the first quincenal

I always thought it was interesting to hear my students count time in increments of 15 days (when we would say two weeks or a month), but now I get it. Some services here are billed this way, and it's just how people count time. We've been here two weeks, a quincenal tomorrow.

When we lived in Japan, Earl and I wrote a journal, sometimes just in list form, and in some ways it jogs our memories more than any of the hundreds of photos we have. Going beyond sights, the words capture little experiences, smells, sounds that we might otherwise forget. Our blog here is going to serve the purpose of recording those details and also help friends keep up with our day-to-day life.

Our first three days in Panama City were pretty great: a hotel with a great breakfast and a pool, yummy restaurants nearby, sightseeing, and my own driver when I went to meetings. We hit our first rough day when it was time to head to our town. Even though our driver covered our luggage in the truck bed with a tarp, when it rain hard during the drive, some bags got soaked. We pulled over to rescue all the books we could, but it meant our clothes needed to be unpacked as soon as we arrived. The only problem was the house needed major cleaning. We're working through the house issues and have had the cleaner come back, the plumber visit to fix the sink, the a/c guy come twice, and the electrician replace a shower head water heater. Overall, it's functional for us, but definitely the biggest challenge so far.

That same day, Earl got sick. Ceviche? Salad? Whatever it was, he wasn't up for local food right away, so we headed to the McDonald's. For the first time in the girls' lives! They are now fans. This is funny: when I asked the taxi driver to take us to McDonald's, he headed in the opposite direction. I asked if there was another McDonald's, and he said, no, just the one. Still headed away from it. I kept questioning him, and we finally realized that he was taking us to the mercado, not McDonald's!

The next day was awesome, with my friend Yasmin from work. She took us to her husband's home town, where we saw a 600 year old church, a waterfall, and an artisanal baker at work. Just what we needed!

Speaking of work, my school is beautiful. The staff and students are enthusiastic, and most importantly, my co-workers are kind and warm. Their passion for English teaching really impresses me! I made a little speech in front of the school on my first day in Spanish and English, which was pretty cool.

Details we want to hold onto from these two weeks:

• the nighttime sound of frogs (?) that sounds like hundreds of little car alarms
• that the name of gym near our house is actually part of our address because there are no house numbers
• the cousin-in-law who buzzed by with perfect English, saying "Yeah, I'm from New York"
• that school children learn cursive only starting in kindergarten
• me using the boys bathroom at school--oops!