Submitted by Hailey Zirkle on the 2018 winter session program in Panama sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures…
After three flight delays, catching the airport train and sprinting through Atlanta’s international airport to make it before the last call for boarding, we were finally on our way to Panama. Many thoughts raced through my mind that day, including how our host family would react to us arriving so late. Last year, I had the pleasure of studying abroad in Madrid, Spain for my first semester of college. Now that I’m graduating in May, this was my last chance to go abroad.
I remember the day that I had my study abroad interview with Dr. Cubillos. He told us “Panama doesn’t use hot water nor air conditioning. It’s hot and humid and you have to speak Spanish the entire time. If you agree to these things, sign here.” Not that I thought he was lying (maybe exaggerating), but I quickly realized this was no joke. Monday night around midnight we arrived at our host family’s house, a cute little one story complete with a terrace and bunny who lives in the backyard. Toni, our host dad, took us on a short tour and when we arrived at the bathroom, he looked at me and said “solamente agua fría” (only cold water). I thought he meant we could only use cold water. The next morning, after an intense rainstorm, I discovered not only did we have to use cold water, but there wasn’t even an option for hot water. That was wake up call #1.
Wake up call #2 came later that day as we were dropped off at Albrook Mall on the other end of the city and left to get home on our own. Spending a semester in Spain, I felt rather confident in my abilities to use public transportation. Some classmates decided to Uber themselves back, but Mariana and I thought what better way to acclimate to the culture than to use the buses? Sparknotes version of that afternoon – we got lost and ended up having to call an Uber anyway. Wake up call #3 came when the driver told us our address didn’t exist on the map. We had arrived less than 12 hours beforehand and drove to the house in the dark. So when the driver asked us “does this look familiar,” we couldn’t say anything other than “no, honestly we have no idea.” A few phone calls later, we arrived back home.
On day three, we finally decided we were going to take the bus to school and it was a success! Finally, we had figured out how to navigate through Panama, or at least the 2 miles to get from the house to school. On day four, we ran into another learning experience. We had plans to get picked up by a tour company, but the driver couldn’t find our address. Explaining an area that we didn’t really know to begin with, mixed with speaking in Spanish made for an interesting discussion. Nonetheless, he found us and we were on our way to San Blas Islands. After all, the fun in traveling for me has always been getting lost, and finding your way back.
