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.

Bienvenidos a Panama!

We're in Panama! After a 3 hour flight we made it safely in Panama City. Right now we're in a hotel hanging out. We've filled out forms for our visas, gotten medical checks, and taught the afs panama volunteers about chatroulette. They were all cracking up at it and were determined to find a "hot girl." When we first got there we had to go through immigration and customs and when we got our passports stamped and got our luggage. We then drove around Panama City and saw a bunch of buildings and places and then we drove up to the hotel. We had to fill out forms for Visas and one of the volunteers told us that we couldn't make any mistakes. Most of us had to fill out multiple forms because we kept on messing up. I had to fill out two forms, another girl had to fill out three. I don't know if it was the fact that I was tired or what but I thought it was the FUNNIEST thing ever. Now we're all starving and waiting for dinner but we have no idea what time it's at. The hotel is really cool because it has a pool on the roof and you can see soo many different buildings. So far I LOVE PANAMA! I think it's so cool and different and I can't wait to go to David and meet my family.

Airport

I'm currently sitting in the airport in Boston with a few hours before my flight. Saying goodbye to my parents was really hard and I definitely had a few tears in my eyes. Right now I just need to look at what's ahead of me. I'm going to Miami today AND PANAMA TOMORROW! This is so exciting.

Goodbye parties

Yesterday my friends threw me a goodbye pool party. It was so nice to see everyone one last time and be able to say goodbye to everyone. I don't leave until Thursday, but I have a lot to do between now and then so Monday sounded like a better day. There was swimming, food and of course silly string. Needless to say...they got me.

After the party I thought I was going to my friends house to watch the bachelorette. What I didn't know was that a bunch of people were there and they all surprised me. It was hallarious becuase I saw my dad and I was like "wait...what" and

then I walked

closer and everyone else was there and I stood like a fool for a good 30 seconds trying to figure out what was going on. We had a bonfire and ate cake and played silly games, and played with sparklers and talked. My friend Shelly who lives in the cape over the summer and NEVER comes back until fall CAME TO SEE ME! It was a wonderful day. I am going to miss all my friends so much!

Uniform shoes

I have recently learned that I need brown mary janes for my school uniform. I ordered these yesterday. I leave for my first orientation in Miami in 10 days!