Yesterday I wrote out a list of all the things that I will be missing in Panama as soon as I get on that plane back to Canada. However, just as in any travel experience, there are certain things which I will …miss much less, let’s say. Here are a few of those:
- The humidity (which, because of the air conditioning everywhere, I still haven’t become accustomed to)
- The A/C having a perma-setting to 20 degrees and my glasses constantly fogging up when I step out or open a window
- The polychronic time culture (Translate: The fact that everyone is late for everything. ALWAYS.)
- Praying for my life every time I get into a car and using my imaginary brake pedal to excess
- Watching the traffic out of the back of my head as I walk on sidewalks to make sure I don’t end up a pedestrian fatality (yes, sidewalks aren’t safe either)
- Missing my family and friends and being homesick (although I was much less homesick than I thought I would be! )
- Trying to speak Spanish and people just staring at me like they just saw a monkey talk (yes, my accent and grammar sucks, I know)
- Constantly having to repeat “mas despacio, por favor” (pardon the spelling) when people speak to me in order to get them to speak slower, so that I stand a chance of understanding what they are trying to say
- Car alarms lulling me to sleep and waking me up at all hours
- Expensive imported food products ($4/lb for carrots from California, for example, and $9 spinach)
- Cold showers
- Giant cockroaches
- Microscopic ants (unlike the ones in Ghana, these don’t bite…they’re just everywhere)
- The glacial pace at which everything occurs in Panama (except the talking and driving, of course)
- Dealing with a time difference and ALWAYS getting confused by it. It’s like dyslexia with numbers and math…
- Everything being closed on Sundays
- THE TRAFFIC
- The honking!
Please note: The ‘not miss’ list is substantially smaller than the ‘will miss’ list 🙂
THE GLOBAL EXPERIENCE BLOG 