Time has certainly been flying by. June arrived out of nowhere and is already halfway done. From the 5th to the 7th I had my last AFS weekend camp which was hosted here in Ciudad del Este. At first I was a little bummed that we wouldn’t get to travel anywhere, but not having to do two 5-hour bus rides was quite nice. It was nice to see all the other exchange students, not only those who arrived with me in August, but also those from the 6-month program that arrived in February. The AFS volunteers couldn’t believe how much we all had been “Paraguay-zed” and it’s true that a lot of our mannerisms, habits, and attitudes have changed. Unlike our other camps, they fit in a little sightseeing this time. We visited the Itaipu hydro-electric dam and Saltos de Monday (fairly large waterfall, although it’s nothing in comparison to Iguazu). Seeing how I’ve spent nearly all year living next door to them, I had already been to both places, but it gave the other kids a chance to go to the “must-sees” of Paraguay. The whole reason behind the camp was to help prepare us to return to our native countries and begin the re-adaptation process. The result was that it ended up kind of being a downer of a weekend, but I think it was something a lot of people needed. 
Last Friday was a national holiday on account of it being the anniversary of the peace in the Chaco. The sun was shining brightly that day which meant that our postponed parade would finally take place and I could show off my amazing baton-twirling skills. However, since my school is currently testing, they decided to not take part in the parade. I decided to go check out the parade anyways and enjoyed watching all the other schools. It seemed like I ran into everyone I know, which reminded me of back home in Sitka when Swan Lake freezes over or the 4th of July parade when the entire town is in attendance.
Kate spent the night at my house that night and we had fun watching the relatively new Kiera Knightley movie “The Duchess” and sipping homemade tea. Saturday morning I headed into town to help my classmates set up for our big retro party fundraiser. Luckily there wasn’t that much set-up (no horrific prom planning flashbacks) because they had hired a decorator. I headed home late afternoon to take a nap and get all dressed up for the party. I wasn’t entirely sure what my job was going to be during the party and to 
my surprise I was designated “waitress”. Although I feel that my Spanish has gotten pretty good, I was a little nervous to take orders and not mess everything up. However, everyone was really understanding as soon as I mentioned I was an exchange student (which never takes much convincing due to the blonde hair, hazel eyes and unavoidable American accent). After taking quite a few orders I snuck in a little time on the dance floor with my host mom. She was pretty darn adorable shaking her booty to The Beatles. Around 2:30 AM we decided to call it quits and headed home. I truly had a great time hanging with my mom, which made me a little sad to think that I’m leaving shortly.
So as a disclaimer, the flight attendant like costume I'm wearing is not actually my baton outfit, it's Kate's (we decided I had to try it on)...but I thought I'd put it up as an example of how some of the other schools were dressed.
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