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!
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