First of all, wow! I am so sorry I took such a long hiatus from my blog. The months of December and January have been super busy to say the least, but in the best way! Since so much has happened, I'm going to split the past two months into two blogs, but I have a feeling it's still going to be a long one, so I'll try and post a lot of pictures so you won't get bored!
It all started when this lady came to visit!
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I was lucky enough to have my mom come down to Panama to celebrate Christmas as well as tour around Panama a bit! It was a drastically different Christmas for sure, but we were still definitely surrounded by some of the most caring and fun people that have allowed me to be part of their family for a year. At my house, we had a day-long party where closest family and friends of my host family attended. I literally ate more that day than I probably should've eaten in a week, but that's just part of the tradition of the holiday. Actually, in Panama the celebrations start at dinner time on Christmas Eve, and after you eat dinner at one house, you go to another house and eat another dinner, and so on until midnight hits. Once it's midnight, there is an ABSURD amount of fireworks that go off and last for hours, and as I observed from neighbors, some people just never go to sleep and party into Christmas Day! Here are a few other pictures from Christmas Day:
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| Joseph and my mom - new friends! |
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| Panamanian Parents :) |
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| Panamanian mama meets real mama |
One of the coolest parts about a Panamanian Christmas is that the festivities last much longer than a few days. Most people hold parties at their house and attend other parties until January 7th. However, since my mom was a newbie in Panama, we decided to do some touring around, so here are a few highlights from our adventures:
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| Showing my mom the school |
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| Super beautiful view of the city from The Causeway |
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| Really cool flower clock on the coast |
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| View of the city from the rainforest |
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| Touring the Panama Canal |
After we toured around Panama a bit, we were lucky enough to be able to take a quick trip to Costa Rica to go see some of our favorite people, and oldest friends, the Errante family! The Errantes have spent the past few Christmas' in Costa Rica, so we though we couldn't pass this opportunity up since we were so close! It also was at the perfect time to renew my visa for Panama, so it was perfect. We spent most of our time surfing since they are a little surfer family, but I'm pretty confident I spent most of my time face planting. Apparently surfing isn't something you can just pick back up :) Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of me falling, but here are a few other highlights!
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| Crater at the top of Volcan Poas |
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| Sunset at Nosara Beach |
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| So glad I got to see this beauty! |
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| Emmy surfing - had to post pictures of these surfer girls! |
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| Casey surfing (notice how I do NOT have a surfing picture) |
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| Errante and Carter girls |
The holidays were super busy but also so nice and relaxing after such a crazy few months of school. Most of all, I must admit that it was so comforting to see family and friends. After meeting so many new people, doing new things, learning a new culture, and adapting to a new way a life, there's something so underrated and comforting about familiarity. I couldn't have been happier to see these cuties, and was beyond heartbroken to see them go. But, as soon as I got home from Costa Rica, the next morning I had to wake up and go on a 2 week mission trip with the 12th grade students from our school!
Stay tuned, that adventure will be featured in the next blog.
As always, thanks for reading and for the support. I hope everyone had a great time during the holidays!
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