!!!

...have words to describe the feeling that rises within you standing above Los Cataratas del Iguazu, one of the 7 world wonders.

So much water that you can't even really imagine it, cascading down about 100 meters, colliding violently with the rock bottom and other masses of water, producing a mist that rises above the trees, revealing the location of this wonder-world even when you are at the road there. Not to mention the swallow-like birds that nest next to or behind the falls; amazing acrobat flyers that with ease snap insects from the air, almost opaque from the mist of the marvel. How they possibly manage it will always amaze me, but I don't know how many of them die in the quest of course...

And the butterflies! The butterflies are EVERYWHERE. Whenever you pause, they see you as a volunteering restplace and sit down on you. Beautiful creatures... We all had our fair share of butterfly company on our trip. 

Our group ready for adventure!!

Epic bird is EPIC!!!

Not gonna argue the point...

As a North-European, jungle is something I have dreamed of experiencing as long as I can remember. The humid air, stuffy but not too hot, saturated with the smell of soil and the thick vegetation, the chirping of crickets, occasional lizards or even bigger animals, toucans and other colorful birds, big spiders and butterflies ... Well, my dream came true, even if we only walked on paths laid with stone and didn't venture into the real jungle.

In short, Saturday was passed in total awe and speechlessness. I was convinced that whatever I would ever see in my life would seem insignificant. But then came Sunday, and we went to the Brazilian side of the falls- Iguaçu, as it's called in Portuguese (I understand a little portuguese, I realized...) 
Although it seemed impossible, this side was even more impressive than the Argentinian. We walked on a bridgelike construction so close underneath the falls that we got totally wet from the mist... That is also a indescribable feeling... On a whole different level.

It's definitely one of the best trips I have ever done, and without doubt worth the 1200 SEK (about 180 US$) I spent on it, although that means I'm basically out of funds for quite some time ahead, as I also sent my family a christmas present. the shipping itself cost about 75 US $, which was about 3 times more than the content itself. Just hope it's gonna arrive. Maybe even on time, sould we be lucky :)

Found a cat at the hotel

RAINBOW!!

The Butterfly Effect

Argentina!

AFS Belgica!

        

So, Jose, you were saying about men being the stronger sex?

             
                   

That's us!! :D

This adorable creature could apparently easily kill you....

A butterfly on my thermo!

Heard you like Spiders? Well good, there were many of'em

The bird is flying a meter from tons of water. Watch your argument rendered invalid.

CAT!

Our family has a new member. It's very possible that it's only temporary and that it will be asasinated or taken far, far away in a very near future, but for the moment, we have a cat!

I'm not the biggest fan of these kind of untrustworthy, oportunic and egoistic animals, but you can't help loving this little fella. At least I feel that way, it is, however, obvious my parents don't share my feelings all too much.



How come we all of a sudden have this cat?

Well, it (we still don't really know if it's male or female) came during the storm last saturday, and almost scared me senseless when I walked out of our room (which was stifling, seeing as the electricity was out, hence also the fan) at 1.30 AM and almost was attacked by a little, red, furry and oversocial creature.
I'm kind of hypochondric. This lamentable mental state of mind has a tendency to get worse in the night when I have time to think about all the horrible things that can occur to the human body. Including streetcat germs.
So I wasn't all too pleased when this cat started to stroke itself against my legs in the pitch darkness....
Hence I fled back into our oven-like habitation, where I almost showered in 90% desinfection alcohole.

The next morning, I kind of feared walk out of the room, seeing as the oversocial cat was still there, but I survived that too. The cat stayed more of less the whole sunday. In the afternoon I took off to go to Asunción to meet some friends and play football (other story, also epic), when I came home the cat was not presant anymore. People here aren't too sentimental about animals, so I supposed they had killed it and dumped it somewhere.

Well apparently not. Not yet, anyway. Tuesday night, when I went to the bathroom, the cat appeared again. In a equally oversocial manner. Since then, it has been in our house.
And this cat (we call it 'gato'- means cat) seems to absolutely adore me. Which makes me adore it. It follows me everywhere it can. Yesterday when I was sitting and reading in the garden, it came and laid down between my legs. At dinner it sneaked in (it has to sneak because my parents usually chase it away) and laid down beneath my chair.
                               How adorable is that?!

