I didn´t end up doing anything for Carnaval because my family didn´t and the night my friends were going, I went to a bday party. But basically it is a big parade with dancing and music. I watched some of it on TV. Apparantley it is pretty dangerous to go. I bet bunches of people got there cellphones stolen. There is this thing here call espuma which is basically there version silly string but it is more like shaving cream. Anyways, one girl got that all sprayed in her face and while she was getting it off, they ran away with her cell. Getting your cellphone stolen doesn´t seem like that rare of a thing.

My host sister was assulted at 4pm while walking on the street of a neighborhood for only 2 blocks. She was with her boyfriend. When the person of the moto stopped and told her to give him her cell, she was in too much shock to respond, so she didn´t, she just stood there. Then her boyfriend got shot twice!! (there is much more to that story) She gave me some tips for what to do when being assulted...

1. throw what is in your hand on the ground and put your hands up

2. look at the ground, sometimes they will shoot you because you know what they look like and can tell the police. It is better if you just look away

3. don´t yell help, yell fire. If people hear you yelling help they will think you are being assulted and will not run out to help you because they don´t want to be in trouble either. If you yell fire, they are more likely to come out.

Number three is pretty sad. I have heard other stories about people being assulted on busses where everyone can see it, but no one does anything.

Tomarrow is valentines day so I am going to make heart shaped pancakes for breakfast :)

So I guess I am not going to school the first day because they don´t do anything the first week. The first week is just buying school supplies, getting your schedule, and stuff like that. Then the real school starts next week.

Last night around 3am Sady, Milena (sisters), Leti (cousin), and I went outside in the front yard and began to sing at the top of our lungs, birthday songs (there are more than one here) for our cousin Liz. Sady played the guitar. She heard us and came outside, we just kept on singing it was so funny!!! The guards just gave us wierd looks but didn´t do anything. Apparentally that is some sort of old paraguayan tradition, to sing outside really loud for someone bday. Then Sady called her neighbor friends and two of them came over and we just drank fanta, sang, and talked until almost 5 in the morning!! My cousin Leti is crazy. I am going to miss her when she leaves Sunday. Hopefully I´ll be able to visit her sometime. I am going to see her for Easter break though. That is only a month and a half away! Time flies when you´re having fun.

It is really weird because when I think about going back I get really sad because I love my friends and family here so much. And there are so many fun things that you can do here that you can´t in the US, like what I just described above. But I also want to be home and see my friends and real family again.

Love you all,

Erin

Happy February!

I am now in my SEVENTH month of Paraguayan life. Every month just gets better and better. School is going to start February 15. But it is not like that is a huge change because the school day is not long and there is never homework. I am so excited to get back to school because I miss my friends and I think it would be good to have more of a schedule. I am going to be changing sections so the school day will be longer than it was last year, but still not long. I still don´t know what subjects I am going to half or anything, so I guess I´ll have to fill you in on that later. I already know all of the girls in my class and they are so excited because there are only 7 girls and 14 boys. So they are happy to have another girl classmate.

Yesterday I went and played tennis with my host family. I was pretty bad, but that´s okay, because I had fun. I love that my new family does stuff like that, goes to the park together. My old family never did stuff like that. Two of the cousins are still living with us and I will miss them so much when they leave, which will be in a couple weeks.

There is this thing here called carnival, and after asking a million people what it is and why it exists I think I have figured out the meaning of it, it is basically like mardi gras. They say it is a time to be crazy before Easter. I think it has lost that meaning though, and now it is just a fun holiday. I don´t really know what to expect, so I will have to explain more about this after it happens which is next weekend.

I don´t think my Spanish has gotten much better this past month because I have not been talking as much, because I have not been in school. I think when I go back to school it will start improving again. So people say that after a year abroad, you are fluent in that language, but I don´t see mysel becoming fluent with in the next 5 months. I think that maybe this is because our definitions of fluent are different. I would say that I will be proficient with in 5 months (I basically already am), but I think I will always prefer speaking English, or at least it will always be easier. I think there is a big gap between proficient and fluent. Spanish grammar is super difficult, my host sister told me that she doesn´t even understand it all and she has been speaking Spanish her whole life. I am hoping to find a Spanish grammar book and study on my own a bit. This family is much better at correcting me. If I say something wrong or use a word incorrectly, they will tell me.

