I'm alive!!

Well, I made it to Panama. Yay!! I'm completely exhausted, but it was a great first day. I left Ocala at 3am and made it to Tampa International around 5:30. Our first flight was to miami that left at 7:30, so we hurried through security found Starbucks and then sat. There are 19 students on the trip and all of them I've seen/talked to before, but none of which I know super well. And trust me, that has already changed.
The flight to Miami took 38 minutes - it wasn't even long enough to dig out your iPod. We took up 3 rows on each side of the aisle - so we chatted most of the way. We had to book it across the airport in Miami to make it to our other gate, but we made it and shortly thereafter boarded the plane to Panama City, Panama. The flight attendants both spoke Spanish (naturally), and the instruciones (or instructions for you nonspanish speakers. (:), were in Spanish first and then English. Thought it was funny. We all made guesses as to what they were saying... caught a few words here and there.
I didn't think 3 hours was going to be so long, but it felt like forever. I think a lot of it was the pent-up excitment of the trip. We played Go Fish and 20 questions to help pass the time. Haha
It was cool to look out the window and see nothing but water - I saw Cuba too. No oil spill sighting though, Stuart. :/
Customs was an intersting experience. I was yelled at for taking a picture of the welcome to Panama sign... it was in Spanish, but I got the point. No permanent damage done apparently, since they let me in the country. ;)
I was one of the first people to exit the customs area and I kept looking through the crowd of people... I saw signs for specific people, for companies - and then I spotted it! A USF Health sign. I don't know if they knew it was us because of our joyous expressions or because of our USF t-shirts. Either way, we found our buses and loaded on.
There are sooo many details about today that I would love to write about, but I'm beat. So, I'm just going to hit on the major ones...

I was shocked to find that Panama City looks a lot like Florida. It even feels like Florida. The temperature was actually a little cooler than Florida - it was 80 degrees today. And the humidity was probably about the same too.

There are tons of skyscrapers, but they were all spread out and most of them appeared to be under construction. Probably 75% of them were still being built. It seemed odd.
We're staying at the City of Knowledge in "villas" at the moment. They really are old Army housing. They're nicer than we expected, but still no vacation. Bugs, a little dirt, and coooooooold showers. But it's all about the experience, right? :)
I had my first meal of Chicken and rice and it was really good. We all also toasted to being in Panama with our Panama water. Didn't really think about it. No one has reported issues yet. But, there is a GI bug going around the area (so say a little prayer).
Before we settled in we all went to the supermarket... and wow! They have everything we do in america. Lays chips, Borden cheese, and Easy Mac. Diet coke even! :) Instead of a sub counter though, they have a place where they sell things like empanadas and other fried goodies. Haha. Muy interesante! :)

Katie, Eli, Kira, Josh, and I ran along the front of the base - along the Panama Canal. We could see a cargo ship making it's way (very, very slowly) through one of the locks. Pretty neat, not going to lie. I ran along the Panama Canal. Wha???

A meeting with the faculty and all the students rounded out the evening. Played a few games and just hung out. I can already tell it's going to be a great trip.

Now... sleep. Goodnight.

P.S. All the channels here are in Spanish, go figure! As is the microwave, the internet I'm currently using, and all the signage around the city. Yes, I knew it would be, but it's still neat to see. :)