Visit with Dad

Last weekend my Dad came to visit me. It was so nice to take time off from living and be a tourist. We saw the canal together and visited Casco Antigua to get some food. The next day I made pancakes for breakfast and we hung out at Ancon Hill and saw the fish market. We also walked around the park at Cinto Costera. Overall it was a great weekend, short as it may have been. For my birthday (celebrated a little early) I got a trip home to visit my family. Thanks Dad!

I have never thought about it before but taking time to be a tourist is great. I may even have to try it when I get back home. It takes away the stress of work and normal life and makes the weekend into a mini vacation. I look forward to trying it when I return the the US.

For now, I had a great weekend with good ol' Dad. There is nothing in this world better than family. Thanks for visiting me :)

 Me and Dad at the Panama Canal. 

 Just a little boat going through this afternoon. 

 This little guy (big guy really) was hanging out at the Pedro Miguel locks. He posed for the picture and as soon as Dad put down the camera, he ran away! How funny! 

 Pretty awesome museum on the causeway. One day I will have to actually go inside. 

View of the city from the island at the end of the causeway. It is a pretty neat city.  

 Watching some folk dance at Diablicos restaurant. Those diablos are kind of scary!

 Just a normal Pancake breakfast with Dad :)

 View from the Canal Administration building. 

 We saw the Canal. No big deal...

 Ancon Hill. The views are awesome. Here is the view of the locks and the old Air Force airport. 

 View of the other side. Casco Antigua and Cinto Costera. 

 All of the ships in line to go through the canal.

 Hello Panama City. 

 All of Panama City. What a view.

 Yeah. We were here. Pretty awesome. 

 This is a Panamanian squirrel bunny.... It looks like a squirrel but doesn't have a tail and is the size of a bunny... Tropical animals.

 The tide went out on these poor fishermen... luckily they got in with their catch of the day before this. 

View of the park. It's a great place to walk and run and exercise. 

Riding Around on the Isthmus

Last Thursday I took a riding lesson here in Panama. I rode a horse named Tropic (something I cannot pronounce) and he was awesome. Lazy, but awesome. My legs are still sore almost a week later.

I was glad a was able to ride here and I hope I am able to continue riding. It is interesting how riding styles differ by country. This is something I did not consider. Though, to be fair, I suppose they differ within a country as well. It was a great experience! Here are some pictures of the horses at the farm:

Here I am reppin' my team!

 Here is the arena. (This is from a few weeks ago- no jumps when I went)

 Unknown horse that I did not ride.

 Another unknown horse I did not ride. 

 Same horse as before- still did not ride him. (I just thought he was pretty)

 This is the horse I rode! (after the ride)

Thanks for such a good lesson buddy... now I need to go get back into shape.

Girls Night Out

On Saturday night I did something that most 22 year olds do every Saturday night. I went out with some friends. Maybe I am a little strange, or have an old soul, but being in Panama has taught me something about myself. I knew I was outgoing. What I didn't know is that I am actually very shy as well. I discovered this as I have sat in coffee shops and bars with no guts to go talk to people.

This is such a strange revelation.

So, when my boss's sister invited me out with her friends, I jumped on the opportunity. We went to a couple discotechs the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and had a blast. It was so fun to dance all night with some new girlfriends. And people watching in a different culture at a club is possibly one of the most entertaining things I have ever done in my life.

Thanks for the great night out and for the great new friends! I had a lot of fun!

Baby Steps

Going to a different country and trying to implement the things you have learned is actually a pretty big challenge. People dismiss your ideas, and push back against your ideas. You realize that you are fighting for something and at the end of the day, you open your eyes and realize that, maybe, there is more than one way to do something. Maybe, your ideas. good and effective as they may be in your own country, are not the best way in the new country.

