Guyana vs. Paraguay

As I prepare to leave for Paraguay tonight, I decided that instead of writing up a longer entry about Guyana, I would just compare my experience there with what I anticipate in Asuncion.

Things I think I will like better about my Asuncion trip:
1. The free massage you get with every two-night stay at the Granados Park Hotel.
2. I don't anticipate having to wear bug repellent to bed or having to wear flip-flops in the shower.
3. There will be trustworthy eating establishments that aren't our hotel or some other hotel. That's not to say Georgetown didn't have KFC and Popeye's, but we were warned that they weren't sanitary.
4. There will be less pressure on me on this trip. Georgetown was about storm drainage and flooding, where Asuncion is about preserving trees. Nobody expects me to know anything about trees--I'm a civil engineer. I'm just there because I'm the Contracting Officer's Representative and I'm the Chair of the "Sustainable Sites" committee in our Energy and Sustainable Design Program. Hopefully I'll learn something!
5. I probably won't see raw sewage in open drains along the side of the road.
6. There's no coastline, but if there was, I bet it wouldn't smell like sewage.
7. I will still have to fly with a cold, but maybe my ears won't feel like I'm being stabbed in them every time we land. Maybe.

Anyway, French class continues this week. Instead of missing a whole week, I'm going to call my class every morning (we meet in a conference room) and participate via phone. A nice coincidence: one of my classmates is also going be in Asuncion. He arrives Thursday for a conference and is staying at the same hotel, so he's going to bring me the homework (reading an article) for Friday's class! Bonne semaine!

Sneezing Panda

This video is short (and workplace appropriate) and made me laugh out loud like nothing has in a long time!

Coming soon: Fond memories of Guyana
Don't miss: Continued progress on the basement

Also, I'm leaving for Asuncion this weekend, so I don't imagine I'll get around to writing about San Francisco. I only had 4 hours of tourism anyway. Pretty much encapsulated in these pictures.

Wine Tasting

A group of us, mostly engineers (party!), went wine tasting last weekend. Thanks to Dena for organizing our biannual wine trip! And sorry to Lisa for spilling wine on her in the van....I guess I should have respected the open container law. You can see my pictures here.

If you don't understand what I'm doing with the baguette, you should really watch this. Actually, you should watch all of the Flight of the Conchords videos before HBO makes YouTube take them down! My favorites include this one, this one, and this one. This one is Zach's favorite.

Basement Progress!

Zach is taking pictures every day of progress on the basement. It's fun coming home every night to see how far they've gotten. I don't want to be a nag, but I think I'm going to have to ask them to hook the washer and dryer up again. They've been sitting there unhooked for almost a week, and I'm going to need to do laundry soon. Or find a laundromat. Or do what I did a couple years ago when the dryer broke mid-load: bring a basket of wet laundry to work and ask around if I could use someone's dryer at lunch (might be weirder now that I Metro instead of drive...).

Check back daily for exciting pictures!

Vernissage

I learned a new word this week, from a coworker: vernissage. At happy hour tonight, we briefly discussed the fact that said coworker was at a "vernissage" enjoying free wine and appetizers. We agreed that we need to look into this vernissage thing--free wine is definitely better than $8 a glass!