Panama is hilarious.

I spent the entire day in my new house with the owner trying to fix a leaking toilet and sink. He’s 26 years old and bought the house four years ago for $21,000. It’s this super cute two-bedroom red house in a wonderful little neighborhood with kids running in my backyard and street (it’s a dead-end road and sees little traffic!). Julian came over at 11am or so to fix the leaks, and JUST left at 6:15pm. Turns out he had put a new piece in wrong. We had a good hearty laugh about how it cost us ALL day to figure that out. We had a good afternoon getting to know each other though so it’s all good. He’s like Sarah and I – he had saved all his notes from high school and middle school and even elementary school, and he showed me it all on a quest to find his old English homework, to no avail.

Let me back up. My previous living situation peaked in its making me feel like I needed a change. To sum it up and leave out unnecessary details, the family and I were just too different. They were never there so I wasn’t a part of their family, but it was still very clearly their space, and I wasn’t free to do with it as I wished. I had contemplated moving out, but feared my Spanish would get worse. I then stopped and thought, and realized that I speak Spanish with them about once a week when we spend any amount of time in the same space, the rest of the time I just feel like a nescience. I started looking for apartments, and a friend of a friend of a friend knew someone who was looking to rent their house furnished. Furnished apartments/houses are unheard of here. Everything else I had looked at didn’t even come with a fridge or stove. Rebecca drove me to see the house and it was absolutely perfect. That day I asked Julian how quickly he could be out. It’s six days later, and I’m beginning my second night here at La Casa Roja.

When I came to see the house, I thought the owner looked super familiar, but I couldn’t place him. I have a friend in town who I have been to a lot of soccer games with and met a ton of people at the games, and thought maybe it was there. Then I decided I was just crazy, and didn’t know him. Well, yesterday when I was moving in, he told me what he did for work, and I realized he had given an hour-long presentation at a school I was at a couple weeks ago! I had asked my friend/Spanish teacher about him because he was so great with the kids. Same guy. He totally remembered me and just didn’t say anything.

Santiago is a small ass town.

Anyway, all is well here in La Casa Roja. I have to turn off the water to the toilet when I’m not using it which kind of sucks, but it reminds me of Lopez. I LOVE living alone. My sister said I’ll never be able to go back to roommates and I think she’s right. Everything is exactly where I left it, and I know anything that’s annoying about the house is my fault and needs to be my solution.

The neighborhood is called Las Perlas and is like a giant family. Julian told me that the woman next door is like his mother. This morning I was coming home from the target equivalent here in Santiago, and I saw her on her porch so I went over and introduced myself. She told me that Julian was like her son. Later that day as I was hanging my clothes on the roof to dry, she told me I could use her clothesline when it wasn’t being used. Then she brought me a batido and lunch! I think I’m going to like it here.

Hope all is well in your respective parts of the world. Love to you all.

PS: I dont have internet so "yesterday" should be taken with a grain of salt. I think I wrote this two days ago? Not sure. Also, I was on national television. So there's that.

Ok. The house!

La Casita Roja

"So... when can I meet you?"

I haven't updated in forever. I know. I'm sorry. Life has been chugging along here, and I'm loving every minute of it. Even the moments where I'm unhappy for one reason or another, I love and am content because I so belong in Panama right now.

Too much has happened in the past month+ to do a regular update, so I shall leave you with some bullet points of highlights. : )

Friends
About a month ago, a Fulbright grantee named Rebecca moved to Santiago to teach at the college, and has totally shifted my experience for the better. I got a call from my old Spanish teacher one day telling me that a new foreigner had moved into town and needed friends! We met, and hit it off from the beginning. We spent Semana Santa together at our Spanish teacher's friends cabin on this beautiful private beach, and can regularly be found cruising the streets of Santiago in her old-new car (!!) when we're bored at night. We get a long so well, it's great to have a close friend here in town!

