First Week

As of Saturday I have been in Ciudad del Este for 10 days, and it has been an eventful time indeed. I am beginning my second week of school and the structure, of course, is going to take some getting used to:

• My school is Catholic, but there isn´t a ton of religous activity. [Aside: Many Paraguayans are ¨Casual catholics,¨ (such as my family) meaning that they consider themselves Catholic, but do not routinely go to Church.]
• My school has a mandated uniform. (I don´t really mind).

• The Student/Teacher relationship doesn´t make any sense to me. The teachers address you as hijo or child, but they seem to have a high tolerance for clowning around as well (which mis compañeros de clase seem to do in excess). This creates kind of an authoritative contradiction for me; its very confusing.

• I have somewhere between 8 and 10 classes which are on a bit of a sporadic schedule. Students remain in the one room while the teachers move around.

• In some areas I am way ahead, (such as math) but in any class that involves a lot of lecturing in Spanish, I am having trouble. (which is most)

Outside of school, life is very tranquilo. Paraguayan people are very laid-back and inviting. I tend to play about three hours of fútbol a day in the ¨club¨ with my homestay brother Carli and anywhere between 10 and 25 other dudes. In the club, fútbol is played on some sort of hard linoleum surface. I am not exactly sure what it is, but I just try to avoid falling on it. We play 5 on 5, first to five goals, with the losing team rotating out. The games are pretty competitive, but we are all pals in the end.

I just began 40 hours of AFS-mandated Spanish classes yesterday. There are currently five AFSers in the class, two from Germany, (I think...?) one from Japan, another guy from the States and I. The class is a bit tedious right now because I am a little ahead of the rest of the class, but its nice to be able to hang out with some other people that are in the same boat.

In other news, my family threw me a huge surprise party for my 18th birthday. I must admit they left me completely aghast. Additionally, they were somehow able to create this amazing poster for me. (In a couple of days!) Everyone kept prodding me to sing karoake again as I had done the first night, but I really was completely exhausted from the long week. I ended up going to bed at 1am. I´ve never felt like such a party pooper in my life, haha.

Everybody seems to have a different nickname for me, ranging from ¨Hahn-sen!¨ to ¨Lay-fe¨ to ¨Jeffery¨ (I have absolutely no idea where that one came from).

If I understood correctly, this weekend I am going to Carnaval in Encarnación. I am really excited. I have been horrible about taking pictures thus far, but I will make sure to take some then!

Your fearless reporter from the Southern Hemisphere,

Place preferred name here _______.

Update/First day in Ciudad del Este

Hi everyone... This being my first post, I´ll update you all on the past week or so of my trip. I left Seattle the 10th at midnight (which has become a common theme on the trip) transferred to Miami from St. Paul, Minnesota, where all the other AFSers and I that were going to South America and met and had orientation -- at the Miami International Airport.

(Aside: Miami may as well be located in a Spanish-speaking country, or at least the airport, because roughly 95%, probably higher, of the employees at the airport spoke English as a second language, including the representatives from AFS attempting to help us, which made things very difficult.)

After spending two days in the Miami airport, we finally were able to go through security and get on the plane. Unfortunately, one of the girls in my AFS group lost her passport in the bathroom, and the flight ended up being delayed several hours, (hilarity did not ensue).

Finally, we boarded the plane at 1am, and flew all night, until we arrived in Santiago, Chile at roughly 11am. After a two hour layover, boarded the plane and traveled to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. Immediately after exiting the airport, we were struck with the hottest, most humid air I had ever felt in my life. It was (only) 88 degrees outside, but the air felt over a hundred. We traveled to el campo, or the country, were we held a brief one day Paraguayan Orientation, where we met the other AFSers that would be staying in Paraguay.

There we were introduced to a number of Paraguayan customs to name one, Mate: a hot beverage drank in the morning, and Terere: a cold beverage drank in the afternoons and evenings, both being traditional Paraguayan drinks both derived from Yerba Mate. They serve as light stimulants, and are very much ingrained into Paraguayan culture.

After spending one night there, some of us took a bus to ´ciudad del este´ where I will be living. I was met at the bus station by many of there family and friends, including my new four-year old host sister, Gabi, who is currently trying to sneak pictures of me, haha. It was very overwhelming. We drove back to their house and my host brother Carli(to) introduced me to his huge posse of friends (12?). They range from 15 to 20 and are all very fun. From what I understand it is normal for people of all ages to hang out.

We had a huge barbaque, with chorizo (sausage) and steak. I have never seen that much food in my life, unfortunately I was unable to get any pictures of it, but there will be many in the future! We sang karaoke, ate and played mafia until seven in the morning, this is the paraguayan way. I am quickly learning that if you want to have any personal space, do not come to Paraguay! You are constantly surrounded by people, just while writing this blog, six people have to come in to interrupt me.

I have so much more I would like to write, but no more time. I start school tomorrow, I must confess I am a little nervous. I miss you all!