Did They Say Macarena?

Friday was most definitely the busiest and most tiring day we have had so far. Our day started at 7:30 when the bus picked us up and took us to Panama Viejo. It is the first Panama City and the first city on the Pacific coast. It was really cool to see where it all started and hear all of the history of it. We climbed to the top of this tower and it was a beautiful view.

and I found this on the wall at the top, my favorite word:

love it

we also went into a little shop area where people from the indigenous tribes sell some of their things. Funny story about that: I found these red buff and green bracelets made by these sweet little indigenous ladies that I wanted to get for Brittany, Sara, and Brandi. But they only had 2 in that kind. Then I found one that was the exact same but had these little palm tree beads on them so I was just so excited because I just knew they would love them so much! As I was walking up to pay, I realized that those were, in fact, not palm trees at all but were marijuana leaves.

Then we went to Casco Antigua, the place we walked so far to earlier in the week. only this time we took a bus :) This is where Panama City was moved to when the first one was burned by pirates. We had been there before, but we mostly just ate lunch and left then. So we got to walk around and see some pretty cool things. It's just a beautiful place.

we went to lunch and then we went to the Panama Canal. I was so excited about the Canal that it was kinda ridiculous. But how could you come to Panama and not see the Panama Canal?! y'all, it was so cool! I knew basically nothing about said canal, so this was all new to me. They explained how everything worked (though I understood, I do not understand enough to actually explain it, so Google it :) it would offer better information anyway) and then we saw some boats pass through.

Friday night we met the dean of UDELAS and some of our professors at this dinner/ dance show. It was so much fun and so neat to see these dances. And our professors are so much fun and absolutely crazy. We have hilarious videos of them singing and dancing. They even got one of our professors up there to dance with them- hilarious! 

Saturday we took a boat to Taboga Island and spend the whole day at the beach. And also had the best pizza I've ever had in my life for lunch.

Today was our day off. We didn't have anything planned all day long. In fact we slept for over 13 hours. Then went to Dunkin Donuts and learned how to say sprinkles in Spanish. yummm Donuts. and all day we have just been hanging out. But I was feeling so sad because it's Mother's Day (clearly) and my whole family was together and I wasn't there. I was just missing home and missing being with my family and being with my mom. But tonight I had the most wonderful night. Sarah is one of the girls on this trip who has been in all of our Spanish classes but we were never really friends. Tonight we got to talk and share our hearts for the trip and see how similar they really are. I had prayed for someone to share my heart and share my mission for this trip. We prayed together about the girls and the trip and our role and it was just wonderful. I am in awe of God's faithfulness and providence and am so thankful for the way that He turned this sad, lonely day into a night of rejoicing in new friendships and lifting up precious friends in prayer.

So it took me a little while, but I love Panama.