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hey all-

wednesday was the pollera contest for santa librada. the pollera are the traditional dress of panama for the girls, and theyre beautiful. they include so much jewelery, and can cost more than $25000 for a complete, real outfit. and in order to compete, these dresses really are real. the girls walk up and down the runway, dancing the typical dance, and model the dress for the judges. the judges feel the stitching, to see how intricate it was. and the winner gets a whole lotta money (even in US standards). the whole thing took all afternoon. and then after the winner was decided, there was a parade. well, it was a panamanian parade, and so it was 2 floats, but they were really good. everyone flooded the streets to see these girls modeling their dresses. the winner had her own float, and the runners-up had another. there was a band, and really pretty fireworks. they set off the fireworks just about ten feet away from everyone, its so crazy! i really thought something would light on fire--one of the buildings if not one of the people. someone did say the church lit on fire a couple of years ago. they moved the fireworks with the parade, so they would always set them off right before the floats came by. but they are a lot prettier literally right above my head.

thursday i went to school, and around 1:00 the principal decided that school should get out at 4 for the last day of santa librada. so all the kids were basically stranded at the school at 4 because no one had rides home or anywhere to go. my host sister and i were lucky that my host mom was on lunch break. 2 hours later, when we were close to the school, i saw kids still waiting!! pobrecitos. but, when we got home i decided to take advantage of the time, and i took my host siblings to the festival, since they had not gone yet. i felt like such a mom! i took them to the bull fight first, bought them respado (really good cold drink made with frozen ice, flavoring, and malt) and popcorn. the bull fighting was a lot different than i imagined, and definitely not the same as it is in spain. they take the bull out, a man and the bull chase each otehr around for a while, and then thats it. they never kill the bull (which is good, i dont think i could have handled it), and sometimes people will come out riding the bull to see how long they will last. its definitely a smaller version of the spanish tradition, but still cool to see. then the kids got bored, so i brought them out to the street, where there was a very tiny amusement park. they each got to ride 4 rides, and 5 if they behaved well (im telling you, such a mom!) of course they got the 5th, even though they got annoying. and then we bought some dinner and each kid got to pick out something to buy, because there were street vendors everywhere, and the kids wanted everything. then they started fighting, so i took them home. i didnt want to be mom anymore. espcially a spanish speaking one. i was gonna go to the baile that night, because my host grandparents were going. but my friends were really worn out and didnt want to go. i was kinda sad, but thats all right. ive experienced it before. so my friends and i just walked around for a while, seeing everything tehre was to see, and then headed home around midnight.

so, santa librada ended. today they cleaned everything up off the streets, and the town is back to normal. i dont teach fridays, so i went to the beach with 2 other volunteers. but when we got there, the water was literally so dirty and so mucky there werent even waves until about a half mile out! and then, of course, it started raining. so we headed home. ive noticed that most of the panamanian beaches are dirty run down. when it cleared up i took my host brother to the pool. im exhuasted today for some reason, and so itll be an early night. dont have plans for tomorrow, either! but its the last weekend here with my host fam, and so i just wanna spend some time with them!

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i have lots of culture to add today! (ive been keeping a list, so read up)

23. taxi rides cost a dollar to get pretty much anywhere. sometimes, 1.25, but thats the maximum.

24. we eat mangos from the trees.

25. the bedsheets are never fit to the bed. at first i thought i just had old sheets, but no. theyre all like that. so in the morning, i always end up on the mattress because of course they come loose in the middle of the night!

26. people here say ¨que pretty!¨ (how pretty) as part of theyre everyday phrases. i just find it so funny, because theyre taking an english word, and just adapting it to their language, and it sounds so awkward to me in the middle of a bunch of spanish. ´ay madre,´is another popular phrase that i find funny.

27. panamanians dont really say ´s´at the end of their words. for example, ´mas o menos´really sounds like ´ma o meno.´made the language a little difficult to understand at first.

28. ´patacones´are fried plantaines. theyre SO good, SO much better than french fries!

29. they eat iguanas here!

30. when someone finds out that i wear contacts, they immediately ask what color my real eyes are--literally, everyone asks. contacts are worn to change eye color here, not to correct vision. they dont get why i wear them.

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(more to come!)