Allow me to introduce you to... SWEDEN

A fleeting thought that sometimes seem to be in my head, mostly when I do something less than usual:
What does people here think of sweden?

As of yet, I haven't met one Paraguayan who has ever encountered anyone on my nationality. This means that for the people here that judge a country by one inhabitant (I'm not saying that everyone does in Paraguay, but some people do...) should have some weird thoughts about whaat kind of country Sweden is.

To begin with. People think that the official language in Sweden is English. Secondly, they think English is one of the official languages. Then I'm asked to say something in Swedish, upon which people decide that we have the weirdest language known to man kind (A bit of a strong sentiment coming from a country where one of the official languages is Guarani I'd think..)

Here, one other fact should be kept in mind: Paraguayans in general does not seem to have much of an idea of europe. This can be understood, since I myself didn't reallt have any idea of South America before coming, but still, it can complicate matters... For instance, there are people thinking that Europe is a country (I guess it's because of the Euro) that speak English...

But for those who have heard of Sweden (Suecia en Español), 60 % of them think I talk about Switzerland (Suiza, very similar) and subsequently ask if I talk German. Now, simce coming here I've learned that German is one of 4 languages spoken in Switzerland, and that it's Swiss German which is not all too easily understood by Germans. Just for the record.

But then there's the question of snow. You have SNOW in Sweden? Well, no, there are just those... 6 months a year of that ice cold hell. Most people also seem very keen on experiencing snow, something I'd like to see and show them... Although when I'm in Sweden, I'm an eager anti-snow-person....

From my behaviour so far in Paraguay, someone who thinks one person can represent a culture would describe Sweden more or less like this:

Sweden is a country in the north of Europe where they have a completely messed up language and are on the edge of mental sanity.In sweden, there are no chairs, so people just sit on the ground and are perfectly happy with that.Also, Swedes can, without any valid reason, break down laughing so hard that they can't get a breath for about ten minutes. They don't really appreciate tight clothers, in fact they seem to think it's awkward wearing clothes that reveal every single piece of flesh possible...Swedes LOVE the cold but easily get sick from the heat. (Almost true!!)Also, in Sweden they don't seem to have busses, or their busses are really bad, because they really do love the busses here in Paraguay, although they are fanatics when it comes to walking and does it whenever they can. also, there has to be alot of space between houses and places in Sweden, as they consider a kilometers walk "close to here"... The national dish of Sweden in Fish with chocolate cake, and Swedes love drawing and painting. In Sweden, they don't have religion, and people in Sweden belive in evolution. (This last thing seems befuddeling to most people. How Can you NOT belive God created the earth 6000 years ago, in 7 days, and how can you not belive that every word of the bible is true?)

Not even kidding. Everyone of these questions/statements has been put to me during the tree months I've spent here. Though this is nothing to what the USA people have to suffer....
Also, I've been asked the name of our queen and king. I feel the royalities of Sweden is something of an awkward story, actually....

Shoutout SWEDEN!!!: I miss everyone there alot today, but in a good way! Also, really nice agains Germany in the football game, proud Swede overseas, and I don't say that often! Also to my mother who sent me Swedish candy. Love you.
                                                          Take care!

Rainstorms

Another photo of my first ever watermelon carving.
Definitely keeping that up. Watermelons are abundant.

The other day I survived my first tropical rainstorm outdoors. Paraguay being a subtropical country, the humidity builds up among with a really tense air until named air gets so heavy you can barely breathe.
The whole day before a storm, you know it's coming. Thick, humid, hot air surrounds and suffocates you and things are eerily silent. 

Monday was one of those days. Unfortunately I didn't recognize the symptoms of the upcoming shower in time. Happy about life in general I went with my Belgian fellows for Ice-cream.
Yes, of course we saw the lightning and the jet-black sky, but being a naive European, I didn't think it'd hit us that fast. 
Now let me get one thing clear: if you have more than 10 minutes ahead of you and start walking when it starts raining, you ARE going to get soaked.
With this in mind, I didn't even bother to run. Wouldn't have made ant significant difference. My precaution was putting my messed-up iPhone in a plastic bag before heading off (I'm coming back to my phone later, it's a mystery...).

