October 25, 2007
"your work just became your life"
yesterday, our boss told us just that. today we swear in and officially become volunteers. yee yee! i am really excited to move into my community and work there, but it is somewhat overwhelming that my work really has become my life. i am now a representative of the states 24/7. community members take note of every little thing that volunteers do. you have to consider how everything you do will be perceived by the people in your town. and you are living in your community to help in any which way and to create a culture exchange, so you really are working all day, every day. but i say, bring it on. i am super excited to get started! wish me luck!
so, i end here with some pictures from my training period.
my house
my shower and latrine out back
when we learned to kill, clean, and cook chickens
the beach in colon
hanging with friends
making hojaldras (fried dough) at our softball tournament
the staff team in the tournament
with friends from my training group (top: nelson, coco, lisa alta ; bottom: melissa, lisa pequena, greggy)
yesterday, our boss told us just that. today we swear in and officially become volunteers. yee yee! i am really excited to move into my community and work there, but it is somewhat overwhelming that my work really has become my life. i am now a representative of the states 24/7. community members take note of every little thing that volunteers do. you have to consider how everything you do will be perceived by the people in your town. and you are living in your community to help in any which way and to create a culture exchange, so you really are working all day, every day. but i say, bring it on. i am super excited to get started! wish me luck!
so, i end here with some pictures from my training period.
my house
my shower and latrine out back
when we learned to kill, clean, and cook chickens
the beach in colon
hanging with friends
making hojaldras (fried dough) at our softball tournament
the staff team in the tournament
with friends from my training group (top: nelson, coco, lisa alta ; bottom: melissa, lisa pequena, greggy)
October 18, 2007
the following entry is dedicated to laura, crystal, kelly, tanya, laura, and mike. you are probably the only people who will even know what i am talking about.
anyone got an adjective other than "rico" for me? anyone?
although i consider my time in chile to be one of the best experiences of my life, it most definitely contributed to my inability to communicate in any other spanish speaking country. sure, it is the place where i perfected (okay, let's not kid anyone, made comprehensible) my spanish, but it wasn't really spanish. it was chileno.
chileno is a language that grows on you. at first, you don't understand a thing that people are saying to you and so you nod your head and say, "si" a lot. then you begin to get it, but you don't feel cool enough to mimic your chilean friends just yet. then, you let go. you start greeting people with "como estai weon?" and throwing "po" out left and right. even more, you embrace the ultra obnoxious cuico within and inturrupt some falite's speech with "obvio po" and "claaaaaaaaaaaaro." you even go as far as calling yourself "la raja." you see, chilean is a language to which you will quickly find yourself attached because it's fun and has that feeling of exclusivity that pig latin had when you were eight. you are finally in with the cool kids.
but it's not just the slang that has you. what you don't realize is that your entire spanish vocabulary has been corrupted. palta, choclo, calabaza, frutilla, durazno, poroto - don't try using them northeast of the andes. i made the huge mistake of calling a squash "calabaza" here in panama and my host family is still laughing about it. oh, and don't compliment anyone on their "polera" unless you want a blank stare in return. and don't ask for a "lapiz." (unless of course you really want a "lapiz," otherwise some snobby argentinian will respond, "ESTO es un BOLIGRAFO." to which you will respond, "pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.")
so as you can see, converting from chilean to standard spanish can be a difficult and embarrassing transition. and especially when it comes to adjectives.
chilean basically comes down to two words: "super" and "rico." together, they make up thirty to forty percent of all conversations in chile. ( and that is a hard fact if you ever read one.) now here comes the crazy part: no one else uses these words. ever. so as you can see, i am at a huge loss of words here in panama. i can't say, "that dress is rico," "the food is rico," "the hotel is rico," or "with your new haircut you look super rico." so apparently i need to learn the 738 synonyms for rico (including stylish, delicious, comfortable, and attractive). so what to do? apparently hit ya'll up for adjectives online and read the chicago university spanish-english dictionary we have all come to love every night before bed. actually, i need to learn more than just adjectives. in panama you can't just use "wea" for every thing that you don't know the word for in spanish. you see, life here is hard.
i must add though, this sabatoge of my spanish on the part of chileno has helped me out some. the accent makes me sound legit. luckily for me, panamanians are like chileans in that they like to drop s's, d's, and as many other consonants as they can. so you can imagine the street cred i gain when i say things like "ma' o me'o" or "hay pesca'o?" and what makes me the most happy is that i can still say "vamo' a comer hela'o!!!" in a throaty and indistinct way that cracks me up but makes others mistake me for a native. only, once we're eating it, i better not say it's rico.