Since I am much much much much better at Spanish, I am thinking that I will be able to be a normal student at school, and now that Sady is in my class, maybe she will be able to help me out. I can´t imagine how I ever managed living here in the first place before I learned Spanish, like what was I thinking to just leave my life and live in a place where I knew no one and no one spoke my language. When I think about where I was 6 months ago, I am amazed at how fast things changed.

Back in the States when I needed to talk to an adult about something, most of the time my mom would call them and talk to them. Looking back on that, it seems so weird because it is like "I knew their language, why couldn´t I talk to them?" Take the whole host family changing, if I wanted to do something like that and my mom was living down the street, I would have had her call my host family, the new family, the AFS voluteer and she would have done all the work. I think that is an example of how I am begining to take more responsibility for my own life.

I am not saying all this to brag, but to reflect on the experience of being an exchange student and how it can change you. When I was filling out the application, I was not expecting things to turn out the way the are, at all. They tell you not to have expectations, but I did, I think it is almost impossible not to. This makes me even more excited and ready to keep on living my life, because I don´t know what is going to happen. Who knows where I will be a year or ever 6 months from here. It´s just so thrilling to me.

Five more months left, I remember when I had only been here for 5 weeks and tought it was so much time. AFS says I am coming back June 28-July 1, but I kind of want to stay longer.

Well not too much excitment to report, but hopefully there will be soon. I am still alive and happy and leaning on the Lord.

Love you all,

Erin

New Family!

Since the last time I have written, very much has happened...I changed families. My (old) host brother, Ricar, and I have never really clicked. In November we started interacting more and life was getting better, but after I cam back from Hoenau, our relationship started to go back to square1. I don´t know if my expectations were off, but I expected the host family to actually talk to me, let alone treat me as one of them. Another big thing that I didn´t like was the fact that my host mom wouldn´t tell me when there was something that I did or said that she didn´t like, or thought I should change. I would always just hear it through the maid. Obviously, the maid, Mirian (who is also a really close friend), was not supposed to be telling me these things. I stood by the number 1 exchange student rule, be open and honest. But I couldn´t tell my old host mom, Cristiana, that I knew she was saying bad things about me to the maid, because then she would get really angry with the maid and then last thing I want to do is cause problems for Mirian. I have seen how Cristiana can be with the maids, and I knew that if I said anything about that, it would mean major trouble for Mirian and a majorly akward conversation. I told Cristiana numerous times that she can be totally honest and open with me about anything and she told me that if there was a problem, she would tell me. I guess either our definitions of "problem" are different, or she really didn´t want to confront me about anything. I got really frustrated with this whole situtation and I felt really helpless in trying to solve it because I could get to the heart of the issue without "tattleing" on Mirian.

Then when I would go to my exchange students homes and see how they all interact with their families, and I realized that with the family I had, I could really never have a normal relationship with them all, I had already been there for over 5 months. Five months is a long time and I could just stick it out I suppose that I could possibly have solved the a few of the problems witht them, but honestly, I didn´t want to. I wanted the next half of my exchange year to be spent as well as I can spend it, even if that meant changing families.
I already had a family in mind when I decided I wanted to change. You see, I have a friend from school, Sady, with whom I had hung out with on numerous occasions, therefore I knew her family. When I had been over, they all seemed like really nice loving people, and overall I great family. The dad seemed like he was interested in having an exchanger stay with them. When I asked him why they didn´t, he just said that it was because they didn´t really know how to. So even before I decided that I was 100% sure I wanted to change, I thought they would make a really great host family.

