Farm

Carolina, Albilio, and Rosa (Albilio is Carolina's Dad, but I just live with Rosa and Carolina but he visits sometimes)

All of us on the farm!

The River

So a couple of weekends ago my family and I headed to my families farm. There we spent the day swimming in the river, riding horses in the hill, picking oranges and guabas, and having a picnic. It was a very nice day and I had lots of fun hanging out with Carolina. The oranges were delicious!

DAVID y HALLIE!

Hallie and Me!

So two weekends ago I went and visited Hallie, another exchange student from the US. She lives in David on the other side of the country. It was fun getting to hang out with and meet her family all of which were super nice. I also had fun exploring David, it's about the second biggest city in Panama, it's really hard to say which actually is number 2, 3, or 4. The fair was also in town while I was there so I got a chance to go see David's version of the fair as well which was very neat. Because the fair was there some other exchange students from other towns were also there, and it was great getting to catch up with all of them.

All in all it was an AWESOME WEEKEND!











So two weekends ago I went and visited Hallie, another exchange student from the US. She lives in David on the other side of the country. It was fun getting to hang out with and meet her family all of which were super nice. I also had fun exploring David, it's about the second biggest city in Panama, it's really hard to say which ohttp://www.blogger.com/ne actually is number 2, 3, or 4. The fair was also in town while I was there so I got a chance to go see David's version of the fair as well which was very neat. Because the fair was there some other exchange students from other towns were also there, and it was great getting to catch up with all of them.

All in all it was an AWESOME WEEKEND!

Today!

Well, there finally up to date! That's only like a month plus some over due! So today I made it through a book and a half while I was updating this. Which is good because it had been taking me awhile to finish the half of The Amber Spyglass because I kept getting inturupted by other things.

So I am doing pretty good. We just learned here that I have another month of summer vacation. So now instead of going back to school on March 15th it's April 15th, that makes over 5 months of vacation. But that's okay with me, I found out I have to return to the same accounting school I was at last year, and so that means my hardest class is math that I did when I was 11. So really really boring. Summer I am enjoying a lot because it has given me the opportunity to travel all over the country. Through this summer I have now basically been to all parts of Panama, there are still a few more places I'm hoping to see but well see, for the most part I have seen Panama =).

I joined a dance group here a month ago and doing hip-hop and a mixto group in the mix group we dance all sorts of latin dances and reggeaton. It is really great I love it because it's something to do and physical activity and one thing about here is that there is not much physical activity which makes me go sture crazy sometimes. So dancing is great by far the highlight of my days! I go for 3 and a half hours! =)

My host family is great. I really love where I am living now. Las Lomas (the hills) is a really fun neighborhood and there are lots of teens here and everyone is always out interacting with everyone else. Plus it's a lot safer than where I had been living. Carolina is great, she's super sweet and we have been getting a long super well. She is always busy texting and chating with her boyfriend and other friends. Rosa is also great, I think she is having a great year she has also started hanging out with a group of her friends from her seminars and is really enjoying being able to go out and also have a daughter...welll two now =) The three of us have been getting along well living together which is really nice, I am really enjoying it! Like last night Carolina and I stayed up until 3 in the morning gossiping which is always fun =)

The last few weeks I have been catching up on sleep after carnivals and practicing dancing becasue here there is another fair coming in a week and a half and there we will be giving preformances. I am a little nervous but it should be good and fun. Also hanging out with different friends, mainly what they call parking, which I think is a perfect word for it, and that's when you just go over to someone's house and hang out...or "park". I think it's rather creative! I also just learned that Eryn will be visiting me the first week of May and I can't wait!!! I haven't seen her since LAST may....jeez FAR to long!!!! I can't believe either that it's already March it is amazing how fast time flies, in some ways it seems like I just got here, others it seems like it's been a long while. But my spanish is getting better everyday, and now it's getting pretty close to fluent, at this point I can pretty much understand everything people are saying and respond completely back =)

So I'm doing pretty good! =) Still miss my friends and family though...and some things about AK...like bear's tooth chicken ranch pizza...I would kill for a piece of that!

Carnivals!

So how do I even begin to describe Carnivals....well it's a GIANT party that lasts for 5 nights and 4 days. The vast majority of Panama goes to either Las Tablas or Chitre, both are very close about 20 minutes apart. I headed to Las Tablas with a group of exchange students, although I had many friends from Chorrera that were also in Tablas that I met up with many times during the course of the weekend. During Carnivals there is one giant party and people hardly sleep 2 hours of sleep usually twice a day. During the day everyone heads to the streets and is dancing and partying while trucks are spraying water all over them and throwing things like T-shirts and others things for the people to take with them. It is craziness. During the night the party countinues in the street with more partying and dancing. During the night floats and bands pass through the streets with lots of fireworks. Two of these floats carry queens one for calle abajo (lower street) and one for calle arriba (upper street) each night these floats change, the idea is they are trying to out do the other and be claimed the queen of all however no one ever actually is choosen as the winner. During the night the favorite discos are open and people go and spend the entire night dancing, even in the night they sometime turn on the water and then everyone is dancing soaking wet. These discos have all the artists from Panama singing and preforming. It is amazing that people can last so long, somehow I did but I was definatly tired after the first night. It is not like anything I had every seen before in my life, and I'm not sure there is really anything like it in the world. Here the entire country goes on hold and just parties.

Valentine's Day in Panama

So it was Valentine's day. For valentine's day I went with Carolina and some friends to Panama to eat dinner and then stroll the causeway, the long thin strip of land that heads out into the ocean. It was a lot of fun, and I even won movie tickets in the drawing at the resturant.

Panama and Baseball

Alba my cousin

There are two sports in Panama that rule all others and those are Soccer and Baseball. My family here is really into baseball, so we went and watched the final between Chiriqui and Los Santos, these are two different parts of Panama. I also saw Chorrera go against Chiriqui a couple of weeks before the final. This was of the underage, meaning those that are under 18. Chiriqui ended up winning the game in the 11th inning after a boring game, but exciting extra innings. Me, Carolina, Alba (cousin) and Ili (friend) watched the game from the side right next to where the cameras were located so we were also all over TV that night.

AFS- Waterpark trip!

So for another 6th month reunion AFS took us for a day at a waterpark. We played a long game of jeopary and all learned that we really don't know that much about exact facts of Panama's History...opppss...we all are good now at speaking spanish though =) We spent the day floating around the river having fights on tubes and flying down all the different water slides. It was very fun relaxing day!