Panamá Day 7: Of Course You Do

Buenos días!  This morning we left at 9:30am for our LAST class at University of Panamá with a lady that gave us a potpurri of different indigenous dances of Panamá.  It was such a different and unique experience to participate with a folklore dance form and wear fun big skirts while twirling around moving our caderas!  It was so GREAT!

After class we went to eat at ‘Penchas’ which was the biggest lunch that we have had yet.  We got the choice between shrimp or cream of corn soup, an entree of fried shrimp with rice or yuca and the option of chicken pasta.  Everyone really enjoyed the food and atmosphere. 
We hurried back to the hostel and grabbed our things while the other groups left for Malambo again.  We were running late and got to San Felipe around 2:15.  Dr. Jen and Lili didn’t have their boys today so they stayed at the hostel to relax but that meant that I didn’t have MY boys either 🙁 This sweetheart below (Ande) loves to follow me around at San Felipe and is the sweetest thing ever.  He is very shy but so loving. He turns six on Sunday.
I let the girls warm up with Blair and Brigitte’s girls and then we separated to practice our dances and show them to each other.  My girls did AMAZING and were right on count with the music and remember the dance so easily it made my day!  We loved seeing the hard work that the girls and groups had put into the routines.  
Before we left San Felipe, a down pour let loose.  We waited for a while but then we had to get back and walk in the rain.  Guess who forgot her raincoat.  Moi.
We had a few hours before we left for dinner so we hit up a café and had hot chocolate with Carina and Dr. Jen.  Then, Mama T, Paige, Olive, Sav, Rianna, and I walked down to find some costumes and accessories for our girls and the performance!  It rained a lot more but this time I was prepared 🙂  I got lucky and found some cute coverups for my girls that matched flower headbands! YAY costumes check!
When we got back we all took showers to get ready to go out to ‘Beirut’ for dinner.  They specialize in Lebanese food and had a sweet belly dancing show.  That sure is one genre of dance that I haven’t tried!  It is intense and seems like one would need a lot of abdominal control.  The American Embassy joined us for dinner and one of the ladies was from South Carolina.  From Aiken. Graduated from South Aiken.  Um… let’s talk about small world! Amazing the connections made all across the world.  Some crazy men got mad that we were taking to long to eat and told us to go back to our country.  Wow, never thought I would hear that one.  Crazy men indeed. 
We decided that we would have a night for ourselves out dancing so we went to one place but Savannah and Rianna were too young so the five of us decided to leave and go to ‘Habana-Panamá’ which is an underground salsa club.  When we got there no one was dancing and we felt really lame but went out on the dance floor anyways.  Well that opened it up for everyone and couples started coming out to dance, a live band began to sing and play, as well as professional dancers on stage.  It was great to watch, but no one was asking the gringos. UNTIL, one older gentleman came and asked me to dance and completely led me through salsa and turns and was SUCH a great leader.  I was so impressed and thought it was one of the coolest things to be in an underground, local salsa club in Panamá, dancing with a super nice guy that could lead me to dance something completely foreign to me.  It was the best experience!  We of course told everyone about our show throughout the night and everyone is very eager to come watch!
We left ‘Habana-Panamá’ and went back to ‘Tantalos’ and danced and had fun in the rain on the rooftop overlooking the skyline of Panamá with a storm lighting up the sky in the distance.  What a great night and it is so fun to meet new and exciting people from all over the world with different life experiences and stories!  

*The title of this blog is an inside joke that everytime someone says something cool or neat about themselves we all say ‘Of course you do.’