So finally one day I broke down and decided that I was sure I wanted to change families. So I told my mom. Telling her was really the hardest part of the whole thing. It is so difficult to tell someone, who has been feeding you and over all providing basic needs for you, that you don´t like them and don´t want to live with them anymore (of course I didn´t say it like that). But I knew that is what I had. So a bravely asked the question (more like strongly suggested it) and she called the AFS rep that day and I talked to her the next day. The AFS rep, Zoila, told me that she wouldn´t be able to find a new family for me until middle of February when schools starts again. Of course I didn´t want to wait that long so I started searching on my own. First person I asked was Sady´s family. They said yes!! They had to fill out a few forms and such, but within a little over a week, I was able to move in! So here I am, today is the start of my third whole day with them and I already feel more at home with them than I did after five months with my other family. One really cool thing, which you might not find that exciting, is that for the past 3 breakfasts I have eating cereal and milk. YES, cereal and milk!

Let me give the basic facts about my new home.

1. It is located in area 2, ciudad del este, paraguay (only about 10 minutes away from my old house
2. family members: Roberto Benitez (father), Juana (mother), Sady (sister, age almost 16), Milena (sister, 9), and Jazmin (sister, 6). The two younger ones really treat me like a sister. And I actually call my host parents mama and papa. And when my host sister talk about them they say OUR mom or OUR dad. I think they get the whole exchange student is supposed to be apart of the family thing.
3. Since it is summer, we have some cousins visiting and we all sleep on matresses in one big room. So in all there are 8 of us living in the house know. I really like my cousins!
4. We have hot and cold running water
5. we don´t have a dryer but do have a washing machine
6. of course no dishwasher!
7. I technically don´t have my own room yet, because sleeping arangments are crazy now because of all the visitors (don´t worry, I´ll have one eventually)
8. We have a pool
9. the neighborhood is less dangerous than my old one (always a plus :)

My host sister is a really sweet person and very caring. Like the first night I was here I was feeling kind of homesick for my family in MI and she comforted me and assured me that I could really feel at home there, and I do! When I told Cristiana that I was homesick (like in August or September), she was like "oh, well you have the rest of the year here"...ummmm ,´needless to say, that did not make me feel better.

I don´t feel like I wasted my time with the other family. I learned alot, and I that whole time I was learning Spanish and making friends. I had to learn to deal with situation that I would probably not have to deal with if my host family had been great from the start, or if I had never changed. I really think it is better this way. And as I said, I already feel at home here in my new home! I will be able to go to the same school and be in the same class as my sister. That is great news because I really like Santa Tere (my school).

Alot has been changing and happening in my life, it is just that those things aren´t very blogable topics. I only have 4 more weeks left of summer freedom, and then school starts again, which really isn´t such a bad thing. 23 more weeks until I come home (not that I´m counting down or anything)

Well, I could go on and on about how much I love my new family, but I think what I have written will suffice.

I love you all friends and family,

Erin

Christmas and New Years

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Christmas and a super good New Years!

My family and I left for Asuncion a on the 23. We went to Asuncion because it is where the parents of my host mom live. I really like Asuncion and her parents. What I did not like was the HEAT! It was so hot. Like all I wanted to do was drink water, take cold showers, and sit in airconditioned rooms. At night it cooled down to about 35ºC, I don´t even want to know what the temperature was durning the day time! And it is not a dry heat either, it is really humid. Like everyone was always a little shinny, because you can´t avoid sweating even if you are just sitting still! So yeah, that was a new experience.

