On Friday, my host parents, my host sister and my host cousin and I went to Paraguay and Foz de Iguaçu. This is about an eleven hour car ride, which, in a five person car was less than comfortable, but survivable. Anyways, my host dad is always going to Paraguay because it's a lot cheaper to buy a lot of things there, especially electronics and make-up and...idk, mirrors? Also fake Christmas trees. But anyways, this time they decided to take me and my host sister and my host cousin, I just had to pay for the hotel and food. Anyways, so we got to this hotel and it was honestly probably the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. That being said, the hotels I've stayed in have been incredibly clean and I therefore have pretty unreasonably high expectations for hotels, especially considering that a majority of the people staying in this hotel are only there to go buy cheap stuff in Paraguay. Also, though, I couldn't help but be a bit taken aback by the fact that this hotel was considered pretty nice, and by pretty nice, I mean more than mediocre. But it served it's purpose well, and the continental breakfast was probably the only one I've ever seen that served edible food, at least that I can remember.
Anyways, we got up at like 6 in the morning and went and parked in this garage, then took a van across the border to Paraguay. They city on the other side of the border is crowded, crazy, dirty chaos. We went and bought new phones for my host sister and cousin, and everything can be payed for in either American dollars or reais, or, basically any type of currency from the area and the dollar. It's just that it's cheaper to pay in dollars. Also, they way it works is that you choose what you want, then the people that work there print a receipt with what you want and you go stand in a line to pay. After you've paid, you take your little receipt thing that's now marked "paid" and you go stand in another line to retrieve your item(s). In my opinion, this only increases the chaos, but is kinda nice cuz I guess you don't have to walk around with 40 things you want to buy in your arms and eliminates the need for shopping carts or something like that.
Anyways, I remembered why I hate shopping, especially with other people and in a language I kind of speak. But it was overall a pretty interesting experience...
Anyways, we finally got back to the hotel thing, changed clothes, and went to the waterfalls, which are the prettiest things I've seen in Brazil, if not in my entire life. They're huge and they never cease to exist; they just keep going on and on and on. There's this one part, where you can go out over the falls and you're just surrounded by them, whether you're looking up or down or straight ahead, and at the same time there's this cold mist blowing over you, and while looking into it, there's this rainbow, so strong that you can take a picture of it and still see it. Also there're these little creature things everywhere, birds, and other things that I forget the names of, but it's really, really nice.
It was a bit touristy, but that was actually nice...I really didn't feel like a tourist there, as in like from another country. Actually, my host dad told them I was Brazilian because it was cheaper to get in by like R$25.But aside from this even, I could communicate with the people in Portuguese, and was treated by the employees as if I were Brazilian, though maybe because I was with my host family, but it was pretty cool still.
Also on this trip, I saw sooooo many things that I haven't seen since I left the US. This includes lots of things in English, certain foods (oreos, reeses, meatballs, etc...) and maybe a bit of just overall culture. There are too many pictures to post here, so maybe I'll use facebook for the first time in my life...
Anyways, we got up at like 6 in the morning and went and parked in this garage, then took a van across the border to Paraguay. They city on the other side of the border is crowded, crazy, dirty chaos. We went and bought new phones for my host sister and cousin, and everything can be payed for in either American dollars or reais, or, basically any type of currency from the area and the dollar. It's just that it's cheaper to pay in dollars. Also, they way it works is that you choose what you want, then the people that work there print a receipt with what you want and you go stand in a line to pay. After you've paid, you take your little receipt thing that's now marked "paid" and you go stand in another line to retrieve your item(s). In my opinion, this only increases the chaos, but is kinda nice cuz I guess you don't have to walk around with 40 things you want to buy in your arms and eliminates the need for shopping carts or something like that.
Anyways, I remembered why I hate shopping, especially with other people and in a language I kind of speak. But it was overall a pretty interesting experience...
Anyways, we finally got back to the hotel thing, changed clothes, and went to the waterfalls, which are the prettiest things I've seen in Brazil, if not in my entire life. They're huge and they never cease to exist; they just keep going on and on and on. There's this one part, where you can go out over the falls and you're just surrounded by them, whether you're looking up or down or straight ahead, and at the same time there's this cold mist blowing over you, and while looking into it, there's this rainbow, so strong that you can take a picture of it and still see it. Also there're these little creature things everywhere, birds, and other things that I forget the names of, but it's really, really nice.
It was a bit touristy, but that was actually nice...I really didn't feel like a tourist there, as in like from another country. Actually, my host dad told them I was Brazilian because it was cheaper to get in by like R$25.But aside from this even, I could communicate with the people in Portuguese, and was treated by the employees as if I were Brazilian, though maybe because I was with my host family, but it was pretty cool still.
Also on this trip, I saw sooooo many things that I haven't seen since I left the US. This includes lots of things in English, certain foods (oreos, reeses, meatballs, etc...) and maybe a bit of just overall culture. There are too many pictures to post here, so maybe I'll use facebook for the first time in my life...
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