Fiesta fiesta fiesta!

Hello all,

So last Sunday after I got back from the orientation in Asuncion, my brother and mama picked me up from the bus station and we went to my brother's school celebration. September is the month where all the school's (elementary to high school) select their school's queen and king and all the princesses; It's kind of like the Paraguayan homecoming.  So for my brother's high school and all the other one's in the area, they meet at this big rectangular arena and have a parade with all the classmates and families and friends. Each school has their own section of the arena, so there's no fights, and all the students have such good school spirit it's pretty incredible. During the month before, the school all helps build a giant float, one with the queen standing on a pedestal, like the one's in Disneyland but bigger! Then all the princesses and queens get on it, and they slowly make their way down the middle of the arena and all the classes cheer and it's pretty fun. After there's a concert and festival and all the kids and families go. Paraguayan's are very family oriented which I enjoy a lot.

The Paraguayan's care a lot about beauty and getting done up, so these queens were wearing dresses like one you wear at a quincenera and their make-up and hair was all done, everyone looked very pretty! Even the little middle schooler's at my school got all done up.

I had a normal week after that, a lot of rain so I only went to school/work three out of the five days. At school one of the days, it's primavera now, (aka spring time) so the school gets all decorated and we celebrate. To teach the kids about it, they each planted their own plants and to learn about the fruit of spring, we made a big fruit salad in class and all the kids helped out, it was delicious!

On Saturday night, I went to a party in Encarnacion with my friends. It was very fun and we danced and met new people and had a great time. The parties are either in clubs or they rent out empty houses and have them there. There's security at every one and you have to pay a little to get in, but it's good because you know it's safe and that there's someone in charge haha. That was my week here, and I will try to post next Sunday!