Carnival

This Friday I hopped on a bus and traveled with my fellow AFS students to Asunción and then to Encarnación. We slept on the bus overnight and woke up close to Encarnación. The first day we first went to this really cool catholic church right by the river between Paraguay and Argentina. There we got to go up on this bell tower (not connected to the church) that only supported 6 people at a time (so warned the sign at the bottom). We got a wonderful view from there. Next we checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit. A couple of us went looking for some lunch and ended up walking to the other side of the city to eat at SuperSeis. Although it was really far it was cool to get to see the city on foot. Around 5 the festivities began. There was a group of drummers playing samba music and people were starting to gather around the park. Our AFS guides warned us that anyone on the street was a target for shaving cream and water balloons. While walking around one of the exchange students got hit by a water balloon, but it didn´t burst. I grabbed it off the ground and chucked it back across the street from which it came and it exploded with a satisfying splash. When we got back we had a big shaving cream fight in front of the hotel. Afterward we all got together and went to Carnival, where they had essentially a giant parade of samba dancers. It was lots of fun. On Sunday we went to see some Jesuit ruins. It was absolutely amazing to see the intricate building designs and stone carvings that were all done with hand tools. I got some good pictures of the Jesuit ruins and I´ll post them sometime this week.

Had a great weekend, School starts Wednesday.
Chau :D

3er De Febrero

Today I went with my younger host brother and a friend to see a futbol match in the local stadium. It was much smaller than the other game I went to. The crowd really wasn´t that big and the stadium wasn´t in the best condition. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is what is sold at futbol games. There is your traditional pop and popcorn being sold, but there are also other things such as chipa (a traditional paraguayan corn bread) and fruit salad. There were some guys selling "milk" in the stands as well. They yell milk because they legally aren´t allowed to advertise that they´re selling beer.
Afterward we had to walk a distance to be picked up near "The Inside" (a local bar and lounge). It´s a bit unnerving to walk through CDE at night due to all the potential crime. But we were fine walking as a group. Then we went to Pizza & Cia and got some good pizza.

Tonight was a good night.

Moving.

Hey everyone.

So today at 6pm Paraguayan Time I got a phone call from my AFS liason.
Apparently I´m going to my new host family at 8pm today. So I´ve packed up all my stuff. I´m just waiting around until they get here. Next post about my new family.

Update: So far I know I have a host brother named Juan Pablo (21), a host sister named Mariana (16), and two little brothers yet to be met. The house is a smaller house in Cíudad Del Este and my host sister describes it as a humble house, but its home. :)

The car ride over from my old house was a question and answer session. We went through the basics like where I was from, how old I was, and how long Ive been here. They finally asked me the dangerous question. What is my futbol club? I asked them what theirs was first. They replied Cerro Porteño and I said "Oh thank god". People dont mess around about futbol here.

Happy New Year

Hey everyone.
Last night I went to a party to celebrate the new year.
One tradition they have here is that wearing white for new years is good luck.
Also fireworks are a big part of new years.

2010 here goes nothing.