Panama Update #52
September 23, 2008
Yesterday the school that had offered me the very first job in Panama City called. I had turned them down several times because I was set on finding something part-time. Also, it was a middle school math and science position, and I was more interested in high school at this point in my career. I took a taxi out to the school this morning to discuss what they had in mind. The school is located across the Bridge of the Americas in a place called Howard. There is no traffic in that direction because all the traffic is going the other way, toward downtown. It was only my second time crossing that bridge (story was told in blog #41), which is the main connection between north and south once the canal was dug. In a way, it is the link between the continents. Until 1999 there was a huge US military base in that area. Because of that there are some very nice neighborhoods which are still very cheap. The area has not been developed much yet, but I have read that big plans are in the works. There is a huge Dell computer building and many other large international companies are planning to move there and a whole city will be built for the new influx of population with housing, shopping , etc.
The job is helping tutor in a 7th math class for 2 hours a day that has a lot of students who need extra help. The taxi ride is 10-15 miles, but only takes about 12 minutes to get there. We will try it on both sides for a while and see if I can be of some help. I start tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Panama Update #51
Panama Update #51
September 21, 2008
Nikki returned this morning after completing her 3rd week aboard the research vessel. She was on the other side (Caribbean) of Panama from where we live. They explored the Kuna Yala (San Blas) region, going almost to the Colombian border. They slept on the boat but during the day went on geology expeditions in the water and jungle. She has many stories to tell about cutting their way through the thick jungle and seeing all sorts of enormous spiders, millions of gigantic ants and gigantic ant rubbish piles, monkeys, snakes, all sorts of colorful plants, huge trees with big thorns in the bark, vines, and crocodiles. In the water she saw dolphins, flying fish, needle noise fish, gigantic corrals, and much more. Maybe she will share her experiences some time first hand in the blog. Today she caught up on her emails and was generally feeling good and in good spirits. She wasn't land-sick at all like she was when she returned the time before.
Yesterday I led the Yoga/Meditation at the Center across town. Someone going there from this side of town gave me a ride. She is a Jewish woman from Jamaica who is married to a man from Trinidad. She came to Panama originally because of a job transfer for her husband. She was dropping her son off at a synagogue near where we were going for some Saturday activities. She and her family had just returned from a 2 week trip to Israel that was a family reunion of about 75 people from all over the world. It was a nice, friendly crowd at the Meditation of about 20 people. It was a diverse group of people including native Panamanians to Yoga instructors to first-time practitioners to people from the US to people from Europe and Poland. I am not sure how they all heard about it, but it was advertised on a couple of websites. Here is one webiste if anyone wants to follow the Panama social scene: http://www.panamasocialcalendar.com/month.php (click on Sept. 20 at 2:00 PM for a description of the Meditation session)
September 21, 2008
Nikki returned this morning after completing her 3rd week aboard the research vessel. She was on the other side (Caribbean) of Panama from where we live. They explored the Kuna Yala (San Blas) region, going almost to the Colombian border. They slept on the boat but during the day went on geology expeditions in the water and jungle. She has many stories to tell about cutting their way through the thick jungle and seeing all sorts of enormous spiders, millions of gigantic ants and gigantic ant rubbish piles, monkeys, snakes, all sorts of colorful plants, huge trees with big thorns in the bark, vines, and crocodiles. In the water she saw dolphins, flying fish, needle noise fish, gigantic corrals, and much more. Maybe she will share her experiences some time first hand in the blog. Today she caught up on her emails and was generally feeling good and in good spirits. She wasn't land-sick at all like she was when she returned the time before.
