My Top 10 Lists....

Hello all
  So I have recently discovered Google Reader (sometimes I wonder if I will EVER be in the loop, seriously!) and of course now love finding new blogs to follow. Many are scrapbooky, others are sciency or foodie. On one blog, Oh Happy Day, the blogger and her family moved to France a year ago and so she made a top 10 list of the things she liked and disliked about living there. See original post here. 


It inspired me to make my own list...Enjoy!


10 things that drive me crazy about PY


1) Slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow internet. One time my students asked me how fast the internet was in the US. I told them I didn't know a number or speed per se, but that it was so fast that you could load a Youtube video and pretty much instantly watch it (EVERYTHING has to buffer for awhile here). It was hard for them to wrap their brains around that one.LOL


This is how I get my internet - through a thumb drive!

2) Showers without a lot of control on the hot and cold temps. True, I am grateful to have hot water in the shower, but sometimes it is frustrating when my options are hot or cold and not nice and warm! 


This is a picture of the bathroom where I used to live. The bathroom where I live now is a tad bigger, but not a ton. The shower and the toilet are at least a little more separated.

3) It would be an interesting contest to see which country had the worst bureaucracy/red-tape, but I have a feeling PY would still win out. If you are really interested, ask me the amount of things someone has to do to get a temporary work visa here!sheesh


4) 115 degree heat with like 80% humidity at times - enough said.


5) The lack of central heating and central a/c in the houses - When #4 is happening, do I really want to leave my nice air-conditioned room to go cook lunch in a un-air-conditioned kitchen?


6) Other than food, most things here are pretty pricey since everything gets imported. Cars, appliances and things for the house are the worst!


7) There is a serious lack of spicy food here. In fact, hardly anybody evens owns a pepper shaker - many think pepper itself is actually too spicey. WHAT? I have found a few fellow spicy food lovers out there though, but they are few and far between.


8) There is a very strong national pride here, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to translate into maintaining sidewalks and streets. Most sidewalks have holes and broken tiles. It's really sad actually. I think they could attract more tourists if they really tried to fix the place up a bit.


Hopefully you can see how bad the sidewalk is at the bottom of the photo




9) Many people still believe like THE CRAZIEST wives tales. For example, apparently you aren't supposed to eat a watermelon and then take a shower because it will make you sick, or something like that. IDK Now I can't confirm that one, but here is one that I can.... I was eating mangoes at my friend's house and then asked for a glass of water when I was done since I was thirsty. She then told me that I shouldn't do that because I will turn yellow. WHAT? Yes, she was serious. I drank the water anyway (stubborn anyone?) and then showed her 2 hours later how I still hadn't turned yellow (ok yes, I had to prove that that wasn't going to happen, haha so shoot me) . This is the best example I can think of, but it seems like people are always throwing random stuff out like that. Ok maybe I am little biased (prideful?) since I am a science teacher with an uncle who is a doctor, an aunt who is currently a nurse and my mom who was a nurse, but seriously - turn me yellow? *sigh*


10) Having to walk and take the bus everywhere - this especially drives me crazy at night when buses tend to stop running or when it rains.

10 things I love about PY - ok so let's think more positively =)

1) There are literally flowers all year-round. Trust me, I have checked! Every month you can find flowers blooming - even in the winter. All different colors too - It's awesome!

2) The bottles of soda and water are always kept in the fridge, so no need for ice. LOVE IT. (I should explain that almost none of the restaurants have fountain drinks. You usually buy bottles of coke and water with your meals.)

• Bonus point: I LOVE that guys get on the bus selling cups of ice cold coke for like 25 cents
• Extra bonus point: I LOVE that the coke here is made with real sugar and not that high fructose corn syrup junk. Almost makes it healthy right?

These are the tiny bottles of coke that the guys have when they get on the bus. Pop one of those bad boys open, pour the soda into a plastic cup and you have yourself a refreshing drink on a hot day!Yum

3) If you convert prices to US dollars, the food here is actually really cheap (not as much if you just focus on local money).  I love that I can get like 6 hot fresh rolls at the store for like 25 cents or during citrus season, 6 oranges for like 50cents. Rock on! Right now 4500 guaranis = 1 Dollar. These rolls cost 1,519 guaranis - you do the math! =)

5) There is always an ample supply of fresh fruit and Paraguayans love to make fresh juice out of it - so yummy.

Delicious plums!

 

6) It may seem simple, but I like that I can drink the water from the faucet without any problems. People here will tell you that the water isn't very good, quality-wise that is. But I have been drinking the water here without any problems so far (knock on wood of course). It just makes it easier in terms of showering, brushing ones teeth, eating salads... It's just nice not to have to worry about all of those things!

7) Soccer fanaticism - now yes, we Americans can get into our sports, it's true. But honestly, I think international soccer fans are in a whole other league. The closest I have seen to this level of craziness excitement is when I went to the Georgia/Florida game. But while close, even that doesn't quite compare! 


