A piñata, a dishwasher, Swiss neighbors, kids playing capoeira, getting lost in a park, and a trip to the big mall. That’s what you can expect from this post. Along with at least one Oxford comma.
Friday afternoon we went to Brie’s son’s third birthday party. It was the first time we had seen her and her husband since we moved down here and the first time we met her boys, so it was exciting. Granted, I’ve only seen her one other time since high school graduation and that was during our trip down here in Jan 2014, but still. Fun to see a familiar face. She’s always been really sweet to me and has been really helpful whenever we’ve had questions since we moved.
The party was at the clubhouse of an area called the Embassy Club, which you will not be surprised to find out, is right next to the US Embassy. Beautiful country club type building with a big pool with little fountains in it. Unfortunately, it rained, so the party was moved inside. After a while though, we moved outside for the piñata! The venue already had a pulley set up, so I guess it really is something that people do a lot. So odd to find that out! I don’t know why…I guess I just assumed it was only in Mexico or that it was something people used to do or something. Didn’t seem Panamanian to me. Apparently it is.
So remember, these kids are 2, 3, and 4 years old, and someone is handing them a stick and telling them to hit something with that stick. Brilliant. Absolutely hilarious from our point of view though. We were sure that this one bigger kid was going to be a ringer, but when he got up there, he just carefully tapped at the piñata. Such a letdown from my preseason pick.
A good portion of the rest of the day was relegated to finding dishwasher soap. Very few people here have a lavaplatos/dishwasher because you either can’t afford it or because your maid does your dishes for you. I insisted, however, that we find an apartment with a dishwasher b/c I was one of those spoiled kids who never lived without one…not even in college (aside from in the dorms, but that’s different). Anyway, Finish is the only brand of dishwasher soap that exists here, and only in tablet form. And EVERY store is ALWAYS out! There is a little tag on the shelf that says that it’s supposed to be there and space on the shelf where it supposedly once was, but that just plain doesn’t help.
Anyway, earlier in the day on Friday, I had to run an errand near a grocery store that we don’t usually go to, so I checked it out. No Finish. After the birthday party, we went by our grocery store on the way home. No finish. After we unpacked groceries and let Addie out, we decided it was time. We were just plain going to find this stuff, no matter how many stores it took, or we were going to spend all Friday night washing the mountain of dishes that had accumulated.
We knew of two more stores right off, but one was out and one was more of a Bi-Lo than a Harris Teeter, if you know what I mean, so they didn’t even carry the stuff. So we expanded our search perimeter. Two more stores, and we were really getting into a rhythm. By then we were in a completely unexplored part of the city that seemed pretty fancy…lots of nice houses and calmer streets. I can’t describe to you the feeling I felt when walking into that last store. I knew it was the one. Finally! About 15 boxes on the shelf and I could have all of them if I wanted! I was actually really tempted just because we had worked so hard to get them. It just seemed like the right thing to do…to buy all of them and hoard them. But luckily, I calmed myself down and only bought three…at a ridiculous $7.50 a box, which is standard here. Silly as the adventure sounds, we had a good time, and we were super happy that we completed our quest!
So…earlier this week I met a nice Swiss woman on the elevator named Stella, and she loved Addie so I loved her. We had a conversation in Spanish and discovered that she lived right above us, just on the other side of the hall. While we were in our grocery store on Friday evening, we ran into her with her boyfriend (Elliot, maybe?) and had a great chat with them (in English). The boyfriend apparently just got down here and it was his first time to a Panamanian grocery store. Anyway, we exchanged numbers and hope to have them over for a drink sometime soon. Fun! I was especially endeared to them (or were they endeared to me? I can’t remember how that word works.) when Stella told Elliot about Addie, saying that she was the kind of dog that you just want to put your face in her fur and snuggle her. Elliot responded by saying maybe he could borrow her when Stella goes away for business. Cute.
Oh! And then we ran into them on the elevator yesterday! Doesn’t seem like anything special, I know, but we haven’t run into anyone twice in our building.
