You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2006.
Last night after I got home from the gym I watched Los Tenenbaums Excénticos. One of my favorite movies ever so it was definitely a good one to watch dubbed in Spanish, especially since I knew every part of it so I could follow what was going on. For the most part everything was the same, but of course the actors’ voices were all different. And some things just did not translate (“Wildcattin´… wiiiildcattin’… tengo que irme.”)
This weekend went by so fast! It’s hard to believe it is already Tuesday. Saturday it was fairly couldy and rainy, so I went on some errands (grocery store, pharmacy for ibuprofen, and the sort-of Wal-Mart of Paraguay, Plaza Oferta). That evening, Sol, Ale, and I went to Sol’s friend Oli’s birthday asada. This is just a big barbecue that people have in their yard, usually celebrating something. There was lots of homemade food (sausage, steaks, sopa paraguaya, a potato salad type dish, etc.) and lots of desserts too. Oli’s family owns a restaurant that specializes in desserts, so the cake was AMAZING! It was dulce de leche and cookies and frosting.
Sunday: finally there was some nice weather! Sunny and hot. I spent the day swimming at the pool and hanging out with my neighbors at the hotel. It was so nice to relax outside. Then, Sunday night, I tried to get online but my internet connection was not working right. I was there for a while but completely lost it. It really tests my patience! And I was not in the mood to go out and walk to Havanna café.
Now it’s back to work for the week. We were thinking about going to Foz du Iguazu this weekend, since my friend Rachel from KU will be there. But we don’t have the time to drive there and back. It takes 4 hours to get there. So just being there from late Friday night to Sunday morning would not be enough time to really see everything. So the new plan is for Rachel to come to Asunción after spending a few days at Foz. Hopefully she will make it here during the weekend, it won’t be very exciting for her if everyone is at work!
Last night was Puertas Abiertas, which is like a Christmas open house. The office opens its doors to its clients and everyone comes in and eats some snacks and looks at all the products. It is the kickoff to the Christmas season, so all the Christmas decorations were up and there were various Christmas songs playing. For the most part, the songs and decorations are all the same as at home but some of the songs are translated into Spanish, and there is one extra decoration that we don’t have in Kansas: Coconut flowers. These are long brown canoe-looking things that have long stringy flowers inside. They don’t smell like coconuts or palm trees, they smell like regular flowers to me. Not like a rose, but just a general floral scent. Anyway, everyone buys one or more of these and puts them in their house to make it smell “like Christmas”. I guess it is the like the evergreen scent, since no one has real evergreen Christmas trees.
So during Puertas Abiertas, Sol, Ale, and I just mingled and talked to her family and introduced me to other various people we knew. We ate some snacks (nothing weird! Little sandwiches, mini quiche, cheese, veggie dip, etc.) The main attraction of Puertas Abiertas are all the gift baskets (canastas). They are in all sizes, and contain all sorts of items that make good presents. Some of them are simple, like a bottle of wine and two wine glasses, and then some are very big- two or three bottles of wine, glasses, olives, sardines, pasta, chocolate, candy… A lot of them are food or wine combinations. There are some photos on flickr of these, and I took a video of one of the shelves that had a lot of canastas on it. Those are only about 1/3rd of all the canastas in the showroom!!
Anyway the idea of Puertas Abiertas is to get people into the Christmas spirit and see the canastas. Most people here wait until the last few days before Christmas before doing their shopping, so by doing this early the company hopes to ease the stress of that last week and get people to think about them for their Christmas shopping. There are additional photos of the event online somewhere, I will have to find the site. There are photographers who work for the newspapers or websites or local magazines who come to big events, take lots of photos, and then either publish some of these photos in their magazine or put them online. Pretty much every Friday or Saturday night there are photographers running around taking group photos, but I still haven’t found their websites!
