Top 10s

The top ten things I am glad I brought to Paraguay:
10. Pens and Markers... they give you tons of papers and manuals in the Peace Corps, but nothing to write with!
9. A towel... Paraguayan towels are thin and rough.
8. Sleeping bag... really useful for cold winter nights.
7. Hiking shoes... even though I am in the city it feels like the Campo with red dirt roads.
6. My recipe book... I am actually Vegetarian food for myself!
5. Lots of underwear... hand washing and air drying does a number on all your clothes... especially underwear.
4. A jump rope... good for exercising inside or in the yard where there aren´t a million Paraguayans looking at you like you are crazy!
3. My Camera... I already of tons of great pics!
2. A pillow... Paraguayan pillow are hard pieces of foam, my travel pillow rocks! Thanks to Tasha and Jessica!!
1. My Laptop... it´s really useful for writing emails and blog posts, listening to music and watching DVDs. Eventually I actually plan on using it for work.

The top ten things I wish I would have brought to Paraguay:
8. A hand or face towel... it takes awhile for mine to dry.
7. DVDs... I kinda forgot to pack them... but thanks to Danica I already have some to watch!
6. An extra supply of contact solution.
5. Girl Scout books... they have lots of good ideas for working with youth.
4. Coffee... Paraguayans usually drink Nescafe, luckily Mom put some in the mail... hopefully I get it one day!
3. A converter from 220 volt to 110 volt... some things I can plug and some things I can´t.
2. Cute shoes... even though its PC we do get to go out once in awhile!
1. MORE clothes... the ones that I´ve got are started to get old and boring already.
So I could only think of 8... I guess that´s a good thing!

I have been in site for about two weeks now. Things are equally frustrating and exciting. I haven´t really done too much ¨work¨ yet. But I am making lots of contacts and doing some observing. I need to improve my Spanish a lot more before I´ll feel totally comfortable giving charlas. The first few months in site are supposed to be more observation and integration than anything else. So that´s what I am doing... although it tends to get boring. Hopefully I will be doing more ¨work¨ soon.