la mitad: assessing the first 5 months of my 10-month grant en la República de Panamá

I'm exactly at the mid-point of my Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. I thought this would be a good time to do a midterm assessment of sorts looking at all the aspects of the experience so far: cultural adjustment, teaching, traveling, making friends, and goals I still have yet to achieve.

Cultural Adjustment
I did not expect nor had I ever experienced the kind of culture shock that hit me the first couple months I was in Panama. I struggled finding a place to live, getting in to a routine, feeling comfortable, making friends and just being happy. While the first couple months were some of the more difficult, I know that I grew more emotionally and developed a kind of strength that can only come through a struggle like that. I'm really glad I won't ever have to go through those two months ever again but I'm really proud of myself for getting through and for becoming a better, stronger person because of it. I still don't always feel super connected to Panama but this is my life right now and this is an incredible opportunity that I won't ever get to relive.

I also had a tough time adjusting to Panama's Spanish dialect. My ears are getting more and more used to it and sometimes I find myself cutting my words so that I'm better understood by locals. I'm still not as immersed in the language as I was hoping/expecting to be; but hopefully as my friend network continues to expand and I start doing some more volunteering that will change.

Teaching
Other than being thrown into a new culture, the biggest change I've experienced is becoming a teacher. When I was in middle school and high school I liked the idea of being an English teacher (writing and literature, not ESL) but once I got to college I completely abandoned that idea. Well, turns out my middle/high school instincts might have been right. I really enjoy teaching. I've been introduced to the intricacies of lesson planning, classroom management, pair work, group work, pronunciation techniques and the affective filter. My goals are to be as prepared as possible for each lesson through a plan that follows the SIOP model, to catch pronunciation and grammar points and address them as they come up, and to help my students feel comfortable and excited about learning. I'm fortunate to be working with a number of students who are diverse in their age, socio-economic background and level of English. I'm still co-teaching the conversation course, occasionally helping in an intro course, working with Access students and the CELI English club finally has a few committed students! We play a lot of games (Apples to Apples, word puzzles, hang man, story-telling scenarios, catch phrase, etc) just to get them thinking in and using English for one hour 3 days/week.

What I love most about teaching is seeing my students excited to learn and seeing them improve so drastically, so quickly, right in front of my eyes. While I love the challenge of working with a spectrum of levels, this teaching experience has reinforced that I want to teach but at a higher level. I want to spark the same passion and excitement for Latin American cultures in college/university students. I'm starting to get more of an idea of what I want my focus to be for graduate school. I have been interested in looking more closely at indigenous groups in Latin America and this experience has triggered an interest in languages. At this point, I think I'd like to combine those three areas and look into the ways maintaining an indigenous language has the ability to both empower and inhibit a group of people. The University of Texas, University of Wisconsin, University of Arizona and Georgetown University are all on my list of places to study. I'm particularly attracted to UT because of its flexibility and because of CILLA (Center for Indigenous Languages of Latin America). CILLA could hopefully offer me the opportunity to learn one (or more!) indigenous language and explore the effect it has on its people.

Traveling
Panama is an absolutely beautiful country and I have been fortunate to see a lot of it in the first half of my grant. Whether it's been a weekend trip to Santa Clara beach, Playa Malibu/Chame, El Valle or San Blas or a longer time spent in Bocas del Toro, Isla Grande and Playa Bonita I have seen beautiful beaches, gorgeous mountain settings and gone island-hopping in the Caribbean. I've used one of Panama's domestic air carriers; experienced the small, oversold, $3.00 buses; and crammed way too many people in an SUV. I'm lucky to have found a living situation in the first part of my grant that has afforded me the opportunity to see this gorgeous country.

In the next half of my grant I'll be doing more traveling. At the end of the month I'm going to Montevideo, Uruguay! This will be my first time out of Panama since I arrived in January and I'll be meeting up with about 20 Fulbright ETAs based in other countries. We'll be giving short presentations; the topics assigned to me are "Best Practices in Formal and Informal Teaching Settings" and "How to Encourage Speaking and Writing in English"---both very broad, I know. I plan to focus on the importance of lesson planning for the first presentation and will introduce some of the activities we've used in CELI English club for the second. We'll also be having general discussions on the successes and challenges we've faced, will attend English language teaching seminars and will (hopefully!) have some time to see a bit of Montevideo.

