From Paraguay to the US of A

When you extend your Peace Corps service for a year or more they send you home to the states for a month. I am not sure if its because they want to make sure you haven't gone crazy or its that they want to remind you of the life you left behind and the little it has changed in the past two years, or maybe they just want to reward you for your hard-work and commitment to service. Whatever the reason, I extended my service and therefore got to go home for a month. When I made the decision to extend it was not an easy one. I did what I often do when making tough decisions, I made mental lists of the pros of staying and the pros of going home. I listed things like the crappy economy at home with fewer available jobs and lack of scholarship funding combined with the increased number of applicants to grad schools. I included the fact that I could do work that would be both more rewarding personally and continue to have a positive effect on Paraguayans, oh and of course there was the boyfriend factor. All in all staying seemed like my best option. There was nothing urgent calling me home and the Universities aren't going anywhere, so whats one more year? I planned my one month leave to coincide with my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary, an event that I did not want to miss, and arrived in Cleveland in late June.

The trip started off poorly with an unfortunate night in the Sao Paolo airport and a tired Melissa arriving around midnight into Cleveland. After that I spent three wonderful days visiting with my family including a Ladies' Night with Mom's side of the family. Then on Friday morning Mom, her boyfriend, and I set off in the car for New York City. Yes, after a lot of insistence my novio finally got a passport and had the dreaded visa interview which resulted in a 6 month tourist visa to visit the states. Of course the Peace Corps wasn't going to pay for his trip, so I booked him a cheaper ticket into JFK and we were off to pick him up.

The flight from Asuncion to New York was my novio's first time in a plane and rather than just one, there are no direct flights from Paraguay to the US, he had four flights. Luckily for him his experience was much better than mine and he arrived on time and had no trouble clearing customs. Leaving from the relatively small metropolitan area of Asuncion to arrive in the huge metropolis of New York City would probably be extremely overwhelming to most, but he handled it like a champ, no complaints, just awe.

Once we both had out feet on American soil we had a very American month ahead of us, jam packed with activities that started immediately with a trip to the nation's capital. There we saw monuments, museums and had tours of both the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress. Novio was in heaven, he's a history buff and had dreams of seeing these places. In fact it was embarrassing how much more he knew about each place than I did. It was interesting to see DC and learn about our history. My only previous experience there had been a class trip in eighth grade. It was also fun to drink terere, the Paraguayan tea, on a bench near the Washington Monument and get funny looks from the people passing by.

The rest of the month was filled with more fun summer activities including a great trip to North Carolina with Dad to visit my sister Erin, a day of thrill rides at Cedar Point (not high on novio's list of favorite activities), a visit to Dad's side of the family at an old mansion in Pennsylvania, Grandma and Grandpa's 50th, a three day trip to NYC before boarding the plane back to Paraguay, as well as numerous breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with friends and family. I am extremely grateful to all of my family and friends who welcomed novio with open arms and worked hard to make sure I had an amazing trip home.

There were several things that surprised us both on the trip home. For me it was amazing how easily I was able to fall back into bad habits that we have as Americans including the frivolous spending of money, although I did have trouble spending $50 on a dinner when its the same amount I pay for one month of rent here, and going through gas like water. I was shocked by the high quantity of trash that each of us produces and how much could be reused or recycled, but isn't. I was excited to be able to run without people shouting, kissing, honking, etc at me. And I enjoyed the cleanliness of the streets and eateries. Novio, setting foot in the states for the first time, was surprised by things that we often don't think about, for example, fans in bathrooms and automatic everything. He was disgusted by the amount of burps he heard and elated to find that all Americans are not cold and mean, but tend to be open and friendly. He was also exhausted by the number of activities I was able to cram into our one month trip. But by the end of it neither one of us wanted to leave. We each gloomily boarded our separate planes, one day apart and headed back to Paraguay, we arrived without problems and are back to daily life.

After two weeks in Paraguay I have readjusted to being here and am looking forward to accomplishing great things in my next 10 months of service.