Vater

I had to replace my toilet seat today because the plastic nuts and bolts that held it to the ceramic throne were old and wasn't keeping the seat in place anymore.

I realized when I was thinking about going to the store, I don't know the word for 'toilet'. I can honestly say I've never had an indepth conversation about the bathroom, so I've never actually had to use it.

The same thing happened to me years ago when I realized I never really learned the word for scissors (tijeras btw).

We'll mystery solved, the word for toilet is ... water?

Okay, technically it is spelled and pronounced as 'váter', but still.

The word most of us would have learned in school is 'inodoro.'

Water Please

Something is up with the water here at the house. Since Friday I haven't been able to get water out of the shower or the bathroom sink. Fortunately at some point during each day I've been able to get some water out of a small faucet in the shower. But not today.

I talked to my landlords yesterday, they are having the same problem in their house, and they have contacted the water company. I hoped they would fix the problem today since its a weekday, but no such luck. My landlord's family hasn't been at home yesterday or today, so I'm guessing they've gone to hang out with family in some other part of the city until the water comes back.

Until it gets fixed I'm back to bucket baths. If the water from the little faucet doesn't come back soon I'm going to have to go to the neighbor's to fill up some buckets. It looks rainy, maybe I'll be able to collect enough water to do laundry.

Rainy Day Activity #2 Making Yogurt

Conversion to Hippy Complete...

Third time is the charm. I tried to make yogurt twice before, but I messed it up because I couldn't get the temperature right.

While I was back in the US for Bree's Wedding, I bought a thermometer and was successful in making my own yogurt. They do have yogurt here, but its the very liquidy drinkable kind and I'm a custard style girl myself. That and for some reason the yogurt here makes me horribly, bed-ridden sick about 50% of the time.

HOW TO MAKE YOGURT:

1) Heat Milk to 185F using the double boiler method
2) Cool Milk to 110F.
3) Mix in 1.5T Yogurt (with active cultures) for every 1L of milk (google the conversion rate you sissy)
4)Let milk mix sit in a warm place,maintaining the temp between 105-110F, for 5-8 hours. I like really thick yogurt, so I leave it for 8 hours. There are several ways to keep the milk mix warm. I put it into a thermos, then put the thermos into a cooler with a hot pad full of hot water. I reheat the water halfway through.
5)Take the milk mix and put it into yogurt portion cups (I use old peanut butter containers) and leave overnight in the refrigerator.
6)...And then you have yogurt!
YUUUUUUMMM

Rainy Day Activity #1 Hair Color

First time coloring my hair. They say just go a shade darker or lighter than your natural hair color the first time...well forget that, I want red hair.

So thank you Garnier HerbaShine#565 Medium Auburn Brown

The Next 50

Been doing a little reading. Here are the most recent 50 books I've read. Again, if the formatting looks a little off, zoom in or out.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder............................................Richard Louv..........................A+
We Need to Talk About Kevin............Lionel Shriver..........................A+
Eat, Pray, Love.................................Elizabeth Gilbert....................A+
Three Cups of Tea............Greg Mortenson/David Oliver Relin............A+
The Hummingbird's Daughter.............Luis Alberto Urrea...................A+

What is the What................................Dave Eggars.......................A+
The Spinster Book..............................Myrtle Reed.......................A+
Vagabonding......................................Rolf Potts...........................A+
The Shockwave Rider......................... John Brunner..................... A
Oryx and Crake..................................Mary Atwood...................... A

The Blind Assassin.......................... Mary Atwood.......................... A
Most of All they Taught Me Happiness..... Robert Muller............... A
Ten Days in a Mad-house.................. Nellie Bly.............................. A
Interpreter of Maladies...................... Jhumpa Lahiri........................ A
Our Mutual Friend.............................. Charles Dickens................... A

The Satanic Verses.............................. Salman Rushdie................... A
Sexing the Cherry................................ Jeanette Winterson.............. A
Gods Behaving Badly......................... Marie Phillips......................... A-
This is Your Brain on Music................. Daniel Levitin........................ A-
It's Time.................................................... Jana Bluejay....................... A-

Prep........................................................ Curtis Sittenfeld..................... A-
For One More Day................................. Mitch Albom.......................... A-
Holidays on Ice........................................ David Sedaris...................... A-
Immortality............................................... Milan Kundera....................... A-
Geeks...................................................... Jon Katz................................. A-

