Quick quick update

So we´re headed to Kuna Yala and stoped in Penonome at the internet cafe place and I have like 10 minutes to update about whats been going on since whenever it was we were here last.

This week seems like it´s been alot longer than it really is and I feel like I´ve been in Panama for at least a month. I´ve finally gotten used to my mosquito net being around my bed and no longer wake up freaking out about the weird presence surrounding my bed.

The food is also still good. I haven´t been sick or anything, hopefully that fact won´t change when we get to Kuna Yala. Have I mentioned we´re staying on our own private island in Kuna Yala and camping on the beach for a few days? Be jealous. I´ll let everyone know how that works out next time I have the internet, probably on our way back to El Cope.

I also found my first frog this week when we went out on Saturday night looking for them. I can´t remember which kind it is but I took pictures and will put those on when I have my laptop to use instead of this shady computer. It was so tiny and cute. I was so proud. I found a few more Saturday too. It seems like I have an eye for it, so at least I´m decent at what my project is!

Oh! Forgot to mention how much time I´ve been spending down by the swimming hole and the river. Swimming down there is super fun, especially when we try to swim past the part with the really fast current, it´s super fun. It´s also a really nice place to go and read since I can take off my boots for once and my feet can be free!! I also tried to help Dan catch lizards down there for his project a few times, but all we find are terrible giant spiders that are big enough to eat babies :(

Well that´s all for now I think. Sorry that´s really scatter brained, but I don´t have much time!!!!

I'm in Panama!

Here I am sitting in an internet cafe in Panama trying to come up with something to blog about. I should have a lot since it feels like the past day has taken about a week, but there's so much I don't know where to start. I guess I can start at the beginning maybe?

So Tuesday morning I wake up at 3 in morning to go to the airport and catch the flight to Panama. It was an experience too. Like I said before I've never been on an airplane, so the airport was slightly terrifying. I got through all the ticket stuff ok and checked my luggage (terrified that I would never see it again) and headed to security, where I sadly had to say good bye to my parents. It was as terrible as I thought it was going to be, I got through saying bye without crying, so I consider that a victory. Security went ok and airport and blah blah blah I finally got on the plane. It was pretty cool until there was some kind of luggage scanning machine failure and we had to wait and extra 30 minutes before take off. The whole plane thing was fun and I slept most of the way to Miami. When we got to Miami, thanks to our late flight, we only had 20 minutes to get to our connection to Panama so the 17 of us pretty much ran through the Miami airport. It was exciting. The rest of the airplane stuff was ok, it was bumpy and I read proposals the whole time. Good times.

Finally we got over Panama, which was really exciting. We got off and it was humid and muggy and just like I thought it would feel. Customs was easy and when we got out Marc and the Kansas City kids were waiting for us with a bus, juice boxes and sandwiches. The juice was the best juice I'd ever had, probably because I was super thirsty after the plane ride. I still can't get over the fact that I can get on a plane in snow covered St. Louis then get off 6 hours later in an entirely different place... It's so weird...

After we all piled into the bus we then drove 3 hours to El Cope. Cars driving past and people on the sides of the roads looked at us like we were the craziest thing they had ever seen, probably because we had a pile of luggage about 10 feet high on top of our bus :D

Skipping over a few hours of bus ride we finally got to El Cope a few hours before it got dark. We then made a mad dash/hike to La MICA, which is 15 minutes up a trail in the rainforest. I realized that there is nothing like a hike through the rainforest to show you have how of shape you are... And I've decided I'm really out of shape... I feel like the hiking part is already getting easier, so thats good.

Moving on, we got all of our stuff into La MICA. It was carried in by a group of people from El Cope and they walked the trail making us feel really dumb... We then had dinner, which was delicious, like all the other meals we've had. Oh! During dinner the power generator went out, which was fun cause we all made a mad dash to find our flashlights and headlamps. We then ate dinner by headlamp, which was a new experience.