From July 2-10 I will be in the good ol' U.S.of A! I wasn't planning on returning to the States at all during my grant but when my mom offered to fly me to Charlotte to see her, my stepdad David, my sister Katie, my brother-in-law Joel, my boyfriend Jack and my NEPHEW Quin I really couldn't resist the offer. I'm planning on enjoying less-polluted air, going on walks without getting honked at, grilling daily, sleeping without ear plugs and hanging out with Quin as much as possible. Side bonus: my friend Lea from my Galapagos study abroad just moved to the Charlotte area so we're going to get together for a mini reunion! I think the week with family and friends back on U.S. soil will be just the refresher I need to help me re-focus and prepare for the final 4 months of my grant.

My cousin Laura is planning to visit me in Panama shortly after I get back from the States. I'm excited to show her a bit of the city and just spend some time with her as she recently graduated from high school and will start at Tulane in August--way to go Laura!

My mom, stepdad David and our friends Kelly and Wes are coming to visit for the last 10 days of August and we're planning to rent a house on Isla Contadora which is part of the Pearl Islands (where some seasons of Survivor have been filmed!) in the Pacific Ocean. Between September and October I'm planning a visit to see my friend/ETA counterpart in David, Panama. I want to see his site and travel to Boquete and Volcan which are, from what I hear, gorgeous mountainous regions.

By the end of my 10 months here I think I will have seen the major geographic highlights of this tiny country!

Making Friends
One of the toughest challenges of the first two months was dealing with the feelings of isolation and loneliness. I never knew those feelings could be so overwhelming in a city of over 1 million people. But once I put on a cute purple skirt and proudly introduced myself to complete strangers at a networking event in early April, I expanded my network by about 20-fold. I have a wonderful group of friends in the city that keeps growing. Just last weekend I had an action-packed weekend in El Valle with a new group of people that consisted of ultimate frisbee in the pouring rain, a party at a stunning house, talking, laughing, cramming 11 people in a car built for 8, eating at Quesos Chela (best cheese empanada of my life) and watching one of my friend's American football game.

Of course I'd still like to have more Panamanian friends but whether they're Panamanian or not, I'm just glad to have a fun, outgoing, interesting group of people to share exciting adventures with.

Goals for the Second Half
1. Continue all of the above. First and foremost I want to continue to make strides toward becoming a great teacher, sharing and exchanging culture, seeing the beauty of Panama and keep expanding my friend group.
2. Speak more Spanish! While I love my English-speaking friends and my job that revolves around English, I'm not forced to speak enough Spanish. Through more Panamanian friends and being a little more outgoing with the language, I think I can work on my fluency.
3. Find a side project to get more involved in the community. I'm hoping to do some volunteer work or maybe even some informal research work on my days off of work. I'd like to work with indigenous groups and/or women and children, if possible. Making this extra commitment will also help me feel even more connected to Panama.
4. Try to nail down what I want to study in grad school and where I want to go. The three aforementioned goals will all contribute to the achievement of this goal but I think I'm already on track to meeting it.

As up and down, back and forth, twisting/turning experience as this has been so far, I wouldn't change a minute of it. The highs and lows are what have sparked such emotional and professional change that I couldn't obtain in any other way. Thank you for joining me on this journey: for offering advice, looking at my photos, listening to me vent and just checking in. Your support really means more than you know.

Cuídate. Nos vemos en 5 meses!

lengua sin palabras

Watch this awesome video on the meaning of a number of Panamanian gestures. Another one the guy doesn't cover is this:
That means you're cheap. Don't wanna be cheap. I've really been noticing the "over there" lip gesture. It's hilarious. And awesome.

