Summer Vacation Comes to a Close

The last few weeks of my summer vacation have been much enjoyed. Another American exchange student, Kate, spent a little over 2 weeks living with my mom and me. She was in between changing families and needed a place to stay while her new family was travelling. It was a lot of fun to have a friend/sister around the house and I was sad to see her go. However I’m also really glad that things with her new host family seem to be working out and she has finally found some stability.

While Kate was with us we celebrated my host mom’s birthday by decorating the house with balloons and candelling a cake while she was lured out of the house mid-morning. For a gift I managed to track down some Paraguayan yarn (surprisingly hard to find) and knitting her a hat. I also printed out one of J.W.’s Obama pictures and had it framed in the hopes of feeding my mom’s Obama obsession. She seemed to like them both and quickly placed the photo on her nightstand. For lunch her co-workers came over and we had a traditional Paraguayan asado (BBQ).

One night my mom decided to take us to the Itaipu hydro-electric dam to watch the light show done every weekend. My mom happens to know someone who works for the dam and we got to ride in our own van as opposed to the crowded buses. The show itself wasn’t much of a show, but it was cool to see the dam all lit up and is something I can now cross off of my “To-Do List”.

I recently started taking a cooking class with a girlfriend of mine. The course itself is pretty short (only 4 classes), but is a nice way to fill time until school starts on the 18^th. I really had no idea what to expect as I arrived at the class the first time and was surprised to walk into a large room equipped with what seems to be a professional kitchen (straight out of a cooking show). The teacher is really nice and accommodating, allowing us to pick what we’ll learn to make. So far we’ve done pizza from scratch, a fruit-filled cake, ice cream, and the traditional “Sopa Paraguaya”.