It rained. I would know.

So, as we approach a wetter season in Panama, I think I will need to start hauling my rain jacket around with me, such as to school. I got soaked today waiting for a taxi to pick us up to take us to the bus terminal, but none of 'em wanted us so we ran back across the street to the school and waited half an hour for the rain to slow to a sort of drizzly mist. Seriously, though: it rained hard. Big drops. And it's hot.

Flowers for you

just a random photo I took of some flowers in a sort of shrub that thinks it is a tree.

Apparently people DO get colds in Panama

I would know: I have a fine example of a headcold going on right now. I've been sneezy for a week, but I assumed that it was allergies, either from the flowers that are starting to appear on the trees or from the rye bread that I've been eating for lunch at school on sandwiches. I am sort of happy to know that it is not the bread, but I'm really not a fan of this sinuses-squeezing-themselves-out-my-nose feeling, or the throat inlaid with sandstone. At least I have the comfort that half of my class at school has the same symptoms and that so far none of them have died yet.

Speaking of classes, I am learning some HTML in one of 'em. I just sit behind my friend and make suggestions on what to name our webpage and stuff, I don't actually take the class officially.

Buuut I wanna try it out sometime.

Look, Ma, I'm an ad for Converse!

My host sis and I went to a music fest (which was as much a Movistar, Coca-Cola, Balboa (beer), and Converse fest as anything else) last weekend (I know, I'm slow with the updates). It was pretty fun, actually. Apparently I saw lots of big names perform, but I didn't know them... like... Aleks Syntek. Hooray!

You must slap your butt as you walk

I'm not sure what else this sign could possibly mean.

Monkey Pics from Summit Zoo & update

The white-faced capuchins expected to be fed crackers... or brains... either one.
I was a little shocked by the zoo, it definitely isn't what I'm used to seeing! Besides the jaguar and harpy eagle, the exhibits are in varying states of disrepair and have an overall old look to them, just like most of the city. It was all native animals, and basically looks like they dropped cages down around parts of the existing jungle and called it good. The grounds are mostly a walk through the jungle, with lots of beautiful trees and plants all around.
Back to the monkeys... a man started to hit his mostly empty soda bottle against the wire, freaking out the monkeys, but when ice flew out and into the exhibit they grabbed it up ad coveted it and rubbed it in their hands like it was gold.

I started school on Monday! Hurray, I have friends! :D Technically I'm just following my host sister around until my public school starts next month, I don't even have a uniform and I'm not being graded. It's a private Oxford School and most of the classes are in English, some of the teachers don't even speak Spanish (and some of them don't speak English). I am taking a Spanish-learning class with another boy who doesn't speak Spanish who moved here with his family from Florida in January. So far it's all review, and I know that my Spanish is improving, because I can actually form a sentence or two without thinking super hard, and I understand more than half of what is said in normal conversation. Yaaaay...

Summit Zoo

I went with my host sister to the Summit Zoo, which is a short drive down the road from where I live. It's definitely not the sort of zoo I'm used to; it's very rundown and sort of makeshift. There were two exhibits, however, that obviously got all the funding; those of the jaguar and the harpy eagle.what's a zoo without a good pavo real or two?


AUGH my internet is being stupid, so i'll try to upload the pictures of the monkeys and such later!

orientation of the month - photos! finally!

there were five or six stray dogs, mostly pretty cute, who were frequent visitors to our cabins because we're all suckers and gave them food.
chickens drinking water from the drainage pipe coming from the cabins we stayed in.
some fellow exchangies on the beach. represented in this picture: thailand, austria, and iceland.

sorry it took so long, guys. i got back, like... a week and a half ago. :)

Orientation

I have to get up early tomorrow morning to get to the bus terminal to head back to the beach to go to my exchange program's orientation of the month. It will be for three days, and I'll update when I get back, or, if I have internet there, you may hear from me sooner. :)