HEY. Ok, so since I'm actually busy for the first time in Chepo (WOOT WOOT! I know...), I will be brief but very informative, let's say. First, I will explain why I'm going to explain why I'm busy, There's a show on TV here called Viva La Musica, which is exactly like American Idol, even if it is terrible, spanish love songs, it's better than telenovelas... So I've started watching it regularly, anyway. That's on tonight, the FINALE, and my family is making bread for Mother's Day I believe (which I didn't realize was different here.. By the way). So that's my life tonight..

OK, second on the agenda. Here's a day in the life of Raven! In Panama! In school! How exciting!

I recorded this on a pretty boring day, so I'm sorry if it isn't what you expected.. But, here it is.

9:20- I wake up, sweating terribly of course. I eat hojaldre* with marmalade. Yummmmm!

10:00- Shower time with freezing cold water, luckily it's about... 89827349572093 degrees out, so it feels great. :D

10:30- Off to my friend's house, Rose to meet for school.

12:00- We get on the bus and are off to school, we get there at around 12:15...

12:30- Class starts around this time, so we just wait in the classroom for Boris, our math teacher.

1:30- Math is finally over, and we have five minutes before our next class, which is still unknown to me, even after going more than five times...

2:30- We now have English, which is great but boring at the same time... I love understanding everything, but also it's just sitting around...

3:30- Now it's Manners class! In which everyone plays tic-tac-toe and games like this.. LOVE this class.

4:30- Recess! Two empanadas and orange juice fresh from the tree. :D Love it.

5:00- Back to class, Science. Which is actually a good class, It's one of the only classes I participate in.

6:00- School ends, but we're not let free of boredom just quite yet. Since nobody wants to spend fifty cents on a five minute taxi ride (we're all super cheap, us exchange students..), and the bus doesn't have a real schedule (this is panama in general..), we wait for 30 - 40 minutes at the bus stop. Funnnnn.

7:00- I'm home from a long day at school, so I eat a small meal and head to Cori's house, my other good friend. We hangout, talking and listening to music, and I head home at around 9ish..

9:15- I eat another small dinner and go to bed. :)

There's my day, I promise to tell you about a more exciting day soon. :)

*Hojaldre- A DELICIOUS bread type thing... Kind of like funnel cake (or dough boy), just less sweet.

OH! I almost forgot, I'm posting a link of Viva La Musica!

And.. I just searched, could not find one. Sorry folks, I'll give you something else to look at...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0-grgc_TZ0

OK, so I don't know if that showed as a link or not, if so YAY! If not, just copy and paste.. :)

Basically, the story behind this song is... Before I came here were elections for president, Martinelli was the most popular, and the other guy... I don't know his name called him and his team "Los Locos," I hope you know what the means, "The Crazies." Anyway, so Martinelli and his campaign people used this as their logo, and this song is like the theme song of the current president (oh yeah, he won..) In the song, they say "Los locos, somos mas." This means "The crazies, we are more." And it's actually pretty catchy. :P

Ok, that's my blabbering for tonight, I'm off to bed. :)

Hey everybody! I'm trying to blog more often to please everyone, but I really just can't think of anything that would excite you! Ok, I've basically been going to school all week and there's really nothing to report except for the same old things. I got my packages from my parents! Which is really exciting, I have a camera now, and although it is a Pentax film, it works wonderfully. :)

Hmmm, what else. School is terribly boring, and since I don't speak FLUENT spanish yet, and only boys are interested in talking to me, it isn't that fun. Luckily I have my good Swiss friend, Stephan to keep me entertained (when he decides to come). Sometimes I really think that I just can't wait to really learn something! I honestly cannot wait to go to class with a purpose. Here it's just not possible. Today, we took a half day at school so we could take a picture with AFS, which we ended up waiting until school would've been out anyway.. But it's ok, I don't mind missing school to hangout with my friends. :) It ain't that bad!

I'm sitting with my cousins right now, so I'm gonna go and hangout with them, watch telenovelas and watch my cousin give his friend a tattoo (long story, I might explain it in my next blog, I have to save some interesting stories..)

Ok, so I'll try and blog again soon!

Ciao! :)

Empanadas!

I had to upload a picture of the written blog that I wrote before because somehow blogger doesn't let you copy and paste! Que malo! Sorry for the bad quality!

