twenty-nine

funny thing happened this morning...

my friend rachel and i went for a run. this is not the funny part, although to the panamanians it was. the streets were mostly paved, but of course there are the random spots where it was hard to run, and we therefore got very muddy. and it was raining out, which was perfect for us because it was not too hot, but the panamanians thought we were just ridiculous. we decided we will only go running on the days it is raining so that we dont die of heat, and then we can go swimming on the days it is sunny (so basically this means i will probably go running a lot). anyways, after the run we were both sweaty and thirsty, which therefore means i have to go to the refridgerator to get some cold water to drink. makes sense, right?? what a mistake!! my host sister and the maid, who were the two people home almost had a heart attack. apparently, if you touch the refridgerator or anything cold when you are sweating or after you are ironing, you will die of a stroke. im not kidding. my friend and i both asked multipole times to make sure we understood. so, if you have been ironing, you must wait some time before touching the fridge. and if you are sweating you have to take a shower and dry off before touching the fridge.... or else you´ll get a stroke and die!..... apparently we need to learn this in the USA still!! i felt a little bad when rachel and i were laughing at this, and they had no idea why. we tried explaining that it is totally fine to get a glass of water, but they would not hear of it. i wanted to show them, but i didnt want them to have a heart attack. so, we just let them get water for us.

it felt very good to go running. itll make my next fried meal better. i also taught my host sister how to do sit-ups, and told her we have to do them everyday. she got a kick out of that.

tomorrow we are going to chirique (according to my host fam), but of course, plans are ALWAYS changing, so im not getting my heart set on it this time. although i do hope we go, ive heard it´s really pretty, and a spot where every tourist needs to go. all of my host mom´s family lives there, so i will meet all of them, too.

last night i went to novena. i really had no idea what that meant, but the english teacher i work with said it is something for santa librada, and really fun, and i really should go. so my friend rachel i and went with her. turns out, i had to sit through three hours of church. thats all it was. some special service about the saint librada, and thats how the whole festival kicks off. but ive seen the church before. and so im just gonna say i was much more fascinated by the bat flying around during the service than anything else. i think the teacher just wanted someone to go to the service with her. so we did. but i dont think ill ever go to a novena again. im just hoping the rest of santa librada only gets better (which everyone says it definitely will).