Happy Valentine's Day!
Valentine's Day fell on a Tuesday this year, so I got to see festivities in full swing. The school sold "candy grams" for students to buy to be delivered to other people at the school. Along with candy grams, most of my students chose to bring valentines their classmates and even for me! I added a picture of two of my favorite valentines I received. In addition, my class had an ice cream sundae party at the end of the day (luckily). It was a day full of celebrating love for friendships! Wednesday evening, Alejandra (my co-teacher) invited us to her drinks for her dad's birthday, so we met her and her family and friends on a rooftop bar. The view of the skyline was stunning! Wow! I did not expect the skyline of Panama City to be so vast and futuristic. After drinks, we met two other teachers at Los Terjanas, a restaurant and show. Here we had traditional food and watched a traditional performance. The outfits were stunning! It was so nice to have the teachers with us to explain the customs and just to spend time with them outside of the classroom. Friday after school, the school nurse, Nurse Hayes, brought us to her beach house. It was about a two hour drive (because of traffic), but her little beach was right on the beach and the most relaxing thing I could have ever imagined: hammocks hanging, music playing, and all of the doors and windows open. She spoiled us with yummy food and hilarious stories. We stayed until Sunday morning when we woke up early to watch the sunrise (even thought it was the pacific side- I was excited to finally watch the sun SET, but not at this peninsula). Now that our final weekend has come to a close, we are trying to mentally prepare to enter back into the real world (not really, because college isn't quite the real world, but hey). This week we are trying to make the most of everything and all of our lasts. Sad to see the time has passed so quickly, but happy that I had this opportunity at all! This week I began noticing more differences in classroom and cultural than I had in the past two weeks. In the classroom, I started really paying attention to the classroom schedule. In Texas, my second grade class begins at 8 and we don't really leave the classroom until 11:30 for lunch. The kids have lunch, recess, and one special until they return to class at 1:15 after which they remain in the classroom until 3 for dismissal. For my fourth graders, class is very different everyday. We start at 8 are in the room until usually 10:30 for recess then lunch. We head back to the classroom around 11:40 and work until 12:30 at which all of the students leave for Spanish. At 1:15 they come back for 15 minutes then we head to PE until 2. After, they come back to the classroom until dismissal at 2:45. Our fourth grade classroom is also on the third floor of the building, so travel time to each activity takes (at minimum) 4 minutes. The day seems choppy. I love that the kids get breaks from the classroom, but getting into a rhythm is difficult. Not to mention, the kids have specials (music, art, library, etc) in addition to this schedule (they get PE every day). Also, every Wednesday is a half day! The kids leave at 12:45 and the teachers have the rest of the day for planning. Sweeeet! The five of us headed to my teacher's, Alejandra, house after school on Thursday. Her driver picked up her son and one of our students to take home and she drove three of us and her aunt drove the other two. She lives about 45 minutes away from school (and that's without traffic...) on the other side of the city; she says that people call it a suburb. This was the first "home" we have gotten to see since being here and holy moly. All of the sudden we enter into a part of town that is very new: all new construction, palm tree lined streets, modern and sleek skyscrapers, the whole nine yards. Soon we turned into a gated community (but not a neighborhood), we drove down a long road with construction and large white walls on either side of us until we turned into another gate and skyscraper. We pulled into the basement parking and started walking in. Her apartment was insane. Absolutely stunning. The building just open not even two years ago, and her place overlooks a park out back, a huge pool, a golf course, and the skyline. The third picture is the view from her deck after sunset. Her nanny and housekeeper greeted us. This is where I started really conceptualizing cultural differences. Alejandra's family has a live-in nanny, daily housekeeper, and driver. The nanny had packed us snacks, packed us the kids' things, and picked out clothes for her son for the party. We changed and gathered our things and headed to the pool. The nanny took Alejandra's son to the birthday party at the park and we (with the baby) went to the pool. Her husband met us down there not long after, and we enjoyed an absolutely stunning sunset. It felt like a resort. An absolute resort. There was sand and lounge chairs and putt putt and everything you could ever want! The five of us had been planning to uber to Panama Viejo, "Old Panama," for a cultural night. We had seen in the newspaper that the tourism department of Panama was putting on cultural nights every Thursday night during the summer for free! We knew we had to jump on such a perfect opportunity! As we were gathering our things to call the uber, Alejandra and her husband decided that they wanted to join. It was very casual considering they have a live-in nanny to stay with the baby and tidy the apartment, so they ended up coming (and driving us)! The show was very interesting, and it was lovely to have Alejandra and her husband because they could translate the explanations for us. There were dances and typical dressings and masks. Not to mention, Panama Viejo are the ruins of the original Panama, so the history of the location was incredible. It was an incredible night all together! The next morning I woke up a little sleepy from our eventful evening and went for my usual morning walk, and when I got back to the dorms, I got a text that school was cancelled! Protests were happening downtown which were causing streets to be closed down. Because traffic is intense in general, schools don't put up with even worse traffic, so no school. What a blessing!!!! We