Tag Archives: News from Home

Frozen Eric, my party and capoeira videos!

Eric left for Raleigh and then for Myrtle Beach with all of his guy friends last Wednesday.  He told me that on their first day at the beach, all the guys were wearing shorts and tshirts…but my Panamanian husband was more comfortable in jeans and a fleece jacket!  What have I done to him?!  Cracked me up.  It sounds like they had a great time together, and I am so thrilled that Eric had that time with his best friends.

He also stayed with his parents for a couple of nights and had the chance to see our nephew, Tyler, and our niece, Rylee.  Unfortunately, they weren’t too excited to see him:

 

UNCLE ERIC!!!!

UNCLE ERIC!!!!

Actually, they were super excited, as you can see.  Tyler, who has tended to be a little shy with us at times, threw all caution to the wind upon seeing Eric and gave him a huge hug.  Rylee, always my girl, first asked where I was before bothering to give her poor sweet uncle a hug.  Forever tactful, that one.  Gosh, I love them both!  My heart was so happy when I saw this picture.

So what was I to do while Eric was off visiting our friends and family, going to the beach, driving our truck, seeing so many people that I’ve been missing for months?  Sit around the house working as usual and spend the evenings watching Netflix and feeling sorry for myself?

Nope.  I threw a big party.  🙂

On Saturday, I invited the capoeira group over to our pool at 2 pm.  The first folks eventually arrived around 4, right as it started to sprinkle a little.  We decided to wait it out by the pool though, and luckily the rain passed quickly.

Árabe (Antonio) y Mono (David)

Árabe (Antonio) y Mono (David)

My sweet and beautiful Swiss neighbor Stella came down to join us for a while, which was great because we’ve been hoping to get together for a long time.  She fit right in…as much as a tall blonde can, anyways…and chatted with us for a few hours.

When it got dark, it started to get cold.  Yes, of course Panamá cold isn’t NC cold, but still.  That’s when people decided it was time to get in the pool.  And it wasn’t just a few people that wanted to swim.  These folks, though no longer 15 years old, decided that EVERYONE was going to get into the freezing cold pool whether they liked it or not.  I chose to get in on my own rather than to be thrown in, but I couldn’t last more than a few minutes.  I ended up wrapped up in a towel with someone’s scarf around my neck, shivering and occasionally standing under a nearby light to keep warm.

One of the highlights of the evening was playing a game where we did imitations of each other and guessed who we were.  It’s so funny how distinct some of the personalities in this group are…a lot of them are very easy to imitate.

Around 1 am some of the guys came back with wings for everyone and I threw a frozen pizza in the oven.  Around 3, one of the guys started demonstrating his self-defense techniques, first with the poor tiny 18 year old guy as his victim, then later with some of the bigger guys.  That was about the time when I was ready for things to end.  I wanted sleep.

At 4, I called it.  I told them they were welcome to come up to the apartment and hang out but that I was going to bed!  Two of the girls stayed the night in the guest room and the guys went out to grab one more drink.  Apparently they stayed out until 6 or so!  And these are not college aged guys!  We’re talking 30-40 year olds!  It’s amazing.

The next morning, one of the girls left before I woke up.  She sent me a sweet text thanking me for everything and saying that she didn’t want to disturb me and she’d talk to me later.  The other girl…I should say woman b/c we’re not that young anymore, but it sounds weird to me…like I had some older lady in my house…she’s 40, but sadly that’s not so far off from my age anymore!  Anyway, she stayed.  And stayed.  I offered her breakfast and she accepted.  Her sister called and she talked to her until her phone died.  Then she plugged her phone in and called her sister back.

I, meanwhile, fell back asleep on the couch, kinda hoping she’d get the idea that the party was over.  When I woke up, I quietly snuck around the apartment trying to see if she was gone.  When I looked in the guest room…all I saw was her butt sticking out of the covers!  She had gone back to bed!  I texted Eric and asked him to google “how to get a Venezuelan out of the house.”

Luckily, my plan to bang around in the kitchen until she woke up worked.  Or at least it woke her up.  She took her time getting a shower, then finally left…at 1 pm.  23 hours after I had invited people to my house.

I knew that it was important to give an end time for a party here if you wanted people to leave at a certain time, but I didn’t realize just how far some folks would push it!  Amazing.  Cultural lesson learned.

