Things They Should Tell You About Living In A Tropical Country

I'm constantly learning some new thing about Panamá.  Sometimes living in a tropical country like this one really is like living on another planet. I don't think you can ever really be prepared for it.  Still, I did get guides about things I should be aware of before I depart. These guides were helpful, but there are some things they fail to mention like:

Gum is a waste of money.

Or maybe it's just the gum I buy.  Since it's always hot all the time, there isn't really a place you can store gum where it won't become a melty, gooey, mess. Switch to mints.

You will be sad when it doesn't rain.
I think I've talked about this before, but I really like the part of the day when it rains.  It's like a little relief.  The downpours are like an exciting vacation.  But it hasn't rained like that in a few days and it's actually a little depressing. It just hasn't been raining, and when it dos rain it's just a little drizzle or it rains in the middle of the night when I can't even enjoy it.  Sometimes in the middle of the day everything starts to look cloudy and ominous and I'm like "Oh boy, oh boy, rain is going to happen!" But then nothing happens.  Get it together, rainy season, I bought two umbrellas and I intend to use them.

If you need to walk somewhere, and chances are you will, just walk there, put on makeup after.
This is a lesson I learned fairly quickly.  I have to walk to and from school everyday.  Putting on even the slightest bit of make-up is detrimental even for the 10-15 minute walk. Even on days when it's cloudy by the time I reach my destination I'm sweaty and my face looks like it's melting.  So if you need to wear make up to be presentable like I do, wait until after the walk and put on makeup in the bathroom after you arrive.  Otherwise you will look like a sad monster that eats children.  

 This is what I got when I Googled sad monster that eats children, even though that is a puppy and not a child and this monster is clearly too depressed about his break up to eat it.

Time passes differently.
I am a night owl.  I have most of my energy at night and I often don't go bed until the sun comes up. If I have to wake up early I will be irritable for hours. But all of that is different here. Here, if I start to get drowsy at around 10 and if I try to stay awake past midnight my body will fight me. I have my phone alarm set for 10:30 am but everyday I wake up some time between 7:30 and 8:15 without assistance. I never realized there was so much daylight to do activities in, and more than that I want to be awake and doing them. I remember one night I was absolutely exhausted and it was only 8, Mama Dora explained that people from other countries, particularly America think Panamanians are lazy, but this isn't the case at all.  Something about the environment around here, especially how hot and humid the weather is, makes you want to go to bed early or move a little slower.  It's really something hard to describe.  Everything is a little slower and more laid back here.  It's as if time itself has slowed down.  And it's weird but you adjust remarkably quickly.

Here's a happy baby that eats monsters to make up for the lack of pictures

There might be a lizard chilling in your shower.
You might go to turn on the water and see a lizard in the shower, and even though up until this point you'd been ambivalent towards lizards, it's in this moment you will realize you are afraid of them.  Two days ago I saw this guy chilling in the shower.  

 He is the terror that stalks the shower.

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me so I left for a bit and came back.  I didn't see it this time but I was fairly certain he was hiding under a shower cap that had been dropped there so I could not get in.  I stood for a while frozen with shockfear.  Then I decided I need to get clean but was not willing to be in an enclosed area with the lizard.  So I sat on the edge of the shower and bathed from there.  

Today, I was certain the lizard would be gone but lo and behold, there he was again.  This time people where home so I told my host mom and sister.  They were surprised I had only just noticed and told me he'd been there for a week.  I find this hard to believe as I always look for bugs before getting into any shower and wouldn't have been unaware of Bradley (this is what I'm calling him) for a whole week.  Anyway they didn't seem to think it was a big deal.  Apparently there are little Bradley's in houses all over Panamá.  They even have a special name that I didn't process because my brain was too busy trying not to show my internal freaking outness on my face.  I think they also said they were good to have in your house because they eat all sorts of little bugs.  They explained that they had tried to get him out, but nothing they did could get him to leave so they were going to just live with it.  

So after that little lesson I had to attempt the shower again.  Once again I stood there for several minutes contemplating what I should do.  I needed to take a real shower today because I had to shave legs (since I only where shorts or dresses it's muy importante that I shave my legs).  Finally, I decided that I could get in the shower if Bradley agreed to not move around.  Unfortunately, it was at this point Bradley decided to move wriggling about and dart around like crazy.  It made my skin crawl much like in the way it does when I see an insect moving around except 10 times worse as lizards are much bigger and you can see their eyes.  So at that point I was like screw it and proceed to take another outside the shower, shower.  I also shaved this way.  The whole thing was this big stupid mess and I'll probably have to deal with it again tomorrow.  I haven't figured out a game plan yet all I know is that if I see it's tongue I'm coming back to America. 

Anyway I would tell you all about my (lazy) weekend but I fear it would take to long and I actually have homework (ick) so I'll probably write about it later this week.
Until next time here's a picture of a ridiculously named store I saw in the fancy mall.