Funny how life got way too full all of a sudden. I know this happens just before the new school year begins, but I am so accustomed to that happening in late August, not the end of July. Let’s see, I had it all organized in Cincinnati. Why did I jump ship and start all over again? When I wake up at 2:00 am and my mind is racing, I do wonder about this adventure. Yet, on the other hand, I am just so excited about all the new challenges. My brain is way too full, but it I having way too much fun, too. I finally figured out how to eliminate the Spanish operating system and now get to spend my evenings reformatting a bunch of netbook computers. It is something to do while watching nothing on TV. Yep, with over 200 channels, reformatting computers is better than what is on TV . I am back to doing a lot of “technical” work that Dave and Kurt had happily taken from me when I was at CHCA. But that is ok.
So, today is day 9 of in-service. It’s a little sad that I wouldn’t have snow days anymore. I hate the snow, but the excitement of a snow day is too much fun. I did find out that I might have an occasional day off that is unexpected. There is a cemetery around the back of the school across a small creek. This makes the school landlocked, which is why the school won’t be able to expand out, only up. But the cemetery is quite old and is known as a “bad guy” cemetery. I guess they have no place to bury the bad guys except at this cemetery. Occasionally, the school may have to close (or a lockdown it happens after school starts) if the police “think” there might be trouble at a funeral. Also, if the police “think” that an excepted riot in the city may cause issues with students being transported to/from school, they may request the school close for the day. It has happened, yet it was almost always a false alarm, but better to be safe. Yes, a different country.
Tried to try to open a bank account today. We went loaded with papers. Panamanian banks are very, very careful about who can open bank accounts because of all the illegal sources of money in this part of the world. We had lots of letters of reference from several of our U.S. banks. We had our passports, driver’s licenses, this and that. BUT, the letters of reference only had Wayne’s name on them (since they were joint accounts we didn’t have both names put in the letters). Apparently, we each need a set of letters with each of names in them. And we didn’t have our marriage certificate with the amazing stamps from the Panamanian Consultate with us. Plus, we needed a letter for a lawyer saying I was working on visa. So, back to gathering more documents. This is nothing like in the U.S. where you can open a bank account in less than thirty minutes and even walk out with a toaster.
We met our new friends Sunday night and dined on the canal. I haven’t noticed the cost of living here to be all that much less, but you can go to a restaurant that is completely outdoors and next to the entrance to the canal (ABSOLUTELY beautiful) and dine very reasonably. We met our friends there at 4:00. After a bit of time, we had to go to the bar to get our own drinks, since the waitress still hadn’t noticed us. (no, it was not busy). Had to stand at the bar for awhile, since there was only one bartender, but then there was only one other customer as well. Finally at 5:30 (90 minutes later, thankfully we weren’t in a hurry), we went to go scout for a waitress. How many times have I mentioned customer service? So we went at 4:00, finally got the bill and paid it at 7:30. Granted, we were having a great time and the evening was very pleasant, so it was OK, but I wouldn’t recommend going there if you are in a hurry! Made me think when we had the CEO of Chick-Fil-A at school talking about customer service. Wonder how he would find employees, if he wanted to expand down here with his restaurants. Or might he revolutionize the country showing what good customer service looks like?
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