I’ve been watching Heels games via FaceTime and my parents’ tv. Here are a couple of screenshots from the end of the game. Yes, that’s Mom. 🙂
Tag Archives: Tar Heels!
Friday night’s Capoeira presentation, Saturday date night
There was some kind of big commerce exposition at the convention center nearby at the end of last week, and the capoeira group – CDO Panama, short for Cordao de Ouro, cord of gold, I believe – performed there. We got there right at 8 when it was supposed to start, but things were running late, so we had the pleasure of seeing acts from other countries.
We saw a little of this:
Chinese fashion show
a little of this:
Dances from another part of Panamá
and also this guy, who was Eric’s favorite:
He was probably all of 10 years old, and his buddy, wearing the same costume of pajamas and a big dragon head, was probably 5.
I happened to sit down next to the girlfriend of one of the guys in CDO, so I got to chat with her, Ana, a little. Finally, the capoeira performance began. I didn’t know how the photography was going to go since I couldn’t really just stand in front of everyone for the best view, there were huge speakers on the front of the stage blocking half of the good moves, it was dark, they were moving fast, and there was a huge lit-up screen behind them. None of these are elements that I’ve ever known how to deal with before. Luckily Eric coached me through all of this during the other acts, so I was decently prepared (compared to how I would’ve been otherwise) by the time they went on.
I ended up taking almost 400 photos of their maybe 8-12 minute performance! Don’t worry, I’ve paired it down quite a bit for y’all. Here are a few of my favorites. The white girl flying through the air is Jessie, the one I said is from the DC area originally. The guy with the braids/dreads (and doing the crazy handstand) is the leader of the group. His nickname is Mono, or monkey (again, racial issues are different here), and he is engaged to the beautiful girl playing the drum and singing. The other guy flying through the air is Juan Pablo, the boyfriend of Ana, the girl I was sitting with as we watched this. In case you care about all of these relationships. 🙂 The one playing the tambourine is the one who I think is named Moíses and who was with me in the roda for my first time.
Incredible, huh? I talked to a few of them afterwards and was greeted with hugs and besos. All of them seemed glad that I had come and were excited that I had taken pictures. Mono added me to their facebook group today, so I’ve posted a few of the photos for them.
So – changing gears – for Christmas I gave Eric a scrapbook type thing full of date ideas for us for 2015. At the point when I made it, I wasn’t sure if we would be in Raleigh or in Panama b/c of CB, so it has ideas for both places. Last night we tried out our first official date from the book. We went to a restaurant called Market. You can check it out here. It pretty much caters to Americans, but it’s known for having really great steaks and hamburgers. It is owned by this one restaurant group that has three restaurants in the area that are all supposed to be really good – kinda an Ashley Christensen kinda thing for you Raleighites (Raleighians?).
I had the corvina (typical Panamanian fish) and yuca and it was AMAZING. Best food I’ve had in months. Doesn’t it look delicious!?
A-MAZ-ING!
Here are a few other pictures from our night out:
Each date from the book comes with a photo challenge. Eric hates this part. Luckily, he humored me…
Note the UNC necklace. Didn’t really go, but I was going to wear it anyway. I even made really early dinner reservations so we could be home in time for the game (7:30 our time).
I’m working on trying to use my camera with manual or aperture priority settings. Eric loves it.
All dressed up for the first time in weeks!
Of course after not being able to watch the three previous games of the ACC Tourney, the Heels wolfpacked all over themselves when I did get to watch. I take full responsibility for the loss. Ugh. Notre Dame? Really? Better than some others, I guess, but jeez. I still am learning to accept Miami and Virginia Tech into the ACC. The Irish are too much.
This morning I interviewed a potential empleada and we really liked her. She wants full time work, but we don’t need it, so we offered to let her start here knowing that she’d be looking for full time work elsewhere. Since we have the windows open all the time, EVERYTHING is covered with dust and dirt. It gets really gross really quickly. Eric learned his lesson about walking around barefoot yesterday when his feet were black after about 30 minutes. We couldn’t tell if his feet were making the floor dirtier or vice versa. Gross.
We’ve also heard that during the rainy season, you have to leave your drawers and closets open so mold and fungus doesn’t grow on your clothes and especially in leather shoes. Ah, the tropics! It ain’t all glamor.
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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.
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.
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:
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:
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!
Thus ends our second month in Panamá! Come see us – time is flying by!