Disfruta!

gracias a mis estudiantes

I just finished up morning conversation class with Lurlyne. She was my only student from Conversation One to join me for Conversation Two so we have more of a private tutor class. I was a little disappointed that none of the other 4 of 5 students could join us again, however I'm really proud of Lurlyne for showing such dedication. Lurlyne manages the front desk at a dental office (her husband went to dental school at Creighton) and they have a number of American patients. She has a 16-year-old daughter that wants to go to college in the States. Lurlyne is here for those two factors: she wants to be able to communicate clearly, effectively and fluently with her American patients and she wants to help her daughter with the college application/selection process. She has such positive energy, she always comes in with a bright smile and she is always so grateful for the two hours we spend together. She has improved so much since we started working together at the end of March. She is no longer making many of the errors she made before, she thinks thoroughly about what she wants to say before she says it, and her confidence has soared.

Lurlyne and the Access students always remind me why I'm here: to have a positive effect on the lives of Panamanians through English language instruction and cultural exchange. I always walk away from these classes feeling happy, energized and grateful. Gracias a todos mis estudiantes; uds. me enseñan más que saben. Thanks to all my students; you all teach me more than you know.

san blas, kuna yala: real life corona ad

The picture says it all, doesn't it?

I spent Friday morning - Sunday evening in paraíso (paradise). Some of my friends had organized a trip and I jumped at the opportunity to go; I'd been wanting to go to San Blas since I arrived in Panama...and all the hype and expectations did not disappoint. We woke up before the sun on Friday, squeezed into a LandCruiser, and were off. San Blas is north and east of Panama City on the Caribbean side. We took the highway for about an hour and a half and the last 45 minutes or so were spent on a roller coaster of a road. We were winding around mountains, taking sharp turns, speeding down steep descents and crawling up steep ascents. We stumbled out of the car when we finally reached the unloading point, all of us at least slightly woozy from the theme park ride. We waited at the edge of the water under a little hut for about 45 minutes before a boat arrived to take us to the island. Even though the boat ride was packed and I was drenched with salt water by the end of it, it was absolutely mesmerizing. Everywhere I turned there was another tiny island full of palm trees and a white sand beach in the middle of sparkling, teal blue water. Remember the old school Microsoft screen saver of an island like those I just mentioned? Apparently that photo was taken in San Blas.

The San Blas, or Kuna Yala, islands are an autonomous "comarca" of Panama. The Kuna Yala indigenous people occupy about 50 of the 350 islands in the area but have control over all of them. The Kunas believe strongly in the four key elements of the environment: earth, wind, water and fire. The Kuna women are easily identified by their traditional dress: they wear a shear blouse connected to a mola (multi-layer, hand-stitched material consisting of animal designs and geometric shapes) and a patterned tapestry as a skirt. Many of them also wear a gold ring in the center of their nose.

Our group stayed on Franklyn/Tony Island. It's called that because those are the two owners. It's split down the middle, complete with a chain link fence; Franklyn owns and runs a hostel of huts on one side and Tony does the same on the other side. We stayed on Tony's side. This was one of the most economical vacations I've ever taken. For all transportation (car and boat), two nights in a hut, all meals (including lobster for dinner one night!), snacks and entrance fees I only spent $120.

There were many groups of young Israelis staying on the island and there were also some really cool North Americans. I spent a good amount of time getting to know awesome people from California, Michigan and Canada. We spent our days laying in the sun on the beach and shade of palm trees, soaking in the beautiful water, playing scrabble, listening to music, and just hanging out. We actually all met up again last night (their last night in the city) for some DELICIOUS (and cheap!) food at Sabor de la India. A new friend, Courtney, and I shared butter chicken, naan and samosas. My bill was a mere $7. So awesome.

This whole weekend was the perfect way for me to clear my head and get a little perspective on this adventure of mine. I'm living in a beautiful country with so much history and so many cultures. I'm glad to have the opportunity to take advantage of seeing and experiencing the diverse peoples and places within this culturally-packed country of only 3 million people.

Now that I'm 3 shades darker and genuinely content, it's time to get back to work. I'm no longer teaching the morning conversation class--only 1 of my students signed up for the second class :( so she's switching to the night class. I'll be team-teaching that class with my friend, Josh. I'm planning on restarting the faculty conversation club next week--I'm cautiously hopeful on this one, though. It's been pushed back by the participants for about 3 weeks now. So we'll see. I'm taking a bit of a break from Access this week because the students have exams. The midway point of my grant is in 2 weeks...CRAZY. Next time I'll post a midterm evaluation.

