still alive

Hey world!
I'm sorry for having been so not on top of this. After awhile, you kinda just wanna live the experience, not be bothered by writing about it. Plus, there's the fact that Internet isn't super accessable around here. But enough with excuses, let me fill you in on my life these days!

Travels first: April was a busy month of traveling. The first week of April was the one month AFS orientation for all the students who arrived at the end of February/beginning of March. There were 26 of us from the US, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, and Thailand and we stayed in lovely little cabañas by the ocean for 3 days. It was filled with lots of socializing, swimming, laughing, and being told many rules and getting advice.

All the students at Gorgona

About a week and a half later, April 18th, I got to see all the AFSers again, this time to get our visas in Panama City. It was exciting to finally recieve our visas, as we had paid for them weeks earlier when we first arrived in Panamá at the arrival orientation. And now that we had our visas, it meant we could travel on our own (without our host families or AFS) which is exciting.

That same week, there was no school thursday and friday in celebration of Semana Santa (holy week) so I went back to Panama City, this time for 4 days to stay with Jesthy's family (remember Jesthy? My host niece who's my age and speaks some English). It was a fun filled 4 days with seeing the City--the Canal, Panamá Viejo, the Causeway, big parks, huge shopping malls, and even some Semana Santa festivities.

Me and Jesthy

Me pushing over the city!

The next trip was my favorite yet (although they've ALL been just a blast!). From May 1-4th was an AFS trip to Kuna Yala, an area of Panamá inhabited by the Kuna indians. We spent the 1st night in the City, then headed out bright and early on the 2nd (at 4am...) in a diablo rojo (old school bus). Before we got too far outside of the City, we changed modes of transportation--4 wheel drive cars to be exact. That leg of the trip was about 2 hours if I remember correctly, and we rode on thin, windy roads through the mountains, so basically it was STEEP up and downs and sudden turns--like a rollercoaster except it seemed to last forever. But finally, forever ended and we got out of the cars to see...water! The next leg of the trip was in long wooden boats.

We had to put all our luggage in big plastic trash bags and they got loaded into their own boats, and we climbed aboard several other boats. Then off we went, into the wild blue yonder! The boat ride was at least 40 or 50 minutes, gliding through the crystal clear water of the Carribean Sea, passing dozens and dozens of islands (there's almost 400 islands in the whole archipeligo). Eventually, we arrived at the island we would stay on, Ukuptupu. Our ¨hotel¨ was huts sitting on top of the ocean.

The place was literally so beautiful, it was really like nothing I'd ever imagined. The water was so incredibly clear, all I wanted to do was jump in, but we couldn't go swimming at our island because the toilets flushed straight into the ocean...so after lunch we got boated off to another island for swimming. That island was truly paradise: small in size, palm trees, white sand, blue water.

Paradise
The swimming was perfect (but quite salty), we stayed in the water most of the afternoon. The next day, we went to yet another island for more swimming, just as beautiful (although this times we were sure to apply sunscreen very liberally...everyone was terribly burnt from the day before). In the afternoon we went to an island that had a little village on it. First we walked around the island until we got to a big open area where some of the Kuna's danced for us in their traditional clothes, it was very cool!

Dancers
After the dancing, they let the girls try on the traditional Mola dress (mola is a really cool textile the the Kuna women make)!

Me in a mola dress
Then we got to wander around the island on our own to buy mola's and other things they villagers were selling. The next day we had to head back to mainland after breakfast, but on the boat ride a bunch of dolphins swam right next to our boat!

It was so magical. The whole trip was, really. I feel unbelievably lucky for have been able to have gone to such a place.

So that's all the traveling I've done so far, but there's supposed to be at least 2 or 3 more AFS trips before I leave and Julia (I'll write about her in a sec) and I are hoping to do some traveling on our own soon.

Day to day life is, more or less, going very well. Some days go really slow while other times weeks fly by. I hang out with my friend from Austria, Julia, a lot (she lives in Aguadulce, a 10 minute bus ride from here). We understand each other well and always manage to have a fun time together. I have other friends living nearby who I hang out with many evenings and some afternoons I get together with school friends. Saturday mornings I go to the music school for free clarinet lessons. Spanish is becoming easier and easier all the time. The other day at school, one of my classmates told me, ¨when you first got here, you had to look up everything in the dictionary and you talked in one word sentences. Now, you talk just like Sara!¨ (Sara's an exchange student who's been here for 9 months...don't think I'm quite at her level yet, but hey, I'll take the compliment! It felt good.) The school's 1st trimister ends soon, with final exams from the 25th-June 2nd and vacation until June 13th. Kinda weird that as soon as the school year at East ends I'll have to go back to school...it's gonna be really hard! But in well under 3 months I'll have to say bye to everything here and I'll be headed back to the states. In fact tomorrow is the exact halfway point in this whole trip...crazy. Time has proved to be such a strange concept lately.

Some days I really long for home (there's a lot that I miss--the people, the food, school that I understand, and just the comfort of home) but the next day I look back and ask myself, what was I thinking?! I'm in PANAMA! I'm learning so so much about everything...myself, people, culture, and the world.

It's the adventure of a lifetime :).

PS: I've recieved a few letters in the mail and they just MAKE MY DAY!! If you don't have my address and feel like sending me a simple letter, please ask me for it! And if you do have my address, send me something :) I'll write ya back!