WEDDING TIME

IT'S FINALLY HERE! Katherine Elise Ballew Carter is GETTING MARRIED. I cannot even contain my excitement.

I am writing to y'all from the Atlanta International Airport while I wait for my connecting flight to Amsterdam, where the wedding will be held. Yes, that means I am in the United States for 9 whole hours. But don't worry, I  managed to eat a burrito within 10 minutes of landing on U.S. soil, so I already have my priorities straight.

I will be spending the next week and a half preparing for and celebrating the marriage of my sister Katherine and her soon to be husband Stefan! I literally could not be happier. AND I get to see almost my entire extended family, so I am more than sure that seeing family and friends is going to give me a super boost of energy and spirit for when I return back to my post in Panama.

However, I am pretty sad that I will be away from Panama this next week and a half because there are literally 4 different holidays being celebrated while I am gone. In true Panamanian spirit, school is canceled for these holidays and everyone goes out and celebrates including parades, parades, and more parades.

Otherwise, I'm still absolutely loving Panama. Here are a few quick updates on what has been going on:

-I'm playing on a flag football team in Panama! Which is hilarious, because I'm still not entirely sure how this happened, but now there's no turning back. The best part is it's a national league, so it is taken super seriously. However, it has quickly become one of my favorite activities. The girls on the team are great, and after long days at school it's nice to be able to exercise and play! The games officially start in January, so stay tuned for that!

-Joseph and I found out that there are other American missionaries in the city! After we met, we were invited to dinner and had an amazing dinner and were able to talk IN ENGLISH! It was a nice little piece from home.

-Justin Bieber came to Panama this past Thursday and the entire city was in chaos. Every teenage girl pretty much lost their mind - especially all of my students. So that was an experience in itself.

-I found this statue of Einstein by my favorite coffee shop (and only coffee shop in the city). Still completely unaware of the significance of the statue, but it's pretty cool

-At school, the kids just got done with midterms. It's crazy to think we are already halfway through the trimester, and then it is summer! (Summer is in January and February, which still confuses me)

-I'm finally learning a significant amount of the students' names. Since I have so many students, it's been super difficult to remember names. So, it's actually really exciting when I can remember more than  10 different names in a specific class.

-The two most common questions that I have gotten from students are "Why are you white?" and "Can I pet your hair?" - both of which I never know what the correct answer should be.


-My host family continues to amaze me with their generosity and kindness. They have been especially supportive of helping me get to my sister's wedding, as well as everything else.

Celebrating that school was canceled one day - the boys literally celebrated for a whole hour. Absurd.

-A few weeks ago, Panama played the USA in a soccer game which would determine who qualified for the World Cup, and in the last few minutes, the USA scored two goals, beating Panama 3-2. Although I knew soccer was a super serious matter, I learned it's definitely not okay to EVER mention that game again.

-The second Hunger Games movie comes out in one month. I cannot wait.

So that's a pretty basic update on what's been going on! Next post will be detailing the wedding, with probably a gross amount of wedding pictures. I apologize in advance!

Thanks for reading, and as always, thanks for all the support!