¨Teenager´s Day¨

The past five days or so, my schedule has been pretty jam packed. It all started out on Thursday, when instead of attending school, all students in grades 7 through 11 (here 11th grade is equivalant to senior year) headed to Hernandarias for a two day camp. The reasoning behind the short vacation from school was celebrating ¨Teenager´s Day¨, which I´m pretty sad we don´t have back in the states. The camp itself was really fun. It started out a little slow because only 7 of the 15 or so kids in my class actually went...but for a lot of the games we teamed up with the 11th grade (which was overflowing with enthusiasm, unlike us..). A few highlights of the camp include my first Paraguayan campfire (at 1:30 AM), an hour and a half spent running through the woods playing a game entitled ¨rambo¨which left us all covered in mud, and the big futbol game between Cerro y Olimpia (The 2 big teams here...the Paraguayan equivalent of the Red Sox vs. Yankees).

I got back from the camp around 4 PM on Friday, took a quick nap and shower in preparation for the ¨World Fair¨ being hosted by another high school. The school had been transformed by the addition of a very large stage, booths selling food of all varieties, and performances of dance from around the world. The event got over a little early though, so some friends and I headed to a pizza place where we bought the ¨all you can eat¨pass for 26,000 Guaranis per person (about 7.50 US $). The types of pizza here continue to surprise me...they range from the typical pepperoni to corn to tuna to chocolate and strawberries. Needless to say, after only getting four hours of sleep during the camp and then staying out till about midnight I was significantly worn out and ended up sleeping to 2 or so the next afternoon.

That takes us to Saturday, where the rest of the day was spent lounging about the house watching movies with my mom while it (gasp) rained outside...It actually made me a little homesick to have a dreary, cloudy, rain-filled day. That night I headed over to a friend's house around 10 to get ready and after 4 or so other girls showed up we all started towards Coyote (a disco). We didn't actually get there until 12:30 or so and ended up staying till 6, but it was a blast. I literally danced for 5 straight hours! Granted I do have a few random bruises on my feet now, but it was definitely worth it! That night I crashed at the friend's house and spent the better part of Sunday hanging out with her and other friends. The weekend was great, quite tiresome, but a ton of fun...that seems to be a theme in the Paraguayan lifestyle!