My Experience with the Move as of Now Week 2 By: Gabriel Johnston

 Monday, June 21, 2021

This past week has been a crazy one to be sure. It started the night that I wrote my last article. I was stressed as I was walking around the house looking for things to get rid of, waiting in the garage to sell some final items, keeping the dog calm while my sister had a playdate. I went to bed stressing about the move the next day. It was not necessarily that I was scared about moving but more just worried about getting everything done.

The next morning I was up at 6:00 AM folding the sheets on my floor that I called a bed. I was walking around the house getting rid of stuff and by about 6:30 my room was just about empty. I was helping the family with chores and other stuff to help them get ready. Then, after a quick bowl of cereal my dad had the truck loaded with everything in the free pile that had been accumulating, and we planned to take it all to a donation center. To our dismay, when we arrived  at the center we were told that most of the stuff was not accepted, and we were recommended to take it to a dump, (which was very chaotic). Then we went home and loaded the truck up with stuff for our final visit to our storage unit.

When we arrived back home we started to pack up the truck. We had been worried that we would need to make another trip to the storage unit, but luckily it all fit in the truck. Once my mother got out of class at 11:00 we finished up with the packing, and emptied the house, and said goodbye to our neighbors. The sold sign went up at noon  and we were on the road.

On Wednesday when we arrived home I was so excited to see the look on my moms face when she saw the house. We pulled up and noticed a balloon that welcomed us to town and it made us all the more excited. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and having drinks with our neighbors, and playing Ping-Pong.

The next day my father and I went on a bike ride around town like we did the week prior. We got home, had breakfast burritos and then he went with my mother. We spent the day unpacking more and the house really started to feel like ours. Everyone was both excited and tired by the end of the day from the work that had been done that day.

On Friday, I woke up to a house without wi-fi. At first we thought it was just our neighbor turned it off to do work on the house but he said that he did not do anything. We called over our electrician and he said that we had too much electricity coming into the house for it to handle and he needed to add a machine to the house that let more watts in. So my family went to the next town over to buy the parts needed, as I stayed home cleaning my room and reading a book. They came back not only with the parts needed, but two new trees (a mango tree, and a mandarin tree). Power stabilized mid-day and it stayed.

Saturday morning, My mom, dad, and I went for a hike with our dog, they had breakfast burritos. We spent the day cleaning with the only thing of note that some friends of ours came over. We  played a lot of Ping Pong and near the end I got some really good insight into the school here. I was told that the school here offered an education as good as anywhere in the world, but the curriculum was behind a bit, so as long as I had good grammar and an understanding of Spanish I would do just fine. I also learned that some teachers were mean or a bit of a bully so I would need to learn to choose my fights. But after that, I became much more prepared for going to school here. 

On Sunday, my father and I went on a bike ride and by the end I was tired. A bit after when we got back we started preparing for our first brew in Bahia Asuncion. Mikayla left pretty early on that day, to go to the baseball game with some friends leaving the three of us to brew. It was a fun and relaxing process and while we started around noon, we were done at 4:00. Then we went over to our neighbors for some tacos and by the end, my dad had taken a shot of tequila and I was pressured into having one too many burritos (though they were very good.) We came back and took Zeus running in the desert and Mika came back at some point.

Today started with my parents doing yard work and planting the mandarin tree. Then, Mikayla and I played Minecraft with one of our friends from the United states. We ended around noon with the proposition to go to the beach. Even though the water was 62 degrees, the madman, (or mad-girl) Mika got in. Then we went home and rested.

This week has been super crazy and relaxing at the same time. On the one hand. With all the driving and unpacking things have been going super fast and it seems like we have been working all day. But on the other hand, I have had so much more time to do nothing here. We have had plenty of naps, and I have been reading a lot. But overall, I am happy to be here (the WIFI is fast enough anyway). I am exited for all the changes coming in the future like more construction going to school, and bringing more of our things down. This week has been very fun and I hope I can say the same about the next one. But this has been Gabriel, see you next time!