Dec 12: Exploring Asuncion and America's ego

I spent the last two days walking around and getting to know Asuncion. On the first day, yesterday, I walked around with Gary, from North Carolina, and Thomas, from Poland.

It was good to spend some time with another America, especially one who used to live in Boise. It was good to not only be able to have conversations in perfect English but to also be able to talk to someone about familiar stuff.

We leave for Peru tomorrow, but I'd be just as fine leaving for the States. It's not that I'm homesick or anything, I just miss being surrounded by a language and culture I'm familiar with. I do miss my family and friends though, and country music. I've been able to talk to most of my friends though facebook or myspace, but I've only talked to my mom once since I've been here.

I know that's all part of traveling, and I know I'm lucky to see this part of the world, I know it's not something that everyone has the opportunity to do. I try to take it all in and there are moments that I say, "I can't believe I'm seeing/doing this," but at the same time, it seems the more places I go, the more I know where my home is and the more thankful I am to live there.

I had an interesting conversation with an Irish man named Brian. Irish accents are way cool, if there was an accent store, I would go and purchase myself an Irish one. Anyways, he said he thought Americans live in a bubble and are egotistical.

I think we do live in a bubble, I had that same conversation with someone else in Mendoza. And after thinking about it, I would also agree we are egotistical, but it's not our fault. It seems the world can't get enough of our culture. Everywhere I go, I see people wearing Yankee hats. I'm not sure most of them know what sport they play, they just know it's something American-related They also don't seem to mind, or know/realize, that the space between "New" and "York" is more often than not missing.

Our movies and TV shows play on their TV with Spanish subtitles while our music blast from their radios. We walked by a karaoke bar yesterday and somebody was singing Tony Braxton's "Unbreak my Heart."

It's like the same people who call America egotistical are the same who can't get enough of anything Americano. It's like calling the hottest girl in school stuck up but asking her to prom anyways.

Thomas, Gary and I stopped at this amazing German bakery that made me happy Germany is on the top of my list of countries to see next. We went to lunch at a Chinese vegetarian buffet place that charged by the kilo.

Next we started the walking tour found in a guide book. The tour started at the president's palace. Unsurprisingly, the palace was big and white. There was a huge flag in the middle of the larn and the place was surrounded by guards and blue Mercedes.

The most interesting thing about the palace was at the edge of the property were houses made from plywood and sheet of metal. Literally on one side of the fence, one man lives in a place while on the other side, people live with nothing.

The scene was also in direct contrast with our national capital, which is kept extremely clean and there is no way at all Bush would ever look at his window from the White House and see people living in shambles. Though, poor people do exist in our country, is it any better to hide that fact and keep it out of view as if it doesn't?

Across the street, we went to an art gallery that had some interesting, amazing and bad pieces in it. As we walked past the palace for the tour's next stop, more guards were visible and more on guard. A trumpet sounded and a convoy of Mercedes pulled into the driveway where a group of men exited the palace and got into the cars. One was probably the president himself.

Next we went to their congress building, which doubles as a museum for some reason. On the way up to the chamber, which I sat in since it was empty, the stairs are surrounded by glass and the view overlooks houses much like the ones next to the president's palace.

This country is one of the most corrupt in South America and one of the poorest as well. It blows my mind the government can be so corrupt with such a constant view of how their decisions affect their contingents on their way to and from their official work.

After we left the congress building, we gave up the tour in favor of finding an Internet café because of the heat.

This morning I went back to the palace with Tara. The giant flag and guards were not present. It's not hard to determine when the president is in and when he's not.

We had lunch at the Chinese place, since you can't tell a vegetarian about a good vegetarian place and not expect to go back there.

After lunch we just started walking and went though several neighborhoods. Outside the city, we found much better houses then the shacks we'd seen in the city. I couldn't help but wonder though how their nicest homes would compare to an average one in our country.

All the homes had fences and bars around them and though it was obvious we didn't belong there, no one paid us any attention and we never felt threatened. Inside the city, there are police at every other corner. There is also a lot of pollution, especially from the many busses there.

It was good to be able to see more of the city then just its center and to learn that not everyone lives in broken houses made of pallets and such, though trash and piles of rubble did line the streets in even the nicest areas.

We found a barber and I got my beard trimmed so I no longer look homeless. I'm going to pack my trimmer on my next trip. It was nerve-wracking to have my neck and face trimmed with a straight razor in a third-world country.

Nev left for the falls today and Katy left for Salta. I'm glad we got to travel with them for a few days.