Then there's that other feeling. The feeling you have when you get off the plane and know you're there, your new home. You collect your luggage and pass through customs where the agents are glaring at you and who you just know are thinking, "I sure hope that gringa isn't staying here. Stupid Americans." You head out to stand in line for the taxis, hauling all your own luggage because there's no tourist guide to greet you and no friends to pick you up. The dirty, smudged sliding glass doors open and you begin to think, "WHAT have I gotten myself into here?"
But then something happens. As you're riding in the dirty cab to your particular destination, you start to notice your surroundings. You begin to think of what an awesome adventure you've begun. Everything is new and exciting. You have the opportunity to make tons of new friends and try new food. You get to hike in the jungle and lie around on the beach dousing in the tropical sun. You come to the realization that you're gonna have fun.
And, that's exactly how I feel. There are moments when I begin to wonder what in the world I have done. But, in the end, it's all just gonna be great.
I promised I would write some snappy little musings about my impressions of Panama, and below I shall list them.
The Panamanian people are fantastically nice. I don't have one bad thing to say about anybody I met on that trip from the guy on the street to the taxi drivers to the idiots in the bank (They may not do their job well, but they were sure nice about it!).- Honestly, and I've seen lots of places, Panama City is fairly clean. There's not a whole lot of litter around and everybody picks up their own dog poop. That's not anything like Madrid. Man, you had to watch your step there...let me tell you. (Of course, Madrid also had the city workers on motorbikes with vacuums attached to the back who road around and sucked up the poo. That was always amusing. Panama City doesn't have that!)
- Panama is in the Tropic of Cancer and is located just above the Equator, so it's nice and warm all the time! Swimming at the beach on Christmas anyone?
Panama is in the Tropic of Cancer and is located just above the Equator, so it's nice and warm all the time...like 8,000,000 degrees every single day of the week with humidity of 785% all the live long day. Living on the surface of the sun anyone?- There are tons of things to do around the city. It's not a lot bigger than Kansas City, but it feels more like New York City. The place is vibrant and people seem to always be having fun. It's the whole Carribean laid back attitude. Good for living, bad for working
- The traffic in the city is the biggest, most collasal mess I've ever seen in my life. They're supposidly working on it. It'll not be resolved any time soon, however. It's just too many people living right on top of each other. Driving is going to be an adventure every single day.
- Other than mosquitoes, there aren't many insects.
- The pace of life is a lot slower. That makes most things a lot less stressful. It can, however, make work more stressful. I like the laid back attitude, though.
- Gonna have to get used to everybody being late for everything again... I'm very American in my punctuality!
- There's no mail system in Panama, so there are no addresses. Nothing has a street address. A lot of buildings have names so everything is caddy corner from such and such next to the Banco General ATM etc. It's not easy when you have no idea where you're going!
- The beaches are awesome and only 30 min to an hour away. Sweet!
- Domestic labor is cheap. I'm totally hiring somebody to clean my house and cook for me!
- Rainy season isn't actually all that rainy. It rains really hard for, like, an hour and then it's gone. Of course, then the whole place becomes one large sauna...but at least it doesn't just rain all day long.
- As I mentioned above, the place is hot. And, nobody wears shorts. Nobody. Everybody dresses to the nines all the time. Men are in suits and ties. Women are in heels and skirts or suits. I mean, I don't know how they do it. Although, everybody did tell me that there was no way I was going to hide the fact that I'm a gringa, so I've decided if I can't hide that fact, then I'm just going to go ahead and wear shorts and be comfortable. Why pretend?
- They have peanut butter in the grocery store. YAAAAAAAAYYYY!11!11!1111!!!!
- There's a McDonald's one block from my apartment building. I rarely eat there while I'm here in the States, but there's just something comforting about eating at McD's when you're away form your native land. There's also a Dunkin' Donuts across the street.
- Because Panama is so close to the Equator, when the sun comes up, it comes up. It immediately pops over the horizon. There's no dawn. There's also no dusk. When the sun sets, it's immediately pitch black. Because of the whole Equator thing, there are basically 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. That makes the sun set by about 6:30. Every night I'd look at dad and say, "Wow, it's late. I'm gonna go to sleep." Then, I'd look at my watch and realize that it was only 7:00 or so!
- Panama's currency is the Balboa. You know what it looks like? It looks just like dollars. Wanna know why? Because it is dollars. Panama uses American dollars as their currency so I never have to change any money. That is really nice.
- Taxi rides are cheap. The most expensive taxi ride I had was 5 dollars. I also never had a taxi refuse to take me where I wanted to go. It's the blond hair. Several of my co-workers had a really hard time catching cabs. If they don't want to go where you're going, they just don't take you! I've never seen anything like it!
- If I were any other girl, this would be a plus. But, since I absolutely hate shopping, I can't really give it a plus: There are several huge shopping malls with any store you could ever ask for. You can find anything you need in Panama.
- All movies are subtitled. What's that mean for me? No stupid dubbed over voices speaking Spanish for Al Pacino and Robert Dinero. I can see all movies from the US in English! It is not like that in Spain.
- Communications infrastructure is pretty good. I can have decently fast internet and whatever cell phone I want. I'm just happy to have internet so I can use the sling box.
- There are American restaurant chains everywhere. Come on. I'm moving out of the US. I'm supposed to try to learn a new culture!
At the moment, this is everything I remember. It's been a really long day. But, all in all, I like everything I saw in Panama. I'm sure I'm going to have a lot more observations once I get there in a couple of weeks. Until then, I'll actually be working remotely from my parent's and my sister's home in Kansas. The company has allowed me to do that to spend a little extra time with my family before I go.
Hopefully I'll have another update before I leave on the 27th with my "saying goodbye" reflections.
Peace out people.
That's interesting about the sun popping up and disappearing. I had no idea. I'll have to look that up and read more about it.
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