Ahhh I have found my new second home in Paraguay. Or my second “office”. I am at Havanna, it is a super cool cafe that is a block away from El Lapacho. And it has wireless internet!! So I just walked down here tonight after walking in the park with Sol. I got a caffe latte, which is so good. Next time I will bring my camera and take a photo. It comes with a big frothy layer of foam in a cone shape, and a little cup of water, and two little bite sized cookies. It is delicious!
I am sitting outside on the patio watching traffic go by. Today it was very nice out- cloudy and cool at first then warming up once the sun came out (but not too warm).
I spent the day preparing for this meeting I had with a brand representative of some Argentinian suppliers. I met with him at 4:30 (our appointment was at 4. People really are on Latin time here!). Anyway I was nervous at first, and got a little stressed after I was lost in a conversation, but my boss was with me to explain things. And I found the Argentinian accent a little easier to understand than the Paraguayan. The representative, Vicente Nunez, is really nice! So luckily he was very easy to talk to and made sure I understood.
Basically we spent an hour and a half talking about olives. I feel like I know almost everything about the olive market in Paraguay and Argentina now ha ha. I am going to meet with him again this week to talk about some of our other products. I left feeling a lot more confident about speaking in Spanish so I am definitely glad I will be having another meeting with him.
Then, same as every Monday, Sol and I went to the big park and walked/ran for a while. And that pretty much puts me back to where I am now. So hopefully I will be able to come here every other day or so and write a good update (instead of sneaking one in at work). The only thing I will ave to learn is the menu here. Basically they don’t have one! I mean, obviously they have coffee, espresso, lattes, etc. But as far as snacks go, I don’t really know. There are lots of chocolates in boxes, and some crossaints. I hope they have tea or something cold for once it’s a million degrees here. Time to go now, all out of latte!
Another Monday. Ugh!! Hate it.
Sorry I have not updated much lately but the connection at El Lapacho is running super slow. I can´t even get the page to load to write more.
This weekend was pretty relaxing, not a whole lot going on around town because Sunday was election day. So yesterday was very boring, all I did was go to the grocery store and make some phone calls. A cold front came in and brought some rain on Saturday so it is only about 70 here, and cloudy. So that ruined my pool plans 
On the plus side of this weekend, I met some Paraguayan girls who speak English through a friend at the hotel. They were all really nice and a lot of fun so hopefully I will go hang out with them again.
On the minus side, I must have gotten a million mosquito bites this weekend. They don’t stop itching! From now on I am not leaving my room without my OFF! The mosquitoes here are relentless, especially if you are outside at night. I was not prepared for a mosquito swarm attack on Friday. We were just sitting outside and I must have gotten 10 bites. And I must have killed 10 others trying to bite me. Eventually our waiter brought some Off for us since he saw me constantly swatting and itching. Ha ha. Now I am paranoid that I am getting malaria or dengue or something crazy, since I have been bitten so many times. But that really is not likely since my only symptoms are itchiness.
Flo told me today that a local café has wireless internet with purchase (or at least most of their locations do). I am going to try it out tonight, there is one just a block from my place and it’s a good place to get coffee and a snack.
Speaking of Flo, today she is leaving for Miami for 2 weeks. I am going to have to find my own way to work and I am a little nervous about that. We asked the taxi company how much it would be, and if we could get a flat rate for the 9 days I will need a ride there but didn’t have much luck. It was going to be about $6 per day which is not really worth it. I am going ask around the office to see if anyone lives near me and could tell me about the buses. The buses are pretty scary to me, since they are usually crowded, and I pretty much have no idea where I´m going in this town. But they are a lot cheaper than $6 one way! And I know I should learn how the system works so I will be able to get around on my own.
Oh, one more thing. On Wednesday, Sol and I went to Salsa class at the gym. It was so much fun but I really suck at it! We are planning on going every Wednesday so I should learn what the teacher is saying after a few weeks haha. It just takes me a second to comprehend that she is telling me “step to both sides” and in that one second I get behind. But we got to do some salsa steps, cha cha, and of course my favorite, reggaeton.
