Here!!!

What an adventure trying to get here! The last post we were sitting in the airport waiting to board the plane. Soon after I made that post I walked over to one of the flight attendants and asked if could be bumped up to first class? She said no, but she got us much better seats towards the front of the plane. Later on we would be very grateful for that. Five minutes later a sign showed up on one of televisions. It said that our flight was going to be delayed one half hour. We got pretty stressed considering that we only had an hour to catch our connecting flight in Miami.

While on the first plane Kirsten and I tried to relax. We watched a few T.V. shows and the movie “Pitch Perfect”. Don’t make fun us…it was the best they had. 

(Here we are on the first plane) 

Once the plane landed we were some of the first people off that plane. We thought we only would have to run a short distance to our connecting flight. Nope. We probably had to run a mile and half to catch our next flight. We probably looked like a couple of speed walking nerds, but it was a “had to” situation. We got to our flight just in the nick of time. We had about two minutes to spare before they boarded the plane.

Once on the plane Kirsten and I wanted to do three things: Eat, use the restroom and sleep. First we got our dinner. I was thoroughly impressed. It consisted of Ravioli, a roll, salad, a brownie and some crackers. While eating dinner we started talking to some of the people around us. We were mainly trying to find people that could help us communicate once we landed in Acuncion. It was really interesting talking to people and learning the reasons as to why they were coming to Paraguay. While on the hunt for some people that could help us we accidently came across a young guy. I would say he was about 24. He was a little too friendly. After dinner Kirsten and I tried to fall asleep. Every time we woke up this guy was turned around in his chair staring at us. It was way freaky. To make matters worse I woke up to him around three in the morning shaking his booty in my face. I am not sure if that is how Paraguayan men pick up on women, but he just didn’t make the cut doing that!!!! Why do awkward things like this always happen to me?! I never realized how uncomfortable planes are when you are trying to sleep in them. With the guy staring Kirsten and I down and an uncomfortable night’s sleep I was more than ready to get off that plane. 

(That guy beside me is the one that tried to pick up on us....)

(Here we are more tired than ever! It was a LONG night) 

Once off the plane we had to get our visas approved. It was surprisingly super easy. We then went to baggage claim. We waited for about thirty minutes only to find out that our baggage never made it on the plane. We had to report to a random lady who could barely speak English that our baggage did not make it. The lady informed us that it would come on the next flight, so we will show up Sunday morning hoping that it is there. For some reason I am super calm about it. I just have a feeling that it is bound to show up. After working out our baggage situation we met our ride. His name was Javier Vitale. He spoke no English and we spoke no Spanish. The drive to hotel was quite awkward as he was trying to communicate with us, but we just couldn’t understand. At that point I realized that I probably should have spent a little more time studying Spanish in high school. Oh..the driving here is insane!!! Just driving to the hotel was a nightmare. Just about every thirty seconds I thought we were going to get into a fatal car accident! It was interesting to see little kids at every stop light offering to clean your window and trying to sell you different things. That is just not something that you see in America. Once to the hotel we had no idea what we were doing. I tried to tell them that we would be staying for two nights by saying, “dos noches”. For some reason they thought I was saying that I speak Dutch. The hotel front desk lady started trying to speak to us in Dutch. That didn’t go over to well. Eventually we were able to get all checked in. We waited for about six hours in the hotel waiting for our professor and his wife to arrive. When they arrived they told us that their plane was supposed to be delayed three days. Thank the heavens they were able to get here. I am not really sure what Kirsten and I would have done considering we do not speak the language, we had no money and we had no food. When they arrived we went down stairs to eat. The food was different than anything I had ever tasted before, but surprisingly super good! We then went to a shopping mall. There we used an ATM and picked up some water, because we cannot drink the water here.

It is wonderful to finally be here. It is so beautiful. It is so tropical and humid. I feel so bad for all of you in Rexburg. While you are enduring a blizzard I am soaking up 90 degrees of heaven. I found it very interesting when I stepped off the plane how distinct of a smell there was. People have always said that different countries have different smells. It is totally true. Tomorrow we are going to explore capital. I am very excited!!! I may be wearing the same clothes for three days straight, but I am ready for an adventure.

(Pictures of our hotel room)

(I have always wanted to be a millionaire. Well, now I am in Paraguayan money!!!! )