Better than nothing...?

Who knows where to start... Carnavales were this weekend (and will continue through tomorrow). So. Insane! Thousands of people fill the street drinking insane amounts of beer, trying to get the firehose to spray water on them (this is not hard). The thing that we learned a little late is that the water is not potable (in fact it's filled with bleach and maybe gasoline?). We learned this when a guy we were with yelled at us to drop our beer because we hadn't been covering it when the hose was spraying and the water had gotten into our beer. So there was that. (I did get a pretty awesome free shirt out of the whole ordeal, which I'm pretty excited about.) Everything gets SO wet! The second day I knew to keep my phone and money in a plastic bag in my pocket, but the first day I wasn't so smart. Luckily a Panamanian friend of mine put it in their plastic bag for me. There was definitely more than one water damaged cell phone that day, though.

On Saturday we went to a smaller town's celebration with the whole group (just Shellie, Drew and I went to the crazy one referenced above, Ocu, on Sunday). It was great - really low key, and the group got to know each other a little bit outside of the context of school. One of the women on the trip I went to high school with! We were even in the same Spanish class when we were 15.

This entry is all over the place because I dont know what to update and I'm so used to thinking in Spanish so my sentence structure seems to leave much to be desired. So my apologies if it's hard to follow. School starts in a week. I'm really looking forward to seeing the school and meeting my students and colleagues. Oh, also. When I say "we," I'm referring to Shellie and me. I dont think we've done ANYTHING fun independent of each other yet! Haha.

I know I should have more interesting things to report, but I just can't think of anything. I'm starting to realize how some things are so universal. I'm starting to be able to show some of my personality and sarcasm in Spanish, which is something I was really worried about. And we're only 2 weeks in, so that's a good sign, hopefully. I'm also realizing that there are similar types of people all over the world, and I respond the same to them in multiple languages. (I have a joke in the group that my motivation to learn Spanish quickly is so I can better tell off rude men on the street.)

Not much more I can think to report. I have some days off right before Easter for Semana Santa if anyone wants to visit.

I love you all immensely and miss you the same. I hope on to figure out how to have more regular communication in my life soon. Until then, abrazos and thanks for your patience : )

A picture of Carnavales in Ocu, where Shellie and I were yesterday

 Most of the group of teachers at the tamer location of Carnavales.

Picture stolen from another teacher.