were told not to leave Ciudad Del Saber, so we went for walks and did a lot of school work. The school nurse, Mrs Hayes, invited us to her house to hang out by the pool and bbq, so late in the afternoon we headed over and relaxed with her and three other teachers (with their families) all evening! Lots of laughs and yummy food to be shared. It was Nurse Hayes and her husband's 24 wedding anniversary and they still had us over! How kind!? Not to mention they are taking all five of us to the beach with them next weekend. What!? Saturday was the Dragon Festival at school. As always, it's nice to see students outside the classroom. Sunday was a dream. We left early for San Blas, a series of more than 300 islands owned by one of the seven indigenous peoples of Panama known as the Koonas. The islands are absolutely stunning. Absolutely. We stopped for breakfast at the top of the mountains we drove over to get to Caribbean at a small property in the rain forest. The owner, a small Koona woman, fixed us breakfast outside as we enjoyed the beautiful views! Not long after, we made it to the beach where we hopped on a boat and went around to three islands. I cannot get over how amazing gorgeous the area is! We found starfish and even money floating along the ocean floor. One of the islands had a sunken ship right off the shore so I spent some time snorkeling around it and saw a school of squids- that was new! All in all, my time here has been one for the books. Can't wait to see what the second half of this adventure holds. Thanks for all of the support! Monday we started school at the Balboa Academy, a private international school, here in the City of Knowledge (Ciudad del Saber). Our first week went great! The teachers and staff are very welcoming and the students are interested in America and eager to get to know us. It has been a lot of fun!
Friday night the school hosted their annual "Astronomy Night." As always, it was great to see the students outside the classroom and just enjoying each others' company while learning about the planets and stars. Saturday we spent the morning relaxing and exploring Ciudad del Saber. University of Florida has a campus here and there was a small vegan fair going on (I got a burger;)! We then headed down to the Causeway, a human-built connection of islands, where we had hoped to catch a ferry to a nearby beach. Turns out we were too late for the ferry so we grabbed a five-person bike and rode up and down the causeway enjoying the view. After, we headed to Costco Viejo (The Old City) to meander around and check out the markets. By the time we had stopped at the grocery store and made it back, we were exhausted. The next day we headed to El Valle (The Valley). I could have spent a month exploring this quaint town. Literally situated within a valley, the town is home to natural springs, beautiful plants, and petroglyphs (ancient etchings on stones). Not to mention the amazing waterfalls! The hiking also looked unbelievable, but we simply did not have the time for it. We flew in around dinner time on Thursday. Two women from the school picked us up from the airport, which was very kind! After getting settled into our dorms, the five of us, Bernie, Kaitlin, Isa, Adam and I headed to 'The Plaza' to check out the dinner options. We made it to the small grocery store and discovered that most things are very expensive. We settled on PB & J. It's going to be our staple meal for the trip, I think. We spent the evening sitting outside, chatting, and unpacking.
The next morning, we met the professors at their hotel and was greeted with a trolley. The picture on the left shows the trolley with my Flat Class, a project I did with my second grade class in Fort Worth so that they could learn geography and come with me on this journey! I will be sending pictures to them periodically over the next month. Our little trolley made its first stop at the Canal Museum where we witnessed a ship going through THE PANAMA CANAL. Average day. Just kidding! I loved hearing about the history and experiences such international success. After, we headed towards Panama City and drove through the causeway that connects the small islands. We stopped for a bit at the end taking it the beautiful sights of the city. After, we ventured up to Old Panama City. It was quaint and felt very European. The streets were small and their was so much history and renovations occurring to old buildings. I think that we all agreed we wanted to come back and spend a day just wondering around and going to one of the beautiful churches that is there. We also got to meet our teachers that afternoon! The school is gorgeous and all of the teachers at the school seem like family. They are so generous, kind, and welcoming that we are all pumped to start school on Monday. My fourth grade teaching, Alejandra Aleman, has two kids and has already told me all of the fun things she wants to show me in this beautiful country! Can't wait! We met the professors at a local taverna for dinner that night. It has been fun exploring and learning from them. What an incredible opportunity to get to know our professors on a personal level and hear a small sliver of this wisdom. What a treat! The next day we were picked up by a bus and drove across the country (it took all of an hour and a half) to a little scuba/snorkel place. A TCU alumna actually owns it! Small world. Adam and I went scuba diving while the rest of the gang went snorkeling. It's so relaxing and humbling seeing another part of this planet that I often brush to the side. I find so much peace in the water and am so thankful that I had an opportunity to do just that today! We also got to see some historic ruins from invasions of Peruvian ships. I love just seeing the mountains, jungle, ocean, and cities all together. The small town was so alive with small children playing cricket in the streets to barbecues in the open yards. On Sunday, we went to the Gamboa Resort. It was a relaxing day hiking, kayaking, and hanging by the pool. We also got to eat dinner with Ana's parents! She is the year above us at TCU in the College of Education. Her parents came, picked us up, took us to dinner, and dropped us back off. What a special dinner! |
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