My new accommodation

I am in new place more than one week, so I think it is time to post first impressions.

I live in a flat with two rooms and one bigger room, which fulfills the role of living room together with kitchen. It is a small flat, but it looks, that I will stay there longer time, which is great, that I finally have the permanent place to stay.

There should be living there three of us - Shelly (former AIESECer), Carlos (her uncle, if I remember well) and me, but since I have moved to the flat, I have seen Carlos twice. But anyway it is not very important for me, as again I am getting used to the same day schedule as I was used to last few years - wake up in morning, going to the office (or school), in the evening go somewhere with friends, coming back late, go to bed and wake up in the morning. As I used to say, what I need is the bed and shower - and I have it, with only small difficulity, that in the shower we have only cold water, which makes it sometimes not very comfortable.

Another big advantage of my new place is its position near park - after one year of doing literally nothing for my health I started to go jogging. The 10 kilograms, which I gained during last year and MC Takeover party, when I was not able to raise my hand after playing volleyball for half a day were a big motivation to start doing something with me. I am just curious, how long will I keep it.

On the other hand it takes me 50 minutes to get to office (most of time it is in traffic jam). I have to take two "diablos rojos" (= red devils) - this is the unofficial name for public transportation here. I think I will publish a special post on this topic (but I think the nickname of buses tells a lot).

And last but not least - one big advantage of my new place is the fact, that Shelly doesn't speak english very much, so I am forced to speak in spanish. We agreed, that when talking she will speak only english and I will speak only spanish. Which is great, because we both are improving our language skills, on the other hand our conversation is currently at the 4-years old children...

Beer guide for visitors from Central Europe

If you are used to the Czech or Slovak beer, use this guide when coming to Central America to prevent the mistakes I did.

In Costa Rica you have basically 3 brands of what they call beer: Imperial, Pilsen (yes, they have a beer called Pilsen) and Rock Ice. Based on my examination I would say, that Imperial is a good beer, and lot of people say, that it is the best one here. It is the strongest brand here, you can order it almost in every bar in Costa Rica. Maybe because of the name I prefer to drink Pilsen (definitely it is not because of taste - you just cannot compare Pilsen and Pilsner Urquell), which I think is the same quality as Imperial. Basically I would put both brands into group "drinkable".

Rock Ice is not a beer!!! Be careful. Maybe it is tasty, but if you open a bottle, on which is written beer, you expect some particular taste. I did that mistake only once. And there is advanced level of the beer joke provided by Rock Ice - drink called Rock Ice limon. I did not find the courage to try it yet, so I cannot say anything about it, but I think that the name provides enough information by itself.

In Panama, there are more beer brands (if anyone can tell me, how much brands are registered in Czech, please write me this information), but the most popular are Balboa and Atlas, which you can get in every bar (at least one of them). Besides these two I also had Soberana, but it was only once and I cannot say very much about it - it wasn't very good, but definitely better than Rock Ice.

My preferred brand in Panama is Balboa - again I would say it belongs to "drinkable". Atlas is also very popular here, but I don't like it at all. I would say it is too sweet for me (like Slovak Kelt), but if you prefer such taste, try it.

At the end I should mention few more things, whcih might surprise you here:

• Don't expect drought beer here, in bar you will get bottles (usually 330 or 250 ml). Good old garden U houdku...
• Drinking the warm beer is one of the biggest tortures for me. But here I realized, that also very cold beer is not very good. And here, in all bars they have beer stored in freezers, so the temperature is definitely not "from the 7th stair", as it should be (for those, who don't understand, watch the movie Vesnicko ma strediskova).
• There are exceptions to the previous point, but if they don't bring you ice cold beer, they will bring you the glass full of ice - can you imagine drinking beer with ice cubes in it? (Here it is normal).
• If you will not find and brand here, which you would consider as drinkable, in majority of shops and bars you can get Heineken. I also found Amstel in one bar, but that's the whole portfolio of European beers sold in Central America.

At the very end just one statement: "All the information provided here are my personal subjective opinion, so when reading it, please take into consideration, that I am going to be in Central America for one year, and therefore maybe I am not as critical as if I would be here only for few weeks (because I know, that I will be drinking it next 11 months, so I am trying to find positive sides of the beer here...)."

Ivanku, kamarade, ja nevedel nic.

When I arrived to Panama, we agreed, that until I will find some place, I will stay at house of my MC teammate Franklin. We were looking for some options and last Monday, we met few people at Diana's (CEEDer from Mexico) farewell party. During general conversation one of the people made a joke, that I should move to her apartment, so she can learn english. Franklin reacted quickly and explained her, that actually it doesn't have to be a joke...

So we agreed, that she will ask at home, if it is possible and then we will see. As Franklin left to IC at the end of the week, I was supposed to call her and folow up on our conversation. After a quite difficult phone call (as she doesn't speak english very much and my spanish is even worse), she told me, that she will call me in a while, when she will be with some friend, who speaks english. And after few minutes I was told, that in two days she will pick me up to move to their apartment.

