With the days numbering, I just can't help but think about what time is left and what to do with it.

My latest host family is amazing. After being with these people for just over a month, we have finally started being comfortable with each other - learning the other's quirks and how to live together - and I'm glad to know that i finally, FINALLY, have a paraguayan family. I've been told repeatedly that I'm going to be missed when gone, and even though I've promised to call when home, I know that I'm most definately going to be leaving a piece of me behind with these people, in this place. Weird.

My feelings can be summed up rather simply. (These words are stolen from a text zan sent me...sorry.)
''The thing is, I hate leaving people but I'm addicted to travelling around. That makes no sense...''
But life rarely does. Who knew that I'd figure that out here.


But anyhoo, even though I'm leaving so soon, I'm finally settling down here-

My daily routine is that exactly - a routine. After five months of summer vacation and not knowing what I was going to do that day until that morning, having a daily way to go about my business is kind of weird, but just a reminder of how it'll be once I'm home. I wake up at five every morning and hop onto the bus half-asleep to school, which takes an hour. I always am plugged in, listening to Frankenpod (thanks again, daddy!) and snooze my way through the ride. I always get off the bus early so I can walk a little bit and wake up, in fear of getting hit on the head by a number of objects if I'm found sleeping in class. (Known from experiance..haha)
My school day is somewhat boring - now that Im no longer a hot commodity being new and all, my companeros have fallen in step with me. I still get greeted in the halls by random strangers (''hola hannah montana!!!'') and I'm still friends with all of the teachers. Overall, life is good.
It's just weird to think that I only have a month left of this.


This coming weekend I'm going to el chaco on an AFS trip (i'm the only american going, so it's basically just me, serkan (from turkey) and about 30 germans. Fun fun fun, since they all call me 'nazi'... we'll see how that goes.)
Once I get home from this marvoulous adventure I will surely post pictures and talk all about it.

Next weekend is our final AFS campamento - it's all based on going home, and how to deal with what you're going to see/feel/expieance. That's hard to think about - going home. As much as i miss being home and the people there, and sometimes even fantasize about how being home is actually going to be, I know iIcan't actually imagine it.
I officially fly out of Paraguay on July 8th at 18:00, and after a couple hours of layover in Buenos Aires I'll hop on good ol American Airlines and touch down in Miami around 6.00. Whoa. After a few hours of customs, I hop on another plane, and then i'll be in o'hare by 11, where the smiling faces of my family (and a Zan! will be waiting for me just beyond security, or at baggage claim, maybe. Double whoa.

But back to paraguay.
The next next weekend is that of my birthday(!) where there are many plans, but none set in stone... they range from having a huge asado at my house to heading back to my first house here in Paraguay (that of the Perez family, not sure how I feel about that) and partying it up with Jorge and a few of my friends. We'll see though. a very paraguayan thing to do is not plan, and then come up with what you're going to do at the very last second, and I'm pretty srue that is what's going to happen.

After that, I'll have just over 20 days left in Paraguay. It's very hard to believe - all year I've had this feeling that my time here is never going to end. I've known how much time is left since the plane first touched down, and now, that I've finally stopped counting and focusing on missing home, I'm truely enjoying my time here.
That, and the fact that many of my friends have started heading home has kind of slapped me back into the reality of my situation.

So hopefully third time's a charm, eh?

As of tomorrow, I'm going to be moving to my newest residence in Paraguay con la familia Diaz...a family so close and intricated that I had some trouble keeping up with who's who the first few days. But all's well, because for the first time in Paraguay, I'm a part of a family. A living, breathing, included, part. I never get left behind in the dust or ignored like I did with my first couple famlies.

So the story goes like this:

About a month ago, my second host family and I decided it best if I go ahead and move out - I didn't want to be there, and they didn't want me there. I'm not going to badmouth them or anything. It just didn't work out...again.
In between all of this family chaos and another trip to the hospital I continued with my schooling..(of course.) But this past month was filled to the brim with tests (which I don't do) so I decided to explore my school. And just like at home, I'm friends with most of the staff (especially the office lady) because I'm justsodarnedcute and charming. =]
So after hearing the tale of my then current wearabouts, the school secretary, Bettina, offered her house to me for Semana Santa. (Holy Week, a time where the country shuts down and you spend all your time with your family, and since my family and I weren't on the best of terms, I packed up and headed right to Bettina's house.)
I was immediately swept up in the meaning of a true Paraguayan family. Betty and her family live seperately from the rest, but close, and see the extended family almost every day.

Her sister, Paty, is my new host mom. Paty has three boys (16, 8, and 6) who are my host brothers. Mis abuelos live with mi tia Cynthia and her daughter Sol. My grandma (we call her Tata) basically runs the show, and feeds us all. So I'm technically living with Paty, but eating at Tata's, which is just fine with me. Tata is a great cook. =]
I've basically gone from having no family at all to actually having one...not just a place to sleep in but a real family. A real real family. I don't think I'll ever want to leave.

(Me and my german friend Niko drinking tereré.)

This past tuesday, my summer vacation in Paraguay officially ended, after four blissful months of sleeping in, hiding from the heat, hanging out with Zan in her garden, or with Emerson in el centro and travelling to the far reaches of this beautiful country I'm in. (By the way, as of March 1st I've been here for seven months. Time flies, definately.)
Most of the time though, I was exploring. I hopped on new busses in my hometown of Asunción, hoping it went to where I wanted to go. I hopped on fancy Greyhound-like busses that took me to the other side of the country, heading to lugares such as Ciudad del Este, Encarnación and Pedro Juan Caballero.

But now, I'm taking on a new adventure - Paraguayan school. Yes, I was enrolled in Colegio Del Sol for a few months, but that hardly counted. CdS is one of the most pristine private schools in all of Paraguay, so almost all of my classmates spoke English. I barely learned any Spanish. However, my spanish has rapidly improved in the three days that I've been in my new school, Colegio Expiremental Paraguay y Brasil (CEPB).

CEPB is a private schol too, but with less money, so it's more tranquilo. My host dad drove me in, walked me to the office, introduced me, then promptly left me without a word. So started my first day of school. I'm in 2do 'A' -- the grades are broken up into two classes - A and B -- but my AFS friends Emerson and Janneke are in 2do 'B'. The two opposing classes hate each other, and I happen to be Switerland. I'm friends with all of mis compañeros, but I'm also already friends with kids in the 'B' class. So basically, there's a war going on to see who I like more, A or B. I wish I was kidding, but no. It's a hard-core battle to win my love/attention. Almost everyday I have something to do after school, whether it be with 'A', 'B', or AFS students. I've gone from having nothing to do all day to having too much. It's nice, but really hard.

(Some of mis compañeras and I, at a friend's house.)
In class, I do rendir, (try, basically, but there really isn't a direct-translation for it into English) but only in some classes. Physics, for example, I wouldn't understand in English, let alone Spanish, so I just kind of sit there and doodle in my notes. In my math class, we're learning stuff I learned a few years ago, so no problem. I really fell back into the 'school' pattern quite nicely; honestly, I was seriously worried about how I'm going to go back to BHS after spending a year here. But I have been doing this for almost 12 years of my life, so it really wasn't that hard. The school atmosphere might be different between BHS and CEPB, but it's still basically the same thing - sitting there, taking notes, and getting tested on the material.

Overall, I'm in a good place. These last four months are going to fly by, for sure. I'm having problems with my new host family, but I'm sure I can hold up for four more months. Nothing too horrible going on that I can't deal with.

ps: AFS gave me my offical return date! I fly out of Asunción on July 7th at 18:00. So I should be back in America the 8th!