Paraguay, oh Paraguay....

I'm getting the impression that either the world has changed drastically this year, or that Paraguay is a slightly ill-adapted country.
It's like Paraguay is unused to be Paraguay. Like someone moved a country from another climate zone to south america, but forgot to tell its citizens about it.

It is raining today. In fact, in some parts of the country it's storming. Pretty badly. Here in SanLo? Well, you're alright if you possess a boat.
Every time it rains more than 15 minutes, it makes up 70% of that days news-reports.
I feel this is very odd. I mean to say... This country must have been situated here for a pretty darn long time. One would assume that it would have gotten used to rainstorms. One would assume that there existed some water draining system in the cities (in San Lorenzo there's one: the whole city is tilted. My friend Charline knows this, because she lives at the very bottom and occasionally have to exit her house in swimsuit, which is possibly the reason she nowadays takes swim classes).
Actually, I cannot speak for the whole Paraguay, there might be cities with excellent water drainage... But I yet have to see them.

Also, and I feel that I have raged about this before a couple of years ago, but anyhow: CHRISTMAS.
I cannot possibly get into my head that Christmas is not even two weeks away.
Something else I don't get? Why, Christmas decorations?! Why are you snow and ice- themed?! In a country with 40°C in December?
Why? Who? How?

Listening and thinking

These are things you learn very well when you don't have words to speak and barely understand what is being said.
You listen, and think.
And I've noticed that three months of this changes not only the way I interact and discuss, it changes my way of thinking and opens my mind.
And I think this is rather amazing.

I consider it a social skill to be able to listen to someone saying something that I would usually just beat down as "bullshit". Not only swallow down my actual words, but also temporally bring down the mental wall and actually listening, for real. Seeing all the sides of a subject, not only the ones I've considered bad, but also the good sides and then selectively build up my mental walls again.
I might be very out of there of me to conclude anything from only my own experience, but guess what?
It costs. It costs you mental energy, and alot of it. You can actually feel how you get more and more mentally drained.
The other day, I read that when you think very intensively, the brain uses up to 50% of the oxygen and nutrients. Wether this is true or not I cannot be sure about, but it seems very legit.

Why all this deep-ish jabbering, you might wonder? Well, I had one of these moments of braindigging discussions about a week ago. And I actually needed to hibernate mentally afterwards. About 4 days. Mind more of less completely blank except the subject discussed. To the point where my family got a little concerned, because they thought I was totally silent because I was depressed. And guess what? I still don't have the subject figured out... It kind of impacted hard on my worldview and I'm not sure if I'm okay with that. My scientific way of explaining things all of a sudden did not completely add up. Well darn. That will probably be a topic for further discussion.

Other things I think many people could consider: don't argue topics you don't really have a clue about just because you want to seem clever. If you have the facts, go ahead. And don't discuss if you aren't open to change your view. When you close your mind, you don't discuss anymore, you're just trying to convince others why you are right.
Guess what? Sometimes it does not work.... As an evolutionist who has been in discussion with creationists... I have first hand experience on this subject.

And when you don't really have anything to say it's mostly better to stay silent.

Just some reflections from an exchange student. Take care.

Not the most successful pilgrim the world has seen

The 8th of December is a huge deal in Paraguay. This day, in fact the whole of December, people from all over the country pilgrim to the church Virgen De Caacupé in honor of its upcoming on this exact date 1765, as well as Virgen María.
All in all, so far this year 3 million people have pilgrimed to there and so, we thought, should we.
The plan was going on Friday night, like most people do, and all of Friday it was all good. Until three hours before we were due to depart. Then there was a fair amount of thunder and a little rain. Rain and potential storm was also on the forecast for the night.
Still having the last horrendous storm in mind, we felt a little squeamish and decided not to go on Friday night but instead go on Saturday morning. At 6.
Putting it this way: I'm mostly that person who annoys the shit out of non-morning persons by calling at hours one could consider cruel and wanting to do stuff. Even so, the prospect of walking at the very least 16 km in at the very least 30°C with, I'm not exaggerating, at least half a million other people did not thrill me to an exploding point, although I really wanted to do it for the experience.
However, it was not with the biggest sorrow that I received a text from a fellow potential pilgrim, Alicia, reading "maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all... Unless you're all up and ready"
So. Yeah. No.
Not a single pilgrim step was taken that day. Although we still are thinking about doing it nighttime the upcoming week.

On another theme: The Friday night I experienced my first football game where my team wins!! I, let's call it pilgrimed, with my fellow Luqueños Natalia and Joël (all in matching shirts since I'm nowadays also the proud owner of a REAL Luque one!!!) to the Estadio Monumental Feliciano Cáceres ("El Chiquiero") (there, have a fancy Spanish name, it's the stadium in Luque).
And HELL YEAH carajoo we won that game!!! (1-0 against Independiente) Meaning Luque stays in the first division next year!!

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!