Last Day of Work!! (aug 17)

Well, it's been 10 long weeks but I have made it to the end. Today is my last day of work and it's going by smoothly. I have a few projects that I'm trying to wrap up but other than that it's a normal day in the Consular Section.

The past few days have been good. On Tuesday night we were supposed to go to the Opera however the tickets were sold out when we tried to buy them. Instead we went to dinner at this great place called Twist. It had a nice ambiance, Thai-inspired menu and wonderful service. I really appreciate it when a restaurant operates like a well-oiled machine. It means the managers are doing a fine job training their employees and here in Panama...it's not often you find that.

Wednesay evening I went out to dinner with one of my coworkers and her husband. She wanted to thank me for all of the work I've done over the summer and in her transition to our department. We went to Crepes and Waffles a funky place that reminded me of Gladys Knights' Chicken and Waffles in Atlanta. I ordered a curried shrimp and spinach crepe and had strawberry ice cream for dinner. The serving size was big and the food was appetizing.

Thursday was a very interesting day. Panama is currently going through some problems because Suntracs (a union) is fighting with another large union group. The other union killed a member of Suntracs in the midst of their arguing. This sparked quite a few riots throughout the city and countryside. The Embassy was telling families to keep their children home from school and were sending employees home early from work to avoid the protests and traffic jams. At first it was kinda scary/daunting because on nearly every block you saw a red-beret, MK-47 toting army guy standing guard. However it seemed the situation had dissipated by the end of the day when I left work and was back to some sense of normality. That morning I was supposed to go on a boat tour of the Canal with the Association of the West Indies Heritage Center. It was to highlight the efforts of the West Indies workers during the construction of the Canal. The story behind this experience is tooo long to type but it'll suffice to say we spent 3 hours trying to find the launching dock of the boat and the Canal authorities' left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. I had a good time with the 3 other ladies with whom I was traveling but I was really looking forward to that tour and history lesson. Thursday evening Yolanda and I went to a crafts fair with over 450 vendors showcasing their work. It was a tiring experience to walk up and down each aisle but it was fun still. I was able to purchase a few more trinkets/souvenirs.

I have made checked in for my flights tomorrow and printed my boarding passes. Unfortunately I have a 5 hour layover in Newark because all the flights through Houston were full. I will probably pass the time by chatting on my cell phone for the first time in 10 weeks and/or reading a book in Borders. I am prone to reading whole books in the airport lol and there's actually a new book I saw online I wanted to read.

Hmmmm....