Los Yanquis vs Los Filis

So despite all you've heard from me or anyone about Mariano Rivera and everyone's die-hard yankee mentality.. 58% of Panamanians want the phillies. well.. the vote was carlos ruiz vs mariano.

So after almost a week of introducing Maria to the panamanians, which was awesome because I got my second promotion.. the first one being when the students from the states came down. Everyone felt bad about Maria being cold and maria's bug bites, but no one gave a crap about me haha. Being a translators kinda fun too. Like I said earlier, you'll get a bunch more info/pictures from the trip on her blog, so check that out.

We're in Boquete tonight, checking out a coffee plantation in the morning, and heading up to Bocas for a few nights/Halloween before the holidays (we'll be in LB for that week). Then straight out to Costa Rica, pretty exciting.

viene Maria

So Maria finally got here.  I'm pretty excited about everything we're gonna be doing in the next few weeks. I'll finally get to show someone around.  More than half the time we'll actually just be in my town but that should be just as cool for her.  Whats awesome is having visitors is considered work for me because 2/3 of what I'm supposed to be doing is cultural exchange.  

Besides her tagging along to my work and meeting people in my town.. we're going out to Boquete in Chiriqui.. Bocas del Toro and Costa Rica.  Plus theres 4 straight days of holidays in/near LB at the beginning of November which will be cool.  And she brought my john cena costume for halloween in bocas.  Anyway, I'll post some pictures and updates later on but she'll probably do a better job of blogging her time here.  If you want to check hers out its.. http://calibellezza.blogspot.com/

We had a district holiday here on oct 19 in La Pintada.. parades with all the schools and a baile after which I didn't end up staying for.  Here's a few pictures

Los Yanquis!

i find it funny how theyre SO huge here because of their panameño closer, but no one here knows that they´re rooting for a team that essentially means gringo. same with all the playboy brand clothes kids, teachers, parents, everyone wears. all it is to them is a little rabbit.

so i just finished this book The Looming Tower, about how al-qaeda came about and the buildup to 9/11. awesome book with tons of information i never woulda known, but all it does is piss you off about how much the beauracracies blew it when it coulda been stopped months ahead of time with one phone call/email. then the crazy/radical mindset is always just "wtf".. war on america b/c of what the quran says yet theyre doing everything against what the quran says. anyway i recommend it.

not much new goin on, the kids here finally wrote their letters to the states and i´ll be sendin that out today. gave my first real presentation to the big group of parents at the padres de familia meeting.. the community analyis. my bosses came in for a visit and we had a meeting with everyone to talk about what my role is here, went pretty well. house is good, finally got a door to my latrine and walls put up on my shower so i don´t have to use my traje de baño anymore. maria´s coming in less than 2 weeks which is exciting, but she´ll be stuck showering in a bathing suit b/c its.. built for a guy. then i have ron holly and becky coming in december.

one of the dogs from a host family who used to follow me every where i went.. still does and shows up at my house at least twice a day for however long at a time. i also get this random cat coming around, so i wake up pretty early to ketchup growling at it. i have a hard time being mean to these animals meaning, theyll probably always come back.

days go by insanely fast here even without all the distractions, but those don´t help either. the other week i was online for 4 hours without realizing it.. costing a whole $2.40. ok i think i can get away with only an hour and a half today.. hasta luego

i fought a bull

k thats a lie.

so first off.. theres a little video tour of my house posted below.

now i think its a good time to give a little detailed schedule of an average day.
6 to 6:30 wake up and watch ketchup eat some kind of bug
7.. make breakfast
7:30 shower.. in my bathing suit since i still have no shower walls
8-12(this is where it varies a bit).. do nothing and read/pasear/go to the school/work at a farm/anything else if i actually have something to do. also depends on the rain
12: make lunch.. but usually its just leftover from breakfast or eat at someone elses house
12-dinner: repeat of 8-12
dinner
read
sleep, probably around 8

last weekend i made it out to the mejorana festival in guarare, los santos. was huge, tons of people, parades, dancing. i got pooped on by a bull during a parade.. i´m getting used to my feet being caked in, well everything. at one point we ended up in the bull ring, no worries i havent had the urge to hop on one.. yet ;).

then i headed out to some meetings and back to LB to move into the house. i´m stoked because the penpal program im setting up with someone in the states looks like its going to start up this week. the kids should have fun with it. Also, i started looking through all the random materials Brianna left me.. found a bunch of books in spanish for kids, like El Árbol Generoso.. now ive got a plan for this weeks environmental class hah.

ketchup playin with a scorpion.. which eventually became a little after dinner snack. after it stung her i cheated and machetazo´d the stinger off for her. i have too many pictures of her playing around with random bugs to post. i´ve also got a bat living in my house now.


bull

parade.

..bulls on parade? ha..ha :p