(oh, and by the way, they add "pues" to everything here. but if you say it quickly and drop your s, i swear, it sounds just like po.)
anyone got an adjective other than "rico" for me? anyone?
although i consider my time in chile to be one of the best experiences of my life, it most definitely contributed to my inability to communicate in any other spanish speaking country. sure, it is the place where i perfected (okay, let's not kid anyone, made comprehensible) my spanish, but it wasn't really spanish. it was chileno.
chileno is a language that grows on you. at first, you don't understand a thing that people are saying to you and so you nod your head and say, "si" a lot. then you begin to get it, but you don't feel cool enough to mimic your chilean friends just yet. then, you let go. you start greeting people with "como estai weon?" and throwing "po" out left and right. even more, you embrace the ultra obnoxious cuico within and inturrupt some falite's speech with "obvio po" and "claaaaaaaaaaaaro." you even go as far as calling yourself "la raja." you see, chilean is a language to which you will quickly find yourself attached because it's fun and has that feeling of exclusivity that pig latin had when you were eight. you are finally in with the cool kids.
but it's not just the slang that has you. what you don't realize is that your entire spanish vocabulary has been corrupted. palta, choclo, calabaza, frutilla, durazno, poroto - don't try using them northeast of the andes. i made the huge mistake of calling a squash "calabaza" here in panama and my host family is still laughing about it. oh, and don't compliment anyone on their "polera" unless you want a blank stare in return. and don't ask for a "lapiz." (unless of course you really want a "lapiz," otherwise some snobby argentinian will respond, "ESTO es un BOLIGRAFO." to which you will respond, "pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.")
so as you can see, converting from chilean to standard spanish can be a difficult and embarrassing transition. and especially when it comes to adjectives.
chilean basically comes down to two words: "super" and "rico." together, they make up thirty to forty percent of all conversations in chile. ( and that is a hard fact if you ever read one.) now here comes the crazy part: no one else uses these words. ever. so as you can see, i am at a huge loss of words here in panama. i can't say, "that dress is rico," "the food is rico," "the hotel is rico," or "with your new haircut you look super rico." so apparently i need to learn the 738 synonyms for rico (including stylish, delicious, comfortable, and attractive). so what to do? apparently hit ya'll up for adjectives online and read the chicago university spanish-english dictionary we have all come to love every night before bed. actually, i need to learn more than just adjectives. in panama you can't just use "wea" for every thing that you don't know the word for in spanish. you see, life here is hard.
i must add though, this sabatoge of my spanish on the part of chileno has helped me out some. the accent makes me sound legit. luckily for me, panamanians are like chileans in that they like to drop s's, d's, and as many other consonants as they can. so you can imagine the street cred i gain when i say things like "ma' o me'o" or "hay pesca'o?" and what makes me the most happy is that i can still say "vamo' a comer hela'o!!!" in a throaty and indistinct way that cracks me up but makes others mistake me for a native. only, once we're eating it, i better not say it's rico.
(oh, and by the way, they add "pues" to everything here. but if you say it quickly and drop your s, i swear, it sounds just like po.)
October 8, 2007
panamá, how i love you so.
coming home from my trip was fun. i got to open my room and say hello to my recently molded clothes. apparently, if you go somewhere for 2 weeks and leave you room in the humidity and it is closed up in the dark, everything you own turns into a big, moldy mess. not so much fun. but after 2 washes and a spin in the dryer, my clothes are now fine. except for one shirt that has nice little black dots creeping up the front of it. my purse has that too. i wish i could say it is some intricate and stylish embellishment, but no. it's mold. new for fall 2007.
also, i was at the mall in panamá city one day, in the food court ready to order something other than white rice and a hard-boiled egg. that's when i saw something out of the corner of my eye that stopped me in my tracks. some teenaged boy was in a mac dre tee! very hyphy, with glitter and all. it had mac's face and said ¨r.i.p. mac dre.¨ it also had all the area codes from the yay on it. i started cracking up, but since the girl i was with is from maryland, she didn't get it. i really wished that someone from home was there to share the moment. :(
and in other news, we had a big softball tournament this last weekend in out training community to help raise money for education. we had a bunch of teams play, sold food, and had a raffle. it actually turned out really well and the people had a lot of fun. unfortunately, i don't have my camera on me, but next time i'm at an internet café i'll try to post some pictures from the event.
signing out, this is coco robinson.
ready to take on more mold and any other ridiculous panamanian situation.
coming home from my trip was fun. i got to open my room and say hello to my recently molded clothes. apparently, if you go somewhere for 2 weeks and leave you room in the humidity and it is closed up in the dark, everything you own turns into a big, moldy mess. not so much fun. but after 2 washes and a spin in the dryer, my clothes are now fine. except for one shirt that has nice little black dots creeping up the front of it. my purse has that too. i wish i could say it is some intricate and stylish embellishment, but no. it's mold. new for fall 2007.
also, i was at the mall in panamá city one day, in the food court ready to order something other than white rice and a hard-boiled egg. that's when i saw something out of the corner of my eye that stopped me in my tracks. some teenaged boy was in a mac dre tee! very hyphy, with glitter and all. it had mac's face and said ¨r.i.p. mac dre.¨ it also had all the area codes from the yay on it. i started cracking up, but since the girl i was with is from maryland, she didn't get it. i really wished that someone from home was there to share the moment. :(
and in other news, we had a big softball tournament this last weekend in out training community to help raise money for education. we had a bunch of teams play, sold food, and had a raffle. it actually turned out really well and the people had a lot of fun. unfortunately, i don't have my camera on me, but next time i'm at an internet café i'll try to post some pictures from the event.
signing out, this is coco robinson.
ready to take on more mold and any other ridiculous panamanian situation.
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