This is what happens when the Olimpia soccer team (local club mind you) scores a goal!

8) I do like how there are lots of mom and pop shops here. Unlike other big cities in South American, there are actually not a lot of American chains here.There are some PY national chains, but even that only means like a few in the city (vs one on every street corner, aka Walgreens or Starbucks). In fact, there are only 5 American restaurants down here - can you guess what they are? Now if you go to Santiago mind you, you could seriously live like an American - I think they have like every restaurant chain down there!

9) If you even try to learn a little Guarani, they love you. I know like a dozen words, MAYBE. But, every time I use one, they LOVE me for it!The people here really can be super friendly, especially to visitors from other countries - they love us! =)

10)  Having to walk and take the bus everywhere  - hey it's cheaper than a car, plus I don't have to deal with traffic or crazy corrupt cops!

So there you have it, my top 10 good and bad things about PY.  

As my time here starts to wind down, if you have any questions about PY or want me to take pics of something that you want to see, just let me know! =)

hugs

Yummy PY Foods

So my other project for the year is to take a picture a day and FINALLY complete a Project 365 (or really 366 this year). I have attempted this many times in the past and have come close, but never actually been able to finish it. I see myself doing really well until I get back to the states, then we will see what happens. Here in PY I am hoping that the project helps me to capture all the small details that I won't want to forget on down the road.

This past month I took a bunch of food photos and thought I would share a few.  I think most know that I can tend to be a picky eater, so I was definitely nervous about the food situation when I made the decision to come down here. Fortunately, the food here is very "normal," plain and easy to eat *whew.* Lots of chicken, beef, pork, pasta, rice. The food isn't even spicy down here (which I DO miss). They don't even have salad dressing down here (if they dress it up it will just be lemon and salt or oil and vinegar) - perfect for me! 

This is a photo one of my FAVORITE soups here - it's called Bori Bori de Pollo. Although to be honest, I really only want to eat it if my friend Anita makes it, no one else's can compare! LOL

It is basically their version of chicken noodle soup. The balls are a mix of cornmeal and cheese. Then just chicken and various veggies. I have NEVER been a soup person (the ONE exception is my mom's chicken noodle soup). But this I can always go for.!

FYI the bread in the back are french rolls - you can get like 6 of those for like 25 cents - if even that much! ooh and when you can buy them at the store fresh and hot....soooo good!!!!

It may be a little hard to tell in this photo,but those are fruits growing off the wire lattice. They are passion fruits actually - not quite ripe here.When they are ripe they will be yellow and wrinkly.They always seem to have them grow on top of some type of wire lattice. the vine grows across the top and then the fruits hang down.

I would say the fruit here is hit and miss (my opinion)

SUPER YUMMY FRUITS: Strawberries, any citrus, plums, pears, mangoes,guava, passion fruit, 

                                             blackberries

NOT so yummy fruits: pineapple, peaches, grapes

Don't like bananas so I can't give you an opinion. Apples themselves can be hit and miss, green tend to be pretty good.

I actually wasn't super sold on passion fruit until my friend Laura made a passion fruit mousse - 

A-MAZING!!!! I have been hooked ever since! *note to self, don't forget to get that recipe!*

There is a guava jam here that everyone seems to love, except for me of course. It is in all the pastries or you can just buy tubs of it for your toast. I didn't like it from the beginning and therefore had never bothered to try the fruit since to me it smells like the jam, so pretty much figured it would taste the same. It wasn't until I traveled up to Tacuati and Eli's dad had trees of the fruit in his back yard. I went ahead and tried it and realized that it was actually pretty good. They even had a type that was yellow in the middle and a bit milder in flavor,which I like better. It was fun walking around the town picking fruit off the trees as we went to the river! =)  Still not sure I am up for a guava jam-filled croissant, but the fruit I can go for!

Here is a picture of asadito - basically just grilled shish-kabobs. The first one is chicken and the other one is pork. The whitish-yellow things are mandioca, or also known as yucca in the US (well in Miami at least). Mandioca is a root like a potato and has that starchy flavor to it. It is very traditional to eat mandioca with chorizo (a type of sauasage not pictured here) or with asadito. Actually they often eat it with any meal, but definitely when grilled meats are involved. They can be kind of a pain to peel though since the skin is thicker and tougher than a potato. But usually worth it in the end! =)

So those are some quick PY food photos from the month.


Right now I am just teaching one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for adults. Full-on teaching probably won't happen until March, so definitely trying to enjoy my last month of vacation.It is extremely hot here - about 100 every day, although until recently the humidity has been fairly low. Today thoughI think it was like 95 with like 90 percent humidity - never a fun combo! LOL  So just trying to stay cool, always grateful for my a/c.

Hope you all are doing well!