Paraguay Vs. Argentina

We enjoyed our first live soccer experience at the Defensadores Del Chaco stadium in Asuncion.  Paraguay played Argentina, our long time rival.  They have already beaten PY in a World Cup qualifier and pretty much dashed our hopes of seeing PY in the World Cup.  Soccer fans here do not waver in their support of their teams, even when they lose.  The stadium was packed with over 30,000 people dressed in red and white stripes to support our National Team.

Looking out across the field during the national anthem.  Sorry for the bad picture!

Our new teacher friends Ali, Adrianne, and Beau

We began our evening at a delicious lomito (meat sandwich or wrap) stand and hung around drinking beers for while.  You cannot take beer or other bottles of anything into the stadium, nor can you buy beer there, in an attempt to not add fuel to an already fired up crowd.

We lost 5-2, but it was a fun experience to be a part of.  And we got to see the very famous Messi play for Argentina!

Middle School "Lock In"

One of the the things I'm loving about my new job is how much attention is given to "fun" things.  I can see some problematic things with this approach, but I have to say that I'm enjoying the amount of "levity." (as my previous principal would say).  There are no attendance problems due to lack of motivation here-kids want to come to school.

One of these fun things includes a "Lock In."  All the students and teachers sleep at the school and the 24 hour period is filled with team building, competition, entertainment, and sports.  Students are broken into teams of advisories, each team have a group of 6th, 7th and 8th graders.  I'm an 8th grade adviser. I was the blue team, or "Azul Fuera." We hired a company to do the evening team building activities, then the teachers took over. Here's some of the team building activities:

 Next, each advisory class had to create a skit and a song/dance routine to perform for the school.  We had been practicing these for over two weeks.  Our skit was called "Helping Hands," which essentially was a way to embarrass Ms. Fowler.  The skit goes like this:  4 of us (3 students and myself) sat in chairs and put on a long sleeve, button up shirt backwards.  Two students then put one arm each through the arms of the shirt.  They become the "helping hands."  Our plot was that we were getting ready for a "Quince," a 15th birthday party.  Our stylist then told each of us what we needed to do to look great for the Quince.  Our "Hands" then helped us do this thing.  My beauty rituals included getting my hair brushed, brushing my teeth, and putting on lipstick.   The other three participants were boys and their beauty routine included shaving.  My "hands" at the last minute decided maybe I should get a shave as well.  Here's the results:

Of course, it was hilarious and we won the competition.
We also danced, to a Guarani (Paraguayan indigenous language) version of Gangham style.  And yes, I looked like a fool.

We watched "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," then went to bed around 2 am.  Well, some people went to bed. Most of the kids were up all night.  This resulted in some pretty unmotivated kids the next day.

The next day was spent working on service learning projects, eating asado (barbeque) and having a sports competition.  Blue team captured the trophy in the end and we all went home and slept!

Weird things seen in Paraguay...

This is in a place called "Parque de Salud" or health park.  It has really great advice like this all over the place.  This one says, "when you consume chicken, remove the skin to cook."  I run in this park and I'm so happy to be receiving such good advice.

Seen at a discount store in the open air market.  Although it feels like it might be Norway weather here right now, I'm not sure why this is here.

Many restrooms have this sign, which says to put your paper in the can. (the septic system can't handle paper, you always put it in the trash here, and everywhere I have ever been in Latin America).  This one is just odd because of the visual.  

Best advice I've had yet.

                                                                  

?

The thing is, all the toilet paper here is 1 ply.  and scratchy.

This wouldn't be that weird on it's own, but it was in a beef shop.

Adventuring out of the city-Cerro Lambare and Aregua

We took a trip to the outskirts of Asuncion to the neighborhood of Lambare.  There is a large hill (cerro) where you can see the city and the river.



View from Cerro Lambare.

 

A pink Lapacho blossom.  These trees blossom in the winter time all over the city.  They come in white, purple, and pink, but we mostly see pink ones.

 

The River Parana from Cerro Lambare.

The monument on top of Cerro Lambare.

 

 

This weekend, we traveled to the town of Aregua, about 25 kilometers from Asuncion, on Lake Ypacarai.  They have a strawberry festival happening. They are also known for their pottery.  We walked around town, bought some pots to start a container garden on our balcony, checked out the lake, and went to the festival.  We ate strawberry ice cream, strawberry cake, strawberry jam, and drank strawberry liquor.  We also brought home several pounds of strawberries!

On the shore of Lake Ypacarai

Strawberry fields in Aregua

Pottery on the streets of Aregua

Boats on the lake shore

Strawberry festival

 

 

Photos from Paraguay

 

 

 

A more typical plate of food would be overflowing with beef.  Pastas are also quite popular.
 

Ridding the bus seems to be an ideal way to get around town.

Buses can be hailed from anywhere, they are inexpensive, and run frequently.  The downsides: they have no schedule, no route maps and will not always come to a complete stop when you want to get off.

 

 

 

Mercado Quatro is the city's largest market and in typical fashion sells just about everything.

