Somewhere between packing and losing all of my teeth...

I leave one week from today, and still haven't received my placement information (this is an exercise in patience if I've ever had one), but I did learn a little more about the first weeks of training.

I fly out on Sunday night at 11pm and arrive into Miami at 7am. Our group flight leaves Miami around 12pm and we land in Panama city at 3pm. It's going to be a long day. Once we're all landed, we take a bus from the Panama City airport to a town about three hours away called Santiago de Veraguas, the capital of the Veraguas Province where we begin training. Some placements will be in this town, and some will be in Panama City, but the whole group of us teachers (11 in total, I believe) will spend the majority of February together in Santiago undergoing intensive pedagogy and Spanish language training. Apparently this year's Carnaval happens smack in the middle of training, and our in-country Field Director emailed to let us know Carnaval is essentially a giant four-day party throughout the country. Our training will be suspended for it. So, instead of having some downtime before the training starts to get to know each other, we will hop right into it, likely even spending the first night in country at homestays, rather than in a hostel all together.

After training is done, we move to our final homestays, and the school year starts. We're pretty much on our own at that time. I'll have my classroom, go to staff meetings, have one-on-ones with the principle and just be a teacher. I'm guessing there'll be a fair amount of faking it 'til I make it. I'm nervous, but excited.

I had a dream two nights ago where my teeth all fell out. I've only ever had one of these dreams once before, and in the most recent dream, as my teeth were falling out I remembered the older dream and thought, oh my gosh, now it's really happening!! Luckily, I was indeed just dreaming. But if you've never had a dream wherein your teeth fall out, let me tell you: it is graphic, it is painful, and it is frightening.

A friend of mine told me that dreams about teeth falling out represent anxiety about beginning something new. It is incredible to me that human beings are wired in such a connected away. Of course, that is exactly what I am feeling, but who told my brain to dream about losing teeth to symbolize that?? It's trippy to me that there are universal indicators for feelings that exist in all of our subconscious. But it's a little bit reassuring at the same time.

Anyway, I dont know where I'm going, but go I will.

Love and light.