The Little Prince........................................ Antoine de Saint Exupéry... A-
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.. John Berendt......................A-
A Memory Of Running............................... Ron McLarty....................... A-
The Brooklyn Follies................................ Paul Auster........................... B+
Dewey....................................................... Vicki Myron............................ B+

Dreams From My Father........................... Barack Obama................... B+
From the Bottom Up................................ Chad Pregracke.................... B+
Hound of the Baskervilles......................... Sir Arthur Conana Doyle..... B+
Four Hour Work Week.............................. Tim Ferriss............................ B+
Being Peace............................................. Thich Nhat Hanh.................... B+

I Was Amelia Earhart................................ Jane Mendelsohn.................. B+
Blue Angel................................................... Francine Prose..................... B
Great Expectations..................................... Charles Dickens................... B
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius... Dave Eggers................ B-
A Long Way Down..................................... Nick Hornby............................ B-

The Heart of the World............................... Ian Baker................................. B-
The Audacity of Hope................................ Barack Obrama....................... B-
Coming Up for Air....................................... George Orwell......................... C
The River King............................................ Alice Hoffman........................... C+
Have A Little Faith....................................... Mitch Albom............................ C+

Breath, Eyes, Memory................................... Edwidge Danticat............... C+
Conscious Evolution..................................... Barbara Marx Hubbard........ C
The Letters of Abelard and Helois................................................................ C
Soul Cravings................................................ Erwin Raphael McManus...... C
Desire ............................................................Hugo Claus.............................. F

Bree Is Married!

Bree and Webb got Married!!! Congratulations!!!

I could post a million pics, but I won't b/c then you'd never be able to load the page.



And here is a link to more amazing photos: http://www.kaylabarker.com/?p=3842

The pics were taken by Kayla Barker from Spink Studio. Seriously she does an amazing job and you should hire her if you need a photographer for anything.

Congrats to Bree and Webb. I was so honored to be a part of the wedding party, the Maid of Honor, not to toot my horn or anything. Everything was beautiful and amazing.

PS: Oh, and because it was so amazing, I think I'm just going to count it as my wedding too because I won't be able to do a better job of organizing it than Bree did so why try. I'll just pack up a few friends and go on a 3 week vacation. I'm glad I've got that settled, now where is that pesky little fiance?

Chaco Deforestation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/05/chaco-paraguay-deforestation


Chaco deforestation by Christian sect puts Paraguayan land under threat

Wildlife and the world's last uncontacted tribe both at risk as Mennonites turn Chaco forest into prairie-style farmlands

Born in the USA!

Yes, folks, I'm back for about 2 weeks in order to go to my bestest friend's, Bree, wedding in Dallas on the 9th.

After taking 3 long flights from Asuncion, Paraguay, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Mexico City, Mexico to Dallas, Texas...I have finally arrived. I left Paraguay at 5pm Dallas time on Wednesday and arrived in Dallas at about 12:30 in the afternoon on Thursday. I got to my parents' house, ate the still-warm apply pie that Grammy left me on the table, chatted for a bit, feel asleep, work again for a few hours, feel asleep for the rest of the night. Yes I was a little tired; I don't sleep on planes.

Adjusting to being in the US actually isn't bad. The first time I was out of the US for an extended period of time was when I studied abroad in Santiago, Chile. Santiago is a large city, but for some reason, dealing with the English was much more difficult, and I had a short incident whereupon I froze up after entering a Target.

This time around it wasn't too big of a deal. I went to Target, didn't freeze, though admittedly I did have to leave a little early because my heart was pounding. Have you ever seen those scenes in a movie with a person who can read minds, and they get overwhelmed because they understand everything and can't stop it?....It was kind of like that. In Paraguay I can easily block out people's conversations in Spanish or Guarani. I can easily ignore advertisements, random stuff written on walls, packages of stuff I'm not looking to buy. When when I got into Target I could read everything, understand every snipit of every conversation, without trying. After that Friday I got my zoning out threshold up to its proper English settings, and I was fine.

Another thing I noticed, umm, you all have really heavy accents. No, really. All of you. People in the PC have pretty neutral accents because we've mostly traveled all over. I only know of one guy, from South Carolina, who has an in-you-face accent. I was bowled over by how heavy most peoples' accents were. People who I thought had pretty neutral accents, well either I was wrong, or you have been watching too many repeats of Cops:Dallas ;) JK.

It wasn't a bad thing, it was actually kind of fun to hear it again. But I never noticed it before.