Tristan and Jennifer's Visit!! aka, the rest of December and the beginning of 2014

And so we continue. I don't know in what order you are reading my posts, but the previous entry covered the culmination of my cinematic career to date, which ended on December 19^th, 2013.

I went back to site for a whole weekend, a long weekend to boot, to relax, see the very involved nativities that nearly every household arrays on their porch, and visit with people, before going back to the city on Tuesday, December 24^th, aka, my birthday to fetch my Best Birthday Present Ever.

Right around noon, Tristan and Jennifer arrived for a visit of about 6 days! We stayed in the city and wandered Casco Viejo, ending with a celebratory birthday dinner at a nice restaurant before turning in early for the night. At about 5 AM on Christmas morning, our ride arrive to bring us to San Blas, where we spend the day and the following day reading and relaxing on the beach, snorkeling with fish and corals and fish and squid and sand dollars and sea stars. There were uncountable stars in the sky, and little phosphorescent critter-algae-stars in the Caribbean Sea. It was incredible, as anticipated, and T and I saw a waterspout stretching from the clouds to the water, very near another of the islands.

On Thursday, after some logistical difficulties because Panama, we made it all the way back to my house where I introduced T&J to my familia panameña, and we walked around town to see the sights, plants, leaves, and decided to head to El Valle on the following day.

Bright and early on Friday, we bussed with all of our luggage around and up to El Valle where we stayed at a hostel at the Orchid House with my PCV friends Julie and Nate. We saw the true freak-of-nature square trees, La India's profile, the mercado, and visited the thermal hot springs and got volcanic mud facial masks. In the evening we went out for pizza with PCV friends, and spent the evening playing games and generally chilling.

Saturday saw us back to the City, where after depositing our belongings, we went out to visit the Canal at Miraflores, where we went through the museum and watched a huge cargo ship moving through a set of gates.

That evening, we had a final meal of Indian food, and on Monday morning, we went to the airport where I very reluctantly left T&J to take their flight back to the Frozen North.

I went to spend the night at my friend Catherine's house before going back to the city Just Once More, to ring in the New Year with a whole bundle of PCVS in a hotel in the center of town. We watched the Times Square Ball Drop, and then ran between our set of hotel rooms watching about 20 different fireworks displays in different parts of the city.

2014 began with a bang, and the first couple weeks saw me packing up and moving out of my house in preparation to leave service at the end of February, and as I write this, I've been living with my host family for nearly 2 weeks, and have just over a month left in Panama!

December 2013 part 1!

December was a fun-filled, action-packed set of 31 days!

As I said in my previous post, the month started with a AIDS awareness flashmob, COS conference, and a brush with fame and fortune, all in the first week or so. As the month progressed, I had a spell of temporary insanity, which involved 2 more trips to The City to be in the movie.

On the anticipated Sunday mentioned in my last blogpost, I went with an Argentinean friend I'd met on that first occasion, and we sat and watched boxing matches, cheered and boo'ed silently and loudly, and did more of the same as we were moved hither and yon between the floor seats and the bleachers and this side and that side. While standing in line, we met with a friendly Spaniard who'd just moved to Panama the day before, and who heard about the movie by a casting guy visiting the hostel where he was staying.

Monday, I tore myself away from the glitz and glamor to try to be a responsible PCV and made the trek back to Santa Rita.

But not for long.

That night, I received a phone call from Castinglady asking me (aka, gringa) to come in on Tuesday to be in an airplane scene, which after about 20 minutes of soulsearching, I decided to do. However, a scant 5 minutes after I'd decided go, she called me back to rescind her offer, but said I could come in and do crowd scenes on Wednesday anyway.

Bright and early Wednesday morning I arrived at the meeting point, bussed to the filming location, and waited in lines for several hours to register, eat breakfast, be costumed, and get made up. (My jeans are movie star jeans!) I met the Spaniard from Sunday again over breakfast, and he pointed out 6 or 7 other participants from his hostel and talked about this and that until they started getting ready to film and the extras-director-guy put us in different sections.

After being moved here and there, sometimes by entire section, sometimes in smaller groups, I was picked in a selection of about 12 to be in the lobby of Madison Square Gardens! My role was to sit on a bench (with a side effect that my shoes showed, and so I was given a pair of fabulous purple platform heels) and talk to a fellow who turned out to be a German hostel-mate of the Spaniard, who spoke English and Spanish, so I didn't get a chance/the necessity to work of the courage to try unearthing mein Deutsch. But, I got to spend several hours talking to this fellow, because that's what the extra-director guy kept telling us to do. The actually exciting part was when Robert de Niro entered the scene, literally and figuratively :-D This scene was his entrance into the stadium, and as my friend and I had stationary orders near the door, he repeatedly walked within several feet of us, and on a couple takes, was standing in close proximity! Robert de Niro looked at me. Highlight!

After we finished that scene, we went back into the main arena and did more of the exciting cheering and booing etc, and this German and I took turns napping on each others shoulders, because it was that exciting...and about 10 PM, having started the day around 8 AM.

I went back for the final day of filming in this go-round on Thursday, and met yet another fellow from the same hostel as the Spaniard and the German, this one an older gentleman, possibly American, with a fantastic white goatee and mustache. We talked through scenes and movements, and although it didn't have the same excitement level as the previous day, it was entertaining enough, I got to wear my purple platforms again, met more interesting people, and I can officially and literally say, “Been there, got the t-shirt.”

and that's enough of that, so TBC with Tristan and Jennifer's visit!