 

Live birds

 

 

 

Fish

 

Chaco-I is a small community across the river from Asuncion - pretty much a polar opposite.

 

This puma chased me for about 10km before it lost interest and decided to eat this little critter.

 

 

 

Things to appreciate

Working at a private school with students who have many advantages in life is a very different experience for me.  I am continually surprised at how things work here, mostly because it's so different than what I am used to.  There are some things that are quite frustrating, but for now at least, the surprises are turning out to be mostly positive!  Here are some things to appreciate:

1.  I get 80 minutes of planning a day.  My fellow teachers will appreciate this as a luxury.
2. Every Wednesday for 45 minutes we have a "fun" period.  This is where students are organized into teams and play sports.  No academics.  I watched them yesterday play soccer, basketball, volleyball, and dodge ball for a full 45 minutes.  None of the kids opted out, there was no fighting or arguing, and they were having a blast.  Not having to spend every second on "instructional time" is refreshing to say the least.
3. On top of Wednesday fun, I teach a 45 minute cooking class every Friday.  We're making chocolate chip cookies tomorrow!
4. Back to school night last night was standing room only.
5.  Parents email me back when I write them.
6. I can give homework and kids turn it in.  So far, I'm at 100% turn in rate.
7.  My colleagues, both American and Paraguayan, are hard-working people who truly care about kids.
8. I get to walk to school and home every day instead of sitting in traffic.
9. My students are sweet and polite to each other and to me.  I've gotten at least one hug per day since school started.
10.  85% of my students are at grade level in reading.

Teaching is a marathon, not a sprint, which I often have to remind myself.  I have to come back to this list when I'm struggling to get through the days...probably around November :)  I'm exhausted from all the changes in our lives right now and from the start of a new school year, but I'm content to be right where I am.

First day of school

I still get the nervous jitters every first day of school, but it's by far my favorite day of the school year. I've met most of my students now and my first impressions are that they are very sweet.  I gave a writing assessment my first day and as I walked around, I was amazed at the skill level and command of English my students have.  They are stronger writers than any students I've worked with so far.   This combined with the fact that my biggest class is 15 students makes me really excited to see what  the rest of the year holds! 

Here's a video of my classroom if you want to see it! 

Korean food in Paraguay

After two weeks of living in a hotel and eating continental breakfast and eating unfamiliar (mostly unhealthy) food, we ate at a fantastic Korean place this evening.  It's called Chez Bong.  We were the only people there, as most Paraguayans eat out around 8-10 PM.  I am thinking this will be a theme of our stay here, but it means we get great service!

Asuncion Week One

This week has been an orientation week for all the new teachers.  We've had tours, presentations from the US embassy, set up bank accounts, phones, eaten A LOT, and looked for housing.

We found an apartment on Tuesday, which is a huge relief.  Our apartment is two bedrooms and is about a 1/2 mile walk from the school.  It's in a complex of about 30 apartments and has a small pool, which will be a nice refuge in the hot summers.  It even has a room and bathroom for the empleada (maid)!  We will be using that space for a closet, but it is quite common for affluent people here to have a live-in maid. It can be expensive to live in this neighborhood, so we were lucky to find something within our housing budget so close to school.  We won't be able to move in until the end of next week.  Things move very slowly in Paraguay, something we are learning during the process of getting settled in.

In our free time, we've been looking for items for our house for when we are ready to move it.  We visited a used furniture store today and are visiting an open air market called Mercado Quatro tomorrow.  The school has been treating us very well and has been really supportive so far.  Several returning teachers have volunteered their time to show us around, take us to look at houses, take us shopping, and answer our endless questions.  Today, all the new teachers and any returning staff that is around went out to lunch at a "churrascaria" or a Brazillian grill.  The waiters come around with various meat on a long skewer and slice off whatever you want directly onto your plate.  I had some amazingly delicious food today, half of which I had no idea what it was.  It's an all you can eat situation and we certainly ate.
 E
all beer is served on ice here!

Asuncion Arrival

After spending 3 days in LA, attending a conference on media literacy, fishing at the beach, and taking a whirlwind tour of Venice Beach and Hollywood Blvd,  we embarked on our thirty plus hour journey to Asuncion.

Within an hour of our arrival we were at the school and had set up a cell phone plan and bank account.  Today, we found what we are hoping with be our new apartment.   Right now it feels like we are at some kind of teaching themed summer camp. We have done almost everything as a large group and we stick out when we're walking around the city.  We've listened to cultural advice, had a Q and A panel, and taken a walk around the neighborhood. The other new teachers seem like great colleagues and potential friends, however.  There are people here from all over the US, some having taught internationally before, and some brand new like us.  Things at the school have been chaotic, but everyone is helpful and friendly.

We're looking forward to settling in to our own place and getting to know the city. We'll post some pictures of our apartment and the school when we get settled.

Redondo Beach



Corvina !!!

ASA - Apparently home of the Gators (Alligators do not live in South America). 

                                             Kristi: excited to be in her new classroom.
                                      

Terere:  a cold brewed mate that people drink thought the day.