Sadly, our virtual exchange has come to an end. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experiences with you over the last few months–especially during our video calls. I hope that you’ve learned more about Panamá, Latin American culture and perhaps even been inspired to learn more Spanish. It’s helpful if you want to move abroad, of course, but it can be useful even in your own community. About 15% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish; that’s around one in every seven people.
Last week, I celebrated my first anniversary of moving to Panamá. It allowed me to reflect on some of my favorite parts of my journey so far. Panamá is about the same size as South Carolina, which is hard to believe, with all the places I’ve been and people I’ve met. It has fewer residents, though; about 4.3 million people live in Panamá, whereas about 5.1 million live in South Carolina (for reference, nearly seven million people live in Tennessee). I’ve seen so many different natural environments, from snorkeling in the Caribbean and Pacific to climbing 5,000-foot mountains in the cloud forest. The coral reefs here are buzzing with life, from fish to crabs to snails to sea slugs, I’d only ever seen in nature documentaries.
