Flights and Paraguay Day 1

Our trip! 

We drove down to PA on Friday afternoon, after Darin presented his final project for his intensive language class that he took during the summer. We got the kids all settled and then took off around 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning. We drove two hours to my friend Megan's house near BWI where we left our car and were off to the airport!

Let me just say, while flying, in general is not very comfortable, it is a dream to fly without kids. It feels oh so luxurious. (Although I definitely had moments where I wished I could see the kids faces as we got on the plane). I got to read, we watched the Office, we tried to sleep. Not bad. We got the Emergency Exit seats on 2 of our 3 flights which was really great for our legs, but kind of annoying for our heads/necks since the seats didn't go back at all. 

We flew to Miami first and got in around 3 p.m. We left there at 5 p.m. and got to Panama around 10 p.m. and then left there at about 11 p.m. and landed in Asuncion around 4 a.m. 

We got empanadas on our flight to Panama which I was obviously stoked about. They were definitely the worst empanadas we had the entire trip, but we didn't know that at the time and I was just so excited about them that it didn't matter.

On our flight to Paraguay we were given this really yummy (for airplane food) chicken with mashed potatoes. 

We were clearly exhausted from our partial night's sleep when we got in to Asuncion and ready to hit the sack. We exchanged a bit of cash we brought and got hosed a bit by the exchange rate they gave us. These dudes, totally taking advantage of us Americans at 4 in the morning--full on laughing at us behind the glass window while we tried to stumble through the process. That was embarrassing.  

We took a taxi to our hotel which was about 20 minutes away from the airport. It was hard to see much because it was so dark and rainy. We got to the hotel and my heart sank a little when we got inside. Not what I had been hoping for from a 4 star hotel, but then that was my fault for having set expectations. It was old and smelled musty. The pillows were paper thin. I feel so snobbish for feeling the way I did about our hotel, but I gotta be honest, I was disappointed. 

Thankfully we were so tired (and I was feeling really sick by this point--had to stop in the Panama airport and buy some cough drops. I think I went through like, 4 rolls of toilet paper in the week we were there to blow my nose. Oh man oh man oh man), so we fell right to sleep around 5:15 a.m. 

I had trouble going back to sleep after I woke up around 9:30, so I went down to get some breakfast and grabbed a yogurt and bread for Darin as well. He woke up a little later so that we could try and make it to the last hour of church. 

There was a church just a 15 minute walk away from our hotel (the one great thing about our hotel! The location!) The web-site said that they had sacrament meeting last, which was perfect for  us since there was no way we were going to make 9 a.m. church. However, we got there at 11 just to find out that that very day they had switched their schedule to have sacrament meeting last. So, we went to RS and EQ instead, which was still nice. It was a super tiny branch, there were 5 of us in RS. They were all older ladies and they were so sweet and cracking me up because they all had big coats on and were freaking out because I was wearing short sleeves (it was around 65 degrees--which for them really is cold, clearly). 

 View from the second story of the church.

 It was fun to walk around the city with it being so quiet. So different from what we would see during the week. People don't really seem to go anywhere on Sundays, especially Sunday mornings. Everything was closed and it was just so quiet!

It was hard to find a building without graffiti on it. 

Stray dogs! Bringing me straight back to my mission. 

We went back to the hotel to rest some more. Darin tried to set up some interviews and I tried to do some editing--I was already so behind by this point from not working much on Friday or Saturday while we prepped for the trip and traveled. Unfortunately, the internet at our hotel was pretty awful, so it took me sooooo long to get through stuff and I never actually caught up until we got home from the trip. That was stressful. And frustrating because I had planned to zoom through my work so that I could just relax and read and enjoy some me time (or at least rest so that I could feel better), but most of the time I was just ssslllooowwwllllyyy working and quickly complaining. I might not have been the most pleasant to be around at certain points of the trip.

With that said, the evening of our first day in Paraguay was lovely. Our sweet friends Alia and David came by to pick us up around 4 p.m. They took us to their apartment and fed us a yummy spaghetti/sausage dinner. We got to try Chipa Guasu which is a traditional corn/cheese bread that they eat down there.

The view from the balcony of their 8th floor apartment was beautiful:

They then took us down to the Costanera (little boardwalk by the river front). We walked around down there and saw the Palacio de los Lopez (Palace of the Lopez??). It is where the president of Paraguay has his office.

The lights on the outside were an interesting touch.

 It was just amazing to see Alia again. We only just met last semester while her husband finished up law school at Cornell, but I can't help but feel like Heavenly Father gave us this friendship for a reason.

We walked around outside and watched the sun set. They said that most days the boardwalk and beach is packed with people, but because it was only in the 60s that day (which was the coldest it got while we were in Asuncion), not many people were out.

Before dropping us off they took us to a mall to buy a chip for my cell phone so that we could add 3G to use GPS and Whatsapp to contact them. Are they not just the greatest friends? They really are. We would have been lost without them.

On the way back to the hotel we drove past the temple. We had planned to do a session during the week, but of course I forgot my recommend. Classic Brillante. I always have my diaper bag, even when I don't have my wallet, so of course that's where I left it. It was still fun to see, right there in the middle of the city.

It was hard to see all the people in the streets begging for money--especially the kids. Coming up to the cars offering to wash your windows or sell you a small treat. Even when we were at the palace, a boy was there to "help us park," which basically meant he  pointed to where we should park, but David told us that you will regret not paying them something when you come back to your car and see what they have done to it, so it's better just to give them something. 

It was a long exhausting first day with lots of ups and downs. I was really just so thankful for our good friends this first day. They were just what I needed to help me feel welcomed and loved in their country. They are the best.