Sickness has Struck!

Is it Sunday already? Where did this week go? Oh wait, I know; I've been sleeping through a lot of it. Robert has had a cold for the past two weeks and I have the flu for the last three days. After thinking we were invincible to some of the typical yearly illnesses, (and I did think that a few weeks ago) I was proven wrong.

Life is very ironic at times and when you feel like you are invincible you are proven wrong! The upside to being sick now is that hopefully we are both well enough to participate in some of the upcoming festivities and holidays. There are a lot of upcoming ones in the month of November.

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While I will not go into a lot of detail, here is a list of the upcoming holidays for November:

2, November- Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead). 

This day is to celebrate and honor ancestors who have died. 

3, November- Separation Day

This holiday celebrates Panama becoming independent from Colombia in 1903.

4, November-Flag Day

Although the current design is significantly different than the original proposed design, this one was designed by a Panamanian to reflect the current politics of the time. 

5, November-Colon Day

Basically Panama's version of Columbus Day

10, November-First Cry of Independence 

This day celebrates when a townsmen from a village called La Villa de Los Santos requested help from Colombia with gaining independence from Spain. Eighteen days later Panama was no longer under Spain's control. Panama would remain under Colombia's reign for the next 80 years until 3, November 1903. 

28, November-Independence Day

A celebration of independence from Spain. 

A few other facts that I am sure people may be wondering:

• Halloween is really only celebrated by expats (aka foreigners) here, although many stores sell costumes and Halloween candy. Why? Why not, I guess
• Thanksgiving is another holiday for expats and is not celebrated in Panama. Although Black Friday has trickled down to this part of the world.

Needless to say, things here are going to be pretty crazy soon. It is exciting to start rounding out our year of being in Panama with being able to be part of the festivities. Fingers crossed that we are not sick by the time the celebrations start!

A Standup Paddleboard Experience

This week has been boring. I was expecting a snake in the shower this morning to give me yet another thing to blog about, but no such thing happened. And I'm okay with that. But something awesome did happen, we got to go out and get a lesson on Standup Paddleboarding, or other times abbreviated SUP.

What is this you might ask? Basically it is a larger surfboard that you paddle around. People also do other things with it, including  race, surf, yoga, and fish. No yoga on my first lesson; I was just happy that I stood up!

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It was a pretty choppy day that day so I didn't stay out long, but I could definitely see the appeal to this. While I could see myself doing more paddle boarding than I am now, I think surfing on a surfboard will continue to be my method of surfing.

In other news, one of our air-conditioning units went out! We have three individual ones in the house: one in each room and in the living room. Ours went out in the living room. This is primarily the reason why this post is so late. Who really wants to do anything when it is 90 in the house with no breeze?

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Luckily the air conditioning unit works just fine in the bedroom. It is not the most fun thing right now, but it will be fixed in no time and until then, I can be reminded of just all of the luxuries I take for granted.

A Bucket List Milestone

This week was really exciting. As some of you may know, I have a bucket list and I was able to cross one off this week: I donated blood! For those of you wondering, yes, I have a physical bucket list and I have been writing ideas in it for some time. One of them was to donate blood. So alas, after 5+ years of having that on my bucket list I was finally able to say I have done it!

The rest of the page is blurry on purpose...I also realized I put the wrong day.
I normally put the dates as day/month/year. Oops!

It was a fantastic opportunity and I learned a lot about donating blood in the process. A few facts:

• One blood donation can save up to 3 lives, not including babies which may only need 1 teaspoon of blood
• Donations are only good for 6 weeks after the collection date
• Every 2 seconds somebody in the US needs blood. I'm not sure what the statistic is in Panama. 

The actual donation did not take long. In fact, Robert was sitting in the chair next to me and I was able to fill my bag by the time his phlebotomist had him going (between 5-10 minutes). I was kind of hoping to be able to race him, but that didn't happen. 

The worst part of the process was getting pricked by the lancet to find out my blood type. How do people with diabetes do it multiple times a day? The best parts were that I was able to check something off my bucket list (yay!), and that I think it is special that I may have saved somebody's life.

Now on to the next thing to check off: bungee jumping into a pool of sharks swimming in hot lava.

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The Hard Part about Living so Far Away

This past week has been filled with despair and sorrow. I was outside with the puppies when Robert told me there was a shooting at Umpqua Community College (UCC). Wait, what?  I have a few very close connections in Roseburg, including people that work and go to school at UCC.

I immediately began texting people. Luckily everyone I know personally came out physically unscathed although they cannot say the same mentally. It was definitely a day to be thankful to be alive.

It was surreal to hear about the shooting on the radio news here and get messages and saw social media posts from my friends in Europe and Australia. After all, how often do we really hear about international news in the States? Maybe that is just me though? 

I love living in Panama, but this was one of these instances where I wish I lived closer to home. I admit, I am not entirely sure what I could have done to help or "make things better" but that does not stop me for wanting to show my support.

Roseburg, may you heal in time and grow stronger in the process.