Vacation (All I Ever Waaaaanteeeeed)

I have seen the other side of the canal, and it was good. Before I get into that, boring stuff:

I turned in my Personal Narratives for Foreign Service (yaaay!). Given my less than impressive score for my first crack at the written exam, I highly doubt I'll be invited to orals, but one can only dream! I find out mid- to late January.

Until then: WORK! I've been trying to stay in contact with the US Embassy, because they have a lot of things that I want (books. . .drool. . .) so hopefully the contacts I've made there could be a help for the projects I'm trying to line up for my Peace Corps service. I'll blog about what I'm up to as these ideas come to fruition (or fail miserably). I'm also struggling to make sure I get my ducks in a row with the Ministry of Education so I can be set up to do plenty of seminars for this coming school year. AAAAND I'm doing a little somethin-somethin next week in my site for World AIDS Day. I'll let y'all know how that turns out.

Okay, fun stuff.

I just finished having an AWESOME VACATION out of my site. On the one hand, I am in Peace Corps, so I do things like sweat on a daily basis and poop in a hole in the ground, but on the other hand. . .I'm Peace Corps PANAMA. I can do things like spend Thanksgiving in the mountains on the other side of the country and then chill for a few days on the beach. . .all on a Peace Corps budget (which ain't much, y'all).

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer is a 24/7 job. Although that doesn't mean I'm LITERALLY working EVERY WAKING MOMENT, it does mean that I'm on the job every second I am in site. There is always some work that I could be doing, whether it be going to school, visiting organizations, or just being involved in the community at large. For that reason, you can never REALLY let loose when you're at home. . .I always have that nagging voice in the back of my mind that tells me I should be out saving the world, beginning with the streets of Meteti.

Taking vacation was completely different. I went shopping in the city and even met up and had drinks with an Embassy contact (on my way to Thanksgiving), and then crashed a couple of nights with one of my G72ers that I had not seen in months (we live on opposite sides of the country and he has a beach site). After that, Thanksgiving happened. I was so excited to see my group members that I never get to see (there aren't a lot of them out where I'm at), so needless to say, hugs happened. After Thanksgiving, I rounded out my West Side tour with a couple of days at a nice, affordable beach resort to celebrate the birthday of one of my East Siders. By the time I headed back to Darien I was SO RELAXED. If you know me, you know relaxation isn't a thing that I normally prioritize, but CLEARLY it needs to move up my list of things to do. Let me tell ya, taking a few days to unwind and take in the beauty of your new home can do wonders for your sanity. I was almost reluctant to come home to Darien, but once I hit the bus terminal, I was glad to be coming back.

Side note: East Siders are awesome, because our region intimidated everyone during the Thanksgiving volleyball tournament. We lost the championship game. :( But we made a tough showing and had a BLAST, and all the other regions were super impressed!

Now I'm back in the land of emails, trying to get back on track for work!!! I'm ready to get some things done in the Dirty D, and hopefully be able to collaborate with others on some projects. I'm ready to pull some people out here to the East Side!

Anyway, in other news I ate myself into a food coma yesterday. I got my hands on some culantro and lemon, so I made a bowl of pico de gallo and ate it with patacones (fried plantains). It was so good. I napped for a solid hour after that.

My kitty is getting fatter! Did I tell you guys I recently found out that she is, in fact, a female? Whatever, I'm a cat lady now, so she's happy hanging out at my house.

Ok guys, that's about it for now. If exciting things happen, I'll try to remember to write it down and report on it. Much love to everybody out there in the Carolinas!!!