Amanda's Year In Paraguay

      Yesterday, I made apple pie. I used the extra pie dough from the pumpkin pie (the recipe I used made 2 batches) and made my own filling. I even made a lattice! Even though much of the filling's juice leaked out, the pie was still moist and tasty!     My family loved it and I can't wait to share it with my host family.

          Since it's a given that I'll cook for my host family at least a few times, my mom and I started practicing recipes. Today, I made pumpkin pie completely from scratch (cooking the squash and making the dough) and Chilean carbonada. Chilean carbonada is a soup made with ground beef, onion, bell peppers, potatoes, pasta, mixed vegetables, and egg. Since baking isn't my forte, it was a bit of a challenge. But, I had fun and the pie turned out delicious. We finished the whole thing in one night!     I have a few other foods that I want to try to make, and I have left over pie dough. I hope to make apple pie, chili, porotos chilenos, pasta casserole, pan de pascua, and roscas as well. Many of these are Chilean foods, as I want to share both of my cultures with my host family.     I still have no information about my host family, but I've gotten my flight plan and tickets.     Happy 4th of July!!

         My name is Amanda Thomas and in August, I will be leaving Colorado to study abroad with AFS in Paraguay for a year (10 months). I will be spending my Junior year of high school in Paraguay, where I will live with a host family, will attend high school, and will learn about the amazing culture there while sharing my own.     I have wanted to travel abroad since I was 5 or 6 years old. My mom came to the United States as an AFS exchange student from Chile when she was in high school. Since then, my family has been involved with AFS and it has always been my dream to study abroad as well. Even outside of traveling as an exchange student, I have always wanted to travel the world and experience as much as I can. We live in this huge, complex, unique, and beautiful world; and I want to see as much of it as I can. From this experience, I hope to gain memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life and become more open-minded about different pe...