Not much else happened Tuesday besides sleep, so I'll move on. I'm starting to feel a routine going on now. Wake up really early, eat breakfast, grab stuff, go adventuring. We went and looked at the swimming hole and it was beautiful. It's breathtaking... Sadly pictures don't do it justice.
On a very Courtney note I fell down a hill while standing still in camp yesterday... I've cut my leg pretty bad and it's all bruised... so yup. I injure myself on the first day :D

Yesterday we got the tour of El Cope and the Park. El Cope seems like a nice little town, but we really only looked at where the Chino mart (where we can buy food and snacks and drinks) and a few other places like that. We ate lunch in Julies yard, then took chivas to the national park. For those of you that don't know, chivas are pickup trucks and you either ride standing in the back or in my case, sitting and hanging onto a bar trying to hit your head. It was pretty fun on the way up, but the novelty is already wearing off.

Once in the park we wandered around taking pictures while waiting for the other group and their chiva. We saw a three toed sloth and it's baby! It was so exciting :D
When we all got there we went to the visitors center and looked around then went on a hike on the "baby" trail. I'm not gonna lie, I liked it alot better than the hard trail we went on later. The trail was pretty and its so green here I can't believe it. There are so many trees, and it was misty in the mountains because we were inside the clouds. It really is beautiful here. The forest is exactly what I've been dreaming of my entire life. So pretty...

After the baby trail we went hiking down to the river where I'm going to be working on my project.... The trail down there is slippery and deadly. It's so damp in the forest from all the rain and fog that all the rocks are wet and covered in moss. It was kinda like controlled falling the entire time...I had trouble walking there during the day so I have no idea how I'm going to make it down there in the dark to work on my project... Oh well, we'll see... Hopefully I don't fall down too much...

On the way back up the trail we took a different route... It was even worse than the way up and at a super extreme slant... I fell down on my butt, but I'm ok, just my pride was hurt. It also started pouring down rain on the hike back up and we were soaked by the time we got back to the visitors center. Good times.. Not gonna lie... I was pretty upset about it. I'm better now though, since I'm dry and not shivering in a chiva....

We left the park, cleaned up, at dinner, sat around and went to bed. I feel like that's not the best description of our lives right now but it's all I got. It's pretty awesome here and I like it a lot. I hope my upsetness over being soaked yesterday is the extent of my "anger" phase and I can just get used to it.

So now I'll be done. I'm sore, sweaty, and tired. It's a good thing though. I feel like I'll be able to live here for the next two months :D

So we have about a day until the St. Louis group leaves for Panama. I'm actually getting less nervous as time goes on, I'm not really sure why though, since you'd think it would be the opposite....

Well I've spent a lot of my last weekend at home watching the Olympics with my family. I've figure since I'm gonna be gone for most of the Olympics I'll watch as much of them as I can now.
I actually spent several hours last night with my best friend and little sister trying to figure out how mogul skiing works. I think we might actually have figured it out, so we're excited about that. I'm enjoying learning all of the strange winter sports, like the biathlon where the people have to cross country ski then shoot targets with guns. I'd really like to learn the story behind that sport.... Speed skating is my favorite though. It's really intense and I like to watch Apolo Ohno skate. I've decided he has telekinesis since in all of his races people have fallen down and he magically wins. You go telekinetic Apolo Ohno.

The rest of my weekend has been spent doing last minute packing and shopping and spending lots of times with my family. I'm really glad we're allowed to have 2 check bags cause I'm not sure if all of my stuff would have made it down in one. My giant duffel bag is cram packed with stuff and a few things got left out, so this second check bag is a life saver! Oh! Also my mom bought me 2 baseball hats and got one embroidered with a frog and the other one says "I <3 Frogs." I like them lots and they make me happy :D Well I think I'm gonna end my last post in the States. I'll check back in once I get to Panama at some point. Our internet access is a little more limited than we thought it would be so we'll see how often I can get on. Here is a Red Eyed

Tree Frog saying ta ta for now! And I will too!

One week out!