I was happy, that I have permanent accomodation, but on the other hand I didn't know, where I am going to stay, what kind of appartement it is, how many people live there. In other words: "Ja do toho sel a nevedel nic...".

Well - next chapter is starting in my One year adventure in Panama - maybe I will finally start to learn spanish (I don't have any other option, if I want to communicate with her).

Chilling

One of the things I still didn't get used to can be described by this word (I hope I will be able to describe it). First I was thinking about uploading it among the choques del dia posts, but I realized, that this "activity" deserves a special post.

Chilling is basically status of doing almost nothing. It might have different variations. For example, sometimes after lunch, you are not going back to work immediately, you just sit down for a while and comfortably enjoy talking to people around about any topic you choose. Why to be in hurry... And it doesn't matter how much work you have, sometimes you just chill.

Another way I already mentioned in one of the previous posts - finishing the LC meeting. All people stand at corridor in small groups, talk and that's it. You just stand there for 15 minutes and talk. About anything. Then you move to parking lot and chilll again (of course with some chilling parts on a way to parking lot).

The most interesting chilling I have experienced so far was when some guys broke the antenna at car of our friend. We went to the police station - 5 cars full of AIESECers stopped in front of small building, but there was no police officer, so we waited there for a while. There was no better option, than to stay there and talk for 15 minutes, during which we did not solve anything and after which we just decided to go away. For European - perfectly wasted time. For Panamanian - perfectly spent time with friends. For European it is very difficult to get used to these situations, becuase we want to do something, move somewhere, show some activity... But sometimes you just have to wait and chill with other people.

We have already defined the ultimate state of chilling - the state, when you have feeling that time stops - the state, when you do nothing, you just "are". Nothing more, just "to be". Pretty hard for me to imagine this, but who knows...

Choque del dia II.

As I promised, I am coming with the second edition of the "choque cultural" situations:

• Wedding list - when spouses and the witnesses are signing the wedding document, they also put their fingerprints on the it.
• Traffic - Imagine the situation: traffic jam, crossroads, where traffic lights are turned off and police officers are directing the cars. Pretty simple. But not here - the policemen here are doing all the possible movements to speed up the cars. It is more like art performance here - waving, smiling on the drivers, running from one corner of the intersection to another. It looks like they really enjoy their work.
• Have you ever had a feeling, that in Prague after the LC meeting it takes soooo much time to move from the meeting room to the office, pack the things and move to pub? I did... until I experienced LC meeting in Panama. Here I am not able to say, if the meeting is over and we are just talking or we still solving something. When we finally get out of the classroom, we are standing at the corridor and talking, then we slowly move the the lower floor and stop, because we have to talk for a while. After another few minutes we finally manage to get to the ground floor, where we again talk for a while. Then we move to the parking lot and guess what... After we finally get to the cars and are ready to leave, half an hour is already gone.
• Traffic - drivers don't use the direction indicators when changing traffic lanes on the road - the reason is very simple - because they change the lanes so often, that they would have the traffic indicators turned on 90% of the driving time. Therefore when you are driving in Panama, you have to foresee, what the drivers in front of you want to do. If you see, that some car wants to move to your traffic lane in front of you, you have to honk in order to prevent the accident. If you think, that the car wants to move to your traffic lane, you have to honk. If you have feeling, that the driver might be thinking about moving to you your traffic lane, you have to honk in order to prevent the accident. Conclusion - you honk all the time, when you see some car in front of you.

Panamanian wedding

Last Friday Franklin told me, that his cousin is getting married the next day and that it is at 7pm. I told myself, OK, not a problem, I can stay at home and work or read a book or do something else.

The next day, it was around the half past five, I went to the living room, to spend some time with Franklin's family before they leave to wedding. Franklin told me again, that they are going to the wedding (I wasn't sure, if he forgot, that he told me before) and then he just mentioned: Yeah and I think you should know it - you are going with us..." Well - it was kind of surprising for me, but why not - I was curious, how it looks here.

Later I was told, that here usually people marry in church, but this wedding will be a civil one, which means, that it won't be as formal. And that at the party after the formalities there will be lot of music, so I should prepare myself for dancing... Well - I am getting used to the fact, that this is very usual pleasure activity - where are good old Zizkov pubs, where you can just sit with friends and talk (and of course have a good czech beer)...

Right in the moment, when we came to the place, I fall in love with it - we were all the time in the garden with swimming pool, in the corner of the garden was bar, where they served drinks (beer, soft drinks, cocktails), as it was 8 in the evening, the temperature was ideal (around 25 degrees). People were coming and coming and before 9 there were around 60 people. The ceremony could start.