Until then...

Cuídate.

vacaciones con jack y mi padre, mal día, oportunidad nueva

Mal día
Jack left on Friday after a little over 3 weeks with me. My dad left yesterday morning after 5 days together. Yesterday was the "mal día" (bad day). April was the best month that I've had here so far. I finally got in to a routine working with adult students in CELI and high school kids for Access; I made some cool new friends; I saw Shakira in concert; Jack came and we went on our first real vacation together and spent time just being normal; my dad came to see my Panamanian life firsthand; and then yesterday it's like I was startled awake from a great dream that I never wanted to end. I don't know how much of April's perfection was all of those fun adventures, being with the love of my life and sharing this journey with him, getting in to a routine or what but I finally felt great here. I was, maybe for the first time since this adventure started, 100% happy. And then yesterday hit me like a ton of bricks across the face. I feel guilty for feeling "off." I know this is a great opportunity and I know there are thousands of people who would trade places with me; but I guess we all have our off moments, right? Part of me can't believe I've already been here over 4 months. And, for the last couple days, part of me can't believe I still have 6 months to go. I will continue to make this the most positive experience I can. I will go to work and see tangible change happen in front of my eyes; I will start to learn more about the culture here (I might try to do some research on some of the many indigenous groups of Panama); I will do the next crazy thing with my new friends; I'll do all of that because that's who I am and that's what this experience is about. Sorry for the "moment," I think I'm trying to convince myself of all these things as I write them to you.

I realized after a vent session last night that, I apologize for sounding painfully selfish, this journey is mine and it is about me. Sure, I'm doing my best in the classroom and trying to have a positive effect on the people I meet here, but my students, my friends, my colleagues and this experience as a whole are having more of an impact on me than I could ever imagine having on them. After a little over 4 months here, I'm starting to be a confident teacher, I'm more assertive, I'm more outgoing, I'm getting better at being by myself and I'm trying to take advantage of new opportunities.

Now for the good stuff.

3 semanas con mi amor
I left you with a cliffhanger from my last post: our journey to El Valle. Some friends of mine invited us to tag along for a one-night stay in El Valle. I had heard a lot of great things about this area so we jumped at the chance. Jack and I hitched a ride with Alex, May Ling and Felicidad. Alex is one of the few people I've met here with a car; but alas, he moved back to England shortly after we returned from El Valle. Anyway, we drove about two hours west to the beautiful mountainous region of El Valle. The air was crisp and clean, there was almost no traffic and at night we could see every star in the sky. We stayed at La Casita, a camping hostel. They provided tents and breakfast for only $15/per person. We spent that Saturday afternoon exploring the area, hiking, and swimming in ice-cold natural pools. That night there was a music event at the hostel. People brought any instrument they knew how to play and just jammed. I think there was a scheduled list of events but when the power went out it turned in to an all-night jam session. Pretty sweet.

We woke up the next morning and couldn't find Alex anywhere. Knowing that we had to get back that day (as we left for Isla Grande the following morning) and that he was our ride, we went on a trek in to town to search for him. I spotted his car parked outside a restaurant and he happened to be crossing the street as we got closer. He told us he wanted to stay another night, so that left Jack, May Ling and I to fend for ourselves for a ride home. Jack and I decided on the bus because they're cheap, and frequent. We stood in line for almost an hour with about 150 others waiting to go back to the city and boarded the small bus made for about 30 people, but it's Panama so about 40 people got on. We were traveling back to the city on Easter Sunday so a 2-hour trip actually took over 3 hours with traffic. To make it even more exciting one of the passengers brought a stowaway bird...logically. We didn't realize this until about an hour into the ride when there was a loud screeching sound and feathers flapping; oh, duh, I always bring my pet macaw on the bus with me. Right.