So I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that next week at this time we will be in Panama. I'm trying to imagine what this will be like but I currently can't see past the airplane. I have suddenly developed a horrible, deathly fear of flying, which is something I've never done before. Since I've never been on a plane before my imagination has taken over and I've come up with horrible visions of what airports and flying will be like. Over the weekend I decided that the plane is going to just fall out of the sky... Or that the security people will decide that something I'm taking with me is dangerous and arrest me... Or that someone will steal my bag and I won't have any clothes the whole time we're in Panama... People keep telling me that none of this is going to happen, but my imagination is running rampant with these ideas and won't stop.

On a happier note about the weekend I spent all day with my mom on Friday. We watched Project Runway and went to Walmart, which is always super fun. I also asked my mom for colored pens last week to take with me and when I got home on Thursday she had about 5 different packs of pens on my bed, 2 of which are water proof pens that don't smudge when you write with them or when they get wet, so those are coming with me to Panama! We also started packing and sorting through the things that I need to bring with me, which is when the fact that we're really leaving next week hit me hard and the airplane terror started.

Another fun thing about Friday was the fact that I spent all night watching all of the Indiana Jones movies with my best friend. That's right, all four of them. It was fun since he'd never seen them before so I got to flaunt my knowledge of movies to him for once as he's always rubbing in the fact that he's seen more Star Trek than me...
While watching Indiana Jones I couldn't help but notice how our class has affected me already. At the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark I found myself wondering what South American country that mystical gold idol was in and was using what we've learned in class to figure it out... I'm still not sure... My ears also perked up at the mention of Pancho Villa in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull since we just learned about him in class that day. Indy mentioned that he learned Quechua from some of Villa's men, but that just started me wondering why people in Mexico would know a language from the Andes... Don't worry though Indy, I still love you. It will take more than a few inconsistencies to break my life-long love for you!

Today was our last day of the history and JINS classes state side and I feel like I'm going to miss them. I am excited to actually see what we're learning about, but I do have a love of the classroom environment. We had a really good discussion about race today in JINS and I'm still thinking about what else could have been said and trying to wrap my head around many of the topics we discussed. We all made very good arguments as to why race still exists socially even though there is no biological basis to it. It was a good way to end class in my opinion, since I enjoy trying to understand how other people see the world and what they took from the Wade reading.

The rest of this week is going to be finishing up our proposal, which is due tomorrow, so I guess I better start looking at that a bit more, then coming up with a topic for the paper about Wade. Happily the Wade paper isn't due until next week when we're in Panama so I have plenty of time to work on that. Thank goodness, I can relax and finish the packing that I started over the weekend with my mom.
So I guess there's still quite a bit to do before we go. Oh well, not too worry. At least I've been able to sleep, which is an improvement over last week!

So many to-do lists...

So this week the reality that we're leaving in 11 days, well 10 now I guess since it's past midnight, is starting to freak me out. I'm having issues falling asleep at night now thanks to that fact. I have to plan everything out before it happens so I currently have 3 lists of things I need to do, pack, and buy before I leave. Since I have made these lists I keep thinking about them as soon as I lay down to go to sleep. By doing this I freak myself out thinking of things that are not on my lists, so I get up several times and make more sticky notes of things that need to be added to the list... Now my desk is covered in various sticky notes of things for Panama.... Ooops. My brain doesn't want me to sleep.

In class this week we went over, surprise, more history of Latin America, which I quite enjoy. I thinks it's really interesting since it's a history that I've never really learned about in detail, and since I love to learn new things, I'm loving this class! The time lines Marc makes in class are my favorite. In JINS we've been talking about Galeano, but I've written my paper on that already and don't want to think about that book anymore... So many thoughts have already gone into that book... I like the Chasteen book (our normal history book for those of you that aren't taking the class) because it's linear and my brain understands it, unlike Galeano, who jumps around everywhere. Hey that's what my paper's about look at that! In Bio we once again worked on our project proposals. Leslie and I are finished a very rough draft of our proposal this week and I'm super excited. I feel like a real scientist now. Also Marc had a camera in class this week and made a very horrible movie of us in class. It's actually pretty funny since we all got really awkward once Marc put the camera in our faces...

