months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds

months - 7
weeks - 35
days - 245
mintutes - 352,800
seconds - 21,168,000

since I left home. (approx)

So it is a slow Monday morning here at Alto Refugio, and so I spent some time with my cellphone calculator figuring out how much time I have actually been away from home. I started thinking about it this morning as I was walking my 1km walk to the highway, and a song from the musical Rent was going through my mind. It sings about there being five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes in a year, and so I wanted to know how many minutes I have been gone. After I figured that out, I did not go back and try to figure out how many minutes I have left. If it was yesterday afternoon I would have, but then I talked to my parents. The thoughts about what I will do when I get home have been running through my mind non stop for the last couple of months - and honestly it has been driving my crazy!! But as I was talking to my parents, I think it was my dad who told me not worry because I can figure it out later - we´re just going to hang out and have fun when I get back. That got me thinking. It´s so true that I need to stop worrying about my future, because what can I do about it from Paraguay? I can´t go for job interviews, I can´t know what positions will be open where in 4 months, and only God truly knows what is in store for me! Instead I need to focus on living here in Paraguay, and enjoying every moment - which I have been!! I have had a couple of interesting experiences, including my most recent involving a group of hippies, a drunk, a rose, and now a dreadlock in my hair (ask me later for more details if you so choose) - but I have always felt safe, and know that God is watching over me.

Mom asked me yesterday how the sappos (giant toads) are doing lately, and I informed her that sappo season is over, and now we are into tarantula season. Yepp I have seen 3 dead ones in my travels, but no live ones yet (although I´m hoping to!) We are now into autumn here, and so the weather has started its up and down thing again - last week was super hot, this week has been cool and rainy, and who knows what tomorrow will be! My host mom and I like to hang out in the evenings, and if it´s cool and overcast (like last night) and my host dad isn´t around, then we like to sit, eat popcorn (that I am getting good at making now) and talk. I think I have said this before, but I am certain that I have learned most of my spanish from Lida and our numerous conversations.

And I think that is about the summary of my latest news. If you would like to see me I am skyping into the LMC service on Sunday, May 2nd!! Come prepared to ask me some sweet questions, and hopefully get some sweet answers!!

Chau!!