So these past three weeks have been a whirlwind!  We were so busy traveling around, enjoying Panama, and teaching, that I took little time to keep up on writing... what a shocker, I know.  So, I’ve taken this Sunday afternoon to write about most of what went down, and to not bore you with the 3+ paged I ended up with, I’ll try posting a bit each day! Lucky you! It’s like the Twelve Days of Christmas... but hopefully not nearly as irritating or repetitive.  So to begin, we first left on Saturday the 15th of June at midnight after teaching a workshop that day to go to San Jose, Costa Rica.  Two other interns who were part of our training group are based there and we were able to go and spend some time with them, visit a beautiful waterfall garden park in the mountains of Costa Rica, and then watch a football (Soccer) game between Costa Rica and Panama.  Regrettably, Panama lost, but the game was awesome!!  Latinos LOVE their futbol, and this game was no exception!  We arrived at the stadium an hour early and it had just finished raining, so I was thinking we'd maybe get a little bit wet but that we'd already seen the worst of the weather... WRONG!!  Anyways, we went through security (and I unfortunately found out that Latinos care so much about their football, that even umbrellas and waterbottles can become weapons, so into the trash they went) then got our seats.  

The stadium was already filling up quickly, and within a couple minutes, the rain started coming down in torrents.  I luckily had my Costa Rica flag (...ok, I didn’t think to get one in Panama when we were here, and everyone else was doing it, so I bought one. Don’t worry, even though I was draped in Costa Rica’s colors, I was rooting for Panama the whole time... but, people were staring at me like I was an idiot and didn’t know what was going on when I cheered for Panama when they did something good, but I actually understood most of the game. I think my life may have been at risk at one point, but nothing happened, besides, there were some true Panamanian fans nearby that I was ready to defect to if things became hostile.)

 Anyways, I had my Costa Rica flag to protect me from the rain... it worked for about five minutes, and the rest of the game was a drenched, energy packed mess.  I think this was the greatest testament to me of the ardor Latinos have for futbal because they all stayed out in the rain the whole time! Usually they are so worried about getting wet that they would set foot outside if it looks like it might rain.  Despite the rain, I LOVED the energy of the crowd, hearing them respond in perfect unison to each play, for good and bad.  It’s a good thing I couldn’t understand what they were saying in such a huge group, otherwise I think I might have increased my vocabulary with some less than desirable phrases.  It also worked out perfectly because we were at the end of the field where both goals during the game were scored, so we had a great view of all the action.  The only bad part was that I felt bad for being taller than most of the people here, so I felt like I was in the way all the time, but nobody complained.  Overall, it was an awesome experience!

(Shout out to Emily for getting my rear in gear and writing things down for you all.)