Before I came to Panama I never thought I would:

-rejoice at the sight of toilet paper in a bathroom. No toilet paper, no soap, and no towels to be found in most public restrooms. Also, my host family does not use toilet paper. What´s their alternative, you may ask? Newspaper. Think about it.

-want to kill small children for staring at me. Obviously, I say this in jest. However, it gets on my last nerve that I can´t write in my notepad at school for more than a few minutes without three kids reading over my shoulder and asking me what I´m doing. I can´t go five minutes reading from my Kindle in a semi-public place without kids asking me if I´m studying. Yes, studying. Reading doesn´t seem to be a big part of the culture. So in their mind if I´m reading, it´s only because I have to. I´ve had some funny interactions with kids trying to explain the technology of a Kindle. I usually end up calling it my libro mágico (magic book). Also, they do this thing where they say my name every time they pass me. "Teacher Nicolás!" everywhere I go. At first it was cute. Now? Ehh...

-miss vegetables. I´m not in love with veggies or anything, but nice hearty squash and greens are just too good to go without. Vegetables are really hard to come by around my town. Or if they´re not hard to come by, people just aren´t used to eating them. But I certainly love the plantains I get 4-5 days a week.

-refuse to say my friends´ names without a silly Panamanian accent (e.g. Nicolás Bree-gart-nair). This was something I did already from time to time, but after two whole months of hearing Peace Corps staff´s interesting pronunciations, I can´t help it.

-hate my last name. You should see the looks on people´s faces when I have to spell out "Bringardner" for contact information.

-want fewer hours in the day. At about 3 in the afternoon when the sun is bearing down on me, when I´ve read as much as I can read and when there´s no one around, part of me wishes it was just dusk already. Or at least 5:00 so that my soap can come on. Unfortuately, since the TV at my house only gets two channels, I had to abandon my old favorite, Los Herederos del Monte, and pick up a new one called La Rosa de Guadalupe. It´s Mexican. So it´s not all bad, but until I get into a better daily routine, it´s gonna seem like the days go on forever. Yet, at the same time, it seems like the weeks fly by.