You see, someone in the neighborhood behind the school apparently is unaware that their radio has settings other than "very loud" and "very, very loud". Either that or they consider it a public service to supply the entire neighborhood with music. You only think I'm kidding.
On any given week night the music will be up so loud that sitting in my bedroom with my noisy fan on, the music is loud enough that it would almost seem as if someone in the next room is playing their music a little loudly. Typically the music turns off somewhere in the 11pm range. On weekends, particularly, Saturday night, the music is loud enough to almost sing along to, and typically is still playing when I get up in the morning.
I could point out that the school is surrounded by almost three story concrete walls...
So far, I've heard everything from Adel to traditional Paraguayan music. Tonight they've thrown some new agey stuff in, followed by techno.
Of course, as I sit here typing this, I've suddenly realized that I can't hear music anymore, instead I can hear normal evening sounds. Practically a first!
Paraguay is an interesting country to live in. The culture is both surprisingly easy to get used to, and yet, there are somethings that are so different.
For example, and I know this seems small, but people really love their fireworks. I mean, really love them. They let them off when they win a soccer game, or when they lose, or whenever they just have some lying around. They also make their own fireworks sometimes. As I live next to a neighborhood park with a soccer field, this means that at any given time I may be treated to the sound of miniture bombs going off. The first night I heard them it really scared me. It was late in the evening and all I could hear was what sounded like guns, shouting, and a (random) police siren. I pretty much though there was a riot going on in the streets. Usually I ignore it, but yesterday they let off an usually loud round of them all at one time and it startled me so much I fell of the edge of the bed! Unfortunately, my new bed is a lot higher off the floor than my bed upstairs... :( Needless to say, anybody with PTSD, probably should not visit me.
Also, getting used to having to go to many different stores for what I need is hard to get used to. There are some stores that have multiple items, and I found one yesterday, but typically, if you want clothes you go to one store, home things at another, and so on. There is a mall, but it is expensive. Hopefully a friend will be taking me and another girl to an area downtown with several cheaper clothing stores and other stores where things are actually affordable. I really need some shorts, it's getting hot faster than I expected (92 degrees in winter!)
It's also strange not to know my way around. I mean, I'm not that great a navigator at the best of times, but to have to plan out small trips a day in advance so I can ask someone what bus to take and where to get off is a little frustrating sometimes. I'm learning pretty fast though, and I really like taking the busses. I've run a few errands this week just so I could stretch my knowledge of the bus system and use them by myself. Thankfully, I live just a few blocks down on the same street as the big social security hospital, so no matter how lost I get there are about ten busses that will get me within a ten minute walk of home! All I have to do is look for a bus with I.P.S. painted on the door and flag it down. I like flaggin down busses, it makes me feel like someone in a movie flagging down a big taxi. Sometimes, the bus even ignores you (only very rarely though).
I also like using the key pad to get through the gate into the school, especially at night when I look over my shoulder. I feel very spy-like (cue spy music).
I'm really enjoying getting to eat lots of fresh foods, and I'm exploring a few new easy recipes (google is my friend). I made chicken and twice baked potatoes to rave reviews from my roommate and neighbor.
Rosemary Honey-mustard chicken
I finally have roomate number one, and she's pretty great. I think we are going to get along well. Roommate number two and the reason we needed to move downstairs comes in two weeks. I'm excited to get to know her, she seems like she's had some interesting teaching experiences, and she's from England!
Speaking of which, did I mention I moved downstairs? Because I did. It's a change but I'm getting used to it. The hardest parts are that 1. being on the bottom floor I don't feel like I can keep my window curtains open all the time 2. It's tall, like really really tall. I think that Paraguayans built the upstairs and giant Americans built the downstairs. The bottom shelf of my kitchen cabinets is about where the top shelf of the ones upstairs were. I can barely touch the top shelf. Lydia, my current roommate is my height, so that's a problem. We are trying to figure out how to shorten the kitchen a bit. The other roommate is a little taller, so we can give her the upper shelves when she gets here. I can't wait!
So very high!
So thats's about it this time. My big excitement this week is a birthday party during lunch and after on Friday, followed by family field night that evening. Apparently parents here often do more than just cupcakes for birthdays, especially for my age kids. That will be a new experience, as well as family night, where each grade team has booths and games set up to raise money for the class PTA fund. Luckily we have great room parents who are pretty much taking care of it all! :)
Feel free to comment or send me messages on facebook, I love to hear from friends back home!
Also, I have a album of pictures of random daily life on facebook (it loads pictures faster than the blog. Check it out!
Prayer Requests:
Pray for safe travels for Jacqui, our new roommate.
Pray that God would raise up a generation of leaders in the junior high and high school students.
Pray for me as I continue the adventure of teaching and managing a class of kinders for the first time!
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