Operation tronnies & Oliver Heldens

So it's been a long while since I posted on my blog. I would love to write that it's because my life is crazy busy and I just have so many more important things to do but that would be a lie.
I won't bore everyone by going in to the details of my life the past 7 months but I've been enjoying them.
In the time I have been gone a lot has happened:
I graduated my first school, I went to Brazil, I came back from Brazil, Christmas, New Years, Hawaiana Party and Marijke came to visit which is worth going in to because it was a load of fun :D
She arrived the 17th of January and we spend our first few days exploring Asuncion (this was pre riots). Even though Asuncion is an interesting city to any foreigner there is not a lot to see so after 2 days of exploring we felt we had seen it all (we also had already booked our hotel for Ciudad Del Este) so we got going.
After 7 lovely ours in the bus we arrived in CDE. We spent the night with AFS friends from Belgium who have lived there their whole exchange year. Because we had an early morning we couldn't stay out too late so we head back at around 23:00.
The next morning the alarm went off at 06:00 AM  and naturally we ended up getting out of bed at 07:00. After preparing everything we went on our way to the Waterfalls of puerto Iguazu.
After a long ride through: Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina we arrived at the impressing waterfalls. Something like this is impossible to explain in words, if you ever have the chance I woud strongly recommend going there. After an amazing day of walking around in one of nature's wonders we got back to the hotel exhausted. Unfortunately we couldn't stay in CDE for more time because we had a trip planned to Cerrito (a town near Pilar). So we spent the next day traveling, first 6/7 hours to Asuncion, then about 6 hours to Pilar. Because of another early morning the next day we went straight to bed.
The following day we went on our way to Cerrito with 9 of us in the pick up truck meant for 5 people. Cerrito was also one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's amazing to see how these places haven't been ruined by tourism as it would definitely be in Europe.
We spent the day swimming and 'tanning' in the burning sun and head back as little lobsters even though we almost spent the whole day putting on sunscreen.
The days that followed I spent showing Pilar to Marijke and introducing her to the Paraguayan culture and foods:)
The time flew by and before I knew it we were on our way back to Asuncion to say goodbye.
It was weird and a little sad to be alone again after spending 2 weeks with my sister 24/7.
After this I had a few weeks of vacation left I went to Ciudad Del Este again to see some friends and to see some more of the city.
Before I knew it school started again. I had decided to change schools to get to know more people and a different school as well.  My new classmates are super nice and actually go out to do stuff together which is a huge improvement from my last class. After a few days of school I already had another trip to look forward to because of carnival in Encarnacion. Me and some friends from AFS had decided to for the weekend to see the parade. It was really cool to be there and see the floats but after a few hours it got a little boring. Because it was still really hot we spent the rest of our days in Encarnacion on the beach.
Unfortunately  when I arrived back the home the school life really had started again. The weeks that followed were very standard, school in the morning everyday, sometimes in the afternoons and if not do a siesta and go play basketball with friends, go out to eat something with classmates or just relax at home.
However! About a month ago I was talking to a Swiss friend from AFS who told me she was planning on going to Buenos Aires and a musical festival in BsAs at the end of March. Luckily I could still go with her and 2 other American girls.
So 10 days later we went on our way to Buenos Aires. Even though it was about 18 hours in the bus it didn't feel as long thanks to okay people, bad movies to bitch on, sleep and food (lot's of food).
Once we arrived we head to our apartment, got settled in and left to see the center which was a 20 minute metro ride away. From the beginning it was obvious this city was nothing like the Paraguayan cities. They had metro, streets without holes in them, annoying tourist shops etc. The next days we walked around the center some more and did some sightseeing. On Wednesday we took a boat to Uruguay for the day. This was probably one of the most disappointing boat trips of my life and I will now tell you why: So while we were walking around on the boat terminal I noticed a group of men talking Dutch as well, I didn't think much of it and we passed them. Later the same group of men was standing behind us. Because I wasn't feeling very social and was scared they would't care much I didn't mention to them I was also Dutch I just kind of ignored them at first. My friends however kept pushing me to say something. This only got worse when we found out they were wearing an artist bracelet for the festival we would be going to in a few days. Which transformed us in to some sort of fangirl as we sat close to them on the boat so we could keep a close eye on them. There was no wifi on the boat so we couldn't find out who they are. When we arrived in Uruguay we kind of forgot about the whole thing and had a really good day in the beautiful Colonia.
That night however we were casually scrolling through the Lollapalooza (festival) instagram when we noticed a picture of one of the guys we saw on the boat earlier as it turns out it was Oliver Heldens, one of the best DJ's from the Netherlands at the moment. SO not only did I not recognize one of the few internationally famous Dutch people but I couldn't even be bothered to mention I was also Dutch to some (at the time) random Dutchies:(.
The next day we spent sightseeing and walking around Buenos Aires. Hoping to catch a glimpse of famous DJ's (just kidding). As Friday finally came my friends got ready to go to first day of the festival I only had a 1 day entrada so I had to wait to go till the next day.
The day after we arrived at the festival at about 4 in the afternoon. We saw Jimmy Eat World, Catfish and the bottlemen, Duran Duran, Martin Garrix, the weeknd and flume (ironically we didn't go see Oliver Heldens). It was a really cool day though and I'll always have amazing memories to think back on. On Sunday we took the bus back to Asuncion at 13:00. Before we went we still had some time to meet up with my Paraguayan/Argentinian family. It was great seeing them seeing as I probably won't see them again before I go back to NL. The way back was basically the same only with worse movies and less food.
I've been back in Paraguay for about 2 week now and this upcoming weekend I'll be going to another festival in Asuncion as a little Buenos Aires reunion which I'm really excited for. :D

