Comings and goings

So, since last week I've been keeping busy, mostly trying to stay focused on classes and really getting this Spanish stuff down. However, there's always a little time for fun as well, no?

A brief recap - since I'm supposed to be finishing my homework.
Made a visit to Casco Viejo, an old colonial section of Panama City with lots of artisanal shops and old plazas. It also seems to have a very high concentration of squatters - buildings people are living in without paying rent because, well, no one would ever be willing to pay rent for the kind of buildings they are. In that regard it was a fairly stark contrast - upscale restaurants catering to the tourist crowd, expensive 'hand-made' indigenous crafts, and then old gutted buildings where the poor live. Very curious. A neat area, though.

Also made a visit to a peatonal, a pedestrian mall, though inadvertently. We were trying to get to a museum but it had closed before its posted hours (surprise!). The three of us ended up walking around a bit and stumbled across this street where actual people were buying actual things...I like finding those places. They freak out some people, but I really enjoy the sense of 'normalcy' that accompanies centers of activity for the real population. That was fun.

On Saturday we made another trip to the Causeway, only this time there were things open. That was nice as well, very quiet, got a nice walk in, the sights were much the same as before except this time with people and we could have lunch and a batido. Mine was of guanábana, or sour sop. It wasn't very good - not because of the sour sop, but rather from not enough fruit in it - but the principle was nice.

On Saturday night we went dancing. Five students and one of the teachers from school (and her friend) went to a dance-club area of Panama City, whose name escapes me, but we spent about three hours in Lugos, an indoor, air conditioned dance club. However, aircon only goes so far when it's just plain hot and there are a couple hundred people mashed together. While the dancing was fun, and I learned a little bit of the bachata and a panamanian dance called the tipico. The strangest thing, though was when everybody got up (a rarity, unfortunately) to dance what was...the electric slide! (granted, it had a latin flair...but there's no mistaking that dance). In any case, it was a fine time though not quite the exceptional dance experience I was expecting out of a very fashionable capital city. Oh well.

Sunday we made a trip to another student's house where she prepared us a fabulous typical panamanian lunch with oven roasted chicken, ropa vieja, salad, plantains, rice and guandú. Very tasty, we spent the afternoon sitting on the porch looking out over the city, the eight of us even played a round spanish scrabble (!).

My team won. :)