Feliz Año Nuevo!

Hello! Happy New Year! Well 2008 is slipping away. I hope you are doing well and getting excited for the new year. I am not sure what to write about tonight, but I feel like it is time for more stories. There are definitely more to tell.
For dinner we had all kinds of dishes. Most were meat, but there was plenty for me as well. I ate fruit salad, potato and beet salad, fish, rice with guandu beans, and some ice cream for dessert. Everyone else ate that plus, turkey and ham. It was a good dinner. Luis and I made the fruit salad and I peeled the grapes and removed their seeds. What a funny job.
It was a very hot day. It is summer here in Panama and all the kids are finished with school and are on vacation. The sun beats down hardest in the afternoon. Imagine the weather in Boston on the hottest day in summer and you have an idea of the weather on a regular day in David. When people go out during the hottest hours they often bring an umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. In Boquete it is significantly cooler and you need a light jacket in the evenings. Luis and I were walking around down town David today and we stopped at Jackelita for a snack afterward. Just 60 cents for a yummy little white cheese sandwich. Coconut ice cream? Just 35 cents.
Lots of people were out today in all the downtown shops and people were lining up to buy apples and grapes which are traditional on New Years Eve and also Rosca egg bread which is popular throughout the holiday season.
I have been meaning to tell you about this hilarious Mexican television show that Luis and I have been watching. It is called in spanish¨Woman: cases from real life.¨ I just love it. It is on in the afternoon. There are short mini-lessons to be learned from each segment and the lessons are discussed at the end of each segment. The stories are extremely dramatic! It is so funny! Some times they are sad and the acting isn't so good, but that's why I think I like it so much. The stories are designed to pull at your heart strings and/or shock. To tell you the truth I think the whole moral lesson approach is really just an excuse for every day housewives and viewers to enjoy the twisted pleasure of watching these horrific stories. I can picture them gossiping to their friends ¨Hey, did you see what happened on Mujer yesterday? How horrific!¨
One story actually really moved me. It was a story about a lady who was married to a mean husband and had two bratty grown-up children who only expected her to cook and clean and never gave her any respect. One day she asked her husband if she could have some money for a new hairstyle. He absolutely refused saying it was a waste of money. One day she was walking by a school for hairstylists she saw a sign that offered free haircuts and makeovers at this design school. She went and the handsome straight hairstylist told her she was beautiful and that he knew exactly what to do with her. He thought she was so beautiful that he offered her a job as a receptionist in the hair salon. She took it and then bought an entire new wardrobe of fancy clothes. When she went home to her family they were all waiting for dinner and angry that she was late. They didn't recognize her. She told them they were to make their own dinner from then on. In the end she left her husband for the hairstylist.
Another story had me laughing so hard I couldn't believe it. The setting was supposed to be Akron, Ohio although all the cast looked completely hispanic and the landscape was...let's just say not quite right. An alcoholic doctor couldn't stop drinking. He even drank while he had patients dying in front of him on the operating table. There was lots of blood and drama. One woman was walking around with something stuck in her chest from some kind of accident. He could have helped her but because he was drunk she died. Her boyfriend was so upset that he tried to kill himself right away and then the doctor failed to save him too! Another alcoholic got drunk and because he wasn't watching his little son killed himself with a gun in the living room. These two alcoholics got together and saved eachother after several suicide attempts involving screaming and train tracks. Then they founded alcoholics anonymous.
Other stories have involved a girl who had no bones, a 17 year old boy who got together with his teacher, a little girl with an alcohol problem, a rich mother who kept her 36 year old son from moving on with his life and much more! This show is awesome!
Tonight there are lots of firecrackers going off outside and parties with loud music all around town. It is almost midnight! I am going to go join in the festivities!