 Where we were for Semana Santa

Rebecca and I in Palo Seco

Cartwheel on the beach - I still got it! :)

School
My students are doing AWESOME! Some days (and sections of students) are better than others, but all-in-all I'm insanely happy at my job. Some days I do more in class than other; my contribution to class ranges from teaching it entirely to being little more than a pronunciation guide, but I love all of the aspects of how I utilized in the classroom. I am starting to get to know my students better and in more contexts, which has also proven to be really cool. There's a big divide here in Panama between Barcelona and Read Madrid fans. BIG divide, and the students always want to know who I support. I said I dont know enough about soccer yet, but a Panamanian friend of mine calls me Katie Barcelona because he can't pronounce my last name, so maybe them. My co-teacher Juan is 150% Barca, and I have one student in particular who is not pleased with that. After a Barca win, Juan came to class fanning himself with a Barca scarf. Francisco, my die-hard Real Madrid student, decided he was going to draw me a beautiful replica of the Madrid logo. It's awesome and I bring it to every class. When I'm in class during a game, it's taped to the board. Safe to say I'm officially a Madrid fan :)

Last Friday we had a giant English soccer tournament. The students were excused from their classes for the day and chalked the field and then played a huge tournament. The cheerleaders could only cheer in English, and the players could only speak in English. If they said, "Pasame la pelota!" en vez de "Pass me the ball!" they got a "white card" and the other team got the ball. It was awesome! The same student who drew the Madrid sign is a big soccer player himself. He wasn't going to be able to play in the tournament because he was having MCL surgery that day. Friday morning I saw him putting on cleats, and asked him what the heck he was doing! He responded that they postponed the surgery and so he was going to play. Craziness!

 With the cheerleaders for Team Teamwork! 

(All of the teams were named after a value because that was what MEDCUA had us studying that week)

Going over the rules with the players before the game

Panama
Rainy season is upon us. There are rivers in every gutter (the gutters here are 3 feet deep for this purpose) and I am STILL wet from waiting for the bus an hour ago. I had the bus driver drop me off directly in front of my house today instead of at the usual stop on the corner because it was so wet. I cannot begin to describe this rain, only say that EVERYONE here wears fake crocs that all stores sell for $3.99 Friends, I hate to break it to you, but I fully intend on buying a pair tomorrow. It's crazy, I know. They're so ugly, but they are SO necessary here. No judgement, please.

Oh, here's a good story, and then I'm off:

My homestay mom, Lili, has told me about this student of hers at the college. Really rich and handsome and can take me many cool places. I kind of shrugged it off when she told me about it, but a couple of days ago, I was in the bathroom and heard her say, "Where's Kati?" She then said, what sounded like into the phone, "She's in the bathroom, just a minute." I couldn't figure out what was going on, but decided my director must have tried to call me, and because I was in the bathroom was unable to reach me so called Lili. Anyway, I came out of the bathroom, and Lili said, "Remember the guy I told you about? He's on the phone, here!" I was royally irritated, and mildly amused. I had just come back from a long day at school and I hate the phone and awkward encounters more than almost anything. ESPECIALLY in Spanish. I answered and gave the man short and annoyed answers to all of his questions. The last was "When can I meet you?" I curtly informed him that I worked and was busy, but maybe on a weekend. Lili at this point signaled for me to wrap it up because I had already let him talk too much. Poor guy, I was really pretty rude to him, but I dont do blind dates, I really  dont do blind-sided blind date phone calls, and I especially dont do these things in the Spanish language! Lili must have gotten the hint, because in the last four or five days she hasn't mentioned him.

Pretty hilarious Panama moment, though.

Anyway, I'm loving life down here. There's something intangible that has totally seeped into my being and changed part of my core for the better. I'm so less on-edge and stressed and overly-analytical. I'm really just living the present which is something I've struggle to do for so long. I love it here.

I hope all is well in your respective parts of the world.
Abrazos!

Small victories and cool breezes

Coming into the classroom, I had this idyllic view of what it would be like - I'd use awesome song lyrics to prompt discussion; I'd bring in Langston Hughes' poems and mix history with English; I've always wanted to teach English. Maybe I still will do these things, but in the past two weeks, one of my biggest successes has been getting my students to say, "How do you say..." before descending into their question in Spanish. It's a big step, because two weeks ago, they didn't understand why or what I was asking them to do, but it's still a far cry from Amel Larrieux-inspired conversation.

I love my students.