As I wrote, it was civil wedding, so the whole ceremony was managed by attorney, it was pretty much the same as in Slovakia, or at least it looked - I have no idea, what they were talking about, as I still don't understand Spanish. The whole ceremony was finished by sect (in such occasions I do exceptions and drink such drinks, but it just assured me, that my attitude towards vine and sect is still the same - I hate it). And one more thing was quite surprising for me, stay tuned for the next "choques del dia" post.

After the ceremony the informal fun started, I was tought the dance called merenge. At the beginning it looked quite easy, but then I did mistake and looked to the pair dancing next to us. When I saw the step and figures, I realized, that this will be very hard year for me.

Slowly I was getting the feeling, that nothing will surprise me at the wedding and that it would be very similar to what I saw in Slovakia. Then I realized, that in the house few people were watching boxing, which was projected on the wall trough beamer. I told myself, that few men are bored by wedding and went to watch sports... But there were still more and more people and in a while most of the wedding guests took their chairs and moved them close to the screen. Later I was told, that there is world champion match in superlight weight (130 pounds - something around 60 kg)and a Panamanian is fighting against Venezuelan. When the match started, around 50 people out of 60 were watching boxing - I have a feeling, that I saw even the newly married couple watching the match... Well - the habits are a bit different.

Alumni dinner

Alumni in Panama have their own association, which has organized dinner for all the people interested to come. Also current members of AIESEC were invited, so I finally had chance to use my suit (I was told, that I look older in it - they would guess 28 years!!!)

We were invited to 7pm. We had a small delay, but as I realized later, 15 minutes were still ok, people were arriving till 8. And lot of people came - we were thinking, that it would be small event for max 10 people, but at the end there were around 25 alumni and around 10 AIESECers. And also the national diversity was big - Mexico, Netherlands (LC CEEDers), Denmark (one alumnus went on traineeship and supported the 30% rule of AIESEC relations and got married there), Norway, Poland (another alumnus was on a traineeship in Mexico, where he met trainee from Poland...) and Slovakia (guess who). All alumni were so surprised to see so many people from different countries there. One alumnus asked me, in which company I am working, and I explained him, that I am international member of the MC. He stayed silent for a while and then told me, that in his times something like that did not exist and that it is great. I answered, that currently it is very common and many MCs have international member. And I thought, that it is over. Hmmm. When I was explaining for the fourth time, that I am not on a traineeship, and that I am working for AIESEC, I realized, that I am so used to that idea, that for us is so common to have internationals in MC, that we don't think about the other way and that it could be different in past.

Also the founder of AIESEC Panama came, unfortunately I did not have a chance to talk to her, but Franklin(MCVP ER) used the opportunity and asked her to join our Board of Directors (accountability body of the MC). By the way Panama was founded in 1981, so in November we are going to celebrate 25 years - I just have a luck for the anniversaries.

It was nice to see these people, still excited about what is happening, still happy to see their friends. It reminded me, that I have no idea, how it will be, when I will come back to Czech Republic - will I be considered at 100% alumnus, or will I be doing something? Question to think about...

Few more pictures from SDL

Finally got more pictures, here we go:

Nikki, Martin and me

TtT delegates during the agenda

Four origins - South Korea, Japan, Hong-Kong and Taiwan

Nikki & me - if you have a feeling, that my smile is strange - that picture is from Global village...

The almost complete Regional team - Nikki (Brand coordinator), Martin (VPPD), Franklin (VPER), Magaly (MCP), me (VPX) and Tati (Project coordinator). Vivi (Finance coordinator) is missing.

El choque del dia

I decided to publish these posts occasionally, when I will have several small surprises, which I would like to share with you. I see the meaning of culture shock in two ways

1. as small things which work totally differently in other country and are obviously surprising you, but you just accept it, because these are just minor differences and
2. strange feeling, that something is going in wrong way, but you cannot define, what it is and you are confused.

In these posts I will be talking about the first option. So here we go with first "choques del dia", as trainees usually call these situations here:

• Security guards - Of course they have private guards also here, in banks, shops, supermarkets... But when I saw a first security guard in Costa Rica having SHOTGUN on his shoulder, I told myself, that our guards, which probably even don't have bullets in their guns, look quite funny in comparison with these ones.
• Weather - currently it is raining season, which means that it is raining every day. But... There is big difference between raining all day and raining every day. The weather is soo regular here - you wake up, it is beautiful sunny morning, at noon the sky is getting darker, it is covered by clouds, in the afternoon it starts raining, it is raining till evening, you wake up the next day and it is beautiful morning...
• Army shop - As I mentioned, I was surprised by the presence of the shotguns at streets - well, you can get used to it. But then I went to mall (the biggest mall in San Jose) and when walking, I was watching the shops - everything seemed as in Central Europe - sport shop, some brand boutique, shoe store, another boutique, army shop ... I was standing in front of the shop full of rifles, shotguns, pistols. I know, that we have also arms in Slovakia, but I have never seen an army shop. And here it is placed between Hugo Boss and Adidas shop...

These are first suprises, which you can experience in the Central America, stay tuned for next post...