Living La Vida Loca

I´ve been here in Paraguay for a little over a week now, and everything is going great!  I wrote out an entire LONG blog entry that I was so excited to post today, but unfortunately it´s going to have to wait.  I´m at the internet cafe and the file I saved on my flash drive is too advanced to open on this computer so I can´t upload it. Boo.  Luckily for you all, I have tons of other things to talk about so here goes... 

My average day goes a little something like this...
I wake up at 7:00 am (at the latest).  I shower.  Let me describe my shower.  I have a "modern" bathroom which consists of a toilet, a sink, and a shower head.  The shower incorporates the entire bathroom...there is no curtain, there is no tub, there is no little ledge separating the shower from the rest of the bathroom.  There is a switch on the wall that you can switch on if you want hot water (supposedly).  It´s on everytime I shower, and I have yet to have anything remotely warm come out of the showerhead.  I´ve grown to love a cold shower.  I also don´t have a towel so I´ve been using one of my ND shirts for a towel for over a week now.  It works very well except for when it comes to my hair.  Anyway so after I shower I have breakfast waiting for me on the table.  I usually have cafe con leche (umm its really leche con un poco cafe) and galletas (aka cookies in English) for breakfast.  The galletas look like mini, hard bagels.  After breakfast I walk next door to my satellite training center.  There are 10 volunteers in my satellite community.  I live the closest to the training center!  Once in the training center we separate into our separate groups for language classes.  I have 3 other people in class with me (intermediate Spanish Boom!) and our teacher´s name is Ramona.  She is a local Paraguayan who speaks NO English.  She´s awesome.  Today we talked about amigovios...so much fun to say (friends with benefits) and jakares (a Guarani word for Secret Lovers...the men who come over and sneak in when mama´s sleeping!).  Then Baker (another volunteer) and I told our story about apples...it was Sesame Street worthy.  I was laughing so hard I had to hand the paper over to him for him to finish.  Needless to say, Spanish class is a lot of fun...and there are lots of laughs.  We finish at the satellite training center around 11:30 and I walk home for lunch and my siesta!  This week we´ve been coming to Guarambare every afternoon for training at the main center.  A Peace Corps van picks us up at the satellite training center and drives us to town.  We are in town from 1:30-5:00 then are on our own to get home.  We go to the bus stop and wait for what seems like FOREVER to the bus to come pick us up.  Yesterday we waited at the bus stop for an hour.  Then we hop on a ridiculously packed bus.  I mean standing room only, packed in like sardines.  We´re getting to know each other quickly.  Our bus ride is about 45 mins then when we get off its another 45 minute walk to our houses.  Needless to say, its quite the adventure coming home from Guarambare. 

Once I get home I change into my spandex pants (thank God I decided to bring those bad boys) to protect my legs from further bug bites.  I counted the bug bites this morning... 163...Tengo cientos sesenta y tres picaduras.  That is not a typo.  I win.  Then I sit on the porch with my mom, sisters, and neices.  We drink terere and I usually zone out and sit there in silence considering I can´t understand much of anything that´s going on...they speak Guarani when they´re speaking to each other, and I know no Guarani (yet).  Every once in a while I´ll snap out of it when I hear Casey followed by a question in Spanish.  I usually have to have them repeat it several times.  I´m sure they think I´m an idiot, but I´m getting better...slowly but surely.  Dinner is usually ready shortly after I arrive home.  Rafael (my brother) usually gets home around 9 and I hang out with him for a while.  Last night he brought home a bottle of vodka for me (good boy) so I think we´re in for a good weekend.

Yesterday during my siesta I got really freaked out when I reached down to grab something off the floor and I encountered a giant toad staring at me.  I ran out of my room and asked my sister if it was normal to have a toad in my room.  She laughed and said yes.  My mom came in and grabbed it and threw it outside for me.  When I got home from school later that night, there was another one in my room!  I decided to just accept the fact that I now had a pet toad.  I even named him... chesapo (literally a mix of Guarani and spanish meaning "my toad") very original, I know.  But then when Rafael came home he threw him outside for me.

Well, I´ll try to get the original document saved as an older version so I can upload it sometime soon.  I just wanted to let you all know, I´ve made it, I´m safe, and I´m happy!

Also, let me know if you have any questions, or if you´d like me to talk about anything specific!!  Annnnd I love hearing from all of you so any emails, facebook messages, snail mail...really anything at all, I would love to receive!