"This is Panama" is a common catchphrase here. When something is crazy good or phenomenally bad, saying "This is Panama" allows you to shrug it off and move on.
For example, my favorite bling flip flops that caused no problems in Dallas, make me look like I've been stomping in coal with a hoard of street urchins in Panama. Every week when I get a pedicure, my pedicurist tells me to stop wearing the shoes. Stop wearing my most comfy walking shoes? Never! After all, this is Panama.
On the good side, people tend to be more caring. I have a friend named Tracy from the Mid-West who is here with her four daughters. One of the teenagers took the car on a major road and promptly got into an accident. The man whose car she hit has daughters of his own and helped to take care of everything. Now, Tracy is friends with the man whose car was hit because they had loco teenage daughters in common. This is Panama.
On New Year's Day, I did my first load of laundry in my new apartment and then took a shower. When I got out of the shower, there was three inches of water covering the main rooms of the apartment. Someone had pulled the washing machine hose out of the wall drain and all of the water had dumped onto the floor. As I was sweeping water onto my balcony and into the drain, I kept saying to myself... This is Panama. The good news is that even though it was a pain to clean up, it did absolutely no damage. All of the floors here are tile, and the furniture typically has 4" legs on the bottom. I guess flooding is typical. This is Panama.
If you learn to take the bad in stride and focus on the good, Panama can be an amazingly wonderful place. I've made quite a few friends in Panama City already. This is Panama... and I love it!
For example, my favorite bling flip flops that caused no problems in Dallas, make me look like I've been stomping in coal with a hoard of street urchins in Panama. Every week when I get a pedicure, my pedicurist tells me to stop wearing the shoes. Stop wearing my most comfy walking shoes? Never! After all, this is Panama.
On the good side, people tend to be more caring. I have a friend named Tracy from the Mid-West who is here with her four daughters. One of the teenagers took the car on a major road and promptly got into an accident. The man whose car she hit has daughters of his own and helped to take care of everything. Now, Tracy is friends with the man whose car was hit because they had loco teenage daughters in common. This is Panama.
On New Year's Day, I did my first load of laundry in my new apartment and then took a shower. When I got out of the shower, there was three inches of water covering the main rooms of the apartment. Someone had pulled the washing machine hose out of the wall drain and all of the water had dumped onto the floor. As I was sweeping water onto my balcony and into the drain, I kept saying to myself... This is Panama. The good news is that even though it was a pain to clean up, it did absolutely no damage. All of the floors here are tile, and the furniture typically has 4" legs on the bottom. I guess flooding is typical. This is Panama.
If you learn to take the bad in stride and focus on the good, Panama can be an amazingly wonderful place. I've made quite a few friends in Panama City already. This is Panama... and I love it!
RSS Feed