Welcome to Asuncion

Yesterday after twenty-four hours of travel, about a month of trying to pack, clean, and give away our extra stuff, and a very intense week really packing, cleaning, and giving away our stuff, we have finally arrived in Asuncion, Paraguay. There are a few things I have learned during our transition.

First of all moving is really horrible. But the organizing and cleaning out all of the extra collected junk is really nice. I feel like I lost about 2000 pounds. Probably because I did. I really like to keep stuff and have stuff and share my stuff when it is needed, but holy cow, I don't really need all that stuff. So now a lot of it is gone. But not all. I have some packed away in storage, like a security blanket, just so I can be comfortable. And happy.

Second, if you ever move, and if you can afford it (because we didn't pay for it and I have no idea how much it would cost), it would be really great if you could hire movers. They are soooo nice. I wasn't supposed to put anything in a box, or move any boxes, or do anything to any boxes. Three very efficient movers showed up at my house on a Tuesday morning, and by the time they left on Thursday afternoon, my house was empty except for some cleaning supplies, the stuff we were taking to Paraguay, and some leftover stuff that we forgot to store. In an ideal world, I would have been organized and had everything ready to go, but in reality I am me, and I don't do things until the last minute, so I was still sorting and reducing while the movers were packing. It's really not the best way to do it. Sam tells me that if Kevin was in charge, then we would have been done weeks ago. I'm sure that's true, but I am a procrastinator, and I do all my work at the last minute. It worked in college, and it worked this time. If I were giving out grades, I would give myself an A-. However, I am so exhausted that I could cry. Next time, when we move home, I resolve to be more organized. And not keep so much stuff.

Third, traveling to a foreign country, on another continent, and in another hemisphere is not really fun. We got on a plane in Salt Lake City, Utah at about 11:45 AM Monday morning, and flew to Atlanta. We arrived in Atlanta at about 5:30 PM, and got on a plane to Sao Paolo, Brazil at 7:30 PM. We flew all night, and arrived in Sao Paolo at about 5:30 AM. Then we got on one more plane at about 7 AM, and flew first to Ciudad del Este, then on to Asuncion, Paraguay. We arrived here at about 9 AM. We were met by some really nice people from the embassy who got our luggage to a van and took us to our hotel. So, after about twenty-four hours of travel, three airplanes, and not a lot of sleep, we arrived at our hotel. Kevin and I crashed at about 2 PM, the kids fell asleep at about 4 PM. It was a very long day.

Fourth, you can cancel all of your utilities from your cell phone in an airport. We know because we did. Kevin called to cancel our last bill, our cell phone, during our layover in Atlanta. It was kind of funny, but we didn't want to be without a phone until the last possible minute. As it turns out, they won't stop our service until the end of the next billing cycle, so we still have service until April, but we don't have phones that will work in South America.

Finally, our family is very loud. We are in a nice, quiet, peaceful hotel, and we are loud. We talk loudly, we run loudly, we yell, loudly. I feel bad because I know the kids are feeling stir crazy, but we are not in our own space yet, and we are making our presence known in this one. The hotel is very nice, we have two adjoining suites, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and two pull out sofa beds. Plenty of room to sleep, but not to play or to unpack all our things. I would love to have a big closet, a dresser, and a bathroom cabinet to really unpack and move in.

Our first impression of Paraguay is that it is very green, lush, and quaint. The streets are narrow and all except the main streets are paved with rocks. Not cobblestone exactly, but rocks, with sand pounded in to fill the gaps. They are very bumpy. There are not really any high rises right around our hotel, and most of the buildings have red-tile roofs and stucco walls. We walked to a supermarket yesterday, bought some water, some snacks, and changed some dollars for guarani (local currency). The traffic is loud, a bit unruly, but not that bad. We had hamburgers with ham and cheese on top, pretty good, and fries. We haven't tried any local dishes yet, we are starting out slowly.

We also went to tour the boys' new school today. It is a beautiful campus, with lots of grass, flowers, and trees. It seems like a good place for the boys, and they will start on Monday. If you would like to check it out, here is the website: http://www.asa.edu.py/.

We miss our family and friends in Utah, but we are excited to learn new things and make new friends. Please drop us an email at llawdnus@gmail.com, or give us a call, ask Cynthia for the number. We'd love to hear from you.