Pistons Poppin,' Ain't No Stoppin' Now

   Wheels down, bags out, training on.  We touched down in Panama City yesterday and are now living it up in the Ciudad del Saber (City of Knowledge*).  The next few days are nicknamed "retreat week" because we get to live in an old military housing compound with furniture, wireless internet and AIRCON. Alas, these luxuries will be short lived - we are moving in with our host families on Monday, at which point I will stumble my way through learning to speak comprehensible Spanish and no doubt consume at least 700 pounds of rice and beans per week.

     Our training schedule is very structured and very busy, with four hours of language training in the morning (we are broken up into small groups with peers of similar skill levels) and four hours of technical training in the afternoon.  Evenings we are encouraged to spend mostly with our host families, to better learn the language and culture (rather than hang out with fellow trainees).  I will probably do this, given the dreadful state of my Spanish.

   Saturday we visit an active Peace Corps site, which should be awesome.  Will update when there are more interesting things to talk about (i.e. host family, the actual training, etc.)

   By the way, I have been here only one day and so far consumed four plantains, six pounds of rice, and listened to the song "Panama" seven times.  I have decided to keep track and update the count each time I blog - this should serve to give everyone an idea of our diet and of my strange obsession with a mediocre song.

Panama Count: 7
Plantain Count: 4
Pounds of Rice and Beans: 6

*I didn't know you were allowed to give cities names this cool.  If I ever name a city, it will be something along the lines of, "City of Everlasting Virtue," or "City of Pizza."  I want any comments on this post to be exclusively suggestions of awesome city names.