mi celula...

Every Saturday my church has groups of youth that get together, called cell groups.
Before I was in one of younger kids, and that is because my tutor, Alejandra, was the leader. But now I think I am probably going to be in this cell group with people around my age.
They are very nice, and I like them a lot!
I just wanted to post a pic, mostly because it has a picture of my sisters in it.

This is a group shot I took for them.
It was their Christmas party outing at a "Typical Tica" restaurant.
It was really yummy!

The four in front are my family. Well the guy on the left is Elvin, and that is Karla's boyfriend...Karla is sitting next to him. Next to her is my other sister Mariela, and her boyfriend Juan next to her. I went to Juan's house for New Years.
Mariela and Juan are the leaders of the group.

Just a couple other group shots of the time.
We also celebrated my sister Mariela's birthday this day. They brought out the most disgusting cake!! haha, it was white cake, with sour cream drizzled over it, I had to pretend I thought it was yummy! Then later this day, they all came over to watch movies, and play games. We played "mafia", and it is so funny in Spanish!! But it is fun. My sisters are probably the best actresses I know!
Pictures of my new house and stuff will come.
That's all for now!

Panama City =

Pictures are worth a thousand words, and I wish I could write it all out to tell you about these pictures.... but, I'll keep it short! To put it simply, I LOVED Panama City. I don't know why exactly, but I just loved it!! I would recommend it to any travelers, for many reasons: the people are nice, the city is clean, the bus system is organized, the shopping is great!, it's cheap, there's a lot to do, a lot to see, it's safe, and traveler friendly, and the people like North Americans (for the most part). I could probably go on, but it was really really great.
We hit up the canal, which is amazing in itself. We got to see a few ships go through, and that was fun and stuff. After we went to a botanical zoo/garden, not much to see, except the sweet bamboo! The next day we walked through a place called Casco Viejo. It is where the president lives, and where the old city used to be. Ashley had an eye for the most amazing door there! So we took a pic with it. The city skyline is pretty impressive, and the city itself is right on the coast. Panama was HOT!! Super muggy, and sticky, but the hot weather sure was nice! No beaches to hit up to cool down, but we kept refreshed, and a room with A/C was a blessing! We also went to Panama Viejo, which WAS the old old city, until Pirates over took it, and burned it to ruins! True story,a nd really neat to see the ruins. They built a road right through them, which is really funny. And the last highlight is when Ash and I got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him our Christmas plans in Spanish! There were lots of Latin Santa's, but funny enough here Santa doesn't stop? Wierd.

So just a recap, Panama City is amazing, and I will go back if I get the chance!
One reason why it might have been super great is because it was a lot Americanized, more so than Costa Rica, and it was like a breath of fresh air I think. Felt a little like home, and it was very refreshing!