hey there folks.....well, life here in central america is finally coming together.....sorry it has taken me so long to get in touch with all of you....but it has been a very busy six weeks of organizing life and we have already finished four weeks (yes....a whole month!!!) of classes.....i am no longer living in a hotel room....and i am loving my apartment, especially the pool....i have a car, although at the moment it is in the shop getting organized and ready for me to drive.....i have adapted to being back in a classroom and am loving that aspect of my job.....i have kids from all over the world, all though the majority are from north america, central america and south america......but it feels good to be back in an environment i know and love....an international school!!!! yay!!!!
panama city is a very interesting place......it definitely pulled one over on me the night i arrived....lots and lots of high rises made me think it was a HUGE city....and it is not....i do like all of the buildings and that it is easy to get from one side to the other of this place.....there is a metro line, but i have not used it yet....and uber is definitely alive and well here.....it is what i normally use to go out and come home....but for the most part i am loving being in a walk-able city, that as a bunch to offer.....from restaurants to bars to movies to an amazing waterfront walk......and green space is just a stones throw away....
another thing that has been quite surprising is the amount of rain and of storms we have here....i do not think a day has gone by without lightening....and when that happens there is very loud thunder....i need to see if panama city is a hot spot for thunder and lightening.....because it sure seems like it....watching it off my balcony is one of my favorite things.....the storms also keep every thing quite moist....so you have to be very careful of mold growing literally every where....the amount of moisture in the air has been incredible.....temperature has fluctuated, but i am definitely back in the tropics....hence why i love the pool sooooooooo much.....
this is going to be a quick update....as i still need to get ready for school tomorrow....but i really feel like i needed to let you know i am well and happy and adjusting....i might be headed out to go diving or go to the beach next weekend....which i am greatly anticipating....need to get out of the sticky city....although, you really do not have to travel far to get to green rain forest....which is nice.....and the flora and fauna has been fun to check out.....very different from northeast pennsylvania....i have already had one trip to the rain forest....where we saw macaws. toucans, a sloth, parrots and heard howler monkeys....
onto the pictures.....and thanks for reading and checking in on me....one last thing....some people have asked if they can mail me cards or things....and unfortunately the answer to that question is NO!!!! panama actually does not have a mail system....so literally nothing gets mailed here unless you use a specialty service.....it is wild....only way things get mailed out is if someone is leaving the country and can send it from the country they are headed to....simply mind-blowing!!!! so thanks in advance for the attempts to keep in touch via snail mail, but really nothing will make it to me....sorry :( plus, i am not sure how often i will get the chance to send postcards.....so just know i am thinking of you!!!!
when i first got to panama in the middle of july, we had our orientation at the marriott in town, which is also where we lived until we found apartments to live in....i have never been given this option of finding my own place to live in....i have to say i am not a huge fan of this.....just give me an apartment a previous teacher has lived in, in the area i am most interested in, with colleagues located close by....it took a lot of time, effort and i lost two apartments before i got the one i am currently living, which i really like....but while we were at the marriott we were given the royal treatment, including this cute box filled with sweets....welcome to panama.....
the picture above is how we were greeted as new faculty at the school the first day we arrived.....every one of the staff and faculty that was on campus came out to greet us and made us feel like rock stars....a wonderful welcome!!!! and now i am an ISP dolphin....it was a lovely way to welcome us to the school.....
a HUGE selling point for the school is a brand new, FIFA approved soccer field....not only for our teams, but it is used continually by surrounding neighborhoods and league teams here....yesterday there was a huge under 18 tournament.....so its cool because it is good for the school and good for the community!!!!
one aspect of panama that reminds me a bit of asia is the mall and the crazy things in the mall...they are like ghana because many stores are really small and have very little in them....but then the art and statues and food courts remind me of asia and the states....and then there are the people there for the air conditioning and to get out of the storms.....but there are also huge stores like those in the states and overseas....but with different names of course....but there is definitely no target.....penguins in panama.....yeah right.....but i found these guys ;) in the mall.....
here we are at one of the food courts....you probably recognize some of these names....and i have to say, i think i have found all of the fast food from the states....from mcdonalds to kfc to taco bell to little ceasars....we even have chuck e cheese.....at times i look around and wonder just where i am, as a lot of it is very states oriented.....
there are quite a few large parks in panama city....although many of them are being refurbished...including the one closest to my place....and once again i am living close to a statue of einstein....living close to a famous scientist statue also happened in china and croatia as well.....just wild :) but at the moment the einstein head is covered in plastic....but i am excited for when i finally do see it....