The next morning Jack and I were picked up and driven 2 hours north toward the Caribbean. A small boat took us from just outside the town of Portobelo to Bananas Resort. It's a quaint, 35-room hotel. There are three rooms in peaked roof houses; two on the bottom, one on top. Jack and I had a room at the top of one of the houses complete with a hammock on the balcony. The highlights of our trip include: delicious food, 4 pm margaritas daily, pool time, beach time, a hike to the other side of the island, paella, Panamanian beer, me dominating Jack in ping pong (twice), friendly staff, time together, beautiful sunsets, sleeping in, more food and more time relaxing together. It was the perfect first vacation.

We came back to reality after five wonderful, sun-filled days to have a last supper for Alex. We met up with my friends at Beirut, a delicious Lebanese restaurant, went out for drinks and watched Alex and Jack play chess for over an hour (zzZZZzzz...). It was fun to be back with friends, though. The next day, Jack got to experience the canal and on Sunday we spent the afternoon at the causeway. Monday, May 2nd was Panama's Labor Day so we had a picnic in Parque Omar and just hung out together. Jack came to school with me Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesday he helped in my conversation class and the other two days we worked with the Access students. When Jack asked some of the Access students if they liked me and thought I was a good teacher, one of them responded with, "She is very beautiful." Ha. I guess I'll take that.

We went to a networking event at a Mexican place with Laura (research fulbrighter) on cinco de mayo. I didn't do a ton of networking, mostly just saw my new friends (many of whom I met at the previous event), drank some celebratory margaritas, then had dinner with Jack. On Friday night my friend Josh and his girlfriend Isis invited us over to their place for a traditional Panamanian dinner; Isis made oven-cooked chicken, rice, a salad and everyone's favorite, plantains. I finally figured out what makes those taste so good, the recipe is so simple: plantains, tons of sugar, tons of butter and a little water. Yum. After a delicious meal, a couple bottles of wine, great conversation, and some sports-watching, Jack and I headed back to the apartment. We were bums the rest of the weekend. Monday we went to the Centro Municipal de Artesañias so Jack could get some souvenirs as it was his last day in the city.

My dad arrived on Tuesday. Jack and I met him at the airport where we were picked up by a driver for our hotel, the Intercontinential at Playa Bonita...I do NOT recommend it. Before we got to the hotel we stopped to pick up some beer and snacks so we wouldn't get gouged all the time at the hotel. When we arrived, supplies in hand, one of the supervisors, instead of greeting us and welcoming us to his hotel, firmly told us we would have to keep our recently purchased goods in storage for our stay there. From that point on we plotted on how to get our things out of storage. Unfortunately the rainy season decided to kick in full swing during our few days at this beach hotel so we were stuck hanging out in the room, reading and watching movies. To make matters worse, there were a number of businesses there for private conferences and they closed off 2 of the 3 restaurants for their dinner parties. Overall the service was pretty bad, the prices were insane, and of course the rain didn't help our spirits. We did, however, get our contraband items out of storage on the second day so that was a small victory.

We left the hotel Friday morning to take Jack to the airport. I was really sad to see him go because we had such a perfect few weeks together. Hopefully he'll be back again at the end of July/early August for another visit. Thanks for coming, mi amor; you made me feel happy and comfortable and just normal again. Now, please come back :)

2 días más con mi padre
After dropping Jack at the airport, my dad and I returned to the city where we checked him in to the hotel. This time, instead of telling him he couldn't bring in his gin, the bell hop offered to fill up the bucket of ice for him...much better start. We relaxed and had lunch at a restaurant nearby and then went to see the canal. It was another gloomy day, but wasn't nearly as rainy as the days before. Serendipitously, there was a ship registered in Hong Kong passing through the canal as we were on the observation deck. There was also a Panamax ship overflowing with containers holding who knows what. That night I showed my dad my apartment and then we had dinner with Christine and her friend.

The next day the sun proved it does exist in Panama! Finally blue skies and sun for an entire day. I took my dad to see Latina where he got to meet Luz (the director/facilitator of Access), Isabel (teacher friend), Luis (Christine's admin assistant) and Patricia (director of a private school and creator of a methodology being used by Christine for a project for 11-year-olds learning English on Saturdays). From there we went to Cerro Ancon to look at the beautiful views of the city, then to the causeway where we walked around and eventually had lunch. We went back to the hotel for a siesta and that night had a date in Casco. We went around happy hour so he could see the area while there was still some sunlight, had a drink, then had dinner at Mostaza. It was a perfect last evening together. Thanks for including me in your western hemisphere trip, Dad. I'm really glad you got to see some of this adventure of mine.

