response can be "But of course!". Such was the case a few months ago when my friend Jenn brought up the topic and, after rearranging my classes for the week, here I sit in Panama City. Life is good.Our flight left the US this morning at 6:30 am (yeah, I was definitely NOT the one who booked that flight) so it meant leaving Jenn's house at 1:30 in the morning, which of course meant NO sleep at all last night. The good news is that it turns out I'm still young enough to pull an all-nighter... yay! Also turns out that I am not young enough to escape the ramifications of it. Let's just say that naps were involved.
Either way, since it's such a short flight (amazing that you can be in another country faster than you can fly to California
from PA) we arrived in Panama City around 10:30 in the morning and were kindly met at the airport by a family friend of Jenn's. Got our rental car and we were off to our hotel to get settled in. The jeans and sweater I had on from the trip (it was raining and upper 30s when we left PA... grrr) were suddenly unbearable as it was what I would estimate as nearly 90 here when we stepped out of the airport. Sweat began to happen almost immediately.
from PA) we arrived in Panama City around 10:30 in the morning and were kindly met at the airport by a family friend of Jenn's. Got our rental car and we were off to our hotel to get settled in. The jeans and sweater I had on from the trip (it was raining and upper 30s when we left PA... grrr) were suddenly unbearable as it was what I would estimate as nearly 90 here when we stepped out of the airport. Sweat began to happen almost immediately. After our night without sleep, we were pretty wiped out so only had enough energy to take a nap and then head off for a leisurely walk to a restaurant for dinner. We found a cute little place where we could sit outside and start to take in some of the local air and culture. After the abysmal weather at home the past week, it was SO nice to be able to sit outside again. Aaaaah.
Thus far, as strange as it sounds, I don't really feel like I'm in another country. I have taken longer flights to get to the other side of the US, they use American currency here so I'm not using foreign money and so far everyone we have encountered
(car rental guy, hotel lady, waitress) all speak English so I've had very little need for my Spanish. In fact, even when I should be greeting people in Spanish initially, so far I've even been forgetting to do so because I feel like I'm still in the US. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city as I imagine not nearly as many people will speak English in the country regions. Or so I hope... I definitely need the practice!
(car rental guy, hotel lady, waitress) all speak English so I've had very little need for my Spanish. In fact, even when I should be greeting people in Spanish initially, so far I've even been forgetting to do so because I feel like I'm still in the US. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city as I imagine not nearly as many people will speak English in the country regions. Or so I hope... I definitely need the practice!So, not a super productive day by any means but a great start to the trip. I feel myself relaxing already....
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