maandag 10 oktober 2016

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 quinceaƱera! 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