So today we gave our final presentations. We're done with the 99% of the Panama course. Besides working on the ENVS paper and editing everyone's biology papers I'm done. It's such a strange feeling.... The presentations did remind me of how much I miss Panama though. Even though I was so ready to come home at the end of our time there I'm finding that I really do miss it there. That's all I really have to say. I'm glad this semester went so well and that our final presentations went pretty smoothly. I don't think anyone really reads this any more anyways, but I felt like it deserved some closure. So yeah. It's been great fun blog, thanks for letting me write you. Farewell!!
I wrote this while I was still in Panama and it was relevant. But for those of you that care, here's what an average day was like at La MICA!
A Day in the Life
So I’ve realized that every post I’ve done so far have been about the extraordinary events of my trip in Panama. I was thinking the other day and decided maybe doing a day in the life kind of thing about my everyday life here in Panama.
Well here goes nothing…
♫♫♫♫♫ Wake up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head ♫♫♫♫♫
Heehee. But really....
Everyone generally starts waking up at around 6:30, because they’re crazy and we go to be super early (around 10 or so). I personally usually refuse to actually get out of bed until 7:15, 7:30 if I can. I get up, brush my hair, change, then walk around the building to our outside living room/dining room/classroom/ hangout room. By the time I’m up most people are awake and breakfast has been brought in. Breakfast usually consists of some kind of cereal, milk (which comes in boxes, is highly pasteurized, warm, and either whole milk of skim, neither of which are my personal chose, but what can you do), and something from the bakery, like the sweet bread (essentially super sweet cornbread) or some kind of cookie. If we’re lucky we get fried things, like empanadas, tortillas (which are my favorite, they’re not like Mexican tortillas, they’re thick and crispy), or some kind of fried dough that’s like a doughnut without sugar. Lately we’ve been getting eggs, either hard boiled or uncooked so we can make them how ever we’d like on out little propane powered stove. Mmmm breakfast. For awhile we weren’t getting enough food, so if you weren’t up by 7 you wouldn’t get anything to eat, thus everyone getting up super early, but that problems been resolved now :D
After breakfast people generally start to break off and do whatever they need to get done that day. Some people go into El Cope to go to the Chino mart and buy stuff; to go to Julie’s to work on their project, etc. Some people go to the park to work on their projects. There’s usually a chiva to take us up there around 8 or 8:30 depending on the day. Other people just choose to stay at LA Mica and do work there, or sit and do nothing. At the beginning of the trip I used to go to the park every day, but lately we haven’t needed to go as much during the day, so I’ve been staying at LA Mica and working on stuff here. I usually read or play on my computer, but I’ve finally run out of reading material.... Lately we’ve actually busted out lots of games, like Bananagrams and various card games. I’m not sure why it’s taken us so long to get them out to play, since it was within the last few weeks that it’s happened, but I’m glad we’ve finally gotten them out cause it’s a lot of fun to play!Between 12 and 1 lunch comes, varying from Panamanian soup with plantains, yucca, and some kind of meat, to grilled cheese sandwiches. So we eat then continue doing whatever we were doing before. Days at LA Mica are generally boring and nothing super exciting happens.
Let’s say it’s a day we chose to go to the park instead of stay at LA Mica. This means we leave LA Mica about 15 minutes before the chiva is supposed to be here, since it takes about that long to walk the trail out. We get there, hop on the chiva, then ride it the super bumpy, jerky, steep 45 minute ride up to the park, nonchalantly holding on for dear life. Once there we decide on a time for lunch (which is PB&J sandwiches, sometimes chips, and usually cookies of some kind), then head out to our various projects. Me and Leslie go to our transects then slowly walk them looking for frogs. It usually takes us about 2 or 3 hours to do one of our transects, so then it’s time for lunch. Sometimes after lunch we go home, especially when it’s raining and we’re soaked and freezing. Sometimes we stay and walk our other transect, which we generally have less luck with because the day time frogs like the morning hours, not the afternoon…. Eventually we head back to LA Mica where we hang out for a bit until dinner, then usually head back out to the park after dinner for more research. We then do the same thing we did during the day, only it’s dark and we can’t see. We also have to watch out for snakes and various other biting venomous things that we might step on or touch, cause that would be bad. The park at night is fun though, besides the fact that I’m terrified of what could be out behind me in the dark ;D
We usually end up back at LA Mica a bit after midnight, then have to quietly get ready for bed without waking up all the sleeping people, since they went to bed several hours ago. It’s good times. I like it. We then go to bed and do it all over again the next day!
So yeah… That’s just a general overview of my day to day life in Panama!
So now we're back in the U.S. and trying to get back into the swing of things. I have now taken 6 hot showers, that's right, I've been keeping track. :D I also think that everything is way too expensive here since the low prices in Panama have ruined my outlook on prices in the U.S. forever... :( I have also been to two doctors who have assured me that the horrible rash I developed in my last week in Panama is not contagious, nor is it ringworm. It is in fact, a hypersensitive reaction to insect bites, leading to the release of too much histamine, thus the rash wherever anything touches my skin... It's wonderful... But now I have steroids to make it all better!! So yay United States and modern medicine!!!
The last few weeks in Panama were pretty brutal. I was exhausted from all the physical activity, homesick cause I missed Easter, and covered in the before mentioned rash. It all worked out in the end though and the last week was pretty productive. Well lets back track a minute. We had free days at the end of Holy Week, which turned out to be the worst idea ever. In case you didn't know this it is nearly impossible to travel in Panama during Holy Week. Me, Dan, and Leslie tried to go back to El Valle to help out at the frog center for a few days. We had absolutely no problem getting to El Valle, but once we got there we found out we had no place to stay and they didn't need our help. So we turned around to leave, only to find that once we got back out to the Entrada and onto the Interamericana there were no buses to take us the direction we wanted to go. So we waited for 2 hours trying to catch a bus, then had to turn back around and go back to El Valle where Heidi had magically found a room for us to stay in for the night. We then stayed the night, woke up, then it took us almost 4 hours to finally catch a bus out of El Valle and back to El Cope, but we got out and that's all that matter. Oh that was such a stressful time. I feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it...
Other than that our last few days in Panama were rather uneventful. Me and Leslie finished up our research. Chad took us out on our last night and we went adventuring through the forest to find a pond that had red eyed tree frogs. They were so cute!! And it really was an adventure since the path to the pond was all overgrown and we had to whack trees out of the way and explore off the path to find a way. It was exciting! We also saw a few really cool snakes, which made Chad's night, but then it started raining so our biology fun was ruined and we had to go back. It was a sad chiva ride back from the park that night. My last chiva ride... Maybe my last chiva ride ever!
So that was all the exciting stuff. We had a talent show on Tuesday then left early on Wednesday morning to go to Panama City and do some shopping and go to the mall, which was wonderful. I bought nice clean clothes to wear home. Then showered and got all clean when we got to Gamboa. It was wonderful to be clean and not have to worry about getting covered in dirt again 5 seconds after being clean. I still love the feeling. I'm not used to it yet.
But yeah, then we flew on the plane (which we almost missed) from Panama to Miami, and Miami home! I attacked my mom at the airport and her and my sister almost didn't recognize me because I was so tan. :D
It's good to be home and I find that I really did miss it. I've adjusted back to life here better than I thought I would, but I still have to stop myself from talking to people in Spanish and waving at all the cars I see. It's strange to adjust but I'm getting there. Happy day! Yay being home!
