Backpack, Backpack...

January was a wild month.  A few days after the New Year I set out on a new adventure: going back to the States to visit my family and friends for the first time in almost a year.

A summary of events (but mostly food):

Part 1: Panama to New York 

The moment I arrived at my mother's school

Getting to New York was an adventure.

I left site around noon on the 5th (with a delicious send off lunch from Prima).  It was actually pretty emotional to be leaving, knowing that I was going back to the US.

Delicious lunch from Prima

I got to Panama City around 5pm, ate wings at the Gorilla food court for dinner.  Every time I go to Albrook I get a little bit of culture shock.  There are video screens that show advertisements on the hands-free sink faucets in the bathrooms.

My flight left Panama at midnight on the morning of the 6th.  I was operating with my American sense of what international travel (or travel in general) looks like and I arrived at the airport around 7pm (being early is one of my five favorite things and I was too impatient to walk around Albrook anymore) and was told that they wouldn't start checking people into the flight until 9pm (which turned out to be more like 9:30).  Luckily I had my sewing with me and made friends with a really nice Canadian woman.

I didn't have to check any bags and getting through security was quick (though my sewing scissors didn't survive).

After finally getting to the gate I bought myself a hot chocolate for a treat.  I came back to the gate to find that we had to go through security again.  Our bags got re-xrayed and everyone (down to toddlers and elderly people in wheelchairs) had to get a pat down.

After round two of security they roped us into the now "secure" gate area.  It was a full flight so people were practically tripping over eachother with all their luggage.  I was looking forward to getting on the plane, so I'd have some more space.

The flight was smooth and we got into Newark around 5am.  I took public transport into New York and was able to get in touch with my friend Kat so we could have coffee and catch up before she left for tour.  After coffee I went to my mom's school in Queens where her 4th graders barraged me with questions.  I spent about a half hour talking to them before escaping to find some lunch at a diner and some platanos verdes (green plantains) at a local market so we could make patacones (alternately known as tostones; fried plantains).  Mom and I drove out to Eastern Long Island after school.

My adrenaline wore off pretty quickly after we got home and I ended up crashing for a few hours before someone convinced me that I should pause sleeping to eat dinner.

The Long Island part of the trip (really the whole trip) was a whirlwind of people and food.

• Sushi with my best friend, Jess, for her birthday.
• Family Christmas with my Dad's side of the family where I made them patacones and people seemed to like them (or they humored me).
• Deaf West's Spring Awakening on Broadway with my parents, my brother (Andrew), and Jess.
• Ate a delicious Italian food dinner with Jess and Theresa (before Theresa left on her Italian vacation adventure).
• Drove places in my lovely little Yoda (thanks to my brother for giving me his car for a few days).
• Ate bagels with my friend Patrick.
• Had delicious pizza and garlic knots from the pizza place next to my high school.
• Ate delicious french toast with my new friend Helen while we discussed our Peace Corps services (she was a volunteer in Guatemala) and planned cyber events for Peace Corps Week with Stony Brook University students
• Borrowed my brother's Netflix account to binge watch TV.

I also had the opportunity to talk to some students at my high school about Panama, my Peace Corps service and service in general.  It was really wonderful to go back to a place that informed so many of the choices that I've made in my life and to show them a potential path that they could take after they graduate from college.

A late Christmas with my Grandparents

Part 2: Brooklyn

After spending a few days on Long Island I went to visit my friend Greg in Brooklyn.  We've been friends since 7th grade and he's one of the people I always try to see when I'm in NY.  We hung out and drank tea and talked for hours.  It was really wonderful to see him.

Part 3: DC

After spending about 24 hours in Brooklyn I put my backpack back on and hopped on a bus to DC for the last few days of the trip.  

The first night I went straight from Union Station to dinner with my friends Alex and Gordon.  Delicious food, good company, and some DC theater scene gossip was the perfect way to come back to DC.  They very kindly drove me to Lauren and Eddie's house (friends that I crashed with in DC)

The next day I ate some Chipotle and sat in a coffee shop listening to music, drinking tea and looking at email before getting some pie with my friend Ryan, and heading up to Source to see Constellation Theatre Company's production of Equus.  