Yesterday I led the Yoga/Meditation at the Center across town. Someone going there from this side of town gave me a ride. She is a Jewish woman from Jamaica who is married to a man from Trinidad. She came to Panama originally because of a job transfer for her husband. She was dropping her son off at a synagogue near where we were going for some Saturday activities. She and her family had just returned from a 2 week trip to Israel that was a family reunion of about 75 people from all over the world. It was a nice, friendly crowd at the Meditation of about 20 people. It was a diverse group of people including native Panamanians to Yoga instructors to first-time practitioners to people from the US to people from Europe and Poland. I am not sure how they all heard about it, but it was advertised on a couple of websites. Here is one webiste if anyone wants to follow the Panama social scene: http://www.panamasocialcalendar.com/month.php (click on Sept. 20 at 2:00 PM for a description of the Meditation session)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Panama Update #50
Panama Update #50
September 19, 2008
The weather here is very consistent. There is no need for a weather report on the news. In fact, they do not have weather reports on the news here. Only news and sports. I guess they figure it is fairly straightforward. You can expect to sweat every time you walk outside and it will rain at some point everyday. It is amazing how relentless the heat and humidity is. If you live, eat, and work in air conditioning, it is really not a problem. But I have noticed that there are a lot of people here who don't have air conditioning because of the cost. I guess they just get used to it. For the people with enough money, it reminds me of the winter in Minnesota in that people go from the heated home to the heated garage to the heated office and may not go outside much. People here move from their air conditioned home to their air conditioned car to their air conditioned office. But I have seen a few others here who run and bicycle. The only places I have seen people do this are on the Ancon Hill where we live or on the Causeway by the Pacific Ocean. Otherwise the town is not bicycle or walker friendly. There is no such thing as a bike path and the drivers are very aggressive and do not respect pedestrians or each other. They do not stop at signs or care if someone is crossing the street. They go very fast on neighborhood type roads even if people are around. I am surprised they do not have more accidents here, but I guess that the people have also adjusted to that, like they have adjusted to the heat and rain.
Nikki is supposed to return from the research vessel on Sunday AM. Tomorrow I am scheduled to lead a Yoga/Meditation class on the other side of town at a place I have never been to. Someone is picking me up and taking me there. I was referred to this place by someone and so will see what it is like. This session is for English speakers and normally they don't do classes at this place in English. It will be another new Panama experience. Every new experience seems to lead to something else, so we will see what happens. The website for this place is http://www.lwcenter.com/.
September 19, 2008
The weather here is very consistent. There is no need for a weather report on the news. In fact, they do not have weather reports on the news here. Only news and sports. I guess they figure it is fairly straightforward. You can expect to sweat every time you walk outside and it will rain at some point everyday. It is amazing how relentless the heat and humidity is. If you live, eat, and work in air conditioning, it is really not a problem. But I have noticed that there are a lot of people here who don't have air conditioning because of the cost. I guess they just get used to it. For the people with enough money, it reminds me of the winter in Minnesota in that people go from the heated home to the heated garage to the heated office and may not go outside much. People here move from their air conditioned home to their air conditioned car to their air conditioned office. But I have seen a few others here who run and bicycle. The only places I have seen people do this are on the Ancon Hill where we live or on the Causeway by the Pacific Ocean. Otherwise the town is not bicycle or walker friendly. There is no such thing as a bike path and the drivers are very aggressive and do not respect pedestrians or each other. They do not stop at signs or care if someone is crossing the street. They go very fast on neighborhood type roads even if people are around. I am surprised they do not have more accidents here, but I guess that the people have also adjusted to that, like they have adjusted to the heat and rain.
Nikki is supposed to return from the research vessel on Sunday AM. Tomorrow I am scheduled to lead a Yoga/Meditation class on the other side of town at a place I have never been to. Someone is picking me up and taking me there. I was referred to this place by someone and so will see what it is like. This session is for English speakers and normally they don't do classes at this place in English. It will be another new Panama experience. Every new experience seems to lead to something else, so we will see what happens. The website for this place is http://www.lwcenter.com/.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Panama Update #49
Panama Update #49
September 18, 2008
One of my goals since coming to Panama was to write everyday. If I do that, study some Spanish, and read in English a little, then I feel like I have had a productive day. I haven't written in this blog everyday, but at least 4 to 5 times a week. Sometimes I think there is nothing to say that anyone would find interesting enough to read, but I plan to continue to write for the practice. Today I had an ESL (English as a Second Language) tutoring session from 7:30-8:30. It is with a native Panamanian woman who works here as a biology lab assistant. She is trying to raise her skills high enough to do well on the TOEFL (college entrance test for ESL students) so one day she could be admitted into a US university. We cover several different areas. For reading comprehension I copy magazine articles off the internet that are science related and about the same level of difficulty as the TOEFL. She reads it and I correct her pronunciation as she reads. After each paragraph or so she stops and I ask her questions to check her comprehension. In this way she also gets conversation practice. I find it an effective method for learning the language and it also seems interesting to the students, especially if I find articles that interest them. I also have some textbooks that I brought with me that have a lot of listening exercises. I read sentences that have a grammar mistake, or not. If there is a mistake the students tries to give the correction. Another exercise I do is to read a paragraph at a medium to high speed and then ask the students questions about comprehension. Of course this all varies by the level of the student and what they want to study. If a student wants to study writing, then I assign an essay topic taken from the internet site of TOEFL and check it over with the student the following lesson. We may end up doing several revisions if the student can stick with it. But in the end, the overwhelming thing that most students want to do is practice conversation. So whatever lesson we are doing, I always like to take time for that.
