In general, this is a rather exciting statement. Naw, I´m happy and excited, and I think the heat will kill me soon.

Anyway, that´s my life. chao

Okay, what was my last post? Was I unhappy and plotting to leave or excited and impatient to get to my future site? I hope you all enjoy the roller coast of emotion I put you on. The ride is a lot less bumby for you guys but it´s still worth it here.

I´ll try to type something up and bring in a nice long post later. The big news is that I love my site, the people are great, it looks like Kansas (or whatever flat, farmland state you want to pick), but there are computers and internet and a cell phone tower. They don´t have running water but everyone has a well pump... this may be more reliable. There are hardly any people there, only a hundred houses or so and I haven´t seen them all.

Fun for all!!

After this weekend, I´ll know if I can do this or not. It´s sad that I am still so indecisive. I don´t think I´m in the right place, for me, but I´m not sure it´s the wrong place either. Does that make sense?

Anyway, that´s just a heads up in case I turn up for Christmas. I probably won´t. I´m sure I´ll be fine here.

cheers

I´m hot. It´s hot here. And humid. Hot and humid is Paraguay. I´m in a building with AC and just sweating. It´s all good.
I´m uploading pictures to flickr right now, so you´ll finally get to see some of Paraguay. It´s mostly from our long field trip, which is where we break into smaller groups (only 5 instead of 13) and work with a volunteer. That´s what we´re going to talk about; isn´t that exciting!! (shut up and be excited)

So, we spent a week in Iyu (pronounced eeeeww, which is very funny and, apparently, means black water. Y means water.) We taught a charla (class/speech) and then it rained a lot. ... maybe I should back up...

We left Monday morning around 7 am and had a five hour car ride across some rather scary roads. My stomach was not entirely thrilled, I was in the back seat of a ´nice´ jeep/car/vechile thing. (right out of the states) We needed it because the roads were so bad... dirt roads and it´s been raining. Lots of rain, gullies deeper than the tires. I was in the back, so my knees were in my face. Much fun was had.

We showed up for lunch, ate, and then hung out at the school and dug a hole for the trash. (They really just dig a hole for their trash there, Katie? No, they normally burn it, which is worse. It´s right in front of their house. But, seriously, what is that compared to what we do? Where does your trash go? They bury or burn it, you just can´t see it. That plastic bottle, grocery bag, or wrapper on your food? That´ll be around for the next five hundred years. 2509. Just like here. But burying that crap is a lot better than burning it, because burning releases the toxics into the air where we can breath it. We need to get over our plastic addiction. ... Anyway...)

We only did a little digging, the kids mostly took over. The kids do most of the work here. Childlabor is what it´s all about - dig a hole, get more water for terere, walk with me because women can´t walk alone (a small child makes me totally safe?), carry the board outside, clean out the classroom (sweep and mop), whatever. However, the children are also ridiculously spoiled, so it works.

We had class (I had the best teacher all to myself, but we really only talked. It was fun.) And in the evening, the power went out in the middle of my shower. (Apparently, it´s something that I do because it happened EVERY TIME). I played my mandolin for the family and it was fun.

Tuesday, we preped and gave our charlas. We started outside but it was too windy and went inside. We did the dangers of burning trash, check out the pictures and you´ll see the one of me covered in examples of the dangers. In the afternoon, Dan and Jen gave their charla, which was also interesting. That night, Brenden had his English Class and we helped out with that (saying our names and everything - no one believes I´m 30 and I can´t really blame them.)

Wednesday, it looked like rain so I headed to the school early. I didn´t bet the rain, and there was only one boy there. The directora vica showed up shortly after and then Brenden, so we hung out, drank terere and I played my mandolin. Brenda eventually arrived and then Jen and Dan came, they were given a ride. We all took that (and picked up Lora) and crashed Pabla´s morning to practice spanish.

...
We did a lot more... went on an amazing walk, milked a cow... Thursday, we hung hung out at the school and did icebreakers (games) between reforestration presentations for high school students. Much fun was had by all. I am now leaving. chao

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44649812@N06 ... go here for fotos!

Hey all.

I don´t know how many people even keep in touch this way anymore, but I thought I´d give it a try (otro vaz). Life here is nice, I don´t recall what I´ve told you already. The food is mostly meat, pasta, rice and mandioka. Occasionally there is a salad (I had a veggie salad the other day) and there is, rather often, juice from freshly ground fruit. (for lunch today, it was beets. That is not a fruit but that is not my fault. Actually, it is my fault, I brought the beets back after this weekend from a graden.)