The day before Christmas we went to the grocery store, that was cool cause I like Paraguayan grocery stores, I think it is because they have alot of interesting fruits. Then we came home and I wrapped presents. I like doing that because I was in a room in air :) then took a shower and got ready for church. Then we went to the Catholic mass. It was nice, we sang a little and then they priest talked for awhile, then we prayed sang some more and it was over. I am always really confused when it comes to the praying part because not everyone does the same thing. Some people sit, stand, or kneel. I am not sure which would be the most respectful thing to do. Then afterwards there was a living nativaty. I really liked it. It was more like a little play of the Christmas story, with singing and everything! I enjoyed it so much. then we went back to the house. We started to eat dinner around 11:30pm. Then at 12:00 we all did saludos and sang a bit. I saw another side of my host mom that night, she is really quite the enthusiastic singer, in a funny way. Like one of the biggest Christmas songs here is Jingle Bells or in Spanish, din din dom, but the words are different. I thought that was cool. Then we opened presents. Presents here aren´t really that big of a deal. With my family in MI, we open our presents one at a time and everyone looks to see what you got and then move along to the next person. Here it is more like okay, 1, 2, 3, open. I am so used to opening gifts one person at a time, that I felt guilty not waiting, weird, huh. I went to bed around 3 or 4. That was Christmas Eve.

Christmas day...we went to Ypacarai where the family of my host dad lives. But we ended up just spending the day with some family friends. They have a son who is 13 and a daughter who is 16. They are pretty musical people so we played so music together, it was really fun and I enjoyed it so much. So most people watch White Christmas or Elf on Christmas if they are going to watch a movie. We watch a horror movie. Usually I can´t stand horror movies, but somehow this one was kind of funny. I don´t know why they watched it because it was in English with no subtitles. There was visually scary things, it was just like a haunted house story, where pictures move and door shut by themselves. I think I laughed at this movie maybe more than a comedy film. Anyways. we ended up staying the night at their house. And that was my 2009 Paraguayan Christmas.

We went home a couple days later. I have basically been spending my summer jumping from one friend´s house to another, running errands, or just hanging out at home with Mirian and Julio. It´s been good. The AFS who started their year in February, or who are only staying for a semester are returning home January 6. It´s pretty sad :( They will be missed

We were planning on having people over for new years but they counldn´t make it, so it was just us. It was nice thouh I really liked it. The food was really good. There is this party called Noche Blanca (white night) on new years eve. It starts about 1 and goes till whenever. The majority of the people who go stay until at least 5am. I didn´t really want to go, so I went over a friends house instead. I had dessert over there and we played uno, and watch the ending of a movie on TV. I was so tired I only stayed till about 3am. It was a great way to start the new year :D

I don´t have any big trips planned or special events comming up, so life is pretty chill right now. My current mission is to get a Brazilian visa, becase my friend said that she would take me to church with her and they have a youth group and everthing, but it is in Brazil and I don´t have a visa. I also want to go the waterfalls. So I´ll let you know how that goes.

Feliz Año Nuevo,

Erin

Hoenau!

The first half of my December was SUPER BIEN!.

I visited those missionaries in Hoenau. Hoenau is a smallish city which is about a 5 hour bus ride. The bus ride was an experience in its self. But I guess I got to learn about the Paraguayan bus system. The bus I went on was not the one that I first bought the ticket for. I had originally planned to go on a nice, air conditioned bus directly to my destination. But whe I got there the next day they told me that there were not enough people who wanted to go so they put me on a different bus without air and that stopped about every 5 seconds, well okay, maybe more like 20 to 40 minutes. That made the trip alot longer. When you pull into a bus station, you don´t even need to get out of your seat to buy something. Sometimes all you have to do is hand your money out the window and they will give what you want. Other times, almost every time really, people come onto the bus and sell stuff. These people are VERY persistent, so I learned to just look like I am sleeping when they come around. At one point I though we were in Brasil because practically everyone in the bus was speaking portugese. In fact a lady sat down next to me and started talking to me in portugese. I think she thought I was Brasilian because I definately look more Brasilian than Paraguayan. It turned out we were just in a city super close to the border.

Any how, I finally arrived there and met up with my friend. We did various activities that wee, like baking christmas cookies, putting up the christmas decorations, visiting a few of her friends, going to church, going to a prayer meeting at her church, and painting.