They're excited and attentive and willing to learn. The majority of them are scared shitless of actually speaking in Spanish, but do it when I ask them to. They're kind and interested. They're just awesome. (My host teacher is equally as awesome, by the way. I completely lucked out.) One of my students lives in Santa Fe (my new favorite place which I will write about shortly), and after I told the class about my trip there on Monday, Betzy came to school on Wednesday and let me know that her mom wants me to come over to their house in Santa Fe for a meal, because she knows how much I like the town. Today we did an activity in class where the students were moving and racing to the board to produce verbs, and calling out present continuous conjugations that I had to follow (she is dancing, she is singing, etc) and the classroom was filled wih laughter and voices and ENERGY (it was also filled with heat and sweat!) Basically, all of this to say: school is exhausting but going really well.

Santa Fe. I took the bus up to Santa Fe with a friend last Sunday, and it was quite easily one of the best decisions I've made since moving to Panama. It's about a two hour ride away from Santiago, and it's this beautiful mountain town. When we got on the bus in Santiago (these are tiny buses, by the way) there was a woman in the back with a bag that was meowing (presumably a cat was inside) and there were audible clucks from chickens on the roof. Before we arrived in Santa Fe, a young boy got on the bus with a thick rice bag. In the bag sat a large dog (think Shepard) with just his head sticking out of the top. It was quite the ride!

Pulling into town, you could feel the air was different - the breeze was actually COOL! It was incredible. We went to the house of a friend of my friend, and he showed us around Santa Fe, and where the best river spot was. The swimming in the river was amazing! The water was totally clear and fresh and COLD! It was deep enough to dive in and there was a really strong current. There was a local guy in the river and he was peeling a piece of sugar cane with a giant machete. He ended up giving us the sugar cane, which was delicious! I think the last time I ate sugar cane I was at my cousin's wedding in Hawaii in... 1996?

My English is getting worse and worse. My sentences are constructed either super basically or as if I were speaking Spanish. My Spanish still isn't where I want it to be, and I joke that I have no language. But I know everything will come with time.

Life is still good here in the tropics, just busy. I teach all morning, and then two days I week I go to the complete other side of town, and teach a free community English class at the museum. All of this in non air conditioned spaces with 97 degree averages, although we often break the 100s. Not much more energy to say more, but check out the couple pictures I snapped of Santa Fe.

Love to everyone!
Abrazos,
Kati

Saturday reflections...

I'm sitting in my living room, alone, on the INTERNET, blasting a playlist from home that ranges from Gangstarr to Sara Bareilles to Destiny's Child to De La Soul. I am so happy.

A few days ago my homestay mom came into my room unexpectedly and asked if I wanted the password to the internet! It's been four weeks that I've been asking for the password, and getting a different answer from everyone I ask: "We dont have internet" "Oh, that router is just a way the girls steal from their uncle" "We share internet with the neighbor to save money but we dont know the password". Very Panamanian, roundabout lies-as-answers. Until one day, she just walked in and gave it to me. She had apologized to me for a couple things that had happened the day before, maybe this was an extension of that apology. Who knows, but I'm not going to question it.

I've been teaching for a week. My school is awesome. My coteacher is awesome. My students are awesome. Everything is going so well. Day to day can be hard; it's hot, I'm always tired, I dont do much in the afternoon, I've watched more awful dubbed moves than I'd like to admit. But when I sit back, and reflect over the experience as a whole, I feel so blessed. I know unequivocally that this is where I am supposed to be right now, and I am so excited to continue to see how it unfolds. The Pablo Neruda quote a the top of my blog is more applicable than I could've known. I feel as if each day I am learning more about myself, and working to develop and create who I am and who I want to be, so that when that "some day" and "some place" he speaks about arrives, I will be happy with who I am introduced to.

I finally have a fairly stable way to get in touch with people. I was able to talk with my mom for almost an hour today! and last night I got to talk with my grandpa for a while, which was great. He begins chemo (at 88) on Tuesday - if you're the praying type, please keep us in your prayers. If not, your good thoughts and energy are much appreciated.

