Different Ways of Doing Things

One thing that has always interested me is different ways of doing things. This is particularly so when the current way of doing something is inefficient for example the qwerty keyboard system or dysfunctional such as Argentina's political system during most of the 20^th century.

Today, I learned that there are many different ways to write numbers. Through my Spanish classes I had become aware that instead of writing a million and one hundredth 1,000,000.01 like we do many countries write the number 1.000.000,01. At work this came up as Microsoft Word kept suggesting that I change my decimal points into commas. Assuming that this was a language based difference I took MS Word's suggestion and changed all my numbers in my paper only to find out that its actually a regionally based difference and that Panama and Central America write the numbers like we do in the United States while South America and Europe mostly write numbers the other way. In doing some research I also found out that apparently the Swiss would write the number 1'000'000.01, the Russians 1 000 000,01 and the Indians 1,00,000.01. Who knew?

In the food category of different ways of doing things, the follow up from Chile of mixing wine with Coke is that in Panama they put banana's on the grill and cook them peel and all. This is actually becoming my favorite way to eat bananas.

I would say that one of the cool things about traveling is the ability to see different ways of doing things, but I am not coming up with too many examples that don't involve food, driving, or street performers to back up this argument.

In the historical edition of different ways of doing things, while reading the Atlantic magazine online I ran across this photograph of a town crier reading England's declaration of war for WWII. Talk about antiquated! (and by that I'm obviously referring to declarations of war). I knew that town criers used to be common but I figured the practice died out by the 20^th century as literacy rates rose and people no longer needed to get there news orally. According to Wikipedia a couple of towns even have town criers today though the role seems to have changed to mostly ceremonial.

International Surfing Competition

This past weekend I accompanied a coworker to check out the World Masters Surfing Competition that is being held in Panama on the beaches of Santa Catalina which is about five hours away from the city. While in the countryside we crashed at the coworker´s family´s house which is in a nearby little town (the primary school for the town has 15 students). Being in such a small town meant that we spent a lot of time on the front porch when not checking out the competition. We saw a heated argument at neighbor´s house for which the police were called and a mini parade (the third annual parade of the local fish market) that consisted of 12 cars following each other honking their horns, one of which had a scantily clad dancer standing on top of it.

Saturday was the flag ceremony for the surfing competition which was held in the town square of a nearby town. Being in Latin America the event started late and was a little confused, during the opening parade the paraders went along the right side, the left side and through the town square to get to the final destination. Also on Saturday evening was a party at the beach sponsored by the surfing organization which was fun.

On Sunday we watched the surfers compete. They competed in 20 minute matches with four surfers partaking in each match. When you think international surfing competition you think big waves but actually the waves were not all that big (not much bigger then the ones I was learning on in CR). But despite that the surfers were able to make mad moves on them (while I in CR could barely stand up), it was impressive. But the competition meant that even though we were on a hot beach we couldn't go into the water to chill off.

At the office work has been still a little slow, but I've working on a report on the country's national internet project. I also had the opportunity to check out some field work in the countryside.

The other day I also a group of people around some domino tables with money changing hands. I'd never seen a competitive dominoes match before.

The First Week - work begins

I began work for the Ministry of the Presidency this week. The office building is located right next to the President's house (Palacio de Garzas). Compared to the United States, the presidential compound is widely accessible … you can walk right by the Palacio de Garzas, the guards will check your bags, but nothing else. The other day I left the presidential compound by walking down an alley and the guard station at the end of the alley was empty!

So far I haven't done too much in the office … the office is in charge of 49 goals of the president (las metas imperdonables) and I've talked to people about what projects I'll be working on but nothing concrete has been decided. On Thursday, I accompanied a coworker who was interviewing school principals. One of the schools was located in downtown but had a couple of roosters walking around outside.

As some of you may know, I frequently save my lunch leftovers and eat them later in the day. I don't think I'm going to be able to continue this habit here. On Wednesday, I went to eat my leftovers after leaving them out for 2 ½ hours and I found a solid stream of ants going from the wall to my styrofoam container. I was shocked, particularly because previously I hadn't seen a single ant in the office.

I was talking to someone about how they conduct the census here. Apparently on the day of the census, nobody is allowed to leave there house until the census takers visit their house (otherwise you can receive a ticket from the police). Once the census takers come visit your house you get a sticker which allows you to leave your residence, of course there isn't anywhere to go because all the businesses are closed since everyone is at home. There is apparently no way to know what time in the day the census takers will come so you can be stuck at home all day.

In other news, I went to the beach again this weekend … this time in the town Santa Carolina. It was nice … good food, good relaxation only got lightly sunburned.

Panama: The Introduction

As I am once again out of the country, it is time for me to start up this blog again.

So far things have been going pretty smoothly. I arrived Thursday and found my hostel without any problems. On Friday, I bought a cellular phone and managed to find a furnished apartment for the the summer. Its not anything spectacular but has all the necessities, kitchen, bed, refrigerator, AIR CONDITIONER, television … It is also in a happening part of the city near where some of my fellow SAIS classmates are (there are 4 of us here in Panama for the Summer).

Saturday, a bunch of us toured the old town part of Panama City (Casco Viejo) and then the ruins of old old Panama City (deserted after a successful pirate attack). Today, we went to the island of Taboga to enjoy the beach. On the island, there was also a decent sized hill which we climbed for a nice view of Panama City (unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so you are going to have to take my word that the view was nice).

The weather has been about what you'd expect for a tropical country. Relatively hot and humid with frequent rain. I think in the the 3 days I have been here it has rained 8 times. At least the rain lets up relatively shortly and then the sun and clouds come back. While we were touring the ruins, some heavy rain came but luckily there was cover in the ruins of a bell tower of an old church.

Tomorrow, is the first day of my internship. Hopefully, I can talk my way into the building.

I've been thinking I need to come up with a list of things I want t o accomplish while in Panama. My list at the moment is:

• improve my Spanish

• explore the country

• do a good job at my internship

• dance salsa

• determine how much travel abroad I want in my professional life

• go surfing, maybe try windsurfing

• meet people, have fun