Normally, for breakfast, I have chocolate con leche (chocolate milk) and pan. (Did I mention pan earlier? I eat so much white bread now.) The chocolate is a mix (nestle, in fact) so the richness varies with the day. I do not put sugar in but Mariam (my host sister) tends to put one or two large spoonfulls in. I do that if they serve cafe con leche. The milk is, basically, fresh. They always boil it before surving it. (It´s not pasturdized, after all). So yeah, whole milk all the way.

Lunch is a large meal here. It tends to be some kind of pasty-soupy meat thing. Today was pasta shells with beef. Not my favorite. I like when it´s the soupy thing with dumpling things (they´re about an inch big) but that tends to come with chunks of meat. ... Meat on the bone, that I am supposed to cut off and eat. Normally, there is nothing worth cutting off and eating. I am not a fan of that and tend to put in a poor effort in trying to eat it and then give it away. There was a salad with today´s lunch, there is occasionally - lettuce (lachuga) , tomatoes, onion y green peppers (locotas). Fortunately, mom was there so Sara did not put on the salt, she just did that with her own. It is disgusting, but at least they have never tried to serve me the salad with salt and mayo. Double-thousand icky.

Like I said earlier, they tend to jucie their fruits and drink them. Today was an exception, with the beets, though I believe with had a carrot and manana juice once (manana is apple). That was bizarre but not bad. This isn´t a daily thing but it is not infrequent either. Really, the food is not all that different. The boiled carne (beef) is not yummy.

Dinner tends to be smaller. Most often it´s empanadas. My favorites are the choclo (corn) and jamon (ham). The pollo (chicken) is just a bunch of meat, the other two have quiso (cheese) in them as well. Speaking of quiso, the most awesome thing here is the yogur, which is drinkable. I cannot tell you how yummy this is. My mom works in a dairy factory and comes home with a 1.5 liter bottles of yogur - vanilla, frutilla (strawberry) and coco (coconut). The last of which, I do not love lots. But it is so GOOD. They should invest in drinkable yogurt in the states.

My favorite snack here? Fiber crackers. I kid you not, they´re 7 grain crackers or something like that. We get tons of pasta, white bread, and meat, but not so much vegetables or dark bread. In fact, no dark bread. I love my crackers. (My mom brings home cheese and I put that on them. I don´t know anything about cheese but, if you are a cheese person, you should be jealous of me. I astound everyone with my yummy cheeses.)

I think that´s about it. I hope everyone is alive and well, and eating as much as me. (okay, I don´t actually hope that. Finishing off my plate of food is really rather difficult, and I rather miss my veggies. sigh.)

Chao!

Just an FYI. Someday I´ll write something here but not right now. I´m having a low day. Yesterday I was pretty excited and life was good. It´s warm down here, often hot, but it´s also spring time so, occasionally, we´ve had some bone chilling days. Not so many of those now. A couple of nice storms as well.

The food is nothing exciting. Training is boring and my spanish sucks. Poco a poco.

Love ya all!

(if you want me to talk to you, email me. When I have emails, I answer them)

Okay, so I mean to sit here and do this instead of running off (as has been my habit as of late). In fact, you'd be surprised how many times I've had to give up.

So, obvious big news, the flight leaves at noon tomorrow and so the journey begins around ten-ish. Now let's talk little things

I've not finished the paper work yet. I hate paper work.
I bought a netbook. It's a minicomputer, much more powerful than my old one, much smaller and only 3 lbs. It doesn't have a CD player (that's how small it is) and most of that weight is battery life (which would be 9 hrs worth of power). I'm still getting used to it. Incidentally, it comes equiped with skype. I haven't played with that yet but I think you should all email me your skype names. (Don't point out that I'll be gone before I (most likely) recieve your reply. To use skype, I'll need the internet, which includes my mail or lj. Send it to my email, that works a lot better.)

I've given out my address to those who asked for it. If you want it, you'll have to ask again. I don't know when I'll be connected to the internet again. I have to look up Carol and Julie's address, because I can't find them easily. Silly girls.

Other news... I've had to repack my luggage for two solids days. I hate luggage. Luggage sucks. I almost hope it all gets lost so I never have to see it again. In fact, I've already started my mental list of what IS NOT coming back with me. Curious? I knew you would be - my sheets, my... I forgot. Whatever. (mom's phone won't stop ringing.)