September 18, 2008
One of my goals since coming to Panama was to write everyday. If I do that, study some Spanish, and read in English a little, then I feel like I have had a productive day. I haven't written in this blog everyday, but at least 4 to 5 times a week. Sometimes I think there is nothing to say that anyone would find interesting enough to read, but I plan to continue to write for the practice. Today I had an ESL (English as a Second Language) tutoring session from 7:30-8:30. It is with a native Panamanian woman who works here as a biology lab assistant. She is trying to raise her skills high enough to do well on the TOEFL (college entrance test for ESL students) so one day she could be admitted into a US university. We cover several different areas. For reading comprehension I copy magazine articles off the internet that are science related and about the same level of difficulty as the TOEFL. She reads it and I correct her pronunciation as she reads. After each paragraph or so she stops and I ask her questions to check her comprehension. In this way she also gets conversation practice. I find it an effective method for learning the language and it also seems interesting to the students, especially if I find articles that interest them. I also have some textbooks that I brought with me that have a lot of listening exercises. I read sentences that have a grammar mistake, or not. If there is a mistake the students tries to give the correction. Another exercise I do is to read a paragraph at a medium to high speed and then ask the students questions about comprehension. Of course this all varies by the level of the student and what they want to study. If a student wants to study writing, then I assign an essay topic taken from the internet site of TOEFL and check it over with the student the following lesson. We may end up doing several revisions if the student can stick with it. But in the end, the overwhelming thing that most students want to do is practice conversation. So whatever lesson we are doing, I always like to take time for that.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Panama Update #48
Panama Update #48
September 16, 2008
I have not heard from Nikki since she went back to the research vessel on Sunday so I do not have anything new to report from her. I am continuing with my usual schedule with the English tutoring and Yoga classes. My schedule is not packed so I have some time to go on some local outings. Sunday night I went with group from the dormitory to the mall to see a movie called Ledron que Roba Ledron. I think it means the robber who robbed the robber. It was a funny movie that all of us liked a lot and I got most of the jokes even though it was in Spanish. Today I went out to the Causeway, which is the strip of land with the nice walking path bordered by the Pacific near the entrance to the canal. I met a friend who works in that area and we had lunch. It was great oven roasted pizza and only cost $4.50 for a size that easily feeds two people. Afterward I went to the marine museum there adn the admission was only $2. It was a simple exhibit, mostly aimed at school groups, but it was worth seeing. They had hands-on type of displays and also aquariums with the local Pacific Ocean fish. They also had tanks where you could get up close to big turtles and star fish. There was also a nature trail where you can see sloths and iguanas, although I did not see either one. We also have a sloth and iguana living in the jungle by our dormitory. After the museum I walked along the Causeway and even though it was peak afternoon sun, there was a pleasantly cool ocean breeze. It was the first time I had felt a cool breeze at that time of the day, or maybe even the first time ever in Panama. It is still raining here everyday and the humidity stays high, but it does not rain all day long. The time varies, but usually it will rain late morning or sometime later in the afternoon. It rains hard for about an hour and then slows up or stops completely. I read that on this side of Panama it rains about 6 to 8 feet a year and on the other side of the country about 10 feet a year. From December 15 t0 May it is supposed to be the dry season, with no rain at all, so all that rain is squeezed in a period of several months.
September 16, 2008
I have not heard from Nikki since she went back to the research vessel on Sunday so I do not have anything new to report from her. I am continuing with my usual schedule with the English tutoring and Yoga classes. My schedule is not packed so I have some time to go on some local outings. Sunday night I went with group from the dormitory to the mall to see a movie called Ledron que Roba Ledron. I think it means the robber who robbed the robber. It was a funny movie that all of us liked a lot and I got most of the jokes even though it was in Spanish. Today I went out to the Causeway, which is the strip of land with the nice walking path bordered by the Pacific near the entrance to the canal. I met a friend who works in that area and we had lunch. It was great oven roasted pizza and only cost $4.50 for a size that easily feeds two people. Afterward I went to the marine museum there adn the admission was only $2. It was a simple exhibit, mostly aimed at school groups, but it was worth seeing. They had hands-on type of displays and also aquariums with the local Pacific Ocean fish. They also had tanks where you could get up close to big turtles and star fish. There was also a nature trail where you can see sloths and iguanas, although I did not see either one. We also have a sloth and iguana living in the jungle by our dormitory. After the museum I walked along the Causeway and even though it was peak afternoon sun, there was a pleasantly cool ocean breeze. It was the first time I had felt a cool breeze at that time of the day, or maybe even the first time ever in Panama. It is still raining here everyday and the humidity stays high, but it does not rain all day long. The time varies, but usually it will rain late morning or sometime later in the afternoon. It rains hard for about an hour and then slows up or stops completely. I read that on this side of Panama it rains about 6 to 8 feet a year and on the other side of the country about 10 feet a year. From December 15 t0 May it is supposed to be the dry season, with no rain at all, so all that rain is squeezed in a period of several months.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Panama Update #47
Panama Update #47
September 14, 2008
The pictures on the previous page were all taken on Nikki's research adventure in the Kuna Yala/San Blas region. She took a lot of pictures. All of them were nice but she picked several to put on my memory stick before she took off. She has a lot of stories about her experiences there on the boat, and the geology, and meeting the indigenous people, but did not get a chance to give them to me yet for the blog.
