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Yes, I know, it's been a while since I wrote. I'll try and fill you all in:Had my final for Advanced 1, which even though I don't know the results, I assume I passed since I am now in advanced 2. ISA had a big Thanksgiving dinner for us that night which was in some chinese restaurant filled with about 100 other gringos and myself, but they served all the classic dishes and although different, it was really fun.The next day I left with Melanie to go to Puerto Viejo for the night, where we met a cool girl from Belgium, went and ate delicious Carribean food and then went to bed early in our hammocks because we had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch our bus down to Panama. The bus actually didn't end up leaving until 8am, but it turned out ok because then we got to go to a cute little cafe called "Bread and Chocolate" first for breakfast. After a bus ride, walking over the border on a very unstable bridge, a taxi ride and a water taxi, we arrived at Isla Colon and the city of Bocas del Torro, Panama. We spent the first day walking along the beach and sitting in cafes trying to figure out the map of all the different islands, and then that night after wandering from empty bar to empty bar and about to give up, we realized that there really is only one place to go on a Saturday night in Bocas, which was Barco Hundido (or sunken ship) which is a night club right on the water that is literally on top of an old sunken (pirate?) ship.We went snorkeling the next day, went out to Dolphin Bay, where, yes, we saw dolphins, and then went to Red Frog beach, which although pretty was almost completely washed away due to a huge storm they had had the week before. We came back to our hostel semi early and hung out with some of the people there and its owners (who are 3 girls around the age of 24 who had just bought the place three weeks earlier). Since it was a clear night we went searching for a good place to see the sunset, but it seemed that all the docks were private, so we ended up sneaking onto this dock connected to an old hotel that we believe was abandoned. I came very close to making an offer to buy it and never leaving.The next day went to a little bakery on the water for breakfast before heading out to Wizard's beach. Since the waves were a little big, the taxi driver refused to take us all the way to the beach and instead dropped us off on the other side of Bastimientos Island and showed us were the "path" was to hike there.What we were told was a 15 minute hike turned out to take 40 minutes. It may have only lasted 15 if it hadn't rained the night before forcing us to do the whole hike barefoot at times through calf deep mud. I was pretty impressed I only managed to fall once and we eventually arrived at the beautiful Wizard beach with clear blue green water, palm trees all around, and soft yellow sand. Although we showed up looking like hell, all in all it was worth it. When we did the hike back we once again were completely muddy, which wasn't nearly as rewarding seeing as how we didn't have a beach greeting us at the other end, but it was a nice change walking back through town since no one hassled us because we were dirty....Went out again to Barcos that night and very seriously considered calling our school and saying that we couldn't catch a taxi back because there was a storm and staying there a couple of extra days, but responsibility finally won seeing as how we can't miss more than 1 day per month of spanish without failing....So we came back, I started Advanced 2 Spanish, which surprisingly turns out to be a lot less work than Advanced 1 since we have pretty much by now learned all the grammer, so now we just have conversations and watch movies. My professor is incredible and there are only 6 people in my class, so I actually really enjoy it minus the having to go at 8am every day 5 days a week part....Went to the Jazz Cafe to watch a Flamenco band, went to the National Theater to see modern dance, went to some bars which closed at midnight on Friday because of elections on Sunday, hung out in the park and made friends with a crazy guy who sang songs for us and made us grasshoppers out of leaves, got a cigarrette put out on my toe, helped Christine make videos for her class, learned spanish phrases that they just don't teach you in classes, went to Caccio's for Olofos, found out I have to be in a Spanish talent show as part of my grade, and now here we are.Tomorrow I am going to see my friend Ariel from highschool who is living on the Pacific Coast in Puntarenas for the weekend and then spending my last weekend :( in Granada, Nicaragua. That be all. Ciao.
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