Inside Paraguay's Psychiatric Hospital: Womans Ward

'Tis the season to be charitable. When my friend @sweetcyn asked me if I wanted to go over to the psychiatric hospital to give out cigarettes I accepted. I figured I'd go and check the place out myself. There's always the possibility that I could end up there I thought, or drop some one off. 

When I was a teenager, my mother always threatened to drop us off here for a week or two to *reflect* on our misbehaving. I always though she was bluffing, it can't be that easy to just "drop some one off" at the psychiatric hospital, turns out I was wrong. 

 Woman's ward, patient sipping on terere on a bench

Paraguay Trip 2013 -2013

So I bought a cheap ticket with Franki's credit card. Yea, I know. I should've ask for permission first but I abide by the first golden rule of marriage: Her money is her money and his money is our money.

My social live was activated already at Miami International Airport when I say an old student of mine on the plane.  Actually, it was her that called our "Teacher!" as I was getting to my seat way in the back *ugh* . Then she said something that sounded like "10 years ago you were my teacher" and it made me smile.  It's so nice when someone comes up to up to you and remembers you like that.

@Aeropuerto Silvio Pettirosi, Asuncion

Needless to say, I finally have somehting interesting to write about because, sadly, my unemployed butt in the US has no meaningful (or meaningless for that matter) social life.

CSing, how it started: The Hospitality Club

Couchsurfing. Not something I just stumbled upon one day.  What did we use before couchsurfing? Me, nothing. Fortunately, others did and this is how I came to know The Hospitality Club. After browsing their website, I remember being a little overwhelmed with the inteface. I knew it was to meet travelers and 'show them our ways' but I just didn't feel like I wanted to spend time doing that if it involved trying to figure out how to use their website. It was the piker in me that led me to discover Couchsurfing.

Aregua's Artesans Association

My aunt lives in Aregua, she has a beautiful home overseeing the lake. She's always had these cute little dogs. She was on the way to the vet because one of the dogs was sick. It was the oldest one, it must have been around 13 years old. Sadly,  it didn't make it. So she decided to come over and reflect about what had just happened.  So sad, but the dog was really old. I went to her house for lunch and we were going to go to the Aregua's Artesan Association (AAA) to express our creativity (and her loss) through clay.

Paperwork: My K1 Visa experience

Here is a short description of the process I went through to obtain my K1 visa. When we started out we wanted to do  it all by ourselves and save a little bit of money.  Thanks to  the Internet (thank you Internet) this was possible- we found all the information we needed online- no problems. The only thing that was up in the air throughout the entire process were the waiting times. Now looking back I have to say that the time estimates and ranges you'll find out there are correct, it was a combination of our impatience and not having absolute certainty that stressed us a little. Finally, in October, my fiance and I reunited after almost 5 months of being apart.

Making it through August with a little Carrulim

Chau mala onda!

Only 7 little drops for good luck and three sips if you need to strengthen your body and soul to get through the tough wintery month of August. One of Paraguay's oldest traditions: Carulim on August first.