Anyway, I wanted to share with y’all the video from the day we did the capoeira class and roda with all the kids last month.  I’m the gringa, in case you have trouble finding me.  🙂  Click here for the video, or if I’m doing this wrong, you can copy and paste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ZNW4VFyGo

I also discovered that the presentation from months ago that I took photos of is on youtube, in case anyone is interested in seeing how amazing some of my new friends are.  You can see that video here.

Last notes:  My Aunt Angela and cousin Ashley are coming in from Georgia on Saturday!!!  Can’t wait!

Also, Eric’s birthday is May 22…just a few more days!

The Yaris’s Debute

Big news.  Yesterday, we DROVE to the grocery store.  Yep, you heard me correctly.  We drove.  We gave not a single thought to how many liquids we put in our cart or how awkward something might be to carry back to the apartment because all we had to do was put it in the trunk and DRIVE back to the apartment!  We’re so fancy!  Amazing.  I even bought extras of things that we’re not going to use in the next two days.  It may be 5 days until I use some of the things that we bought!  Can’t tell you how exciting this is.

After that, it got even more exciting.  We strayed even further from the apartment.  We went all the way to the furthest island along the Amador Causeway, which is circled in red.  Our apartment is circled in green.  Our approximate route (on the way there, at least…I think…sorta) is in blue.

Our trip to Alberto's - an Italian restaurant on Isla Flamenco.

Our trip to Alberto’s – an Italian restaurant on Isla Flamenco.

For the record, yours truly drove.  It took about 35-40 minutes to get out there (one wrong turn and some traffic b/c of a big concert at the convention center) and 26 minutes to get back.  Silly for a 7 or 9 km drive.  But whatever.  I learned, first, that our tinted windows are heavily tinted.  I always thought that meant that it was hard for people to see in.  Um, evidently it makes it hard to see out too.  Especially when it’s already dark outside.  Tricky.

Eric was a patient and helpful navigator, even though I’m sure he had to be very nervous.  We didn’t know the roads, it was our first big outing with these crazy drivers, I was nervous, the tinted windows were driving me crazy, the streetlights aren’t great everywhere, the lane lines aren’t clearly marked in most places, and everyone seemed to know where they were going except us.  But we did it.  We conquered driving in Panamá.  It can be done.  I think it was important for me to do it first, for me not to relegate that responsibility to Eric immediately.  And even though he rolled his eyes a bit as he did it, he took a picture of his proud wife after I got us to the restaurant in one piece.

A Panamanian Driver!

We knew about this restaurant from our trip here last year; it was where we ate with the UNC alumna that I emailed out of the [Carolina] blue.  We walked along the waterfront for a moment, saw incredible yachts like this one:

That's a yacht of boat!

then had a nice meal in the open air, complete with Julie-approved people watching.  The star of the evening was this amazing get-up:

IMG_4489

Yes, folks, it’s a lacey black onesie of some sort.  I gotta say, the woman had confidence.  Panamanian women work what they’ve got with pride, and I like it.  The confidence, that is, not the onesie.  Don’t be crazy.

We took a different route home which took us through “an area,” as Eric put it.  I called it “the ghetto.”  Eric told me not to stop for anything, although I had trouble with that strong suggestion, as cars kept stopping ahead of me.  I asked him what he expected me to do and he responded “Ram them!”  I declined to do so, partially for fear of causing a gang riot of some sort.

He pulled up a map today and showed me that we were on the edge of Curundú, a place we never wanted to go.  The other side of the street, however, was no better.  Just another neighborhood that we had heard was no good.  It was really pretty scary when we took that turn between the two neighborhoods.  There were tons of people out, most actually in the street that we were driving along.  I don’t know exactly what I was afraid of, but I knew that I just wanted to get home.  Quickly.

We made it, and thanks to my parents, Apple TV, and some kind of crazy rig that my dad set up through FaceTime, I had a perfect seat for the UNC/Dook game.  I enjoyed some of it.  Winslow is dirty and kung-fu has no place in basketball.  Go Heels.  We’ll leave it at that.

My day ended with receiving photos of my sweet Laine on her first trip to Disney World.  She looks like she’s in heaven!  Can’t wait to hear all about it!

IMG_8650 IMG_4902

 

Thus ends our second month in Panamá!  Come see us – time is flying by!