When I arrived in Miami, I quickly found the AFS volunteers and went to the Embassy Suites. Nice hotel, great food. After 1 ½ days of boring orientation, we finally went to the airport to leave for py. Before I even got on the plane, I was having trouble with the language barrier. We flew on TAM a Brazilian airline. Brazilians speak Portuguese apparently and we didn’t. And to add to that, everyone flying with me spoke fluent Spanish but Malcolm, a white kid like me from Connecticut.
The flight was nice, 2 meals and TV’s in the headrests. I think the plane we flew on was all decked out because it took the Brazilian soccer team to the world cup but the lady that told me was 200+ lbs, spoke Portuguese, and woke herself up every time she snored. Sleeping didn’t happen, along with summer reading. :(
When we landed in Sao Paulo, this girl from NYC, Nicarly, decided to take pictures… bad idea. Within seconds the security guards with yelling at her and she had no clue what was going on. Ha-ha
We arrived in Paraguay and had a 2-day orientation at a pretty nice hotel. We practiced Spanish, learned about terere and mate (a tea like drink which people drink together, mate=hot, terere=cold), and we learned malas palabras en Guaraní. This was also my first encounter with Paraguayan food.
The food is always natural and fresh. I notice myself now craving 5 Guys and junk food. There is always meat served at every meal. Salads are common but no dressing. The orange juice is superior to any I have ever had. (No sugar added) Everything is so delicious and always served very hot. I’ve had a rubber tongue for the last week.
This country is crazy about soccer. They ask me if I know Donovan personally. I have to try to explain that in America, there are more than 307 million people and in Paraguay there are only 6 million. The first place I stayed had a cancha (field) less than 20 feet from my bed. They say the country stops for soccer games. Every news channel covers soccer only. Recently a Brazilian team, River, lost some important game to some team and they had to decent a ranking or something. This was all everyone talked about for days. Riots broke out and the news covered fires and violence over this one game.
The streets are ridiculous. No speed limits, no police, no good roads… always an adventure. 2 days ago I witnessed a pretty bad car accident. The guy that drives our bus in the afternoon likes to listen to his ipod, talk on the phone, and talk to us while he drives.
My house is very nice. It reminds me a lot of Jennifer and David’s house in Ohio. They have a Playstaion 3 upstairs and a big TV. They want to play online with Calvin. When I first arrived they had a BBQ for me. My mother came home the next day from Argentina and brought delicious candies and chocolate. My older brother, Bruno, has to study a lot for his exams because he is coming to America next in August for a year. My younger brothers don’t really have homework so when I get home we play and hangout. The family speaks a little English but I know more Spanish than they know English. I share a room with Bruno. We have a system after dinner, I help him with English homework and he helps me with Spanish. Whenever we do English homework I talk in Spanish…its weird. The language is coming quickly. As I write entries to this blog I think Spanish sometimes and sometimes not. I catch myself saying stuff without taking time to think about it. I have asked my family to correct me when I say something wrong. I the beginning we barely spoke because it was all corrections but now I can hold conversations about family, politics, America, daily life, etc.
Soccer practice is from 8-10 and 3-5 every day. (They use 24 clocks so telling time is sometimes difficult.) We meet at various locations and play with many different people. The coach calls me some nickname that means like duck or something, idk. Nobody can say my name correctly. Is always like, “coure-ay” like wrong syllables, accents, and everything. Practice consists of running (a lot), drills, aerobic exercises, lots of stretches, and weights. Jumping, skipping, a lot like that stuff Trojey makes us do at SSP but it actually is difficult. I get picked up before practice in a bus that has 3 rows of seats (seats 11) but it’s only Miguel and me. The other kids have another bus. There are 5 of us total. It’s a close-knit group. I get sore at times but it’s never terrible. Soccer keeps me busy and the exercise keeps me in a good state of mind.
This week we went to shopping del sol y marisco lopez. The malls are the most expensive things there. Nice stone floors with brand name outlets. They are always very busy and crowded. They were surprised when I told them that “TGI Fridays”, “Hooters”, and “Burger King” are actually from the US, not from Paraguay.
Ill be trying to keep this blog up to date once a week or so. Ill put up some pictures as well . I miss and love everyone back home.
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