traveling in a foreign country IS all it's made out to be

Hey!

Well even though this is not the first time to have woken up and gone straight to lunch, this is definitely the first time I have woken up and gone straight to lunch where the milk was in a plastic bag. lol... but I suppose after 3 days of being delayed, misplaced, left behind, and misplaced again (this time in a sketch hotel in panama where we were advised not to go out into the city either by night or by day, for reasons I can leave up to your imagination) ... yes, after that, even milk in a plastic bag and being in a room with five people is fantastic. See, our very first flight out of L.A. was delayed 9 hours, and we were put up in a hotel. While some of us were happy for the extra sleep and a shower the rest of us just wanted to get up and get done, and get to Uruguay! (me being one of them.) So the next morning we were able to board a flight to panama, but going through security this time wasn't so easy.
"Uhhh... Fiona Pudewa?" said the courteous but intensely irritating security attendant.
"Yes, I left my suitcase next to the security checkpoint..." (out of breath from running.)
"Oh... I know all about you!" (this was a chummy grandpa sort of person) "You are a college student now, you should be more responsible."
Thinking he had simply deduced this based on my appearance, I joked with him... "Not a college student yet."
"No no no... you've been accepted into Thomas Edison College!" (that's a story in and of itself)
Fortunately the fear that I was in some super technologically advanced zone of L.A. where they scan eye pupils for your identity didn't go too far because I remembered I had packed my college app. stuff... obviously he had just opened my bag so he could get it back to the right person, but still...why did I forget my bag?! It's not that hard to carry a boarding pass and 3 other bags! lol.
Nevertheless I am recovered from that embarrassing episode and I have my suitcase.

The next 8 hours on the plane were uneventful, obviously, except for the fact that we were finally on a plane leaving our country. Some may consider that eventful;) So then, we missed our coordinating flight out of Panama... which is why we ended up in the above described hotel. Morielle and I watched the "Power of One" (which is a movie everyone should watch) until 3 a.m. not wanting to go to sleep, turn off the light, and let down our guards in this particular hotel room, whose windows were barred for obvious reasons, lol. Still... the forces of exhaustion have always been and will always be too great for the will of man, so we did end up sleeping and slept till noon. Then we piled over to my mom's room where we were to spend the remainder of the day cooped up, eating beef jerky and nuts for lunch because the airlines had forgotten we existed. At long last, and with the luck of an English-speaking hotel attendant, we got 2 taxis and made it on to our God-willing last flight that would take us to Urugauy, and so here I am, all the while being thoroughly dehydrated. The people we are staying with are extremely nice and speak English, and have children to boot. So we are doing well and are going to develop our tourist skills this weekend until monday, when we will be starting our Spanish School.

Thanks so much for all your prayers! I'm absolutely positive it kept us from being mugged that one night in Panama, ya know... ;) And that is the end of my story for now, because I am finally going to do something other than sitting for once... I am going to take my first walk in Uruguay:)