Intermission

Seems every time I finally find time to return to the blog, another week as passed.

On the twenty-ninth, I'll be leaving to an internet-less abyss for a while. If I get a quick stop in an internet cafe or stop in the city for a day or so, I'll be sure to write that I'm alive. Other than that, the blog posts will stop for a while and apologies to the Diversity Abroad people, but that's what happens when you sign up for a Study Abroad program that takes place on the road and in the forests. I could try plugging my laptop into a tree? We'll see what happens.

Recount the time; lots has happened, lots I've wanted to share, tell, write... but there wasn't time. So I'll stick to the events. Monday we began a course with Ariel Rodriguez, a Panamanian professor and mammal expert. That's right, we were off to see the mamíferos de Panamá. Monday: Spanish class, lecture with Ariel. Not much there. Tuesday morning we started at 5:30 AM. Yep, seems lots of mammals are nocturnal in the tropics. So after waking up at four and waiting for everyone to get settled, we head for Cerro Ancon and stayed there until 10. After another afternoon of Spanish class (four hours...) we had to soon head back to sleep because the next morning we began even earlier at 5:00 AM... until 12. And of course class afterwards.

We celebrated Natasha's and Alyson's birthday at a Peruvian restaurant called Machu Pichu on Monday! It rained like crazy... I couldn't even leave the house for a while... and probably one of the only times in my life that I thought the rain could actually bring the roof in.

But let's skip the unpleasantness of waking up at crazy hours and instead see what benefits were reaped, eh? We saw many many sloths, monkeys (I'd never seen them outside of a zoo), birds (Toucans as one of the more exotic ones), large rodents(like conejos), and more--all of different species.

Sleepy Sloth.. it's name literally means "lazy bear" in Spanish

Huge caterpillar. Colorful, though eh?

Plenty of spiders everywhere :) And not just huge, poisonous. Yay!

Can you spot the monkey? There around fifteen in this bunch (but only one in the picture)

One of the lakes that was formed when they made the canal

At the top of the tower looking over the canopies. Becca doesn't look too happy.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we had class with Juan Mate, culminating in a trip to Isla Galeta where we snorkeled all afternoon after a morning of studying mangroves (which, as it turns out, are extremely interesting). Oh and a two hour drive. But what better excuse to sleep? The reef was beautiful and although most of our snorkel gear was faulty, we all eventually got to simply float in the ocean, admiring the wonderful world below.

During class one day. We realized there were no pictures of Laila. :)

Isla Galeta!

"class"

Pretty?

Studying Mangroves

Saturday Night I accompanied my Panamanian mom and brother to a graduation/birthday party of one of their family friends. Most of the people at the party were part of a closely-knit black community and church, which according to what I've learned, do not part take in dances as they often tend to be more on the conservative side. In place of this however, there was a constant stream of group games under the direction of a maestra. And it was extremely exciting! Until I got volunteered to play. I was playing a game similar to Catch Phrase. The goal was to get me to say the word as fast as I could given any clues by my three partners. The problem? The game was in Spanish. I knew the first couple but when it was my turn to do the guessing, twas tough pulling vocabulary (I couldn't remember "culebra" for snake and could only remember the word for serpent) and eventually was replaced by a native to the language. Didn't help though, the girls still won. :) There was much singing and laughing. I felt privileged to be able to have a glimpse into an important moment that community, from when the grandparents teared up talking about their granddaughter becoming a true adult to the self-composed songs sung by three boys (perhaps younger cousins of her). Either way, I was glad to have been there.

The next morning, I met up with Michelle's (a friend from Emory) family and went with them to their church, Crossroads. The church alternated between English and Spanish every week and most could speak both. Even more amazing, I met a friend of Michelle who could speak Chinese as well as I could! This, too, was one of the uplifting experiences I needed to remind me how awesome study abroad is. Just by being with Michelle's family I could understand her better, Panamanian culture better, and realize that in the end, we still all share the "human" culture, eh? (I'm repeating myself from other posts, but still... I call it like I see it). The church was extremely generous (I got a gift just for going!) and spent lunch out with my adopted family for the day. The rest of the day of course was spent writing papers for class, but it seemed almost odd to be doing so. Homework and essays aren't the true work in Panama.

Nature's Flood Protection

As always I, as Mr. Rogers, have some words of ... something... before I sign off this time. Learning a foreign language is truly a struggle. I began keeping track of the number of times I speak in English accidentally... in the hopes that it would motivate me to use Spanish in all aspects of the day. Learning a language, however, has its own "w", it's own ups and downs with which we just have to be patient. For example, after my Sunday trip speaking in Spanish and writing in Spanish the entire day, I found my speaking abilities greatly diminished today, from a mixture of exhaustion and brain malfunction. If you ever get to this point, don't be deterred or fall into the pit of speaking your common language just because the person you're talking to can understand your native tongue. Breathe, start slow, and try little by little. Becoming fluent means using it as your native tongue, right? Meaning we gotta speak through the energized and the tired... Meh. Buena Suerte.

-Tim