Oportunidad Nueva
Today I had a meeting with a woman in Casco Antiguo. She would like me to work with some at-risk high school students that go to school in Casco. Many of them are from the areas bordering Casco (very poor, dangerous, violent, run by gangs, etc.) but attend school at Iglesia de la Merced in Casco. One day a week, she would like me to give reinforcement of what the students are already working on in their English classes. I'm still debating whether or not to take this on, so your comments/feedback are, of course, welcome.

En fin
Tomorrow I will finally be back in to my routine at CELI. I'm going in early to help Christine with some things, conversation club with the U. Latina faculty and Access in the afternoon. My conversation II class starts on Thursday morning. I have condensed my schedule down to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays all day at CELI. That leaves Mondays and Fridays open for me to, maybe, work with the Casco kids and hopefully do some research on the indigenous groups of Panama. Vamos a ver. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your love and support. It really means a lot to know I have such a great, strong network willing to send me encouraging thoughts and positive vibes.

Un abrazo.

Cuídate.

shakira, nuevos amigos y la llegada de mi amor

Shakira

I couldn't resist seeing a Latin American superstar in Latin America. I convinced Christine she needed to come as well and we arranged for a driver knowing the traffic would be insane. When we arrived at Figali Convention Center on the causeway the parking lots were full of cars and people and grills cooking a variety of pre-concert sausages. Panamanians love their salchichas (hot dogs). The atmosphere reminded me more of a Big Ten football tailgate than a pre-concert party. Once we made our way through security we muscled our way toward the front of the standing-only section. Three local bands opened for Shakira. They didn't leave much of an impression on me because a). They weren't very good and b). They each only played one song. However, a 4-man boy-band did come out complete with cheesy choreography to match their cheesy lyrics; it was slightly reminiscent of the NSYNC/BSB craze from the 90s. Between the song of the third band and Shakira's opening we stood around waiting for over an hour (classic Latin America). People were getting restless and pushing and cheering for her. By the time she finally came out at 10 pm everyone freaked. The sections ahead of us had chairs so they stood on top of them causing more hostility within our section. They threw trash and cans and even a couple bottles while screaming expletives urging them to get off their chairs--all of the fuss was to no avail. I stood on my tip-toes to occasionally get a glimpse of Shakira but mostly just tried to watch from the screens. She sang all of her hits, brought a few girls on stage, danced like I've never seen anyone dance, never seemed out of breath (there had to be some lip-synching there) and the crowd responded. Every local knew every single word to every single song; they were completely enamored with her. It was a really really cool environment and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. The next day I was a little sluggish at work (running on only 5 hours of sleep) but it was all worth it.

Nuevos Amigos

On Sunday April 17 I finally got an invitation from one of my students to come hang out with her, her brother and one of her friends. I had given my phone number and email to all of my students in January but hadn't heard from any of them until Andreina called on Saturday. She picked me up and we drove to the causeway. We talked in a mix of English and Spanish, walked around and then had dinner together at a restaurant near my house. It was so nice to finally feel welcomed by one of my students. Her friend Nataly that joined us is Ecuadorian so it was cool to talk about Ecuador and Galapagos a little bit too. Now, a highlight of the difference between my experience with the people of the two countries. Within a few hours of meeting them I was explaining how I would need a ride to the airport on April 20th to get Jack. Nataly said, "My father will do it." I said, "Oh, is he a driver?" She said, "No, I just know he'd like to do it." It was great to have a personal ride from a new friend to get Jack.