Oh, I've given my phone to my dad. I'll still have my number, technically, for another year, and my card is in Dad's old phone but it'll be sitting here, in gr, in storage.

I've downloaded all but two of the radio labs (from npr). I wanted all but they're not titled and I'm not sure which ones I missed. If you haven't listened to them, you should check them out - http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/. I was going to get some "This American Life" but they have so many. I also, of course, have Johnny Dollar, who I enjoy even if no one else does. (He's on my mp3 player. Yes, I know you're not impressed Jenni, but I will survive. Also, I've got the netbook.) My guilty pleasure, at the moment, is trying to download Dr. Who from iTunes. (I don't know how much it costs, I have to get all this iTune stuff first and it's slowing the computer down lots. I'm going to copy this thing before I hit the post button.) WIll I be able to play it on my other computer? I don't care. I probably won't buy it. I just want to pretend I'm going to.

What else? Not much. Sorry, I have been really dull as of late. I finished up my spanish on Friday, saw Mimi and Aunt Grace on Sunday, the pictures I printed are being picked up, and I'm all packed. My room isn't clean but I'll do that while I can't sleep tonight. Jo, I just remembered that I'm supposed to be working on Kitch's first story so I'm working my way through it again. I make no promises about when you'll get it. (maybe I'll just get it published and mail you a book? yeah, right. I'm sure I can arrange that while in Paraguay.)

Well, have a wonderful night all, I'll see you around.

And then I'm gone.

I feel I should say more but it's all down to waiting now. Got a little bit of laundry and... ugh, I've no concentration. I just want to go. Vamos! Ahora!

(as in, eating our potential energy by sending us back in time. that part was a little confusing. also, I forgot why, but they could only move when you weren't looking at them, except they could move very fast if you stopped looking at them. Hence, blinking was bad - AND THEY WERE SCARY!!!)

Las estatuas van a comiandos nuestros!!
AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

(las estatuas estan comiandos nos? las estatuas estare ir a comiandos nuestros? I don't know, but very scary... also, I need accents...)
regardless -

AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Among the many things I have to do, none of them is play around on the internet chasing larks. But I like this lark and thought I'd pass it on. A curiosity, but it's a list of books assigned in high school from around the world. I may check into the Mexico and Venezuela one. (After all, I definitely have time to read a book in a foreign language before I go.)

 

For one of my spanish lessons, they said "28 days, weeks, months, years" And I was supposed to click on the appropriate picture. 
While I recognized vientiocho anos (years) easily, I couldn't tell the rest apart. I don't know the difference between a 28 day old baby and a 28 week old baby, or a 28 week and 28 month old baby. (I could blame the pictures, as days was a foot, the weeks was looking over dad's shoulder and not until the months did I see the whole kid, but, really, I am just that pitiful)

Now you know what my days are like. (mis dias)

I am nothing but a bunch of little projects that are being ticketed off, one at a time.
This time, it was my Resume and Aspiration Statement. (I kid you not, they named it after breathing. I had a hard time not hinting at deep, meditative breaths when they asked what my aspirations were for serving and adapting to Paraguay.) Yesterday, it was arranging plan tickets to Miami, which is our staging city before departing for Paraguay.

I'm gone this weekend (it's really sad when friends become part of the check list - Jenni and April in NYC before leaving DC, Julie and Tracey while visiting England, all sorts of college friends at the Ren Faire. Next week is Mom's family; at some point I'll have to say bye to Dad's but that's only four, all of whom live in east Grand Rapids. easy peasy, that one.) Anyone up for one last ren faire, let me know. Otherwise, I'll probably let it slide.

Next week itself is room cleaning - packing for storage and traveling, as well as making shopping lists. (I can leave the shopping for the week after. I hate shopping.) Mostly, I'm just doing a lot of writing and swimming (except now it is not even warm outside, making swimming more difficult. I might have to start walking or I will turn into a lump with a laptop.)

I wish I had something exciting to tell you but I don't.
Chau!

I have started doing that annoying habit of all people who study a foreign language - putting up random posts in thelanguage which none (or very few) of their friends understand. So far, I've kept it only gmail's status bar/chat-thingy, but it may spread in the coming days. I apologize in advance.

Yesterday, for the first time, I timed my study time (as in, I looked at the clock, on the computer, when I started) and discovered I wasn't spending as much time at learning Spanish as I'd thought. So I  put some more effort into it and, though out the day, spent a total of 4-ish hours at it, concluding that that was A LONG TIME. I felt like I did it all day, but... really? Four hours? That's a morning at work, prep and teaching time for TAing, a relaxing evening writing, a long conversation with friends, dinner and a movie... that's not A LONG TIME. It would be if I'd done it all at once but it was, mostly, in hour long incriments. Time is an interesting thing.