I arrived early and went to my favorite coffee shop in that part of town to find my fabulous friend Katie having some coffee.  We got to catch up a bit before she had to run to work.  Equus was beautiful and it was lovely to be back in the theater among friends.  After the show I hung out with Katie and my friend Cheryl for a bit before running to catch the metro before it closed (and tragically missing an opportunity to eat delicious falafel). 

The next morning Eddie made fantastic blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast.  After a relaxing breakfast I went and hung out in DC for the day.  I tried to go to the new exhibition at the Renwick, but there was a line around the block.  I decided to sit in a coffee shop with some tea and write for a bit before heading up to Theater J to see their production of The Sisters Rosenswieg.  It was really great to see a show at the J (and to bump into my friend Delia before she moved away).  The show was wonderful and hilarious.  It was great to see so many familiar faces.  After the show I got to catch up with my friend Jay, which was really nice.

The next morning I convinced Lauren and Eddie to go out to breakfast at Busboys and Poets.  I'd been dreaming about their french toast for months.  After breakfast we hung out for a bit before I started getting ready for the big event: Casey and Joe's wedding.

The wedding was lovely.  Casey looked stunning and Joe looked handsome as they said their vows with the full expanse of DC as their backdrop.  I spent the night dancing with Sara, Elizabeth, and Casey, reminiscing about college, and talking about how much our lives have changed since we graduated.  It was the perfect way to end the trip.

Roommates!
Credit: Casey and Joe's Wedding Photographer

The next morning I started my journey back to Panama, site, and (most importantly) Canela.

It was a crazy whirlwind of a trip, full of odd culture shock moments, but I loved it.

Reverse Culture Shock Moments include:

• Being able to flush toilet paper
• Not carrying a flashlight 
• Eating salad (without anyone thinking to put mayonnaise on it)
• Not washing my dishes by hand
• Not lighting the stove with matches or a lighter
• Being cold (or rather, not sweating all the time)
• Speaking in Spanglish (or just Spanish) to people who don't speak Spanish
• Forgetting words (in both languages)
• Not having to check my bag at the paquetera (bag/parcel check) whenever I walked into a store
• Having people get annoyed when I wanted to pay in cash
• Dancing more than once dance in a row with a guy (dancing with a guy for more than once dance in a row signals serious interest in Panama)

Meanwhile back in Panama...

Part 4: Camp!
There's no rest for the wicked(-ly ambitious) and in typical me fashion I had plans to go to work (in this case an English camp for students) as soon as I got back to Panama.

My friend Roxana organized the camp as an English refresher before school starts again at the end of February.  I only ended up being there for two days (silly sinus infection destroying my dreams), but we had a lot of fun and it was nice to be back in the classroom (and on the field) after being on school break since mid-December.

The students were split into two groups and each group learned a pop song in English and prepared a Reader's Theater script in addition to doing a bunch of leadership and teambuilding games.  The last day of camp we had students presentations (and speeches/closing remarks in typical Panama fashion, something I'm slowly getting better at) and brindis with cupcakes that we baked the night before.  The students did really well and I'm so excited to get back to working with students in my site.

Happy students and facilitators on the last day of camp

Upcoming Events:

• Veraguas Regional Meeting
• Taking the GRE during Carnival (#awesomeplanning)
• Girls' Empowerment camp in Jody's site
• School prep week and the start of the new school year
• Pre-Service Training (PST) for G78 (the next group of TELLS and CEC volunteers)

Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year Internet!

I spent a lovely quiet New Year's in site.  During the day I got some lesson planning done and cooked a big New Year's Eve meal. I made garlic mashed potatoes, lentils with onion and garlic, chicken with taco seasoning and onions that would have been part of the cheddar cheese quesadillas I was going to make, salad dressing for a salad of carrots (the cucumbers were spoiled), and some chicha de naranjilla (juice from a fruit that is like a lemon and an orange put together).  

