Arrival in Panama

¡Hola mis amigos y mi familia!

Alex and I have arrived safely in la Ciudad de Panama- Panama City. We are staying at his grandmother´s condo right in the city, along with Brandi (Alex´s cousin from San Diego) and Tío Nulfo, Alex´s uncle. His grandma is also there right now to help us settle in but she is returning to the US in a few days.

We´ve been practicing our Spanish off and on, but on Monday we are going to start speaking Spanish only. Hopefully. Luckily most people here speak English also, so when you get stuck on a word it´s easy to ask for help. I´m guessing our most commonly used phrase for awhile will be "Como se dice ___?" (How do you say ___?).

The city is pretty big and bustling, and quickly growing. There are highrise condos being built everywhere, and unfortunately the rest of city´s infrastructure hasn´t quite kept up so the streets and traffic are pretty crazy. Still not as crazy as India though- I´d be surprised if anything ever lived up to that! Food and transportation are pretty inexpensive, and there is much to do and see-- unfortunately it is HOT and HUMID so we have yet to explore everything. We have lots of time though since we plan to stay in the city until the end of December. I think I will like it here; the only thing that bothers me sometimes is the patriarchal culture and the way men look at every woman like she´s a piece of meat. I try to not look when I get those disgusting looks and catcalls and that´s been keeping me from getting pissed off- when I don´t know for sure it´s even happening (even though I know it is). Ah well, not much can be done about it-- unless I start my own Panamanian feminist revolution...