La llegada de mi amor

The next couple days were kind of a whir as I was anticipating Jack's arrival. When I finally saw him at the airport on Wednesday night it was kind of like a dream. I couldn't believe he was here after months of counting down to his trip. We timed his trip so that his first day here marked my first day of vacation. On Thursday I took him to my beloved Parque Omar, went swimming at Boris' place and then got together with a bunch of my friends to help welcome Jack to Panama. I was happy so many of my new friends came out to meet him and hang out with us at Los Cedros. Since I was hosting, I felt inclined to buy the drinks and hookah for the group and food for me and Jack. It was a shockingly low $30 for everything. Very fun night with fun friends. And the ETAs from Venezuela joined us for a couple hours. It was nice to share stories and experiences with them and reinforce that I'm not the only one going through a lot of what I've already experienced.

Panama City completely shuts down on Good Friday. I didn't even need my earplugs on Thursday night/Friday morning. My ears appreciated the vacation. Jack and I walked around the city for a while and felt like we were in a Zombie movie. We went to the mall and the only thing open there was the movie theater. We decided on RIO 3D and I missed the minor detail that it was in Spanish; Jack doesn't speak Spanish... Since it was an animated movie he was able to get the gist of everything and I would translate some of the details for him.

Vacation

I have more to tell you about Easter weekend including an adventure we took to El Valle. We had a great time there but some interesting stories arose within those 24 hours. Unfortunately for you, I have to leave you with that cliffhanger. Fortunately for me, I'm leaving in 15 minutes for vacation with Jack. We're heading up to Isla Grande (Caribbean side) for the next five days to soak up the sun on the beach and relax together. I'll be sure to post again next weekend about El Valle and Isla Grande.

Cuídate.

habla, habla, habla!

Over the last 10 days I've really started to get in to my new roles. Christine and I have established a great mentor-mentee relationship in CELI. I am leading a high-level, two-hour conversation class two days/week. Many of these students have an extensive travel background, high vocabulary and really just want to work on their accents, fluency and pronunciation. Our first class was March 31st. I only had two students, Lurlyne and Mabel, so we focused a lot on just getting to know each other and discussing greetings/introductions. A very interesting cultural conversation arose from this topic. In the States we show interest in new people by asking them a lot of questions related to their job, where they went to school, etc. In Panama, however, those questions are saved for the second or third meeting and upfront people are often asked more "personal" questions regarding their marital status, if they have children, etc. This discussion was like a smack in the face to me; I had been wondering why people felt cold on first meeting and why cab drivers always asked if I was married. Turns out this is cultural norm for them.

This week I had five more students and we had two action-packed days working on pronunciation of the -ed ending (passed, stayed, crashed, waited, etc) and -s, -es ending (stays, washes, sleeps, etc.). As native English speakers we don't consider these naturally-acquired skills. However, the -ed and -es endings are really difficult for non-native speakers, especially native Spanish speakers. We spent half of each class doing different practices for these pronunciations and they were so engaged. I told Christine after that I felt almost out of control of the class because they were so in to it and wanted so much information and so much practice. But, in a way, I kind of liked it because they were so excited. They all said that in every English class they'd ever had they had never learned the distinction of these sounds. These sounds are really important to English and especially to these students because they want to obtain a more native accent.

I also started the CELI conversation club and a conversation club for a few Latina faculty. The CELI club has had a couple dedicated students attend and we did similar activities to the conversation class (greetings/intros and pronunciation). For the Latina faculty, I'm meeting with four women three times each week. We have decided to have "Movie Mondays" with follow-up discussion on Wednesdays and Fridays. Since we're a group of women we're starting out with a chick flick (and I'm sure many more to come).

On Friday I went to my first class at Spanish Panama. The teacher was great and really just got us talking and helping us detect our errors. She also gave us some uniquely Panamanian words such as chombo and tinaca. Chombo is a derrogatory word used to describe a black Panamanian but it has an interesting linguistic story. The young men that worked and cleaned the bathrooms in the canal zone were often black and were called john boys. To the Panamanian ear this sounded like "chombo" (if you say one right after the other you can hear the similarity) and thus developed chombo. Tinaca is a word for the trash pick-up spot. A company that set up these spots was called Tin & Co, thus tinaca. Language is so cool.

