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... :)

It actually gets cold in Paraguay...

I was kind of dubious about wether it really got as cold in Paraguay as everyone kept telling me, or if people here were just hypersensitive (Some Paraguayans thinks 25 degrees celsius is cold..), and was wondering why I packed so much hardcore swedish winterclothes... But, turns out that Paraguay gets cold aswell, and that I really need those winterclothes... Right now it's more or less 10 degrees Celsius and windy, not so pleasant...

This weekend I was at an AFS camp, with all the other participants on the school program, in a hotel named Villa Colonia Independencia, and I have no idea exactly where that is.
It was very nice meeting other AFS-ers, and also realize that more or less everyone shares some of my thoughts and problems, such as homesickness from time to time...

Every AFS person, wether it's a volouteer or participant, is so nice, it feels like we're one big family sometimes...

Nowadays, since two weeks, we also have a bunch of Italian participants. I really love their language, Italian has such a nice rythm and melody. Also, I'm realizing that my Swedish is getting really bad due to lack of use...

Ah, and sweet techology, it's driving me crazy. So, first my mailaccount, the one I've had from the age of 7, to which all my emails from AFS are sent, has been blocked and I don't seem to be able to open it up again.
And then my phone card (Yes, the one for which I paid 45 dollars just to make it work in Paraguay, not to mention the cost for the phonecard itself...) called in sick last week and now refuses to work. Gosh, life is probably easier without techology sometimes..

Otherwise, things are getting better and better. My spanish is improving (Sometimes my parents think I'm very quiet, but honestly, once I know Spanish, they won't be able to shut me up for one second...) and I've signed up for a gym nearby. I'm going there more or less every day for aerobic and some strenght exercises at the gym, which is really good. It always improved my mood and gives me alot more energy :)


Take care :)

Just a completely unrelated photo of a dead fish...

It's ON :)

Very intresting bird

Sheep!! :) I love sheep...

The art of origami features recycling of candywrappers :)

Alright, so after about a month of doing virtually nothing, Ive finally begun to go to my Paraguayan school, Heavens Kingdom Christian School, and yesterday was my first day. I wish I had photos, but I'm just not taking my camera with me to school, the risk of loosing it is a bit to big... So I'm spamming my blog with photos of the orchids that are now blooming in our garden instead...

So how is a Paraguayan school? Well, as far as I could tell from my One-day-experience, it's quite the same though quite different from our swedish schools. It probably differs between schools, but at my school, the teachers don't do much. The classes have their rooms, and then the teachers move from one room to the other when the lessons change. I'm in an afternoon school, which I really don't like. I'm in school from 12 to 18, so at least I can sleep in the morning, but at the same time, you can't really meet friends or anything before school, and after school it's too dark. But that'll probably get better once it gets lighter and the time changes to summer time.

All the students were really nice to me though. I didn't understand everything they said of course, but at least they spoke slowly to make it easier.

We have school uniforms to. Calling it a uniform may be a bit... strong... since it's just jeans and a t-shirt with the school logotype.

The most confusing lesson was without doubt the guaraní- one. For those who want to know why, this is a text in guaraní:

 Ko'ápe jareko jehaikue aty orekóva heta ñe'ẽpoty, purahéi, mombe'urã, káso, mombe'upyrã, ñomoha'anga ha opamba'erei. Hetavéva oĩ mokõi ñe'ẽme. Ijapytégui heta ojehai ypyrũ kuri avañe'ẽme, hákatu oĩ avei tembihaikue roñe'ẽmbohasa va'ekue karaiñe'ẽgui.

...Enjoy

one of the parrots

Painting a little, but don't have much inspiration...

A beautiful fire-coloured orchid in our garden

So a small orchid is blooming in our garden...

