Panama arrival!

So here I am, in Panama! We arrived last night and it was already dark (because the days and nights here remain pretty even throughout the year, none of that extended summer days stuff) so we couldn't see anything flying in. We did drive through Panama City and came to our training location for the next few days. It's an old military base now called Ciudad del Saber - "City of Knowledge" - that is right next to the canal. So if I go down the street and look out I see giant cruise ships and container ships that look like they're parked on the mountain. I haven't had time yet to go down and watch the locks. Today was our first full day of training. Lots of paperwork to sign and yadda. And we met our CEC trainers and did a little interview to talk about what we want to do and what kind of site we would like to be placed in. I stressed that I would love to be on the coast working with sea turtles and/or mangrove forests and it sounded promising, so yay for that! :) We also took our inital Spanish test to see which level we need to be in for the lessons. It was nerve wracking! The Spanish teachers genuinely do not speak English. I think I did alright on the test (it was a verbal conversation), but I could have done better. I could understand most of what she was asking but I couldn't pull the words out of my head to respond to everything. But I'm sure that in three months all that will change and I'll be a master Spanish linguist. :)
So we're here until Sunday, doing full days of training, and than we go to Santa Clara to move in with our host family for the next 10 weeks. I know I wrote about Santa Clara in the last post but, for a new update, it turns out there are at least three Santa Clara's here in Panama. And the one we're going to is not the beautiful nice beach town. The one we're going to is not not on the beach. Sadness. But that's ok, it'll probably be better for my learning experience anyway. :)
The weather here is very hot and humid. Well, not too outrageously hot, but very very humid. Like, you walk outside and start sweating immediately. Literally. All the people with glasses keep laughing because they walk outside and their glasses fog up. And when it rains, boy does it rain. It rains super hard, with thunder and lightening, for at most an hour. Than it stops for a good couple of hours, than you see the clouds darken up and the thunder starts and more rain. But not until the afternoon, the morning are pretty rain-free. Oh, and lots of palm trees of course. :) Real, native ones even. Not like the imported ones in CA.
So yea, that's about it for now. I'm here, happy and safe. Training is long hours, but interesting and obviously important and useful. I'm able to write this update now because the Ciudad del Saber is where the actual Panama PC office is so there are computers for us volunteers to use. Once we leave on Sunday I'm not sure how often I'll have access. But you know I'll update when I can. I love you all and miss you already! :)