Now I Can Die

It must have begun in Mrs. Sharpley's 4th grade geography class because I've always had a strong desire to see the Panama Canal. It just always has seemed so exotic to me, like it was unimaginable that I could ever be there, just like the Pyramids at Giza.

Gaspar drove us over yesterday and we had lunch at a little restaurant overlooking the Miraflores Locks. I mean really overlooking. You could throw a dinner roll and hit a passing ship, were you so inclined. But it's a real production, all the ships' crews come out and wave to everyone on the observation deck. As we had lunch, 3 big ships went through, along with a few sailboats they throw in as a package deal. You can see the tankers lined up for miles, waiting their turn.

Panama City

Sitting at the Dallas-Ft Worth Admirals Club Lounge en route to Panama. Hector is working there next week and I am going along for the ride. I’m looking forward to seeing the Panama Canal. Bad storms in Texas so our arrival was like a tilt-a-whirl.

I was awake most of last night with a weird vertigo sensation. Every time I tried to move, my head would feel like it was spinning. It felt exactly like when you were a kid and you’d spin in one direction a bunch of times then stop and try to walk straight. Very unsettling. And since it was me, my thoughts naturally turned toward brain tumors, spinal meningitis and worse. Around 330 am I was planning my own funeral.

But today I’m fine, no dizziness, just exhaustion and the low-grade crankiness that goes along with air travel.

Later… Finally we arrived at our hotel (Courtyard) in Panama City at 2am., then slept until almost noon the next day. We went over to the old section of the city, Casco Antigua, and walked around and had a late lunch. It’s very much like the old city in San Juan, Puerto Rico, maybe 10 years behind in restoration. Still a lot of families living in the old colonial buildings with laundry hanging out on the balcony--loud music coming out the windows. We might have been in Havana. We had drinks under a big umbrella at an outdoor café and a huge rainstorm blew in. It was very nice.

Today, Hector is working and I am heading to the mall next door to see if there’s a latte with my name on it.

Later still... found two lattes with my name on them, also a red windbreaker at a store called Helly Hansen. Reminder: grave error to shop alone when the staff is a couple of bored, good-looking young guys who want me to buy something.

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time for my posting here but I thought I'd better check in. School is going well, we're into week 5 now and I have to say I'm really enjoying all my classes, even though I'm forced to read chapters and chapters of this kind of drivel: "...parallel to the interest in developing rational principles for vocabulary selection was a focus on the grammatical content of a language course." Say what? I've enrolled in 3 more classes for next quarter so that means I should be done with the class work by the end of summer.

We're off to Panama for a Hector work trip next week (I'm cutting class) and then to Istanbul during the spring break. Very excited about both. I've always wanted to see the Panama Canal (actually, I've always wanted to sail through the Panama Canal but this will do for now) and I'm especially thrilled about Istanbul, of course. I think my desires to see all these places are related to movies. I keep thinking about that silly Peter Ustinov movie Topkapi that takes place in Istanbul.

Also, we're tentatively planning a Country Walkers trip to Slovakia in September. The tour begins in Budapest and ends in Krakow so you get 3 passport stamps for the price of one. Anyone care to join us?