My work schedule is 7am-12:30pm. I'm up at 5am every day. On Mondays and Tuesdays I'm going to teach additional classes for the community from 2-4pm. Free English classes are not easy to come by, so I'm really excited to be able to provide them. A lot of the students from my practice teaching sessions have said they're going to come back, which will also be really fun! Basketball starts next week at school, and I'm also going to help out with the team which I am SO excited about.

Life is good in the tropics.

I have 5 classes that I see four days a week. 35 students in each class. Yes, that is 175 names I am trying to memorize. I took pictures of each of them holding up a name tag they made, so hopefully that will help. They're all great though - SO looking forward to getting to know them better.

It's still hot here. Two days ago I checked the temperature at 7:30pm; it was still 90 degrees. But I'm doing just fine, even if people are sick of hearing me complain. Tomorrow I'm going to Santa Fe. It's a town of 2,300 people (the exact same as last count I heard of Lopez!) about an hour and a half bus ride ($2.40) away. It's a mountain town and Panamanians keep telling me that it's "cool" up there. My Director from the states said, "Make no mistake, it is simply 'less hot'." Haha! I will settle for less hot, though. Plus, the town looks incredible! There's lots of hiking to do, there are waterfalls and rivers and a beautiful hostal. The town grows orchids and every year there's a big orchid festival. I will definitely update upon returning, hopefully with lots of pictures and stories.

It's crazy how life is just progressing down here, and so cut off from all of you. I'm sure the internet will help with that, but we're really living different lives right now. Yesterday I took a minute and realized that it was March. The heat in train stations in Chicago will be cut off at the end of the month. How is it that the winter is almost (ha!) over back there? How is it that I left Chicago Cares nine months ago? How is it that I live in Panama? I've gotta say, I love life down here. It's slower, it's easy. While the school setting is more formal in attire, the classroom is so much more informal. Students can talk over each other. The bell rings and teachers are still in the next building. I'm sure these things will eventually be frustrating (especially for how early I am every where I go), but for now there's sense to me in the fluid concept of time. There arent huge consequences for tardiness or absences, but students still show up. I can't really put it into words, but I like it.

I talked with my aunt briefly last night who remarked how funny it was to read the blog and to see me constructing English sentences in Spanish forms. I do this ALL the time now. I'm far from fluent in Spanish, but I'm quickly losing my English fluency as well. And I kind of like it. :)

I'm also realizing that my relationships with people transcend language and culture to some degree. I'm finding myself in similar relationships as I had with people back home. There's a comfort in that. I'm still me, I'm just me in Spanish. 

Anyway, I hope this finds each of you well in your respective parts of the world. Please keep commenting or telling me you're reading when I talk to you. It really feels good to know people are reading and keeping up with what and how I'm doing. I'm sorry I havent been very good at returning the favor, but with the first week of school under my belt, I'm hoping to be better in the near future.

I love you all immensely. I cannot thank you enough for being a part of my life and of shaping my journey.

Abrazos,
Kati

Some pictures... hopefully an entry will follow soon

 Shellie and Jessica after an awesome day of practice teaching!

 The front of my school; Instituto Urraca

 The main courtyard at Urraca

 Students

 The last day of practice teaching, playing Jeopardy with all of our students. SUCH a great group!

This is really just for Roxie Tucker. America's favorite AND leche's favorite. :)

Check out this video of Nereida and I showing how people point with their lips.

More pictures from another volunteer here.

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Love you all. Will post more soon.

Abrazos

Tacos!

(written Sunday, February 26... I think)

So, it’s randomly worked out that our entire advanced Spanish group is teaching at the same school. We start work tomorrow! I’m very anxious to see what Urraca is like, and which teacher I will be working with.

Last night, our Spanish teacher, Maria Isabel, invited us over to her house for tacos. Her house was beautiful! There was a big back porch with pillow seats and a hammock. We met up at the bus stop in town to go there together. After we bought some beer and wine, we waited for the bus for over 45 minutes! There’s a big pilgrimage taking place to Attalaya so many of the local buses to other neighborhoods were rerouted to Attalaya. Our bus never came, but once we did the math and figured out that a $2 cab split three ways would be the same price as a bus, we opted for that.

