The Stinky Girl Travels

你好, y'all. I thought I'd share with you a 900-character essay that I recently wrote for my advanced reading/writing class. And - surprise - it's about traveling! Now, 900 characters isn't so bad, but when your teacher asks you to hand-write  the essay, that's a whole other story. Anyways, I'm pretty proud of my work, so here it is: Note: Underlined words denote new vocabulary that we've learned         我在高中二年级的时候，决定了我毕业以后的 目标 ： 用一年的时间，自己旅行和住在别的国家。除了想有旅行的经历以外，我还有兴趣去经历别的国家的文化，日常生活，和语言。而且，我想成为一个更 独 立的人，经历自由的生活。         当初 ，我的家人非常担心这个想法。我第一个想法是去 东南亚背包游 。因为我只有十八岁，所以他们认为我自己背包游太 危险 了。虽然我认为自己是一个 有责任感 的， 自信 的人，他们都觉得我太 天真 ， 太 感情用事 了。然后，我有了别的想法：加入一个叫 “ 拉美的朋友 ” 的 民间组织 。他们有一个义工 项目 。 根据 他们的网站，这个项目给高中学生 一个住在拉美国家和实习的机会。我觉得这个计划很 了不起 ，所以我 肯定加入 。 另外 ， 这个想法对我的家人有 吸引力， 因为它 显得 比较安全。 可是 这个义工项目不是 免费 的，也不是很便宜的。除了飞机票，我还要交学费，所以我要 采取 一个 手段 来 降低 价格。我在 各处 去找 经费 。后来我想到一个手段：卖纸杯蛋糕！暑假的那三月，我在家做纸杯蛋糕去卖给我的邻居。我的纸杯蛋糕又好看又 质量 好，...

After my first week here, I have come to realize that th e academics are far more challenging than anything I've ever experienced in the U.S. So far, I've had to learn 100+ new characters, memorize two texts (one of them about evaluating political figures such as Deng Xiao Ping), and be able to orally summarize those texts by memory. The amount of effort needed to do all of this is beyond anything I've experienced so far in college. Although it has been stressful - overwhelming, at many times - I am already noticing myself becoming more fluent with each passing day, able to follow about 50-60% of most fast-paced conversations and capable of cracking jokes and telling stories in a foreign language. I am also really grateful that everyone in our program, from the other American students to our Chinese roommates, are such supportive and friendly folks. We always make plans to eat lunch and dinner together via our WeChat group, and they are infinitely pat...

Going on route always feels like a strange mixture of uncertainty and familiarity. We never know what to expect from our visit to the communities, and yet even just after meeting someone once or twice, returning to their home and seeing them again is much like embracing an old friend. There's a strong sense of connection and comfort to our host families, a much appreciated element of stability that helps us get through all the changes and rapid growth. Okay, generalities aside. People want to hear about the moments. I want to write about the little things that really punctuate this whole experience. For starters, I made a peace-core volunteer friend in Ñumi! It happened in the funniest, most unexpected way. Craving some cookies, I stopped by a little tienda on the side of the road while waiting for the bus. Before I could order anything, the man at the counter told me, "Ah, tu amiga está acá! Espera un momento." The next thing I know, he brings out a girl with curly bla...

Here's a running list of the words and phrases I've encountered so far in Paraguay! The Guaraní is spelled phonetically, in terms of Spanish pronunciation. Che - yo Nde - tu/vos Ha'e - el/ella Saludos Mba'e chapa :  Como estás Mba'e chapa nde coe : Como estás? (Mañana) Mba'e tekoiko : Like qué tal, used between friends Mba'e la porte: Same, casual greeting Nya-mongarú: Not sure exactly, it's like awesome! Cool! And you do it with a special hand gesture where you make a scooping gesture with your fingers all pinched together like you're making a talking hand, and you brush your fingers against someone else's. He: delicious, also means yes. Sometimes Paraguayans will say a drawn out "he" in agreement instead of using "si". It can be confusing at first if you don't know "he" means yes, because it almost sounds like they are surprised. Eterei: very, muy Hetereí: very delicious! Muy rico! Iporã eterei: v...

Cerro Cora Got a lift in the back of a motocaro, a hybrid camioneta-motorcycle, and rode sitting on the ledge along with a lady from the community and her two elderly tias. As we bumped around together, we talked about mandi'o chiriri and how she just came back from villarica to take care of some papeles. They dropped me off where the road parts into two, and I walked the rest of the way into Cerro Cora. It was the first time I had seen my host family dressed in shorts. Everyone was outside, trying to cool off on this warm day. "Hola Pinche!" "Hola Laura, dice!" Pinche is the nickname of my host family's one year old baby. I think it's a variation on principe. "Mi tesoro! Tesoro del mundo entero!" Showering at their house was fantastic. I was super sweaty, hot, and since our water at staffhouse cut out again, I hadn't really showered in a few days. The boys had a funny idea for the campanentos to teach about caveties. They stuck pieces ...