So there I am, walking calmly among running people as the rain starts to increase. About 3 blocks from my destination (home) the nature of the rain changes.
 If you try imagine someone picking up all the water in a fairly-sized lake and putting it in a huge bucket, and subsequently turning this upsidedown over your head, you begin to get the idea. 
Trying to see something? Well, try you may. Ain't gonna happen...  
But hey, I am from one of the rainiest places in Sweden am I not? Admittedly we don't get that powerful rain, but rain I can handle alright. Lightning chasing each other over the sky and thunderclaps? I love that, bring it on.

What I was not altogether prepared to handle was the fact that the layout of San Lorenzo doesn't seem to include sufficient desviations (I don't actually know the word in english, but I assume it's similar to the spanish one..) for the HUGE amounts of rainwater . Within ten minutes, the streets are more like small rivers, with a significant current. Now, this could have been a really funny moment of jumping around in water with my already wet shoes. 
                                                       HOW ABOUT NO. 
Keep in mind that my house is basically located in a trashcan. It took me about 5 seconds to realize that the water flowing up to my ancles had with all certainty just flown over a couple of carcasses from various creatures, rotten food, human and animal excrements, vomits from the local alcoholics and god knows what else. The feeling that follows on this realization is rather hard to describe with words.... 

On a Happier note, this sunday was really nice. I invited various friends from my exchange program to come to my house for the afternoon, to do what we all do best: EAT!
And that we did. And talked... actually, my Belgian mates Charline and Simon (frequently mentioned here it seems) stayed until about 11 pm, and we talked about just about everything. So nice, I wonder why all good discussions seem to pop up at the latest of hours.

Then again, to balance the good and bad, my genious phone died. With NO REASON OR EXCUSE! Dead. Couldn't charge it, didn't react to being connected to the computer, didn't react when I tried to turn it on. Nothing.
 I mean, my phone is an iPhone 4 with two years of loyal service yet done, and it has been put though alot of climate change. BUT HEY. That's just not okay!

Upon this I also realized that I have a really hard time falling asleep without listening to an audiobook. Which is really stupid. But thinking about it, I've been listening to audiobooks before sleeping for 11 (ELEVEN!!) years now. Which could qualify me for the cathegory "mentally handicapped" or something...
But hey, having survived the night, and the morning aerobics (Which turned out to be a latino dance class, I love my instructor for that one  I headed off to Asuncion in order to go to the Apple-store located there. Funny note: the stores name is "Big Manzana". Manzana means Apple... ¿Dafuq?
So I walk in, and to my great joy fing that the guy at the desk has spent 4 years in the US and talks fluent english. Swiftly I explain my problem: Hey, my phone is dead and I don't know why.
just as swiftly, it seems, this guys turns on my phone again. 
                Wait what?? Don't tell me he did exactly what we have been doing the last 10 hours without result, and it just works for him? That fits my definition of awkward moment rather well. 

Phones -.-' (Also I notice some HTMLs are messed up in this post...)

We have some new orchids in our garden!!!

Yesteday I also recieved some bad news from Sweden. Our beautiful girl Nigra has passed on to worlds beyond after some time of illness. I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye, but it is better this way, without the pain. You will rest in our hearts and minds, where you can forever chase deers and wooden sticks in the baltic sea...

 Rest In Peace

Living in a Macho-culture

I'm nursing a feeble little hope, kind of those dreams you have but know never going to come true. 

I'm wishing that, for the good of man kind, the male population of Paraguay will one day wake up, struck by the realization how extremely disgusting and off-turning the macho-culture is.

Let me reduce this cultural, human weakness to a level that will not occupy too much space and still express exactly what it is that bothers me.

On previous occasions I've expressed the awkwardness it implies being blond here. This is due to this thing in the culture. Walking on the street means 8 of 10 guys, dudes, men and men old enough to be my grandfather scans me top to bottom with their leering, reptile -like gaze. As I've passed, or am just passing, they turn on their immensely, stunningly sexy tone of voice (I hope that irony was perceived) and say things that range from "hello baby" through "barbie" and up to "hey my little whore".

Every.

Damn. 

Time.

I actually lack words to describe exactly how appalling I find this. It makes my skin itch, my inner self cringe and gives me the desire to grab the closest at hand and commit deeds that would have me in prison.

Honestly. Thousands of years of evolution lead to THIS?? 

