the home stretch

Days Traveling: 265
Spanish Fluency: 50%
Overall Feeling: hyper-active

With less than a month left of my internship, I'm starting to have mixed feelings about leaving this island I call home (home is a transient idea to me at this point). I'm trying to savor all the oddities and simple things that make BCI a special place. Having mint tea on the balcony as a cargo ship slips past the island through the Canal. Running on Pipeline Road and seeing toucans hover over my head. Drunken salsa dancing on the balcony and skinny-dipping in the canal. Having three square meals a day with great company. Enjoying a view of the Milky Way while on a late night boat ride back to the island from the city. Working in the field and getting pooped on by curious monkeys. Basically, I live a stress free life among good people in a beautiful place and I fear that it can’t get much better than this.

The next 26 days are kind of ridiculous. I’ll travel to Bocas del Toro for five days next week, then I leave for St. Louis, MO for four days. After that I head back to Panama for 5 days until I board my flight for Orlando on March 5. I’ll be busy, I’ll be an emotional roller coaster, and I’ll be looking forward to my return (most likely temporary) to gringo-land.

In less than a month, I’ll have moved back in with my mom with no plans for the immediate future. Although the mystery of the unknown feels invigorating, I feel like whatever I do won’t be as wonderful as these past six months have been. I totally understand that once you experience Panama and live on BCI, something pulls you back here again and again. I guess I thought I would be sick of it by now. Sharing space with the same people, the same faces, in the same walls, the same stories, the same food, the same schedule… same same same and yet it’s like everyday brings something new to my perspective and makes me appreciate the life I lead. I am currently not ready to go yet...