The Swedish KLADDKAKA enters Paraguay :)

Time is flying by, it seems... All of a sudden one of my 11 months has passed me by...  I'm starting to get more used to things here, and in some amazing, halfway magical way, I'm getting into the language more and more every day. It's a really amazing feeling when you suddenly understand what someone says without having to translate the words in your head!
I had a seriously stupid moment yesterday though. I went to the park with my AFS friends, and someone called to Charlene from an unknown number. Since she doesn't like talking on the phone I picked it up, and it turned out to be her mother. So, in a moment of total lack of though, I ask her if she wants to speak to Charlene... Seriously. I haven't felt that stupid in Paraguay before. But in an amusing way...










Wednesday, the 15th, was the day Asuncion was founded, so it was a free day for almost the whole Paraguay. I went to my first latinamerican Asado ( like a barbecue) at an uncle's house, which was very nice :) the meat here is really good and most people are very nice!

Wednesday, I also made a typical Swedish ´Kladdkaka´ 

Later that day I found out that I have a host-half-sister, and we went to her family for the evening. I really enjoyed it there, everyone was so nice, and they had the most adorable little dog. 6 months and constantly playing with her ball. At first she was very shy, but once we started playing she was very social, and then she barely left me alone for a minute. Puppies are amazing. As soon as they belong to someone else...
But damn, I really miss my doggie at home.


Enjoy life, smile and focus on the positive :)

San Bernadino and Aerobic

I've spent about a month on the other side of the globe now, and as I've been writing in previous posts, it has been alot of ups and downs, but I'm beginning to take Paraguay more and more to my heart and enjoy the sometimes completely crazy but mostly very nice life here. Friday is my last Spanish class arranged by the AFS, and Monday I'm going to start school. I'm so looking forward to it. I really hope I'm going to meet some new friends there :)
The last couple of days I've been doing quite alot of things, actually yesterday, when I intended to update this blog, I just didn't find the time to do it...






Saturday was really wonderful. We went to a city named San Bernadino. (For those who, like me, aren't wonders of geographical knowledge, it is by the lake Ypacarai, on the opposite side of Aregua, if I'm not totally mistaken (which is very possible, but still...) it's about 40 km south-east of Asuncion.)
The city was quite the opposite of San Lorenzo. It was quiet, clean and calm, and also very beautiful. 
This difference is mainly because people in San Bernadino are very rich, many families in Asuncion has summerhouses there. 
We walked around a little, to a church, a tiny little museum and to the lake. Also, we went to a bakery named Alemana, where they had a miraculously delicious thing named bollos. That is kind of like a doughnut, filled with Dulce de Leche (God's gift to mankind...). I bought some for my family as well.

Bollos (Pronounced "Buojjos"

 

Papaya

El Colectivo

AFS-ers :)

Family :)

 On Sunday, my family took me to a small fishing community by the river Paraguay, close to the bridge to Argentina. It was really nice there, but a bit too many cars and touristing people (Like us...) for it to feel like a genuine rural area. 
The main reason we went was because I previously told my family that fish is rather typical food in Sweden, so they wanted me to try the fish in Paraguay.
It was very sweet of them, but the dishes I tried were rather horrible compared to what I'm used to. The system of covering things with grease and salt instead of things with taste.
   


Yesterday I was in Asuncion twice. The first time we went to get a micro SIM card for my iPhone, which was quite complicated, we had to go to several places, because apparently my phone was locked for use in Sweden only or something like that. But now it works! Almost. One of the messages I've sent hasn't gotten through, and the text my mother sent from Sweden didn't get to me. We'll have to work on that.

 The second time I went to Asuncion I participated in Aerobic, which was VERY different from my beloved Friskis&Svettis aerobic in Sweden. The instructor was some kind of military dude with a loud voice who was cheering us on in a way that made me feel as if I was at a military camp. Seriously, my legs has hardly ever felt that sore, I was on the edge of just leaving at some point, and I can't remember the last time I was so sweaty. But I liked it anyway, I hope I'll be able to continue with it this year (I'll be in rather a brilliant shape...). I went today as well, came a bit late because of the traffic, but still rather exhausting...
My legs will hate me.

Take care and stay safe :)