I mean, most animals do this exactly, and that's not a weird thing. Most animals.

Which is, or should be, a difference between our 'supreme' race and other animals. 

But of course there's an explanation:

In the triple alliance war, the male Paraguayan population was decimated by ~85%, so the men that were left were extremely desired by the women.

They say. This is meant to excuse this repulsive, impolite behavior. It does not!

I do not mean to demean this culture in any sense... Oh wait I do. In this sense I do not respect the culture. Not this aspect. This war is fucking over. If it's something this country does not lack, it's men. 

To use the war as an excuse is just a way to let men keep acting as pigs and moreover, saying that they're right.

Also, there are some women who says that we Europeans overreact to this and that it's just a compliment. It. Is. Not. 

It's a disgusting way of trying to convey the male 'power', to get laid and try to show ownership over the women. And some of them even try to touch you.

 Now, on occasions I consider myself being a fairly self- controlled person, but it takes hell of an effort not to slap someone when they're trying to grab you... 

I don't mean to say that all Paraguayan guys are like this though, I have met really nice guys here as well. Unfortunately it is like compliments vs criticism.

 You'd need about 10 nice per 1 bad, not the reverse..

Completely unrelated, but I dedicated this sunday morning
on trying out watermelon carving. Little rough, but NOT BAD! :)

Luqueña :)

My shirt!! :D

My loyality is sealed and I've had the mindchange of a lifetime. I've made friends and enemies in one single decision...

I have been contaminated by this, that is more and more my, culture, the culture of Paraguay, and nowadays, I actually take an interest in football. And here, people take football seriously. It is a huge, huuge deal. 

As a second act of going upstream (the first was being the only one among my fellow swedes on exchange to go to Paraguay), my choice of loyalty is Sportivo Luqueño, the blue and golden team residing in my beloved Republic of Luque. 

I may or may not be totally ignorant when it comes to football (actually it's a fact, I'm totally lost.), however, this is something I intend to change. This is going to take some work on the part of other people explaining it to me, but luckily, most people here seems to be all to happy trying to explain things to me.

So Luque it is then. I'm not kidding when I'm saying that I'm one of ~10 people supporting this Swedish-colored team in San Lorenzo (actually, according to my fellow AFS-er and friend, Simon, who takes a big interest in football, that amount of people constitute the entire fanclub of Luque...) The majority of the shops selling football shirts don't even have the Luque-ones. 
On previous occasions, it has become apparent to me that I'm something of an oddity here, due to my hair, my eyes and my skin, something over which I've been cursing about twice a day for ten weeks, since it gives me very unpleasant, awkward attention on the streets. However, I've noticed that supporting blue and yellow seems to be even more befuddling to the SanLo population than being European...
While being out among fellow human being, I seem to sense a slight coolness from some people, yesterday, I encountered an old man who actually seemed to get really upset by my shirt, I think, however I'm not sure since I've stopped listening to what people say on the streets, but I think that he was screaming something at me, I picked up "Luque" and a pissed tone of voice. He might have thrown a piece of paper at me as well. (which sounds innocent enough but still annoys me a bit)

That kind of sentiment is the thing I'll never get about sports in general. Just saying, I'm not messing with you for your choice of teams.

Here I'd like to add an annoyed little rant about hooligans. So weekend before last, I ventured to the stadium of Luque, with my fellow Luqueño as well as friend and AFS volunteer Joël to witness the game Luque-Cerro.
I don't think I've ever seen so many policemen in one place before. Ever.
The stadiums have barbed wire, dividing the sections where the home team fans and the visiting fans reside.
They empty the stadium section by section, and direct the fans of different clubs on different routes so that no fights will uprise. There are fucking SWAT- teams waiting for the worse to happen.
Just. So. That. People. Won't. Fight. Over. A. Game. 
This seems totally stupid, I mean, your team isn't going tho play better because you beat up a fan of your opponents?? 
Where's the logic in that?

I have also noticed that there are people wondering why on earth I like the Republic of Luque so much. First and foremost. They have my swedish colours, everything is blue and yellow. Seconly, the name is just that beautiful, this is also something I can't quite explain, but saying 'Luque' just is that awesome.
Also, someone explained to me, that it is like a country, within a country. Like inception. You've got to love that.
More than that, not really sure... But honestly, I think I was born to live in this city :)