I didn't end up eating any of that though because Prima invited me to dinner where we had rice with guandu (a kind of bean), pork, and a salad of potatoes and carrots with mayonnaise.  It was really good.  There were a ton of fireworks that night and some people burned the "old year" in the form of a muñeco (doll) stuffed with straw to represent giving themselves a fresh start for the new year.  I chose to celebrate in a calmer way, so at midnight I was sitting in bed sewing and watching Tangled.  
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For the next few weeks I'm going to be participating in a blogging challenge called Blogging Abroad for people living, working and volunteering abroad, so bear with me as I introduce myself.  

For our first "prompt" we've been asked to write about why we're living abroad.  As I'm relatively close to the 12 month mark of my Peace Corps experience (and it's a new year) it's also a great opportunity to reevaluate my goals and look back on my experience to date.

Here we go:

A beach on Long Island

Who Am I?
My name is Kara and I grew up on Long Island in New York.  I went to college at American University in Washington, DC where I graduated with a dual BA in Spanish and International Studies with a focus on Peace and conflict resolution.  After college I started working in the DC professional theater scene as a stage manager, electrician, and sometimes carpenter.  I loved being surrounded by art and artists all the time and the feeling of actively creating something. 

Assistant Stage Managing in DC

Peace Corps
After a few years I wanted some more stability than the freelance life offered, I was interested in doing more public service, and I missed living abroad.  I'd been interested in Peace Corps since I first heard about it in college, but it was never the right time to actually finish my application, until it was.  Juggling 4 or more jobs just got exhausting, but I was still nervous about changing my entire life.

After I applied I waited 2 months to have an interview where I was nominated for a volunteer position with the Education sector and then I waited 6 months to be invited to serve in Panama and then I waited 9 months to leave for service.  It was a long (and sometimes) frustrating process, but I'm so glad I stuck it out.  The application process has since completely changed.

After joining the Peace Corps in February 2015 I went through three months of pre-service training with 23 other Peace Corps Teaching English Trainees.  At the end of the sixth week of training we received our site announcements where we would be living and working for the next two years.  I've now been in the Peace Corps for just over 10 months and been a volunteer for just under 8 months.

Swearing In Ceremony, May 2015

During the application process complete flexibility was emphasized as an important trait. To that end we talk about "managing" or "adjusting" expectations a lot as volunteers.  Things rarely go completely as planned.  I tried to move through training letting it inform me as to what I should expect and what goals I should set, without bringing a ton of my own expectations to the experience.

I knew I loved teaching and that I wanted to make a positive impact in the world and improve my Spanish, but that was where my initial expectations and hopes ended.  

After training that changed a bit.  

So, How'd Ya Do?

I present a report card on a summary of my goals to date:

• Integrate into my Community:
• School: A-
• Community: C

             I worked really hard to create relationships with my counterpart teachers at school and with the students and was really successful.  I was less successful in integrating into my community.  I have a pretty big site and the heat and my own introverted nature made getting to know people hard.  I have some really good friends in site and I'm planning on making more in the coming year.

• Teach a Community English Class: E (for Effort)

Didn't happen.  I tried to organize it, but it never came together.  I'm planning on starting a class in February or March once school starts again.

• Start an English Club for students: E

Also didn't happen.  The timing was poor with the November holidays and the end of the school year.  Another goal for March.

• Organizing a book drive and create a reading club for students: E

I'm just starting to work on this seriously now, but I'm hopeful to have some books at the start of the school year to start working with students and grow the project from there.

• Read books, learn how to sew, write letters, generally have fun: A

This year has been full of challenges and triumphs, but I love my life here.  I read 20 books since I arrived in Panama, learned how to embroider and taught myself to cross stitch, became pen pals with friends and family back in the US, took some cool trips, and formed some strong friendships with other PCVs and people in site.

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I'm really excited to continue to share my passions for learning (about everything from the correct way to cook lentils to teaching methodologies and equal access to education) and art with Panamanians, PCVs, and the Internet.  I guess my overarching dream would be to infect people with curiosity about the world and all of the beautiful plurality and diversity that exists.

Also, I have a cat named Canela and I love her very much.

Lady Canela in a hammock

Some New Year's Resolutions:

• Get better at Spanish
• Learn how to cook (specifically things with vegetables)
• Become more confident at public speaking

"If you judge people you have no time to love them"

-Mother Theresa

Blogging Abroad's Boot Camp Blog Challenge: Starting January 2015