Pre-Departure Entry

Hi everyone!  If all goes well,  I will be in Panama on Wednesday, and since it's after midnight I guess that's technically tomorrow.  I'll be studying there until August so I've made this blog to chronicle my adventures.

A note on the title.  Well you already know the blog part.

I'm the girl, Tiffani

I think I was having some sort of clown accident on my face this day.  NBD

And hats are awesome.  It's pretty much a universally accepted truth the bigger the hat is the better it is.  So when I saw this 

I had to buy it.  It's bigger than both my cat and my dog.  So now it's going with me on my Panama adventure.

  Rascal wasn't happy about this.

I tried to take a picture of Mimi with the hat but she just started doing a Mexican Hat Dance, even though I've told her a million times I'm going to Panama.  

So this is my study abroad blog.  I've never done one of these before, but I think it's typical fair to talk about how nervous and excited I am (VERY!) and discuss some worries and expectations I have.

Obviously I'm most worried about having to speak Spanish on a regular basis. I think I'm pretty good with reading and writing and I think even my listening has improved over the past semester. My speaking though, not that great. I can't roll my r's. I'm pretty sure rolling your r's is like being double jointed and you have to  be born with the ability. When I try to roll my r's all that comes out is this sort of sad hissing sound, and I don't like hissing at people unless I really mean it.

Hopefully, there aren't a ton of words that have that rr sound and my plan is to never have to use any of them. My program sent me a list of words that I might find useful and I can only remember a few rr words on there. I think they were pizarra which means blackboard and no one uses those anymore so I should be fine there.  Ferretería which is hardware store, a word I don't use in English. And borrar which means to erase, so I've just got to avoid making mistakes which shouldn't be too hard, and if I do I'll use the must cooler destuir (to destroy)  instead.

Expectations?  I'm trying not to have any expectations they've never really done me any good before. I do have some goals though.

1. Convince someone I'm a local.  Despite my reservations about speaking I'd love for someone to mistake me for a local.  It might have to be another tourist but I'll take it.
2. Go to at least 3 of the places on my attractions list.  When I first started looking into this trip, I went to a few websites and compiled this massive list of restaurants, museums and clubs to go to so I'd like to get around to some of them
 3. Make my amazing dance move "The Floppy Goldfish" catch on internationally.  It's pretty much a big deal in the US already, but something this good has to be shared on a larger scale.
4. Tell a joke entirely in Spanish.  Because I think I read somewhere that you've got a handle on a language if you can tell a joke.
5. Go to a bar and order a drink LIKE A BIG KID!  Though I wouldn't be opposed to someone buying a drink for me.

Those are all the things I can think of right now.  I'd like to get some writing done too, but that's an always goal not just a Panama one.  Hopefully, I'll get some fodder for my creative non-fiction class next semester.

Alright time to wrap this up.  There are still last minute preparations to make.  I am going to promise to take a ton of pictures, and hopefully now that I've written it, I'll actually do it.  

Update again soonish once I get to Panama.  I'll leave you with another picture of my hat.

Naysayers may tell you that big hats aren't practical but I promise you that those people are just jealous.