Finally, a social life! I've spent the first three months here not knowing many people in their 20s. I've probably mentioned Christine in almost every post because I'm really grateful for her sharing her space with me and for being such a great mentor to me, but I have been in desperate need of friends my age. A fellow ETA in Costa Rica suggested I create a couchsurfing profile because she had been really successful meeting people in CR with it. Couchsurfing is sort of like facebook for hitchhiking. It's a network of people willing to host or looking to be hosted in countries and cities worldwide. I found Jessie on couchsurfing. I read that she and her Panamanian husband had moved here in June and that she did a Fulbright in Nicaragua a few years ago. I sent her a message right away and was relieved when she replied within 24 hours. She and Jorge had just purchased an apartment located right between my place and Universidad Latina and they invited me over as their first guest. As we were sipping cinnamon vanilla tea, I sort of unloaded on her (sorry Jessie!). I let her know how frustrating it had been to feel so alone here and how my program hadn't been exactly what I had imagined for the first 3 months. She was very sympathetic and shared similar stories of her first three months in Panama when she was unemployed and living at her new in-laws' home. She invited me to a networking event the following night at Casa Nikki--a posh bar at MultiPlaza Mall near my house.

I was determined to go to this event. Most of you know this is not really my thing. I don't feel super comfortable in a big room full of people I've never seen or spoken to in my life. But I pushed myself outside the box, went up to strangers, sparked conversations and met some really great (young!) people, including another Iowan! Nic is from Iowa, Jackie from Houston, Ana from Panama, Boris from Guadalupe and Alex from St. Louis. I spent a couple of hours there, sipped a couple mojitos and went home feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and excited to have met nice people who will hopefully become friends while I'm still here and even after I leave. Boris is hosting a pool party tomorrow that I'll go to and establish myself a little more with this new group.

The rainy season is here in full force, unfortunately. I didn't think it would start until May, but it seems to have started a little earlier than normal. The humidity has noticeably increased and the heavy showers in the afternoon are an indication that summer is officially over in Panama. Guess I'm going to have to get used to running through puddles, bringing an umbrella with me everywhere and sporting my bright green rain jacket (my graduation present will be used on a daily basis, Dad!).

A few things I forgot to mention in the last post:

1. LAS tests are DONE. These were the proficiency tests that the Access students took at the end of their program last year. With Christine, Isabel and Temi, I paged through hundreds of these tests grading dictations, multiple choice, sentence completion, picture descriptions and writing prompts. I have a whole new appreciation for teachers' work in grading tests. This was an insanely long process, but I finally got all the scores tabulated and they have been sent to a statistician in California for analysis. Too bad you can't grade language proficiency with ScanTrons...

2. Sra. Stiles was here! One of my high school Spanish teachers decided to spend her spring break in Panama and we spent a day together. We strolled around and had a nice lunch in Casco Viejo, I showed her the university and then we ate a great traditional dinner at Las Tinajas. We also got to see a performance of traditional Panamanian dance, music and dress. And I was dragged up on stage with one of the dancers. I wish I had the Latin instinct for rhythm but I think I'm just another white girl. Latinos move so effortlessly as if the music pulses through their bodies directing each movement with ease and finesse. I felt like I had a huge sign on my forehead that said "GRINGA." But I guess it was sort of fun; plus dancer that brought me up on stage had big brown eyes and a sweet smile that it was just hard to turn down. Don't worry Jack I love you dearly and he and I kept the arms'-length-apart-middle-school-dance rule.

3. Quinten is getting big! He's 9 weeks old and he's starting to fill out. He even has squeezable cheeks now :) I can't wait to scoop him up in December.

4. I'll be crashing in a new place for the last few months I'm here. Since this apartment is for the fellow (Christine's position) it has to be cleared for new fellow to move in when they start in August. Maybe one of my new friends from the networking event can help me find a place. Ideally, I'd like to land with one or two 20-somethings and just have a lot of fun my last 3.5 months here. But we'll see. I have until the end of July to figure something out.

5. I'm going to see SHAKIRA on Tuesday. I'm not going to bring my camera because I don't want it to get stolen/damaged so I'll try to take many mental pictures and describe the experience for you to the best of my abilities. I'm not a huge Shakira fan, but she's a Latin star and I'm in Latin America...couldn't let the opportunity slip away.

Cuídate.