That is about all for this week. I’m back at work now not really looking forward to being here but hopefully I will be busy starting tomorrow. We have a big event this week, called Puertas Abiertas (Open Doors) and a lot of the clients come to the office and showroom. We have tons of gift baskets that they can buy for Christmas. They contain a mix of our products, mostly food and wines. Every basket is different. Well, back to work!
So I forgot to even mention the mangos. Ooops. Well I have at least 5 pounds of mangos in my little fridge right now. It’s mango season and there´s little orange fruits literally everywhere outside. The trees are full of them, the sidewalks are full of them, the gutters are full of them. Everywhere! So I have at least 1 mango every day. Which is delicious but also those little fibers always get caught in my teeth. Going to try to make some mango smoothies with all these crazy mangos if I ever remember. I actually bought some oranges at the supermercado the other day and was a super genius and left them in the plastic bag. This morning I realized they were covered with a nice white fuzz. Lesson here: stick with the mangos!
This is going to be a quick post… I am running out of battery so here’s a quick recap of the weekend. Friday I went to dinner with my friend Ruth from work and her boyfriend, and met some of her friends there. It was a lot of fun!! Saturday I slept in late and laid out at the pool with some of my hotel neighbors. That night Sol, Ale, and I went to Sol’s friends birthday party which was also a lot of fun, haha. Today I slept in again (yay) and had lunch with Sol’s family (Flo, Carlos, Nona, and their significant others. And of course Agustina, Carlos’ daughter who is super cute!) Lunches with them are always great since we get to sit down and have a good meal and they try to explain things to me in English haha so usually I end up learning some words. After lunch, Sol and I laid out by the pool at her house for a while, then went to the Shopping. The “Shopping” is what they call a mall. I got some shoes and sunglasses. There are a ton of other things I need to get but these expenses add up fast so I want to take it easy. And tonight, I got to talk to Mom and Dad on Skype. PS, I am trying to get my AOL phone line working… for some reason it sends my calls straight to voicemail even when I am online. So I get voicemails but I can’t get this thing to work! Anyway I am planning on being online on Sunday nights starting at 6 pm KC time. So try to be online then so I can talk to you (everyone)!!
Time for another update! Now that it’s Thursday I have been working for 4 whole days. Pretty exciting! Today at work, I did some research on macroeconomic data for Paraguay. This is not as easy as it sounds. Especially because I needed data from this year and a forecast for next year, so it was pretty much impossible to find this stuff. I also interviewed Sol’s brother, Carlos, about all sorts of interesting product markets (ie shoe polish, machetes, files, light bulbs…). Which was pretty cool because he talked about how the company has to be competitive when there are tons of smuggled products in the market.
Yesterday after work, Sol, Ale, and I went to a fashion show. It is fashion week here in Asuncion and all the summer styles are coming out. At the same time, businesses are putting up their Christmas decorations! The fashion show was a lot of fun. We saw two different brands, a clothing line and a jewelry maker. The first model in the clothing line was Miss Paraguay, who recently came in 4th in the Miss Universe Pagaent. After her the rest of the models definitely looked like amateurs. The clothes were very cute and summery (check out the photos on flickr and the video on the Video page). Then in the jewelry show, the first one out was a ballerina in the full Swan Lake getup. They are having shows every night until Sunday so we might go back this weekend.
After the jewelry show, we went to dinner with Sol’s grandma, who everyone calls Nona. She is the one with the very pretty house that is on the golf course, and is also the head of the company (but is more or less retired). She is so cute!! I got bit by a mosquito when we were walking to the car and she is going on and on telling me to put some cream on it so it doesn’t itch. So we ate Chinese food there (they call dumplings/potstickers empanadas!!!) and it was 1030 by the time we got home… yes people eat dinner at 9 or later here. It is pretty easy for me to get used to, I just eat a snack in the afternoon and I’m fine.
Tomorrow at work I am going to see some stores… I was so confused when Carlos (my coworker not Sol’s brother) said “Manana, vamos a salir.” (Tomorrow we are going to go out.) I was just like… Uhhh go out where??? And he explained about seeing the stores.
