such is life in the big city

Before our homestays, Aly told us that Panamanians usually take a shower three times a day. She also said that most houses don't have hot water. I thought that that was insane...but now I'm beginning to realize that Panamanians are quite sane. It's been almost a week since I've been at my homestay in Panama City and if there's one thing I've taken away, it's that it. is. HOT. The heat here is so much worse than TX because although it doesn't really get that hot during the day (most days have highs in the low 90s), the humidity is just something that I don't think I'll ever get used to. The house I'm in doesn't have AC, so they keep the windows open almost 24/7 so if there is a breeze in the afternoon, it'll be carried through the whole house.

The city is starting to get ready for Carnival, a HUGE week long celebration throughout the entirety of Panama. That's exactly why our group is going to Costa Rica during it. Part of that decision is because the country puts everything on hold in order to celebrate, but I'm assuming the other part is for our safety. Here's the description from online: 

"Carnival in Panama (¨Carnavales¨ in Spanish) consists of the four days preceding the Catholic season of Lent, a tradition originally celebrated by Roman Catholic societies that has now become a party for all races and religions. To this very day, neighborhoods spend this pre-Lenten long weekend competing in crowning queens through a series of parties, parades, floats and festive music."

I made a joke to Zuly one day that I was going to be the queen this year, and she hasn't stopped laughing. She only refers to me as La Reina and so I have no choice but to keep the joke going haha. There's also a really famous thing called culeco which happens almost every day. People with huge hoses stand on roofs of buildings and spray water on everyone partying. It's normal that people take the entire week off of work in order to go to the celebrations every day. 

By Friday of this week, I finally settled into a routine. I get up at 7, have breakfast with Kayley (my "roomate"), meet everyone from our barrio at Abuelita Lucia's house (one of the homestay houses in our neighborhood), walk to the bus stop, take the bus to school, have classes all day. The afternoons this week have varied a lot (one day Aly organized someone to come give us a Zumba class which was SO FUN) but I am usually home by 6:30 for dinner and then I do homework until bed. The only problems this week were the first few days when we took the wrong bus two days in a row and had to navigate our way through random streets hahah. 

lost in a random neighborhood 

zumba!! (I somehow managed to be in the middle haha)

me and Abuelita Lucia's chihuahua! 

facetimed Charlie for his b-day

found music in a park after school

Abuelita Lucia's chihuhua's boyfriend following us to the bus stop

We've just been having Spanish class and Human Ecology class this week. Our Spanish class has been great. I'm finally feeling comfortable speaking Spanish and I'm learning so much from being in an immersive environment. In my class of four, we've been going through some grammar stuff, but the thing that has taught me the most has just been talking with everyone in Spanish. On Wednesday, we had class in El Parque Natural Metropolitano which is a jungle in the city. It was cooler than the city but way more humid. We saw MONKEYS!!!, a sloth, tons of leafcutter ants and extremely scary spiders. A girl in our group is really into photography and she got INCREDIBLE photos. 

un mono tití

view of the city from the park

This weekend was super fun. Me and three other girls got a hotel in Casco Viejo on Friday because Casco Viejo is famous for their night life. We had a ton of fun and woke up super early the next morning to go to Playa Santa Clara (2 hours away). 

the hostel/hotel

a dog that hung out with us that we nicknamed Flea because he had fleas

some friends! 

After perfecting the routine, and more importantly the bus route, everything is going to change. Very early Monday morning we're going to Chiriquí which is on the Western border of the country. 

For the next three weeks we'll visit Bocas del Toro, Costa Rica and the Naso Comarca (an indigenous group's "reservation"). We'll be staying with different homestay families almost the entire time except when we're in Boca del Drago. In Chiriquí we're going to be staying in the buffer zone of the UNESCO biodome La Amistad International Park. The park is incredibly impressive and stretches between Panama and Costa Rica. It's 401,000 hectacres (990,892 acres) and has some of the most rare forest types in the world. I'm so excited!!!! 

I got really lucky with the group I'm in because everyone is very easy to talk to. I can go from person to person when we're on trips with eachother and have enjoyable conversations with everyone. I'm incredibly excited for the next three weeks because we'll be starting our other class (Comparative Tropical Ecology) and will be doing a lot of field work. I hope everyone in CO is enjoying the snow :)