First Few Days in Asuncion...

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So, I have now been in Asunción for, 6 days, I think, and a very interesting few days they have been.

Firstly, when we arrived, we were whisked off to a lovely shopping centre, Mariscal Lopez in Villamora, for lunch and to have a chat with a few staff from the Anglo, which is where we will be working. Afterwards we were taken to the Anglo for a chat with the manager who seems very nice. The Anglo is a great little place. Quite Mediterranean in style. And it was a hot, sunny day too.

The next day was 'la dia de la amistad' or friendship day so there was a BBQ with delicious Paraguayan food, sausages, sopa paraguaya (a kind of savory cake I suppose), salads, and an amazing cake with dulce de leche (like spreadable toffee) afterwards.

The food so far has been amazing. Lots of pastry dishes like empanadas, which are like pasties, with all different fillings. They seem to have a sweet tooth here too. Lots of people walk around with a drink called terrere, which is a type of tea like yerba mate, but cold and with other herbs too. They carry it around in a big flask and share it with people. People seem to share everything here, even passing around drinks in pubs to friends.

Talking about pubs, we have been to the British pub here, Britannia, which was great. Full of posters of places in the UK. A union flag bench. Things like that.

We have also had a little wander around the centre which isn't that big. A good place for food and different juices is cafe Lido, opposite the Panteon. There are a few things to see but as we keep being told how dangerous everything is, no photos have been taken yet. It doesn't feel like a dangerous place, just like any other city really, but we are still being careful of course.

The market was interesting, mercado 4, as it has themed streets, like a street full of mobile phone stalls and another one for furniture and so on. To get there we had to fit six people into an average sized car which meant me lying across Rose, Steve and David in the back seat, fun, but not so comfortable in 30 degree heat!

The city seems more affluent than I expected. Yes, there are obvious signs that there are poor people, like people trying to sell things to people in cars at the traffic lights, in the Plaza Uruguaya there are people living under tarpaulin sheets in protest, they are from the interior and want their rights recognised, but ther are children in dirty clothes with no shoes, things like these make a big contrast with the number of big 4x4 cars that you see on the roads and the designer shops in the shopping centres.

The city itself is very green and quite pretty. The river Paraguay almost does a loop around the city and is absolutely huge!! Like nothing I had ever seen before.

What else... the people, the people are lovely. Very kind and caring. They seem to want to do everything they can to help us settle in. Mical, my 'host', my new sister I suppose, is wonderful and has helped a lot.

Anyways, now I have to go for my first teacher training class.

Hope it goes well!!

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