I enjoyed the food SO much. Since my friend is from the US too, she makes food that I am more familiar with and have not eaten for a LONG time! It was nice being there for part of the Christmas season because I got to experience it with an North American who knows how Christmas is in my country and so I got to have a little piece of the USA in Paraguay. I also did alot of painting. They are still working on finishing their house so I got to paint their sons room. We painted two of the walls blue and the other one a sandy color. It was alot of work, but in the end it looked SO good!

So it turns out that my friend has a little instrument collection at her house, so even though she doesn´t play, she has a violin in her house. It was so nice to play after such a long time. My friend and her husband are both musical, so we did a christmas music number for church. I played violin, she trumpet, and he piano. It might sound like an odd mix, but it was fun and everyone enjoyed it. There was also an intern/helper there and he actually had a cello with him! That is so rare to find a cello in Paraguay, or to have someone bring it along with them. So the next Sunday I played a Christmas duet with him. I love playing music (especially Christmas music) with other people.

One other huge highlight was eating ice cream. Well eating ice cream alone is not that exciting, but this ice cream place was amazing. So you know how when you go to get icecream and there are a bunch of buckets and you tell the person behind the counter what you want, well at this place you got to serve your own ice cream and make it just how you want, and they have like a zillion flavors there. If you are ever in Encarnacion, Paraguay, I highly suggest going to this ice cream place.

I was there from December 3 to December 14. I hope I will be able to visit them again! I had such a good time and I am so greatful that I was able to meet up with them. What a blessing!

Life is Good,
Erin

The last two weeks I have been in Obligado visiting some missionary friends. I met them back in MI and she invited me to visit them sometime this summer. Since I had no plans and it sounded like fun, I went. It was a nice break from Paraguay. Even though I was still technically in the country, I was living with someone from the US. So I got to enjoy Amerian food, English speaking, and just being in a more American enviornment. It was nice talking to my friend because since she too used to live in the MI we can talk about the differences between MI and Paraguay. Something that I can´t do with many people. It was such a blessing to be there and enjoy a wonderful time of fellowship and relaxation. I helped paint her sons bedroom. It took a really long time though because the walls are textured and it took some extra effort to get the paint in all the cracks. I also got to watch Anne of Green Gable, one of my all time favorite movies! We played this amazing game Bohnanza, I highly recomend buying it. It is a game where you have to plant been fields. It is like a more organized version of pit. I played the violin both sundays I was there. The first Sunday I played with Julie-trumpet, and her husband-Norberto. The second Sunday I played violin with another person on cello. It was really fun to get to play again, even if the violin was sort of broken. Everyone loved and wants us to play again. Too bad we both left. But hopefully I will be able to visit them again sometime, maybe for Semana Santa, holy week. We´ll see. Thank you so much Julie and Norberto!

Christmas is approaching rapidly and I still not really in the Christmas spirit. I think it is because there is no 24/7 Christmas music station, or snow, or family, or...well a bunch of other things that I associate with Christmas. Our family is going to Asuncion on Tuesday and will probablly leave on the 26th. It will be interesting to see how they celebrate Christmas, their traditions, and stuff like that. I have no idea what to get for my host family for Christmas, I think I´ll ask my host mom today. Then we are going to celebrate New Years at our home. That should be.. fun. It seems like New Years is celebrated alot more here than in the US, we´ll see. Merry Christmas ¡Feliz Navidad!

In January there is a Christian youth camp in Argentina that I would love to go to. I am going to get working on making those plans and all asap. I think I will also invite my host brother, I dont think he already has plans or anything. It will probablly be my only opportunity in my life to go to summer camp in January! Other than that, I don´t really have any other plans except maybe to visit some "family" in Asuncion.

The first day of school is February 15. I am going to try to change classes to the class where I have more friends. My classmates this year were nice enough, but the people in the other class are so much more fun and do alot more stuff together. I think it would be better to be in their class even if I do have to be in school for more hours per day. I am going to try to be a "normal" student this comming year. Now that my Spanish is 100x better and I´ll be starting from the begining of the year as opposed to just jumping in in the middle, like I did this year, I think I might be able to do it. All my good friends are not in my class, so I think it is better if I just change classes. One of my best friends here, Melody, is in Tawain now until February, so I won´t be seeing her for the rest of the summer :( But I have alto of other friends as well, so I think I´ll be just fine. But I will miss her!

