TheExpatJournals.com

Well, it feels akin to that in-between hair stage on this board right now. There are lots of things happening in the neighborhood, but I’m not well enough informed to actually write about any of it.
Prices in the renovated areas here have soared. The little house next door, a small two story place that needs total renovation but is in an amazing location has sold. Don’t know how much, but did find out that $130,000 was too little. There is more organization in the works among property owners here…all good. Lots and lots and as soon as I know enough not to sound like I’ve simply picked up bits and pieces, I’ll let you know. So many colorful stories about absentee owners of
prime properties here in Casco Viejo. There finally seems to be a swell towards cracking down on speculation by the negligent absentee owners.

Rentals still seem to be slow moving around here. The Union Club is still falling apart without the Decamron folks beginning to build. For me, that’s a relief. I loathe the thought of the dust and noise it will create…something anyone looking anywhere in Panama City needs to consider. Is there an empty lot next to where you’re moving? Then a building will probably go up. Loud for a long time. That and club noise at 2AM on Friday and Saturday. I have a friend who lives on the 35th floor of a building on Avenida Balboa who is never home on the weekends. So last Friday, at home for the first time in recent memory, he realized how loud a disco behind him was. So then we all go over to Taboga where the hotel next to the house we were in had a birthday party and music that I feel certain could be heard at least on Amador, miles away, until 3AM. Make no mistake, this is a LOUD culture. I’ve said it time and time again, this place makes New York City seem like a silent movie.

I’m still amazed at the reality of seasonal views here. I should post before and after shots of the view out the front of my apartment. The trees have completely lost their leaves, something I had only associated with winter in the States, but happens in the dry season here. In some ways, the dry season does encompass our fall and winter without the temperatur  shifts. And, btw, I’m surprised I never missed the snow this year. Of course, for the last two years, we had record cold Januarys in NYC. I think last year, the high for the month was about 18. Still remember one night when, with the wind chill, it was -29 while the thermometer was -6. Let the full blast of wind that temperature at 20mph, though closer to double that due to the canyon effect of the skyscrapers in midtown, hit you as you turn a corner and, well, Chicago didn’t have much on us. I had a curly lamb/sheekpskin coat for those extreme times. Made in Scotland, the thing was an upper body work out just to lift it was so heavy. I could wear a silk t-shirt, a lightweight fleece hoodie and that coat and actually perspire while walking no matter what the temp or windchill. Sheepskin lined boots, wool socks and weather was irrelevant. Was perhaps why I always liked the cold so much and hated the heat. As I used to say, you can always dress for the cold, but the heat…even naked wouldn’t help alleviate the temperature in NYC in the middle of a 100 degree heat wave which bakes the buildings and even if there is a breeze, it’s like a heater blowing on you in addition to the heat.

Jeez…I write that and wonder what there was to miss! Actually, I LOVE snow. Figured if I end up missing it that much, I’ll just visit my son in Massachusetts. He’s leaving Boston this summer to head towards Amherst and western Mass is seemingly snow covered from Nov/Dec until March. And I’ve had such a surprisingly easy time adapting to the tropical temperatures, that it begins to dawn on me that my hatred of the heat stemmed primarily from how horrid it was in NYC in the summer. No wonder everyone leaves the city for the summer!

I mean, it gets hot here, but not like that. The humidity is definitely a force to deal with in the rainy season, but I LOVE the dark and intense thunderstorms. And I love how green everything is. And I love how it moisturizes the skin and curls the hair. I’ve learned to keep everything in the fridge…like sugar, salt, and especially bread or crackers. Salt I can leave out during the dry season, but the ants are impossible to get rid of and find anything sweet. And they’re not the normal ants. They are these miniscule little things that remind me of tilt a whirls they move around so spasmodically. For some reason…maybe I’ve just gotten used to them…they don’t bother me like normal ants do. Maybe it’s because they don’t bite like the larger ants here do. In any event, my sugar stays year round in the fridge. I’ve always kept flour in the freezer
because otherwise, it goes stale.

And now that I’ve been through a dry season, it’s mostly an ideal temperature thanks to the breezes that currently are absent. I may never get used to seeing fires out in the country that no one comes to put out. And not a weekend went by that I didn’t see at least one. Hell, twice there was a fire in the brush/garbage on the beach side between the Union Club and the entrance to the Paseo in front of me. One night last week, it was a group of boys lighting the fire just for the fun of it. I yelled at them from the balcony and an adult came out and put a stop to it. They scattered when I yelled. The fire was getting high and they kept throwing things on to burn. I could see the now leafless tree going up next. Once the adult was there, they put it out.