Maria Isabel is one of the nicest women I’ve met. We had delicious tacos and Balboa beer. Her oldest daughter came over with her three kids and we all chatted for hours. I made my way inside and starting playing Jenga with the 8 year old and the 5 year old. It was so fun! We stayed there chatting about Panama and all sorts of things. There’s a festival in Portobelo on the Caribbean coast de Congo, celebrando los cimmarones.

I didn’t get home until midnight! That’s a big deal for me here, as I usually go to bed around 9pm. It’s tiring to exist in Spanish all day long!

Today, I napped and lounged in my bed until 3pm. It was amazing. My host mom has confirmed that she will be in Ocu every weekend, which is kind of bittersweet. It’s nice to know that I will really have indpendence in these 11 months – that would be a long time to be under a microscope. But right now, when I don’t really know anyone or have any sort of routine it’s a bit of a bummer. I really wish I were living at the house of my Spanish teacher – she and I click so well; she’ appreciates my craziness! J

After my lounging morning and afternoon, I went to the Do It Center! Which is sort of like hardware store meets target. I FINALLY bought a pillow top mattress pad. I am so excited to sleep tonight without feeling each and ever spring underneath me. AND  I bought a pillow. Tonight is going to be good.

I trid to get to the internet today to post something like this blog entry, but the internet at the pizza place was down. So I’ve decided to start writing the blog entries on my computer and then just posting multiple at a time when I do get internet. So, “tomorrow” has probably already happened when you read this.

You can call my cell phone if you want, but I know international calls are expensive. I think they might be a little cheaper if you use skype or google talk to call. I’m not sure.

Will write again once I see my school and have my first day.

Abrazos!

Thank god for abanicos

It is so hot. All the time.

Which is funny, because just a week ago I emailed a friend from Costa Rica about how proud I was that I was already acclimated to the heat. HA.

Our host family took off on Saturday for Ocu for Carnavales (the step-dad lives there), and left us in Santiago. I think this would've been a bit of a problem for me had I been alone, but thankfully Shellie is still living here with me, so we could commiserate about being after thoughts together. Yesterday, we had our first day since we got here of not doing ANYTHING. We ate. Shellie cooked. I think I tried to watch a movie. I slept a lot. It was wonderful, aside from the fact that 97 degrees of heat is recipe for death.

Today, we're back at the Leonardo's pizza place, eating $4 12" pizzas, using their air conditioning and internet. Tomorrow orientation starts again for two final days, and then next Monday school starts. The tv is filled with Back to School ads, and it's crazy to think all of the kids will be coming off of summer vacation and I will be starting at the school on the same day. I'm really going to be here for a full year.

Our host family has the cutest little dog named Spartacus (es-spart-e-cous! is how he's called here) who has been in pain from the heat with us these past days. The first day the family was gone we couldnt find his food and he was so hungry so we fed him our rice. I hope dogs arent allergic to rice! We later found his food, and he's been much happier since. But we often find him in the shower, trying to cool down on the bathroom tile.

Spartacus and me in the shower.

Friday is our last day of practice teaching, and we're throwing a big party for our students. I'm also planning a Jeopardy review game which should be interesting. I think I've had to make Jeopardy games for at LEAST the last two jobs I've held, so we'll see if the practice has paid off. We have our last Spanish class tomorrow and we say goodbye to the folks teaching in other towns (Shellie, included!) Friday night. Should be a whirlwind couple of days. I think my experience here will really change when Shellie moves on to David. It's been so nice to have someone to explore with and get acclimated with. But I know that becoming a little more independent will be good for me, and I'm hoping that once I get into the school community I'll meet more people.

I miss you all a lot! It turns out our host family (in addition to abandoning us routinely... this is a joke mom! we're fine) has also been hiding something from us. What is it, you ask?? WIRELESS INTERNET. We found the modem and router while they were gone. I sent a text about a password with no response, but once they coming home we will be interrogating, and (fingers crossed) this communication thing will be a little easier!

I've also realized I havent taken many pictures, so I'm going to get better at that too.

Love you all much! Sorry that I haven't been able to respond to emails very well. Leave comments here so I know you're reading.

Hope all is well in each of your respective parts of the world : )

Abrazos