Hello everybody! I haven't really had time to write since I've been going through a lot of things, but I finally have some downtime. So I moved my family, because of some things that happened with my advisor and some different things. I would have loved to stay in the family, but we all knew that it was the best choice. I found out that I was leaving the night before I left actually, which wasn't that great because I had to pack in seven hours after a dinner party with my friends.I arrived on Sunday in Chepo, a town two hours from Panama city, and I actually met my new host family last night, but I won't be going to live with them until tomorrow. They look super nice, and I have a host sister that is only a year older than I am, and two older siblings. My parents are bakers and have like thirty chickens and roosters so I know that I will wake up in the morning pretty early. I really don't know much else about them, but I've heard that they're a really great family. Oh! My school here has two different shifts, morning and afternoon, I'm in the afternoon! I'm so excited to sleep in everyday, but I think it might be terrible to not have anything to do in the morning.. But I'm excited. Oh, and my camera is broken, so I actually don't have any way to take pictures or anything. Which is kind of upsetting. I don't really have anything else to report at the moment, so until later!

La Play

So I went to the beach finally in Panama! It was so awesome, the first time was at Playa Gorgona, which is pretty close to Panama City and was so cool where we went. Since it was an AFS orientation camp, we didn't have to PAY! Which was nice.. We stayed in little apartments that had about ten in each, with a kitchen and two bathrooms. It was very nice, and relaxing. The beach was PERFECT, warm and calm with no waves. We literally just sat in the water and talked for hours. Someone got stung by a jelly fish though.. CREEPY!
Also, this past weekend I went to the beach with my family and a friend called Barqueta! It was intense, with huge waves (for a mainer). It was so hot though so all we could do was either get thrown around in the water or sit under the little tent thing. We were there all day, and Inga (my friend from Iceland), and I were so tired after body surfing most of the day and getting massacred by the sun. But it really was an amazing time.

School is getting better, maybe just because we've been doing these elections for the schools best "humanitarian" which is basically a contest for who can campaign the best. We have a "party" tomorrow celebrating the King and Queen who win. My favorite class so far is Ingles, it's good fun. As soon as English starts, everyone wants to sit next to me and have me be in their groups, haha. I also like Math and Physics, because the teacher is really cool and always trys to make a conversation with me, even though it never usually goes beyond where I'm from, or what I did on the weekend. It's nice though. I feel like I probably won't get any credits, because I won't able to do work until much later, when the year is over, and the classes are also a lot different. That's stressful.

I have to go to my friends going away party now! But I'll update the blog soon, now that I know that I can come to an internet cafe that works with my laptop, I'll be coming back a lot. Bye!

So much...

It´s been way too long without writing and now I have so much to write. So if I forget to write about anything, just comment on this and I´ll try and make an effort to reply or something. :)

Okay, school first. I go to a school called Instituto Adventista Panameño, which is the private school in Bugaba, where I live. It´s religious (Adventist), which I actually don´t really know anything about.. But I´m working on that. Besides waking up at five in the morning to get the bus, it´s really fun. It¨s hard not understanding so much because everyone is talking so fast, but it´s becoming easier. I have to wear a uniform, which some of you may have seen... I don´t like it but no one does so it´s ok. What else... Since it is religious, we have to sing songs in every class about God of course, which isn´t my sort of thing, but it´s actually kind of fun, and we also have to pray at the beginning of every class as well... Which is very odd for me.. School gets out pretty early, which is nice because we still have a long day to hangout, go to the pool, rest, eat at Pio Pio (a fast food restaurant which is only chicken.. It´s awesome) and do other random things. I think that´s it for school....

Next, Panamá City! SO fun, it was a blast, besides fitting four poeple in one room for a weekend.. Everything is super similar to Miami, except they just care a lot less and everyone speaks more spanish..

Umm, my spanish is coming along nicely... Better than before, but it is very hard still..

Next, MY HIKE TODAY! I think it´s probably the most fun since I´ve had here, and the most workout. It was the most extreme thing I´ve ever done probably. It felt like an adventure. We went to Cerro Punta, a mountainy town like an hour from us. It´s right next to a volcanoe, which I think is very cool... We started hiking up the mountain as soon as it started raining, I was wearing sandals.. Not a good call. Everything was muddy and wet and cold because of how high we were, and it made me want to die.. But we reached the waterfall and it was so AMAZING! (I´m putting pictures up after this) ONly a few of us made it to the waterfall, all of the exchange students from Bugaba, a volunteer, and some kid, I actually don´t know.. It was so cool, I ended up taking off my shoes because it was easier to grip onto the mud which was actually surprisingly nice. It was so fun, it´s hard to explain... But it was great.

