Sunday - Asado Eatin´

Due to numerous requests for me to answer the question, "What exactly do you DO down there?", for the past week, I´ve documented TO THE MINUTE (or maybe that´s just what you´ll feel like when you read it) my life and daily activities. So as not to overwhelm you, I´ve decided to just post a day or two at a time. Let it commence:

"A Week in the Life of Amanda, PCV"

Sunday

After a pretty social Saturday night, I slept in til 8am, meaning that I didn’t set my alarm and that’s when I happened to wake up. It was a pretty tranquilo morning for the host family in general as well. I read some of The God of Small Things, and studied some Guarani as well. The family across the street had invited me to have asado (barbeque) for lunch with them, so I showered and put on some nice clothes and went over to their house around noon. I helped a little bit with the sopa (another type of Paraguayan cornbread) preparation, and then we sat around and térere-ed until the asado was ready. It also happened to be Valentine’s Day, so I got a few more questions than usual about my boyfriend, i.e. why I don’t have one, am I sure I didn’t leave one in the U.S , am I going to look for one here, and is it prohibited for me to marry a Paraguayan? The asado was delicious, the birthday girl (family’s daughter who lives in town and was visiting for the day) was indifferent towards me, and after I got my hopes up due to an invitation to the local National Park with waterfalls and all, they left without me, without warning (I had gone to get my bathing suit). Wahh-wahh.

So I stayed at my host family’s house, complained to them a bit, and then had my host mother tell me it wasn’t good for me to go anyway, because I was getting over a cold. That was not exactly what I wanted to hear. But later on, I talked to another PCV friend about it and we ranted together about how “sin verguenza” or “shameless” that was for them to leave without even telling me , and I felt much better. In the evening, Mom and Ris tried calling me but the connection wasn’t good. Still, it was great to hear their voices for a bit! I read some more of my book, watched “Friends” and “2 ½ Men” in black-and-white on Spanish TV with my host sisters, ate dinner with the family, and went to bed around 9pm.