As for Spanish I would say I've improved a lot over the last 7 months. I can definitely understand everything (if it's not spoken in an Argentinian accent). Sometimes still some problems with speaking but I still have about 2,5 months to improve it.
Honestly I can't believe how little time I have left to enjoy Paraguay and see everything it has to offer. I'm gonna try my best to see it all though. :)

Fiestas & Far away from home

HI!

So it's been about a month and I am back with another great blogpost. So I read my previous posts and I seemed to have missed some comma's and words at some points therefor I'll try to do better this time.
Now on to my Paraguayan life! All is good here. It's crazy to think that I have been here for over 2 months! Nothing but love for it though:)
The last time I wrote I had just returned from my AFS camp, in the weeks that passed after that I have done a lot of fun stuff! Starting with the 21st of semptember, this is the day primavera starts in Paraguay (spring). So every year there is a big party full of happiness and colours at our schools. There was a big stage in my school and multiple bands and singers came to perform throughout the day. It was a really good time with my class. At night there also was a big party in the city square but it was really crowded so we didn’t really enjoy it.
A few days after, my class and I wen't on a trip to celebrate the war being over for a certain amount of time I can't remember (lo siento). I presume the war is the triple alliance war with Uruguay, Brasil & Argentina. This ‘party’ was really cool because it was super traditional and the president was there too (didn't seem him unfortunately). Other than that the way we got there was also pretty special. We were transported in some sort of tilt car in which usually animals would be transported, this was exciting and a rather new experience for me. For lunch we visited sombody's ranch. My classmates thought it would be great if I tried getting on the back of the horse so I tried that.(thank god I didn't die). We visited another village nearby and after that we went back home. In the weekend I had my first ever quinceañera! This is something they do when a girl turns 15 in Latin America. They throw these crazy birthday parties. It really was something. The birthday girl was wearing a beautiful dress and the whole place was decorated amazing! However the most mesmerising thing for me was the fact that there was a table in the back, filled with presents for the guests. I'm talking: mugs, chocolates, cupcakes, socks, soap and a stunning birthday cake. It was insane but awesome to experience. The morning after at 09.00 o'clock I had plans to skype with AFS in NL to talk to students who are considering going on an exchange year next year and convince them to come to Paraguay:) Safe to say I was a little tired after only a few hours of sleeping but hopefully I was still able to get some people to consider Paraguay. Guess we’ll have to find out later. This day was also my hostmom's birthday so after the skype session it was rise and shine and let's eat:). We didn't do a whole lot that day other than relaxing in the house. A few days after, a girl from belgium came to Pilar so I hung out with her, her sister and an AFS volunteer all day which was really fun even though there is not much to see in Pilar. The week after one of the Italian boys came to Pilar with his family as well so I spend the day with him and the other 2 Italians from my city.
Last week me and my family went to another sort of party in the countryside. However my sister and I had gone out the night before so we also spent some time sleeping in te car. The party was to honour a spirit but I wasn't able to understand it all. Unfortunately it rained almost the entire day so we spent most of the day inside a friend's house.
These are the most 'exciting' things that happened in the past few weeks. Because it has been a while I most likely forgot some things I did as well and also some things I do here are simply not so interesting.

I really like it here and I'm getting closer with my classmates and family every day which is amazing.
However there are some things that annoy me sometimes simply because they're so different from The Netherlands, for example: they have no privacy here and walk into your room whenever they want or they tell you 'vamos' without letting you know where we're going or what time we'll be back but at moments like these I try to tell myself that it's a very different culture and because of this their habits aren't bad they're just different:)

Love,
Me