Eyes wide open

We are in Panama!  While on our flight our students had to fill out immigration and custom forms.  Basically this lets the Panamanian government know who you are, what you will be doing in Panama, where you will be staying, and for how long.  I think everyone was most excited about getting their passport stamped.  Some people are addicted to tattoos but once you go global you become addicted to passport stamps!

When we stepped out of the airport our driver Ricardo was waiting for us, holding up a sign with Mrs. Pereira name on it.  We got into our van and after that our eyes were wide open. Immediately we could feel the heat.  We could only imagine how hot it would be in the day!  On our drive to our side of town we saw a lot.  Every American fast food franchise you could imagine is here.  David was most excited to see that you can buy 3 pizzas for $5 at Pizza hut.  All the boys were happy to see so many pretty girls and we all agreed that Panama is the place where old American school buses come to get pimped out.  You´ve seen the pictures already but what you haven´t seen is the flashing lights that they have at night!

Each pair was dropped off to their host families and so far everyone is very happy with their host moms (and even happier if they have a host sister).  Caleb loves his Panamanian host mom and dad and said that they are already spoiling him.  They all said that breakfast was good.  Amadou and Jabir said they thought I was exaggerating when I said that food is important.  Their host mom watched them eat every bite, and was happy that they liked the food. In the morning they walked to school, David and Robert were driven.  We are studying at Ileri Spanish Institute.  There is also a big group of students here from Bermuda.  If you don´t know where that is look it up! 

Right now everyone is in class making sure they have can say what they need to say in Spanish once they are done, off we go to the next stage of our adventure.  Oh yea, did I mention that it is HOT?!