Nikki left at 5:oo AM today to catch her flight back to the research vessel in the San Blas/Kuna Yala region. Since I was up anyway to see her off I went for my morning walk earlier than usual. It was still dark, since the sun does not rise until about 6:00 AM. I was going to walk to the top of the hill that we live on to see the sunrise but only got about 3/4 of the way up. The gate to the park was locked, so it must open a little later.
In the morning on Sundays I like to find a place that has internet access and listen to the sports shows from Minneapolis. It is a fun season to follow the Twins baseball team. They are tied for the division lead with the Chicago White Sox with only about 15 games to go. If they make the playoffs I am sure it will be on TV here. They are pretty big baseball fans. Later on today I will probably go to a movie with some people from the dorm.
Yesterday we looked at an apartment that is only about a 3 minute walk from where we live now. We know the person who lives there now and he is thinking about moving out soon. He has another place in mind but hasn't signed a lease yet because he has had trouble getting a hold of the owner of that place. If he does figure it out and move, we are interested in the apartment that he is moving out from. Hopefully it will get sorted out in the next week or two. We took a couple of hours yesterday to look at the apartment while Nikki was in town. It is a 4-plex in a large wooden house of the style that is very common here. The street level is for parking and he lives on both levels of one side with his family and rents out the apartments on the other side. If we end up moving there, I can post some pictures which will describe it better. We like the owner and met with him briefly and we agreed to a price and what it will cover, so now we just have to wait to see if the other apartment works out for our friend. It is in a nice neighborhood and still within walking distance of Nikki's work at a fairly reasonable price. It is rare to find one like that in this neighborhood.
September 14, 2008
The pictures on the previous page were all taken on Nikki's research adventure in the Kuna Yala/San Blas region. She took a lot of pictures. All of them were nice but she picked several to put on my memory stick before she took off. She has a lot of stories about her experiences there on the boat, and the geology, and meeting the indigenous people, but did not get a chance to give them to me yet for the blog.
Nikki left at 5:oo AM today to catch her flight back to the research vessel in the San Blas/Kuna Yala region. Since I was up anyway to see her off I went for my morning walk earlier than usual. It was still dark, since the sun does not rise until about 6:00 AM. I was going to walk to the top of the hill that we live on to see the sunrise but only got about 3/4 of the way up. The gate to the park was locked, so it must open a little later.
In the morning on Sundays I like to find a place that has internet access and listen to the sports shows from Minneapolis. It is a fun season to follow the Twins baseball team. They are tied for the division lead with the Chicago White Sox with only about 15 games to go. If they make the playoffs I am sure it will be on TV here. They are pretty big baseball fans. Later on today I will probably go to a movie with some people from the dorm.
Yesterday we looked at an apartment that is only about a 3 minute walk from where we live now. We know the person who lives there now and he is thinking about moving out soon. He has another place in mind but hasn't signed a lease yet because he has had trouble getting a hold of the owner of that place. If he does figure it out and move, we are interested in the apartment that he is moving out from. Hopefully it will get sorted out in the next week or two. We took a couple of hours yesterday to look at the apartment while Nikki was in town. It is a 4-plex in a large wooden house of the style that is very common here. The street level is for parking and he lives on both levels of one side with his family and rents out the apartments on the other side. If we end up moving there, I can post some pictures which will describe it better. We like the owner and met with him briefly and we agreed to a price and what it will cover, so now we just have to wait to see if the other apartment works out for our friend. It is in a nice neighborhood and still within walking distance of Nikki's work at a fairly reasonable price. It is rare to find one like that in this neighborhood.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)