To make you laugh - I can't pronounce 'Hola' correctly. It takes me at least two, if not five, tries. Yup, that Spanish thing is going well for me...

In case you are curious (which you're probably not but, if you're like me, you may be bored and therefore interested in a little time wasting; that I can help with) do not mistake a basil leaf for a spinach leaf. Even if has just come out of the garden, a basil leaf is not a spinach leaf and the entire time you (or I) eat it, you (meaning me) will think "what an odd flavour. This would be so much better with something else." Also, you're stomach may think it odd as well, which is normally not a good sign.

Guess what's going on in my life!?!? SPANISH!! Guess what else! Kitch! (I'm going to be gone for two-ish years, I've got to get some things straightened out. As soon as I do, you'll get them to you Jo, I promise. And then you've got all sorts of time to get them back to me. I think it took more than two years for you to edit it though. I write way too much.) 

What am I not doing and should be doing? Updating my resume and writing a new essay/statement in a specific format thing for the Peace Corps to give my host country (grumble, brumble, one more stupid "purpose statement"). Cleaning/packing my room and belongings. Selecting/packing what I need to bring. Listing/finding/buying what I need and don't have. More studying of spanish. Not spending any more money whatsoever if it's at all possible. (Not broke, not yet, but they're two-ish years when I'll not be making any noticeable money. ... Of course, I think last semester was the first time I ever made noticable money and I don't think anyone but me was impressed with the amount.) 

And that is my life. When Laura goes job hunting, I will start back into spanish (castillano); until then I get to write some more. (If the grammer of this posting is any indication, my story may be in serious trouble. I keep leaving words out.) 

I'm leaving on Sept 22nd. I'll be back Dec 11, 2011. I'll be doing environmental education instead of forestry. It's a lot of community based outreach. Good stuff, yes?

I have lots more information on it, but you'll here about that later.

He's just come out with a book, apparently, and the Grand Rapids Press has a section on him in the "Your Life" section. I know he meant a lot to many of you so I thought I'd mention it quick. (I don't think anyone else gets the GR Press...)

Anyway, here's the website: http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/08/profile_of_poet_and_teacher_ja.html

ciao

So I'm worried that if I open the door, the food inside will spoil (already trashed everything in the freezer, which was likely a bad idea because it was still cold and that cold was spreading to the fridge and at least helping a little. there is no help now.) After nine am, which happened a few minutes ago, I can call up places and ask how much it'd be to check out the cooling unit and fix it. (Can I convince them just to have an extra cooling unit on hand when they come so they don't have to leave and come back again? How much does a new fridge cost anyway? let's find out... ack! these things are expensive! well, that's depressing. I bet a new cooling unit will be much cheaper, even if we have to pay for the man to check it out and then again to come back and put it in.)

But, you know, if I don't eat the food, it might just get tossed out anyway. Let's go find out if the unit has magically started working again. ... nope, just the fans. Now it's unplugged and I can't get to the food regardless because it's pushed up against the island. :(

And it's supposed to be hot, so they'll be no baking unless I want to super heat the kitchen, which is normally the coolest room in the house. (well, not actually, but of the rooms I'll hang out in, it's either this, the living room or my room, the last of which becomes stuffy and warm even in slightly more than mild weather and makes me fall asleep. I have a hard time being productive while sleeping.)

Drat, now I'm just hungry and entirely uninterested in telling you the interesting things I had to say. I'm leaving.

I'll write more about England later, but I'd like to say that I enjoyed it immensely. Not only was it wonderful seeing Tracey and Julie (and Nick) but I had a wonderful no matter what we did. I've now been to London (with Tracey) and then Scarborough, Leeds, York, Cambridge and Manchester with Julie. (My favorite was the times talking with my friends.)

I talked to the peace corps lady today also. I have learned nothing new. This is rather frustrating.

Now Ginny and I are going to make lists.

Tomorrow at this time, I'll be on an airplane. Friday morning, I'll be waking up (I'd better sleep) on an airplane and disembarking at Heathrow. I will then be in England and run about London for two days with Tracey. YAY! And then I will spend a week and a half with Julie. YAY! (poor Julie)

Right now, I need some food. it's hard to be excited while hungry