Yesterday, Saturday, turned out to be a lot of fun even though I was dreading it a little. CDO met up with the kids’ capoeira group at some huge event that had a TON of scouts running around. It was at a park that is basically the Central Park of Panamá. It’s called Parque Omar. Anyway, we met at 4pm, and it was crazy humid and super hot. I was a little cranky and not super excited about trying to talk with the kids and trying not to kick them in the face in the roda. I’m not controlled enough yet to trust myself slowly kicking a 5 year old.
Eric was really sweet to take me out there since I still can’t drive until next week. He could’ve done something else with his saturday afternoon like, I don’t know, not fry outside, but instead he chose to be supportive. Problem is…we kinda lost each other for two hours, including the whole event with the kids.
I met up with CDO near the entrance to the park and the plan was to walk up to the spot where the kids would be from there. Eric got decided to look around a bit while we waited on people to show up. When we started to head towards the place where the event would take place, Eric was nowhere to be found, and my WhatsApp wasn’t working. I tried to call him, but to no avail…and I only had 20% of my battery left on my phone. Perfect.
Anyway, we did some fun warm-ups with the kids – wheelbarrow races (my kid partner, Barbie, had to take the lead on that cause I had no idea what they were asking us to do…shockingly you don’t learn that term in Spanish class), cartwheels, one-handed cartwheels (which I pulled off! still only on that one side, but hey, one step at a time), etc. I totally picked the right kid too – she was stellar. All of probably 6 years old, but she knew her stuff.
We had a roda with them after that. For those of you who haven’t read that word here before, a roda is when capoeira players (capoeiristas) get in a circle and play drums, the berimbau (see the last post), and other instruments. Meanwhile, people from the circle will take turns playing capoeira inside the circle in time with the music. This roda was adorable b/c we paired up one adult with one kid each time. So cute. And the best part is that it was all recorded, and a friend of the group is going to edit a video of the whole thing for us. I can’t wait to see it! I’ll share photos as soon as I get them.
We had an adult roda afterwards just to show the kids what we (read: everyone else in the group who’s been there for more than a month) could do. I never get tired of watching my friends play. They’re absolutely amazing. And they always have HUGE smiles on their faces when they do it! I hope I can stick with it for long enough to be confident going into the roda. I need to practice putting sequences of moves together at home so I have some material to work with. It’s also weird to me that there’s no structure for who plays when. You just kinda go when you can…or at least that’s how we generally do it. I guess some groups allow the higher cords (like belts in karate) to go first and others let the lower ones go first b/c the music is slower at first, then gets faster. I dunno. Lots to learn.
Today we relaxed for a good part of the day, then went to one of the big malls…probably the biggest…called Albrook. It’s the one with the circus-y/animal theme. We had two goals in mind – 1) capoeira shoes for me b/c tennis shoes just don’t cut it, and 2) a shaver for Eric so he doesn’t have to pay $12 for haircuts. We largely failed on both accounts…even after going through the entire mall and spending HOURS there. However, Eric let me out on the side of the road on the way back, and I brought back treats for both of us from the Cinta Costera. A strawberry raspado for him (slushee with condensed milk for extra sugary goodness) and a mango ceviche for me (mango with vinegar, salt, pepper, spicy sauce). Yum!
Okay, off to do homework for Spanish class tomorrow. I have to write some dialogue for characters from this detective story that we’re reading about a guy who has been wrongly accused of murder. Kinda a silly story…it’s not literature, it’s just something straight out of a Spanish textbook, but whatever.
I’ve also been reading a novel in Spanish as a way to keep the language running through my head as often as possible. Proud of myself for getting through it…I just wish it were easier to track progress with languages! I feel like I haven’t improved at all since we got here, even though I know I have. I just really can’t see it for myself.
Oh, and Eric did a great job of speaking Spanish today! While we were walking through the mall, he pulled out a lot of Spanglish…and even a couple of full Spanish sentences. I was thrilled that he was willing to play, and he did a great job. I’m very proud of all that he’s learned. And so grateful that he’d move to a country that speaks a language that he had no desire to learn because he knew it was my dream! I’m a lucky girl.
Found on a box of perfume in a pharmacy.
