Somebody Give Me A Gold Star!

My roommate's (as in Intern roommate in Paraguay) parents and sister and uncle are here visiting from Spain. That is why I decided to start blogging right now. Because...first of all the mom is either blowing in or licking the dad's ear (I'm not sure as I saw it out of the corner of my eye and didn't dare look closer), and second of all...I can't stand the Spain Spanish accent and need to block it out (lo siento cousin Katie). For those of you unfamiliar with the Spain Spanish accent it basically sounds like Spanish with a lisp...it's like the whole country has a speech impediment. It is ugly and annoying sounding. Weird too that the Spanish are the ones who ended up with the ugly Spanish as they are the parents of Spanish...but somehow along the way all of the countries they conquered did better with Spanish then they did (except for the Mexicans of course, but can we really count that as Spanish anymore anyway?). Okay, okay, I know their accent isn't their fault (the ear licking however, COME ON!)...I'm just saying that is why I decided to choose right now as the moment to start my blogging marathon. SO ANYWAY... Give me a gold star because I survived Paraguay! There lots of lasts in life. Some are good and some are bad. Some make us sad and some make us glad. (Wow, what a poet!) Overall I have had a great experience here. The Paraguayan people are great...especially the students at the school I've been teaching at. Some of the food is good. It has been great to hear and speak Spanish again. It has been fun to live in and learn about a new place. There are a lot of things I am sad to see end and I will miss. This post however is dedicated to things you say "phew" to when they end...things you survived but didn't necessarily enjoy...things that didn't make you totally miserable but that you are glad to be done with. So here we go... Dances. Total torture. I somehow got suckered into two of them during my time here...both of them church dances because they disguise dances by using the word "Party" instead. They say "Hey, do you want to go to a YSA party?" And you're like, "Sure, I have nothing else to do." So you go and then you get there only to realize that here Party=Dance. It took me two times to learn that lesson. I should have been smarter. I liked dances in high school but Ricks College dances sort of ruined dances for me. I guess it was just all those times I'd be fast dancing with my roommates and then it would switch to a slow song and one by one they'd all get asked to dance and I would suddenly find myself standing in the middle of a whole bunch of couples. I guess that is pretty much a metaphor for my life. I should have seen the foreshadowing. Anyway, the trauma of those dances pretty much ruined the fun in dancing for me...although I still love to dance if it is on my turf...my friends, my parents' gym, and my disco ball and absolutely NO SLOW dances. But I survived the dances here...mostly by finding someone to talk to and by offering to take pictures of everyone dancing...and they love that...they go crazy for pictures. No more walking out in the pitch black moonless nights to my little frog infested casita. Those of you who know what a wimp I am outside in the dark will know how glad I am to be done with that. It's just all those stupid Bigfoot and mass murderer and unsolved mystery stories that have to come to my mind when I'm outside in the dark.

Yay for being done having to use this frog infested by night and frog poop infested by day bathroom. It was pretty disgusting.

No more school cafeteria food. And yes, that is a big chunk of bone with a little meat boiled with spaghetti. You're probably thinking, "Wow, did she lose a bunch of weight because the food at the school was so gross?" Unfortunately the answer is no. All that unsatisfying food just made me want to snack and eat everything in sight when I was in Asuncion each weekend. But amazingly the food never made me sick...I even got brave and ate lettuce, strawberries and drank the water here in Paraguay. Thank you to swimming in the canals of Idaho as a child!

Done riding Paraguayan busses. I love how SaraJoy can't even fit her knees all the way into the seat. We asked a lady that we knew on the bus to take the picture of us. We wanted it to show how SaraJoy couldn't fit all the way in the seat so we asked the lady if she could see SaraJoy's knees. She said "no" and came over and lifted up SaraJoy's dress a bit and then said, "now I can see her knees." We couldn't stop laughing.

South American Sidewalks...use at your own caution! Luckily I didn't sprain my ankle.

I won't miss animals trying to come into my house. Actually I thought this was pretty cute when I opened the door to find this little calf at the front door. I like useful animals though like cows, horses, sheep and chickens. It was all the animals without purpose like the dogs, snakes and frogs that I have had enough of!

Okay, and overall this has to be the thing that I am most glad to see end...frogs in the bathroom. Now if I was in a zoo or animal park I would think that this little froggy was adorable. But hanging out above your toilet or shower...not fun. DONE...no more. Other things I'm glad to be done with and glad I don't have a picture of. (Audrey you may not want to read this part.)

I won't miss...

The teacher at the school who would blow his nose into his hands and then simply rinse them off with water (no soap). I guess I should be glad he didn't just wipe it somewhere.

The bus driver hocking loogies out the bus window.

The gross guys in the streets making chi chi chi noises, etc.

Having to check my bed each night for tarantulas, centipedes, frogs, and snakes.