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Published: November 26th 2012
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Chris and Me
This picture doesn't do him justice, but I just feel like putting one of his facebook pictures on my blog just ups this to a whole new level of creepy. Ok, a LOT has happened over the past few days...
Let's start on Thanksgiving day. I grabbed a shower late in the morning and then started preparing my lunch. So there I am, standing in my kitchen with a towel wrapped around my head and no makeup on when suddenly someone is knocking on my window. At first I thought maybe it was someone coming to fumigate my house to get rid of the spiders, but then I looked and saw that it was a white woman. I took the towel off of my head and quickly fluffed my hair before answering the door. Apparently, some tourists made it all the way down to my house. I answered their questions and then left kind of hastily. They continued looking around down near my house and I put on some makeup and messed with my hair so that I looked presentable and went back down. I talked to them for a good ten minutes. The woman who knocked was a yoga instructor, but there were a few other people with her as well. She just seemed so amazed that I was living there and gave me her contact information in case
Melissa and Me
Here's Melissa and me being goofballs in my house. It's such a small world. I still can't get over it. they were planning on coming back again so that I could meet up with them. I walked up to the main office not long after they did and started working on my computer.
Later, I was complaining to Nadia that I was missing Thanksgiving and she told me that Los Quetzales has Thanksgiving dinner every year. She called down and found out the information for me, and I paid my $15 bucks to get some yummy food. When I walked into the room I realized it was full of white people all around my age. Nadia had told me that there would be Peace Corps people, but I didn't realize it would be ALL peace corps people.
I proceeded to crash the Peace Corps party.
I got in line for food and started chatting with the girl behind me, Bridgette, waiting for that awkward moment when she asked me where I was stationed. It eventually happened and I told her I was just an intern who heard that there was Thanksgiving dinner. Her response was a worried "Oh! Did you pay?" followed by a hasty "I mean, I won't tell anyone if you didn't" I told her I did, laughed and asked her if I could sit with her and her friends. I went to their table where it was so crowded that people were sharing chairs. A girl named Kelsey was sharing a chair with me. I had a glass of wine because we toasted at the beginning of the meal, and then after we ate Kelsey invited me to her house to "pre-game." What I didn't realize, was that this was an actual party. I went back to her house and had a dixie cup of boxed wine and was talking to the people around me. They asked where I went to school and I said Messiah College.
Suddenly, from the hammock behind me I hear I "Omigosh I went there for two years!" As it turns out, her name is Melissa and she went on the exact same Tropical Ecology course that I took, but in 2006. Her group was the group that found the salamander I'm supposed to be describing? On top of that, she had even applied for an internship at Finca Dracula, the same place I'm interning!!!! It is a REALLY REALLY REALLY small world sometimes.
I chatted with her for a good half hour and we ended up agreeing that she should stay at my house the next night. Then I accompanied her to the party. I wanted to get some Sangria, but apparently they were only serving that with dinner, so I had a rum and Coke. I'll point out at that at this point it was a good two hours since I had had the glass of wine, so I was not drinking in excess or anything (I don't want to worry any family members reading this blog!). The atmosphere was weird. Apparently the night before things had gotten a little bit out of hand, so tonight things were chill, but not, all at the same time. The music was the weirdest part. It wasn't loud enough to dance to, but it wasn't quiet enough to talk without shouting. Anyway, Melissa said hi to her very attractive friend Chris, and then I started talking to him. And then I kept talking to him. He bought me another rum and coke and then eventually we stepped off of the dance floor and sat to the side since we weren't dancing. It was still hard to hear there, so we went out on the porch where Chris could freeze to death in short sleeves. I gave him my very thin scarf to keep warm and then laughed at him for wearing a girly scarf. Then the following conversation ensued:
Emily: "Just for the record, you're really cute"
Chris: "I was thinking the same thing."
Emily: "You think you're really cute?"
Chris: (laughs) "No, you are!"
Emily: "You have a thing for redheads, huh?"
Chris: "I didn't know that until about an hour ago, but I guess I do."
We ended up talking for a couple of hours and then agreed to meet up for fresas con crema at 9:30 the next morning.
I then broke Erik Lindquist's number one rule to me, and walked up to my place in the dark. Oops.
I woke up the next morning, got ready, and went down to meet Chris. We met at Los Quetzales first and he asked me if I wanted to get breakfast with him. We ate the buffet breakfast there and he paid for mine too. He's so sweet. He had forgotten his Nalgene water bottle back where he had been staying, so we grabbed fresas con crema after breakfast and then went to the 22 person cabin where he had been staying. We were going to walk the whole way, which was a fairly long walk, but someone picked us up and brought us back. We exchanged contact information, stared longingly into each other eyes (dramatized for effect), and then he left. I need to go visit him in his electricity-less hut in the Darién.
I went upstairs, found Melissa and her friend Lauren and told them I was ready when they were. We went to the grocery store first and then lugged everything up to Finca Dracula, only to walk back down the mountain for lunch. We ate lunch at the fresas con crema place and talked with a little girl who was showing us her light-up shoes. Then we hiked it back up the mountain. Lauren decided she wanted to take a nap, so Melissa and I hung out in the living room and talked for four hours. Eventually, Lauren woke up and we went up to the main office to use the internet. I loaded some money onto my Skype account and we called Erik Lindquist, the professor that we both had for the Tropical Ecology trip to Panama.
(ring ring ring ring)
voice: Hello?
Emily: Hey, it's Emily from Panama. Who'm I talkin' to?
Abbey: Hey Em, it's Abbey.
Emily: Abbey! How ya doin, hun? Is your dad around?
Abbey: Yeah, they just walked in the door. Dad! It's Emily from Panama!
(Erik takes the phone)
Erik: Hey Emily
Melissa: Actually, it's Melissa (w/e her last name is).
Erik: Oh! Hey! (in the background he tells Abbey it's not Emily, it's Melissa)
Emily: And it's Emily too.
Erik: Oh, okay. (pause) Wait. WHAT?!
And then we continued to explain to him the ridiculous coincidence that was us meeting. He seemed really glad that we called and then told me some information about permit-related things. After talking with Erik and friending each other on facebook, we walked back down to my house.
We spent a good hour getting dinner ready and trying to start a fire. Apparently, plastic bags burn really well, so that's how we started the fire. We're all going to get cancer now, but at least we were warm! Then we sat around talking, drinking, and roasting marshmallows on forks in my fireplace, until we decided it was time for bed.
They left the next morning and I decided I was going to Volcan by myself. And I'll write about those experiences tomorrow... right now, I'm tired and want to go to bed.
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Grandma Linn
non-member comment
Great!
I am so excited that you got to spend some time with similar English speaking people. What a story! Grandpa said this is long! I just read it the second time. It requires a comment. I was sad that you had to spend your weekends alone; this made up for it. It was also great talking to you, listening to you, and seeing you Saturday. We had a nice time. See you soon! We love you and are proud of you.