While I have been trying to implement group classes and lesson plans, I have felt a roller coaster of emotions and met many unexpected challenges. Turns out, email is not as widely relied upon here as it is in the states and having the teachers submit their lesson plans by email is actually not as good as having them fill it out by hand at the school. Last Saturday morning, I finally saw a ray of light as I made this realization. So, I tried something new and printed a bunch of blank lesson plans and brought a box of pens so that when the teachers came to sign in without their lesson plans again, I could give them a blank sheet with a pen and have them fill it out in front of me. 

Last Saturday was the first day that every teacher submitted a lesson plan. Obstacle number one mastered!

The teachers here are mostly willing to accept my changes to their current systems but many of them do not want to do extra work outside of what they are paid for. In my experience and based on what I have been taught in school my whole life, there is always homework, but here, homework is not as relied upon or accepted in the work world as in the States. Maybe that is why people here are generally happier or something, but that is another blog for another time. I am constantly having to think of new ways to do the things I have always done so that they fit within the norms of the culture here.

I am happy I was able to implement change while still adhering to cultural norms here. It gives me hope for future challenges- that I will be able to overcome them with a satisfactory compromise between change and culture norms.

Next challenge- time management in the classroom. Wish me luck!



Here are some pics of the orchestra rehearsal on Saturday. These kids are so amazing!

City Lights

Who says you have to be traveling to have an adventure? Here in my new home, I seem to have adventures all the time.

On Friday last week, a friend of mine from work, named Sujey, and I decided to go shopping at a super great mall after work. The mall is called Multiplaza Mall and it has some really great stores. Not to mention that it is gigantic! I had only heard tales of this commercial Goliath and was definitely interested in seeing it. So, after work we hopped into a cab and started driving. Or not. The traffic was terrible and our poor cab driver kept trying to take back roads but they were also packed with cars. People were talking to each other from car to car about how unusually bad the traffic was that day. People even came outside of their houses to watch the passing cars. After two hours and fifteen minutes of waiting in traffic with no sign of relief, Sujey and I decided to just walk the rest of the way. The cab driver kept insisting that we were close so we gave him his $5 (over priced, by the way) and started walking. After all, the mall was just around the block.... except it wasn't.

We could see it off in the distance and we wondered how on earth we were so far away. Then we realized that the cab driver had no idea where he was going. Sometimes I wonder about cabs here. Especially after some of the drivers I have had, but that will have to be another blog post. We ended up walking for forty-five minutes before we finally reached the mall at 7:30 pm. We went into three stores and bought nothing because by the time we got out of the last store, it was 8:00 pm and the mall was closing. So much for girl's night out.... or was it?

Maybe I will go back to Multiplaza one day, if for no other reason than to watch a movie in their awesome cinema while eating sushi and drinking my drink of choice, but I will never forget the adventure we had getting there. Sujey and I were able to make the most out of every situation and laughed the entire way to the mall. This was definitely a "journey" adventure- one where the journey is the point of the adventure and not the destination. In our forty five minute walk we had at least four wolf-whistles and an uncountable number of admirers- even though we were super hot and gross. (Panama is definitely a great place for a girl to go boost her ego.)

I got to see the city at night and admire the city lights, even if it was a little too hot and my legs were a little sore the next day. I had a great time!

View from a pedestrian bridge we crossed when we finally got to the mall. This is when the traffic was finally moving!

Some Good Nourishment

Last week I had the opportunity to eat at an amazing restaurant called Monolo Caracol. The food was delicious! AND gourmet! Luckily, I have great friends with even greater friends. Luis has a friend that is dating this awesome guy.... long story short, we got to eat some amazing food for free. The best part of the evening was making some new friends. I have already seen them around Casco Antigua and I hope to continue running into them. :)

As it turns out, making an Isthmus of Music is mostly about making new friends and discovering who you are on the way.

Check out what I ate!

This drink had actual Hibiscus flowers in it. Super cool! I drank flowers! 

 Yes this is caramelized onions and bone marrow. Right from the bone!

 The restaurant uses only local products witch makes it super fresh and tasty!

 This is called "star fruit". I had never seen that before so the chef gave me a whole one from the kitchen pantry to take home. So cool!

 These are my new friends!

I am having so much fun in Panama!