Mi familia! They are so nice, my mom like makes food to DIE for, it´s so good. It´s just typical food in Panamá, but it´s all so new and yummy for me. I´m surprisingly not gaining weight, but I think it´s because of all the walking and such. My dad is rarely here, but when he is we try and talk which is a RIOT. It´s so sweet of him to try and speak English, but I really want to learn Spanish and he always says something in Spanish and than attempts to say it in English... We´re working on it. My little brother, Tito, is super nice and he reminds me a lot of Mainers... May or may not be a good thing. My older brother, P- Jean, is super nice and fun to be around, and his girlfriend, Kiria, is super friendly. They also both speak English which is nice occasionly, they live in Panama City though. My sister, Isis, is so nice, she´s older though, and more responsible... Haha. (When Tito and I went to Panamá City, we stayed with them).

I honestly don´t know what else to write, and I´ve been sitting at the computer for hours, so I´m going, but feel to contact me! I love you all!

In Panamà!

This is my third day at my host family and my fifth day in Panamà, so far I love it. It´s hot all the time, and humid most of the time but it´s great anyway and you get used to it. I´m uploading pictures to facebook right now, so soon you will be able to see all that I´m doing. The keyboard is different here, so it´s hard to have the right punctuation.. My host family speaks almost no english, so I´m learning spanish really fast and communicating in Spanish is becoming a lot easier. The past three days have been really fun, I´ve been hanging out with a few other exchange students, their brothers and Israel, one of the AFS volunteers. We´ve been talking a lot in spanish (and some in German) and having lessons from the Panamanians. Yesterday we went to David on the bus (only 70 cents or so for a thirty minute ride), went shopping, got uniforms for school and ate at McPato, a fast food place very similiar to McDonalds, (Pato means duck). At the orientation near Panama city I ate more than ten mangoes, you can just pick them off the trees here, and they are so yummy! The food is so good, and fattening. Everything is accompanied with rice, and all the meat is fried, as are the vegetables. I´m trying to eat more fruit, and not eat so much bad stuff, but it´s very hard when you know that everything is so good. I don´t really miss home, but I miss the people, it´s not bad though when I think about where I am. I´m sure it will get worse. Can´t wait to share more, I have to go do laundry! Bye, Hasta Luego!

In Miami!

Hey everyone! I'm getting ready for bed in Miami! I've met almost everyone that I'm going to Panama which was awesome. They're all super nice people and we have a great time together. I've already taken pictures (I'm going to try and figure out how to get them on here :/). There are a few people going to the same province as me, and one girl is going to the same city, which I'm super excited about. We leave tomorrow in the morning for Panama!! I'll blog again when I get there!

By the way, I got a new number, so for those close friends and family that want to reach me, ask my dad or mom! :)

Hi everybody! It's been awhile, I know. I've been super busy getting everything together for my trip. Immunizations (terrible), visa stuff, flight tickets, gifts for my family, and so much more! It's been crazy. I've barely had time to even think about the fact that I won't be here for a year after the 30th. I'm unbelievably excited, but it's hard to imagine not being around my family and friends for such a long time. 

Thanks so much to everybody that has given me donations! It's been so helpful. I will definitely update my blog before I leave and say goodbye to everybody! 

I got an email today with my host family's information! I sent them an email, and I'm so excited to hear back from them! I should be having my pre-departure orientation next week, and I'm looking forward to it, even though I really don't know what to expect :/
School is ending in less than a week, and I only have two classes to take finals in, so that's one thing I don't really have to worry about too much. After school is done, I can concentrate on raising money completely.

First Entry!

Hey everybody! My name is Raven LaValle and I'm from Bar Harbor Maine, and I'm going to Panama next year! Since this is officially my first blog post, I'm going to talk about my experience so far with AFS and what I still plan to do... etc. I started thinking about AFS this year, and since then it has been developing so quickly! It feels like I just started applying, but I'll be leaving in a few months! I'm looking forward to my year abroad so much, I have so much to plan and so much money to raise, but all I can think about is Panama! Right now I have so many expectations, but I know that it could be completely different than what I'm expecting. I'll keep updating as I find out more about my trip!