Let the Caaguazu Games Begin.

Well boys and girls, today I'm moving to site. Such a surreal, stark change from everything I've become accoustomed to thus far that it's almost too overwhelming to comprehend. Today is one of those times where I just have to move from step to step (pack bags, check, leave hotel, check, visit PC office, check, make way to terminal...) because if I look at the overall picture, I think I'll have a PY panic attack.

Last Friday, I stood up in front of the American Ambassador, took an oath to make America proud, and agreed to two years of service in my new home in Caaguazu. Then we ate the best chocolate cake ever; all the buildup we got from staff and current volunteers and it didn't disappoint (in my opinion, PY's really don't grasp how baked goods should be. Betty Crocker could find her niche down here.) After three months of classes, supportive host communities, and my closeknit group of former aspirantes (now Volunteers!!)I'm suddenly floundering through Paraguay completely on my own. It was a nice feeling the past couple of days, getting to make my own decisions about the days' activities and navigating the city like a champ after being out in the campo since February, but today hugging people one by one as we all loaded our bags into the taxis and dispersed throughout the country, the reality of being "THE American" in my community could no longer be ignored. At least we received cell phones when we swore in, so we can call each other to complain about getting Mondongo (some unidentified cow intestines, possibly stomach, no one could really define it for me, that I got served my prior visit to Caaguazu)or when I'm lonely and have spent too much time inside my own head after entire days of conversing like a 4-year-old in Guarani. (some commonly used phrases in my word bank: I want sleep. Delicious Food. I speak little Guarani. My head hurts. Leave me alone, goat. (it started chewing on my clothes while drinking terere with the family.))

Recent points of interest: I made an investment for my sanity in solitude by purchasing a guitar in Luque, a city famous for manufacturing instruments, about two weeks prior. Another PCV taught me Steve Miller Band's, The Joker, and the closest volunteer to me plays guitar, so he's going to teach me (he doesn't know that yet.) That being said, an awesome suggestion to include in a care package would be some books on teaching yourself to play. Another end of training trip we took was to Caarpegua, a city famous for making hammocks. You better believe that I bought the only orange and blue checkered hammock that I could find. Every since I knew I was coming down here and found that video, "the sites and sounds of Paraguay," on YouTube, I knew the two splurges I had to make toward my tranquilo lifestyle would be these items. I can't wait until I finally move into my own house in August and can start living this dream.

Another interesting note was that I represented the Americans at Guasu Cora's cultural festival a couple evenings ago by belting our National Anthem per request of my friends. Don't worry there is video to come. Halfway through the evening it started to rain, so they had to relocate the performance to the school's hallway, so there I was singing to about 125 people, 11 or so who had a clue what I was actually saying.

Leaving GC was hard, both physically and emotionally. Physically because my stuff somehow seemed to procreate on its own and for winning "the girl who traveled here with the lightest/ least amount of bags" award (we watched the scales at the airport. I learned my lesson dragging an absurd amount of rollerbags across Europe.) I sure had to leave a lot of things in PC's long term storage for Don Pedro, the director of the health sector, to bring out to me when he comes to do my site presentation on June 10 (the official announcement to the community of who I am and what I came to do.) Emotionally as well, because at our farewell party a lot of the moms sang to us "amigos para siempre" (friends forever) little siblings were crying at the loss of their host brothers or sisters, and lots of grandmas were sobbing and giving us the benediction. It's unbelievable how close we all came to our host families. I'm going back in June for a combined birthday visit with some other PCV's to see my family and great aunt next door.

Asuncion was fun. I discovered Bolsi, where I had my first burger in months. BBQ sauce, carmelized onion, and blue cheese. I might be the slowest I've ever eaten as I didn't want it to end. There's only so many combinations of food made out of corn meal and pig fat that you can take before you start to lose interest in eating altogether. Sometimes I wonder if a PY ever visited the States if they'd just have a flavor overload. On the plus side, I've been fighting the PC stereotype that only the guys lose weight, while the girls gain it. Since arriving in February, I lost 11 lbs without much effort really, and judging from what I ate in Caaguazu on my visit, with three more months of floating between families, I can only see this trend continuing. On a side note, Ashley Glenn, when I saw those sour gummy worms in my care package last night, my soul did cartwheels.

Other fun activites included my first movie, which was surprisingly in English with subtitles (apparently most movies are this way) though the choice wasn't the best. All the girls wanted to see It's Complicated, which was so cheesily bad that being the only people in the theatre, we just sat there and made fun of the ridiculous background music and unrealistic, overly sappy, Abercrombie and Fitch model children of Meryl Streep. Very entertaining. We also went out dancing and to "Ahendu" an open mike night fundraiser for the music project with PY children, in which other volunteers performed, so that gave us a good chance to meet fellow PCV's in other sectors. The number of malls in this town was startling and I have a harder time with culture shock in Asuncion then with my rooster-alarmclock, wave to the man on the ox cart on my way to school, no shoes wearing children, etc. campo lifestyle since that's what I arrived expecting and am now accustomed to. Though, I can not tell a lie, I ate Burger King two days in a row (though Saturday was Dia de los Trabajadores, or Labor Day, so in my defense near everything was closed, limiting our options.)

Anyways, I'm starting to wander into the rambling portion of the entry as I'm putting off making the trek to Caaguazu, but I guess it's time to suck it up and see what this PCV is made of. I hope I don't have to sit close to any smelly Mennonites this bus ride.

Like I said above, I have a cell now. The number is listed on my facebook. If you don't have an account, email me and I'll forward it to you. It's free for me to receive calls from the states and if you buy skype credit, it should be about 2 cents/minute for you to call me. Also I hopefully have a computer coming from the states in June, and most importantly I am now in command of my own schedule as a PCV (self motivation is key) so we should all be in touch with higher frequency.

Talk to you soon, amigos.

Steph