Saturday night in Asuncion

Last night I went out with Rossana, the friend of a co-worker in DC who did Peacecorps here in Paraguay. She was really nice to me and we made plans to meet on Saturday night. We went out with her cousin to the happening area of Asuncion ‘Paseo de las Carmelitas.’ We had dinner and some Paraguayan beer and then after that we went to another bar, and then we drove around the city at night. The picture of this illuminated building below is the Executive Office of Paraguay- very very pretty and right next to the Paraguay river. It was hard to get a good picture, they all looked really blurry, but I still wanted to post it because it was spectacularly lit.

Mi encuentro con los niños pirañitas

Yesterday I was walking downtown and I was near the Cabildo (the pink building in the pictures) and there was this group of kids there and they were all really cute (like 5-8 years old) and they saw me taking pictures and they came up to me and asked me to take pictures of them and I was like awww they're so cute so I started taking pictures of them and they were REALLY excited, it was pretty funny. Then after a couple minutes they were like 'we're hungry' Senora, buy me an empanada! But they were demanding it.(It’s very funny because I’m not sure if the term Senorita exists in Paraguay, everyone seems to be calling me Senora). So, I was like, it's not time to eat, are you really hungry? And they said, yes, very hungry. So I said that if they took me to the empanada place I would buy them one, anyway, the kid says no if you go down there you're not going to come out alive and I was like whoa (is this kid threatening me?) so, they kept on asking for money, I said no, and no again, and they just kept on pestering me... and then I was like ok fine! I'll just give you the couple coins I have, I took out like 5 coins that I had and they jumped on top of me and took them so fast!!!! I got really angry and left. Well, I told the story to Nicole's friend, a girl who I went out with last night, she’s from here from Paraguay and she was like oh my god! Those kids there are famous! They are robbers they are famous for getting people and get over all over you in a circle until you can’t lave and take everything you have. She said that they must have liked me or something but that usually they always steal everything; she said that I was really lucky that they didn’t take my camera. That there's like a ‘favela’ type area over there by the Cabildo that the kids are called ‘pirañitas,’ here’s a newstory about this widespread problem in Parguay.
Anyway here are some of the pictures I took of them, they look so cute and harmless, it’s so sad that they are engaging in criminal activities at such a young age. Can you believe that?

Asuncion, Paraguay

Dia de los Muertos en DC

Although I didn’t have any PIB this year (or at least not yet!, right Mom?) I still attended a celebration for the Dia de los Muertos at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C. with Mexican friends and an American, Venezuelan and British friends as well. We had some delicious tamales and pan de muerto accompanied by delicious Mexican hot chocolate. Then, we continued the party at Rosa Mexicano having some amazing Guacamole, Margaritas and Queso Fundido… Here are some pictures of the altar at the Cultural Institute- Ale and I put our own altar at Ale’s house and we had a very interesting quest to find Tzempazuchitl all around DC!

This is a really interesting mural that they brought to DC from Mexico this year

Colorful 'calacas' in the altar

Learning how to make PUPUSAS

I have created an addiction to Pupusas- they are these little Salvadorian thick corn tortillas stuffed with cheese, beans, and/or 'chicharron' they are really good- I think I have them way too often. I've been trying out all the different 'pupuserías' in DC (there are several).

I had been staying at work kind of late the past weeks (or months).... and I became good friends with the salvadorian woman that cleans our office. So one day I asked her what was her favorite pupusería- to get the insider info- and she said she doesn't buy them- she makes them herself!

I was intrigued. I wanted to learn how to make them, so I asked her if she would teach me. We made plans for the weekend, I was going to go to her house on Sunday, with my cube-mate, Meghan and her boyfriend and she would teach us. We had a great Sunday afternoon and we made nearly 70 pupusas. I can say I'm kind of becoming a pretty good pupusa-maker... :)

Here are the pictures as evidence....

Obama. President of the US!

I knew I was going to be out of the country for the election, so I registered absentee a while ago and voted before I left for Paraguay! On election night, I went to the Embassy's party here in Asuncion- it was very interesting to see how excited all the Paraguayan's were to see Obama win. However, due to the 2 hour time difference when they called Obama the winner I was by myself all lonely in my hotel room- it was kind of sad actually, specially since I was talking to all my friends in DC who were all celebrating so much! I'm very happy that Obama won the election. It's turning the page to the past eight years of such a bad president.. It's time for change to come to the US! and get HOPE back, yes we can!

Pumpkin Picking and more

A couple weeks ago I went pumpkin picking with Ale and some of her friends - It was so much fun! I had never really been to a Pumpkin Farm before so I think I got more excited than normal. It's actually pretty difficult to choose a pumpkin, I wanted to get the most perfect looking one- so I took some 'candidates' and then choose the best one of the batch. It's actually a pretty difficult task!

I also bought some apples. I couldn't pick them, since the farm was 'picked out' but I bought some regardless and made a really delicious apple pie when I got home. I had a really good time with Ale and also I realized how much I love fall. The scents, the weather, everything! :)