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas.

Erin

November flew be so fast! Now I have been here 4 months! Alot has happened this month, I guess I can give you the highlights.

Mi cumpleaños! My 16th birthday was November 20 and it was a very unforgetable day! I woke up, went to school and got zillions of happy birthdays and then went home around 9:30. I got home and just chilled. Then we ate lunch and I called my mom. My mom (the real one) and I talked for a reallly long time, so I missed nap time, so I sleepily helped my mom (the fake one) make sandwiches and clean up and stuff. Then I cleaned my room. After that I got ready to go to my brother´s confirmation. That was at 6. It was interesting to watch. Then we took some family pictures and went back home. We put out all the food and then people started to come, this was around 9pm. The last of my friends left around 3.

So basically all houses in CdE have a thing called a cincho. It is basially somewhere in the back yard or comming off the side of the house that has a huge grill, a table, and other basic kitchen stuff. It is sort of like the party-entertainment area that isn´t exactally in the house. Anyways...They set up a bunch of table and chairs and a sound system and food and everything! They had like a service come and do this all. This is not that rare of a thing here to have a party like this at your home. So since it was also my brothers confirmation, alot of the family and family friends where there as well. It was actually a really good thing that my bday was the same day as his confirmation because I didn´t feel like they were going out of there was TOO much for me, because it was sort of a co party with my brother. About 15 or so of my friends came and we just sort if hung out, talked, and ate. It was nice. Alot of my friends were not able to make it because they also had their confirmation as well and were celebrating with there families. It was a really fun time for everyone! I made a thank you card for my family rand they really seemed to like it. I really have an awesome host family!

Thanksgiving: I did...nothing. My mom has a Bible study and that night they were meeting in our home. She asked me to make some doughnuts for it, so I did. Then I talked to my family, and cousins with skype for over an hour. I did sort of feel like I was missing out, but there will always be more Thanksgivings, but ít´s not like I can just live in Paraguay anytime I want to, so I didn´t feel too bad. This year I have SO much to be thankful for. Especially my family. I appreciate them all so much. The only weird thing was that when I was telling my mom how thankful I am for her and our family, she was making this really disgusted looking face, I think it was because she couldn´t hear me well, idk. Before when I thought about my family, I would really miss them and feel like I was missing out on not being with them. But now, it is like I can think about what a great family I have and just be like"oh, isn´t that nice that I have great family, cool" I was talking to my friend from the US, who is here is py, about all the things that we have to do when we get back. It got me thinking about life in the US and just how different it is, and how glad I am that I am here and not there. Not that there is anything wrong with my life there, I love it. It is just that I REALLY like life here as well. Isn´t is funny that just a few months ago I was more like wishing that I had never even had the idea to come here. I mean, if you read my previous posts, you can see how different my attitude now is SO different then before. And it´s onlybeen 4 months. I think the hard part is over, for now. I am sure there may be some rough patches ahead, but I think I have pretty much gotten used to life here and LOVE it. It just took awhile to get out of my USA Erin mode, understand?

I sort of feel like a hiker when they have just finished hiking up a huge hill and looking back at where they have been. Being glad they are at the top, and relazing they would have never gotten there if they didn´t go through the hard work of actually climbing up. I still have quite a bit more climbing to do, but I am so glad to be where I am now. I don´t think I would change my life for anything! Luckily I still have more than half a year left. I am so glad I didn´t just come for a semester!

I am going to visit for missionaries. I am leaving this week and getting back on the 14 of December. I can´t wait to go. I can´t wait to leave. I have slept over my friends house the last two nights, but it is nice to be home. It is cool to have that "oh I´m HOME". I guess now I have two homes! Here, and in the US.

Thank you for all the prayers, they are SO appreciated.

Love you all friends and family!

Erin