As for the rest of my week, it has been relatively uneventful, I am just getting into the pattern of working. It is crazy, I usually get up at 7:15, leave for work at 7:45 and then I’m not home again till at least 8:30 pm. I am usually online at work, so you can IM me between 6 am and 3:30 pm!
As for the place I am living, well it is sort of like a hostel I guess, except all the rooms are private and have their own bathrooms. And there are a few girls who work here as maids, cooking and cleaning. Imagine an old man taking care of a big old house. A big old house that lots of people are going in and out of all the time. So things are old and there is no sense of decoration or style, it is like living in your grandpa’s house. I am supposed to have internet in my room but it doesn’t work. It always says “This connection has limited or no connectivity” so if anyone can tell me how to fix that, please let me know!! El Senor (the old man) is not too good with computers. Today he put a microwave in my room, which is great, except for that I asked him to change the light bulb in my bathroom and fix my internet too, which hasn’t happened. Supposedly he is fixing up another room that has a kitchenette in it for me and it’s going to be ready in another week. We’ll see if that happens, I have not seen any action around that room yet.
As for the other people here it’s a weird mix of people from all over. There are a few Paraguayans, a 30 something British couple, and some college students: A French girl, Italian boy, Canadian boy, and German boy. They all seem cool but I think they are all leaving in December after school is over.
This weekend… well I don’t have plans yet. Other than going to the grocery store and buying some necessary items for life. Can you believe I have been living here for 9 days and have not even gone to a grocery store? Things are cheap enough here that I could probably just buy dinner at a takeout place every night. And almost everywhere has delivery- even McDonald’s and the ice cream store! But I would still like to have some food around (I have a little fridge) so I don’t have to go anywhere or wait around to eat. Wow can you believe I have only been here 9 days? It seems like a few weeks at least!!
One final thing- be online Sunday at 7 pm central!! I will definitely be online then and I want to talk to everyone! If you are busy then just email me and we can set up a meeting time. I can usually get online sometime between 5:30 and 7:30 central.
As you may be able to tell, today was my first day of work. It went fairly well, no disasters. I learned all about what products Casa Modiga imports and distributes. And I got to meet literally everyone in the company. I don’t think I remember anyone’s names. I also got to know what the marketing department does everyday… the marketing department is only 4 people. One of them works at home and the other one just got hired today. And then there’s me, and my boss. In total the company is 200 people.
So what I am going to be doing is helping out with the marketing plan for next year. They have a lot of different product lines and each one needs an updated SWOT analysis and marketing plan, etc. I am starting with this and then when more things come up in the events and graphic design/promotions side I will be able to learn that too.
As far as the language barrier goes, I am slowly learning more. At work my boss speaks English and my other coworker only speaks Spanish. I am learning a lot of Spanish from him, since all day we talk about what he’s doing and what’s happening at work, and he introduced me to everyone in the company and gave me a tour. So he speaks slowly and clearly and I understand most of what’s going on, and if not I ask him to explain more.
On Sunday we went to Sol’s grandma’s house in the ‘country’. It is like 15 minutes away and just outside the city limits on a golf course. It was super pretty!! I have some photos that I will upload soon. Her grandma is basically the head of the company although she doesn’t really work anymore. Anyway we went there for a big family lunch and got to sit around for a while. The weather cleared up for the afternoon too. And Sol’s little niece was there- she is sooo cute!!
Yesterday was my first night in the hotel, I was staying at Sol’s until then. I couldn’t sleep at allllll…. the a/c is really loud but without it the room is too hot. And then at 4 am there was a humongous thunderstorm. It rained all morning. It has cleared up again now and last time I checked it’s going to be sunny the next few days.
Today after work Sol and I went to the gym. There’s a gym nearby that an American woman started some years ago. I met her today- she’s really nice. Good to hear some English finally without an accent. The gym is nice too, the equipent is all new and they have classes included with the membership. And there’s a big open area where they hold the classes if it’s nice out. All this for about $25 a month. Yayyyy! Our plan is to go there after work mondays, wednesdays, and fridays.