Finally in JINS today we discussed culture shock, which was interesting. I'm hoping that I get through all the stages with relative ease and don't end up freaking out while I'm done there. Some how culture shock turned into an in depth conversation about traveler's diarrhea... which was kinda weird...

After class I went home for the weekend! And I'm super glad to be here. I'm gonna try to relax a bit and try to get everything done for next week, like read the Wade book. I'm also hoping to get some packing done so I can cross some things off of my earlier mentioned to-do lists. My mom even took off work so we could spend the day together tomorrow and I'm really excited!!

I think I might go try to sleep now. Hopefully I won't think of anything else to add to my lists and can actually fall asleep tonight...

♫ ♪ We all live in a Pokemon world! ♪♫

So I don't know how many of you guys are actually secret Pokemon fans, but I woke up in a Pokemon kinda mood this morning. I still haven't gotten over loving Pokemon, even though I'm almost 20 now. It's so corny and the games make me happy, and that's all that matters, right? The Pokemon-ness was abruptly ended once we got to class, but before then it was a Pokemon kinda day, which is always a good thing I suppose.
Here's something I made when it was Pokemon Profile picture month, just supporting the fact that I'm a dork.
Don't judge :D

There really isn't a point to the post except that talking about a frog is my reward for writing my primary source essay that's due on Thursday! That's one more thing checked off my list. Now all I have to do is write another essay on the Galeano book by Saturday, read another book by next Tuesday (good news, this one's only 116 pages instead of 300!!),write an essay on that book, finish working on my project proposal with Leslie and have that done by next Wednesday, do some last minute shopping and start packing for Panama this weekend. Yay! Only two more weeks!

Also I finished that book I mentioned last time, and just so everyone knows, the word zombie is on the last page in the last paragraph. Sadly that's one of my favorite parts of that entire book, out of that whole book. . I also learned what I mentioned last time about countries taking whatever they wanted from Latin American countries. But also the word zombie, which has made for some pretty interesting conversations about how the book was really just written to say that we're headed towards a zombie apocalypse...

So any way, frog of the day is:

Dendrobates auratus

Otherwise known as the green and black poison dart frog. It's not particularly exciting, just brightly colored and poisonous! It comes in lots of different colors too, so don't let the name confused you. Apparently in Panama there is actually a blue and black morph... Interesting...

I can read with my eyes closed!

So I spend all weekend reading Open Veins of Latin America, supplemented by the occasional watching of the Discovery Channel (Planet Earth was on all day on Sunday!). Now that I've gotten over halfway through the book the main theme of it is really starting to wear on me... Apparently anything that Latin American countries have that anyone else in the world wants is theirs to take. And they leave death and failing economies behind them. Its just getting very hard for me to read cause it's the same thing, only with different materials page after page. The idea of reading this book is now so firmly ingrained in my brain that I dreamed I was reading the book with my eyes closed. How's that for talent?

Moving on to something entirely different I can't believe I'm actually going to Panama in 15 days! I know I should probably start wrapping my brain around this idea since, well in a little over 2 weeks I'll be getting on a plane for the first time ever and land in another country. I guess I've been so caught up in the here and now I haven't really had time to grasp that idea. Hopefully it'll slow down some time soon so I don't have a panic attack the day before I leave or while on the plane... Just needed to get that thought off my chest.

Now for something completely different! Frog of this blog time!
Centrolene ilex
This species of frog is a member of the glass frog family, which means you can see their internal organs through their translucent underbelly skin, as seen to the left. They're found throughout Central America and into Colombia in the subtropical and tropical lowland forest, rivers, streams, and montane forests. According to Wikipedia they're not super threatened right now, but the chances of me actually seeing this species of frog is rare according to the key that the director of La MICA sent us.
Cool tid-bit though. While watching Planet Earth
yesterday I saw this species of frog and freaked out cause I knew what I was. I was so excited! Their eyes are very interesting and distinctive me thinks!