fiesta

Yesterday there was a party for AFS Dolega (the town next to me), for it's "birthday." They had a talent show and we were supposed to march in a parade but of course, it rained. The band below was really loud, really Panamanian and really good.

This is all of the exchange students in the surrounding area

My friend from Thailand sang a song in traditional clothing

Traditional Panamanian dancing

People rode in on motorcycles which I found really funny because we were in a school gym

Also we lost water again :( hahaha of course!

school friends :)

la tienda

Every day I buy a snack at the "tienda" or the store. It's down the street from me and the guy below, Chino, is ALWAYS sitting at the counter from morning until night. A short post, but there's not too much to say right now. I'm going to the beach for my 4 week orientation Monday-Wednesday so I'll be sure to post something about that when I come back.

picturess

WATERR

So basically it sucked not having water. At first It wasn’t a HUGE inconvenience because we put buckets outside and collected rain water to bathe in and stuff. Then it stopped raining and we were out of water. It was also BURNING HOT so we decided to go to my abuela’s house in Boquete. It’s a lot less hot in Boquete and there was also water. The best part was that I got to take a WARM SHOWER! It’s the little things like taking a warm shower that makes me laugh. I also thought it was funny because when we first learned that we didn’t have water my host dad said “welcome to a third world country Ella.” I don’t feel like I’m living in a third world country because I’m living in a really nice house and I’m going to a good school and everything, but without water it was like WOAH! I went to school on Monday when we had water, but we lost it that night so I didn’t go for the rest of the week. I just got back from Boquete today and there’s water! THANK GOD. Although there wasn’t water, we’ve still been having lots of fun. I’ll post pictures in a different post because it takes forever for them to upload for some reason.

No water!

We're completely out of water! There are a lot of houses in David without water. I didn't go to school yesterday or today because of it. It's funny how much we use water day to day. We can't cook anything and I have to bathe myself with a bucket rain water. I can't wait until I can take a real shower and wash my hair for real. The shower here doesn't have hot water and at first I was thinking "oh my god what am I going to do?" Now I'm getting used to the cold water. It's so hot here that it's really the only thing that cools me down! Right now I miss my cold showers.

guess who's neighbor has a monkey

more on school and food

So most of the teachers don't expect me to do anything. They don't check my homework, they don't make me take quizzes, and they don't ask me questions. I have to say it's really nice right now because I'm still adjusting to everything and I don't have to worry about school. People are super nice and they let me copy their notes so that at least I understand a little. I'm sure in a month or so when I can speak spanish better they'll make me do everything, but for now I just relax. I'm really loving the whole uniform thing because it actually takes me 5 minutes to get ready in the morning. Also I don't have to worry about doing my makeup or picking out cute clothes, I just do my hair, brush my teeth, get dressed and go. School is very different though because people are always talking. Even when the teacher is trying to explain something, people are talking just as loud as they would if the teacher wasn't. People also sleep in class. They'll just put their head down and sleep and usually the teacher doesn't say anything. Also people are always on their blackberries and they're "hidden" but it's obvious that they're on them. We have recess, which is really just like a break, and people usually buy food. I'm starting to really see how unhealthy it is down here. Not to say that that's a bad thing.... the food is AMAZING. At 10:00 am people buy sodas and bread/pastry things. I can't even imagine eating something like that that early, so I bring a banana. My sisters and mom really know how to cook. Everything is so flavorful and delicious. They make these things called patacones (I probably spelled that totally wrong). You first fry plantains, then flatten them, then fry them again. I swear to god I'm going to come back 300 pounds heavier. Everyone says I eat very little which I think is funny because now I'm eating a normal amount. I'm just not very very hungry and the foods are so rich and heavy that I get full really fast.

school

Today was my first day of school. Everyone seemed really nice and a lot of people talk english fluently, so I ended up speaking english all day (which was kind of a bummer). In school here you spend all day in the same classroom and the teachers move. It was funny because we really didn't do anything today and we mostly just sat around talking. People talk a lot during the class too, even when the teacher is talking. It's different but really fun. I'm pretty sure people think I don't speak any spanish which is funny but it works because then the teachers don't ask me anything. I got to see someones old english test and it was really interesting to see what they have to do.

Hoy

So I lied. I start school tomorrow. I'm going to be taking science classes pretty much all day (I'm sure Dr. R is cringing somewhere). Today I talked with the principal and met a few of Olga's friends. I also walked to the little corner store and bought plantains to fry. All of the food is fried here but it's all really delicious. I'm sure I'm going to gain weight :( but today I did yoga with Olga (ahhaa). We were both CRACKING up because there were all kinds of positions that we couldn't do. I have a few videos on my laptop and we tried a few.

I'm starting to adapt to the family and learn about their lives. I help with the dishes and sweeping and sometimes I help cook. I share a room with Olga, but all of my clothes and things are in Isleny's room. I think the family was a perfect fit for me :)

David!

I'm in David right now! I was wrong and the bus ride took 8 hours but it was actually a really cool bus ride. I saw so many things out the window. The whole ride there were all kinds of tropical plants and colorful houses to look at. I also saw a man cutting tall grass with a machete, a bunch of random huts selling things in the middle of no where and a lot of different cities. We stopped in Santiago for a half an hour and when I was waiting to get back on the bus I saw a man throw a live chicken into the road. A car ran it over and he picked it back up and walked away. It was very gross and it was very close to a KFC...

My house is really pretty and I'm sharing a room with my sister Olga. There's this really cute terrace with rocking chairs and a TV and I could spend all day there. I start school tomorrow so I got my uniform today. It was weird because everything is really cheap here but the uniform was sort of expensive. I got 3 shirts, a pack of socks, and a skirt for 50 dollars. After I got a set of 12 earrings for a dollar. Most things here are VERY cheap.

My family is all really nice. They are all really welcoming and friendly. I feel bad because I'm not that hungry and they cook AMAZING food but I get full sooo fast. I can't wait to get to know everyone better and start to make friends and speak spanish as fast as everyone else does!

up early for a 6 hour bus ride

I'm up wicked early this morning and in half an hour I have to go downstairs to catch a bus to David. I'm so excited and nervous to meet my family. I've been hardly eating because I'm so nervous and I'm pretty sure everyone thinks I'm anorexic. Haha just wait until the meeting in 4 weeks. They're going to be like "WOAH YOU ACTUALLY EAT!" It's a good thing everyone's really friendly. It's so scary to be meeting the people you're going to be living with for the next 6 months. The good thing is I've talked a lot with them and they all seem super nice.

I've made friends from around the world. I have two friends from denmark, one from switzerland, a bunch of german friends and one from holland. I've talked with people from all over Europe pretty much and I think there are two girls from thailand. We've had a ton of down time just to hang so I've been talking a lot with different people. I asked some of them if they liked Obama and most said they did but they didn't know too much about him. When I asked people if they liked George Bush, everyone said they hated him. I thought it was funny to get people's views from around the world because they were all pretty much the same. When I asked people about sterotypes of the US they all said we should be "fat and rude and stupid." One Danish guy said that we were just weird people from the US and they don't believe that everyone isn't fat. It's been such a fun couple of days and now today I'm going to start my real life in Panama.