there is one older section of town called casco viejo (means old town in spanish)....and the next few shots are from down in that area....there are still cobbled-stone streets and tons of renovation....this is one of the main plazas in this part of town, called plaza herrera....the statue is general tomas herrera...he was the first president of the free state of panama.....in 1840....it only lasted 13 months and then panama was back as part of colombia....
they are definitely working on this part of panama city....and sometimes you see old facades of buildings with nothing really left inside of them.....this particular building, and old church, is being left this way....an outdoor courtyard....this the remains of the church and convent of the society of jesus....it was founded in 1578 by a jesuit priest....it is a lovely building....
because casco viejo gets a lot of tourists....there is a lot available to buy in this section of town for tourists....lots of bold colors and fabrics here....although, they are very different from the bold fabrics of africa....you just know you are in a latin country from their crafts....more on these in a later update, when i actually buy some or go see how they are made :)
of course, no first update would be complete without some shots from the panama canal....i have been to the older set of locks, which you see above, but thus far have not made it to the bigger, newer set....as they are a bit farther away from the city.....the school took us to the mira flores locks for a dinner to welcome up to this country....it was a blast....the boat in the picture above is headed to the pacific ocean....and is in the second to last set of locks in this section of the older locks....
one of the coolest things i learned, is that the ships may not use their own engines while going through the locks....they are maneuvered through by tug boats and little trains along the canal locks themselves....you can see one of the trains in the shot above....as two large tankers are coming through.....the orange is headed to the pacific and the black one is headed to the carribean....
in this shot, you can see that the locks have closed and that the water on the right side is much higher than that on the left side....the engineering behind this system is amazing....and although it is fully automated....there are people working along side the entire set up....
my last shot from the canal was taken a bit farther up the locks....what is also very interesting is that there are bodies of water between the different sets of the locks,,,,and this is where the tugboats do their thing...what is also cool is that every ship must sail the panamanian flag while going through the locks, because the tugboats are all panamanian....
this is another shot of caco viejo from a balcony of an apartment i was taken to see....you can actually have a view of the waterway into the panama canal....but i made the decision that i did not need to live in a high-rise along this strip....the neighborhood definitely does not have as much character as mine....but it sure has a nice view!!!!
one of the stops we made in our exploration of the area around panama city was at a park that was set up to help rehabilitate animals that have been injured or "abandoned" by parents....one of the animals on exhibit was a harpy eagle....the bird in the picture with me....this is the national bird of panama....so it was cool to be able to see one up close and personal....
flowers and insects here have impressive thus far....some really huge cockroaches in my classroom....bleh.....lots of lizards around as well.....and many, many, many pretty butterflies...as i am typing i keep thinking of the names of these animals in my head in spanish for practice, as i am taking spanish lessons....as it is something you should have if you are living here.....
we stopped at the rehab park on the way to the gamboa rainforest....where it rained...BIG TIME!!!! luckily it stopped early enough for us to be able to take a cable car to a viewing platform above the canopy....but here you can literally see the "cloud forest" aspect in this part of panama.....
here i am at the top of the viewing platform (go team croatia!!!!) in the rain forest....behind me is part of the panama canal....the canal is huge...and now has two pathways ships can take...big and bigger....the canal makes tons of revenue for panama...and it very impressive...more on it in a future update :)
so this is a shot of most of the newbies in my cohort at the rehab park...there is a lot of teaching power in this picture....cool and interesting folks who have been all over the world and the states....good people as we say.....go dolphins!!!!
one of the best things about being back in latin america.....ceviche!!!! plus, here in panama, like in ecuador....they eat it with yucca....yahooooo!!!!! in this shot you can see three different types of ceviche.....which is perfect for a sunday lunch at the fish market....ceviche is a raw fish dish which lime is added to, so that it is cooked by the citrus.....sooooooo tasty and full of flavor :)
and of course i had to end the first update from my new country of residence with a beer flight....this is from my local happy hour pub just down the street from my house.....la rana dorada....which means the gold frog.....most of the beer here in panama is light in color and not so bold in taste....but this pub brews their own....and they have a porter!!!!! yahoo.....there are a few other brew pubs in the area, but i have not had the chance to make it to them yet.....salud!!!!!
so there you have it....my first update from panama....thanks for sticking with me to the end....and consider this your invitation to come on down for a visit....only a 2.5 hour flight from fort lauderdale, fl....easy access to the pacific ocean and the caribbean sea....you can actually swim in both within the span of a day....and of course the panama canal....an engineering wonder every one should see at least once....if you have any questions....feel free to get in touch and hopefully my next update will be out in the next month....i have a boat trip for a couple of days in the next month and am hoping to go diving and hit a few beaches....i'll keep ya posted.....
hope all is well for you and happy beginning of school to all of my friends who teach....all of my friends with kids and all of my past students....good luck, have fun, drink water!!!!
peace out....dani