Time for me to go to sleep- I have to work early in the morning!!
Quick update: You should see my new photos in the box on the right. Whenever I upload new ones they will show up there, and you can just click the link to see all of them. Today I only added 2. That’s all I took yesterday since there wasn’t much to take a photo of. And today is even less photogenic so far- it has been raining all day and the streets are like rivers. I haven’t gotten a chance to go out and about in the city yet so I will take photos when I do that.
I talked to my boss today online. I am starting work on Monday, but I will meet him tonight. Casa Modiga, the company I am working for, is having a PR event tonight to promote Chandon wines. It is at an upscale bar/disco and Sol and I will be going. I don’t really know what time it starts or anything but it should be fun. And one of Sol’s friends is coming too. She was talking with Sol about me and asked her “Is she weird or is she like us?” And Sol says, “Don’t worry, she’s not weird!” Well, my opinion is that I don’t wear my clothes backwards or anything but I will definitely do some things that Paraguayans think are weird! Haven’t figured out what those are yet but I am sure I’ll know them when they happen.
After about 24 hours of travel time, I made it to Asuncion yesterday evening. My flights were all OK- nothing particularly exciting happened. Just the normal stuff- the food was terrible, and I think I only slept an hour or two on my long flight. Just couldn’t get comfortable. And then there’s those people who decide to open and close their window shades at 5 am.
I spent a lot of time at the Santiago de Chile airport due to a long layover. I was looking for postcards but the things they were selling included books, t-shirts, stuffed penguins, lots of lapis lazuli jewelry, and the usual duty-free perfumes, wine, and candy. No postcards!! I am going to pick some up here in Asuncion as soon as I find them but there is not much of a “tourist industry.”
After finally getting in to the Asuncion airport, I found Sol outside the baggage claim. It was so great to see her!! Finally, someone I knew and could communicate clearly with.
We went back to her house and just relaxed and had a snack. Her house is really beautiful, it has a great courtyard with a pool. It’s very homey which is exactly what I need right now. I’m going to take some photos today and post them later. So we watched some TV last night and just talked about all sorts of stuff. There are a lot of English channels here- they get most of the big American TV shows and add subtitles in Spanish. Then we had fugazo for dinner, which is sort of like a pizza/quiche. It had crusts on the top and bottom, and had cheese, eggs, and lots of veggies in the middle. It was great!
Today I slept in late since I didn’t get any sleep yesterday. Sol is at work all day today so I am just hanging out at her house. I’m planning on going swimming and taking some photos. Sol scheduled a massage for me at 3 pm. Things are really nice at her place, I am not sure if I will want to leave! For example, this morning after I got up and showered, the maid had breakfast ready for me- fresh OJ, cold coffee, toast, and jam. And luckily I could actually understand what she was saying. It’s just replying that I am having trouble with so right now I’m sticking with “Si, buenos dias, gracias,” etc. I guess there is not much else to say when someone asks if you want toast though!
Our plan for tonight is to find a place for me to live, haha. We were planning on going to this hotel, but Sol didn’t get to see a room before I got there, just the outside common areas. Anyway we saw it last night and it was not what I was expecting. It was clean but everything in it was old and needed repairs or updating. Sol and I were both suprised and talked about it after we left. I probably wouldn’t care if I was just staying there a few days but 6 months is a different story!! Our current plan is to find someplace else temporarily and they are going to fix up the room in a month. Sol also has an extra room in their guest house that her other sister stays at when she comes home for Christmas, so that is another possibility for me, after Christmas is over. For the next few days though I will just stay at her house, which is fine with me!
Here’s some other basic info- there’s a 3 hour time difference between here and KC. So right now it’s almost noon here, so it’s about 9 am central time. People drive on the right side of the street but basically have no regard for traffic laws (makes me glad I’m not driving). I withdrew 150,000 Guaranis last night (which is about $30). I think I’m a millionaire…
