My First Beauty Pageant

Everyday after school, I have a required Spanish class with all the other AFS students living in Ciudad del Este. The best thing about it is being able to see everyone and talk about how everything is going (most of the Spanish we´re going over I already know...the alphabet...parts of the body...etc.). We all discovered on Monday that Kate, a girl from Missouri, had somehow been selected to represent her school in a beauty pageant. She was pretty confused as to what she actually had to do, but wanted us all there for moral support. So....

Last night we all showed up at the Club Nautico in Hernandarias around 8 o´clock to discover that the show was a little larger than we had imagined. The venue was outside, in the center of some sort of fair grounds complete with a ferris wheel. There was a band playing quite loudly on stage, surrounded by strobe lights. The pageant itself didn´t start for an hour or so, and Linny (a friend from the U.S.) and I managed to sneak backstage for a quick peak at what was going on. What we found was pretty hillarious. Kate was standing in a room full of very sparkly, scantily clad Paraguayan girls, looking quite confused. She too was spiffed up, but with a little less skin showing. My favorite outfit had to be the tight jeans with the drastic fade on the butt paired with a hoodie that was cut just at the bottom of the girls chest, but high enough to see her bra. After feeding our appetites for ridiculous spectacles, we found our seats and waited for the show to begin.

There were 19 participants and each one was instructed to walk on stage and down the catwalk, strutting their stuff. Each one succeeded at completing this task. There were three different outfits. The first seemed denim themed from the hips down, accompanied with some sort of shiny top and, as always, heels. The second outfit had to consist of some sort of clothing from one of the sponsors, and the third and final ensemble was a dress of their choice. I´m sad to say that Kate did not win. However she did look fabulous and didn´t fall or trip at all. We did all manage to have lots of fun cheering her on and exploring the fair grounds. All in all, it was a quite successful first night out without my sister.