After 10 days in Panama....

...i sort of got adjusted to the heat. Apparently from January until April it is Summer, which means no rain and loads of sun. In the beginning my skin wasn´t too happy about it, but bit by bit i´m getting a nice teint.

About the city.
As you can see in the pictures Panama-City has two faces. On the one hand you have the impressive sky-line with immense high modern buildings, while on the other side of the city you have very lifely Latin neighbourhoods with little markets, cheap everything and millions of people walking around. Although it´s chaos the old part has much more gezelligheid.

The people.
Panameños are very, very nice people. If they can´t answer your question they look for other people who might can. This creates nice reunions with sometimes whole neighbourhoods involved. And everybody likes to talk and invite me to go out with them. So, until now i only have very good experiences with the people here.

Little-America.
As most of you know is Panama best known for it´s Canal. For more than a century it was owned by the USA and only since recently the Panameños have control over their Canal. The influences from the USA are quite striking: you find tv´s everywhere (even in cosy restaurants!), loads of modern malls, big cars, supermarkets open 24/7, and more fastfood restaurants than in the whole Netherlands. Yet, most people seem to dislike everything that is American, besides of course the money they bring into the country...

El interior.
The countryside of Panama is referred to as El interior. Last weekend i was invited by Nadili´s family to spend two days in El Valle, a small village 2 hours from the city. It is located in a valley and surrounded by beautifull hills. Hopefully in the next weeks i get a chance to travel further and see the differences between city life and the countryside.

Spanish.
The last week i´ve been taking spanish clases. Of course my sentences are still not great, but at least it´s not as bad as the first days. The people here use a lot of different words and expressions, but with the help of my flatmates i´m learning the Panamanian slang.

Research
To be very honest i´m still struggling with finding my way research-wise. The more i think about it, the more confusing it gets. Somedays it feels that i get lots of information, while other days not at all. It´s strange to work without weekly deadlines, assignments, KACQ´s or presentations, and i find it difficult to make my own schedule. So if anybody has some tips/ advise, that would be great!

I wish everybody a very nice weekend and we´ll keep in though!