My maid has adapted to using my vacuum cleaner…a scarce household item down here…and I’ve adapted to ‘using’ my maid. Boy, it didn’t take me long to get used to having a maid! I love it! For so long, I wouldn’t load anything in addition to what she opted to do. I have a friend who started urging me to have her cook, have her do this, do that. And now, I’m no longer reluctant to point out to her what I prefer. I think it was sort of like riding horses…I always feel bad for them having to carry me rather than taking charge. Ironic since I can be pretty take charge.

For example, I drink a lot of lemonade. Love it. Gave up soda, but still prefer sugar to splenda in lemonade. I have her make it for me. And then I noticed a glass that had lots of lemon bits left after washing. So I set it out for her to wash again. It ended up back in the cabinet with the same lemon bits clinging to the inside. This time, I spoke with her about it. Now, she’ll use the scratch pad part of the sponge and make sure they’re clean. Simple. No drama. No tension. I think managing in that easy going, non-confrontational manner was what I feared being a problem. One day a month or so ago, I had pointed out a spot on the floor that was murky and she asked if I wanted someone new to clean. Leave it to me to find a prima dona maid! But she’s great. And, btw, the last lemonade I had was from what I picked off a tree in the backyard of where we stayed in Taboga. That’s a first for me! Now, I realize I’m easily amused, but there was something quite satisfying about having lemonade from lemons I picked. Maybe one day, it will be from lemons I grow!

Another New Yorker wrote me this week and asked me if “I still loved Panama as much as I did when I first got here.” Resoundingly YES. Perhaps more and more. “Was it true that I had not missed NYC?” I still haven’t missed it for a moment. The first time I tried to leave NYC, I would watch TV or go to a movie and see scenes set in the city and feel the worst kind of homesick. Gone. I wrote in a journal last summer about all that Panama was for me and added, “I get all of this just for leaving NY?”

I even wrote a friend about how surprising it has been for me to adapt to running on Panama time. That is perhaps the most shocking thing of all. I’m used to fast efficiency…non-existant here. Again, first time I left NYC, I remember driving through a McDonalds to get one of their wonderful Cokes. How is it that McDonald’s Coca Cola tastes perhaps better than any other I’ve ever had and yes, it has been quite something for me to give up Coca Cola especially when it costs about
.25 a bottle here. Anyway, no one was at the drive in. Through the box, she asks me to wait a minute. I wait a minute. Then I say, “Hello?” She responds, “M’am…I asked you to wait a minute!” I respond, “Excuse me, but the last time I checked this was a FAST FOOD restaurant!!” She takes my order for a Coke and I get it with attitude. No problem. New Yorkers know attitude like no one else. Bring it on! You will be shut down.

Doesn’t exist for me here. Don’t know where the impatience went. Don’t even know how it departed, but it’s gone. Wednesday, my neighbor tells me that the keys to my apartment are missing from her house. We share a maid. I assume she has them. Instead of picking up the phone and calling the maid, I just naturally decide to wait until Friday and ask. No big deal. Sr. Lara is supposed to be working on the apartment upstairs. Been 3 weeks and he still hasn’t started. No big deal. I had to go to Cochez to buy all the materials for the roof repair and ceiling replacement. That’s about a five minute drive. Took me an hour and 15 minutes round trip JUST TO PAY! No big deal.

Keep thinking about horrible floods in the midwest sometime in the early 90’s. Folks waiting as long to get water as folks waited to vote in some polling places last election. People were edgy and angry and complaining. Then they interviewed thi  one man. His attitude was, “I can stand in line complaining or I can stand in line and keep myself amused. Either way, I’m gonna be standing in line.”

And the Colombian architect in the neighborhood who was so nasty to me last summer because I didn’t speak Spanish actually complimented my Spanish. He said I had learned a lot of Spanish in six months. I felt like I must be making some progress, but the strangest thing has happened. The more I learn, the less I feel like I know. I am so frustrated that I don’t speak fluently. I miss all the best jokes with my friends and feel like a jerk when they have to translate into English for my benefit. Comedic timing is never as good when it’s being explained. The joke might be equally funny in English, but I’ve missed the moment shared with the others. And maybe, I have learned enough to go to school to learn more. It’s becoming an internal need…the only kind that truly motivates. Knowing in my head never prompts me into the kind of action that knowing on a deeper level does.

I love Panama and without being in the equivalent of infatuation, do not for a moment doubt my decision to live in Casco Viejo. As far as I’m concerned, there are only two places in the whole of the city that are safe real estate investments: Casco Viejo, La Cresta and Amador. Ask anybody. Everywhere else, property values decrease, not increase. And I think the end of the beginning is over or as close to almost as it gets. We’re now in the next phase…whatever that is called.