Latin America

It's been a whirlwind of a week, but if I don't start this now, I will keep putting it off.   Awhile back I decided it would be great to move to Brasil for a year - well, I have finally done it.   When I say I have moved to Brasil, I mean my new home base is there.   With my job, I have the opportunity to travel almost every weekend so I get to see different parts of the world.

Slowly but surely, everything fell into place where I could finally pick up and move.   This marks the end of my first official week in Latin America/South America/Central America.  I left San Diego on October 1st and worked a level 1 seminar for CFHQ in Rio De Janeiro that following weekend before finally heading to Florianopolis where I now call home base for the next 365 days give or take a few :)

I spent 3 days there - Monday-Wednesday before coming to Panama City, Panama this weekend to work another level 1 seminar.    Panama City has been amazing - I had the opportunity to see the Panama Canal on Friday and for some reason that really impressed me.  I arrived Thursday evening and was well taken care of by Adriana right away as we went out to a great steak dinner.

Friday we got to explore the city a little bit and I even had a chance to do a workout for a competition I am doing in January - Wodapalooza.   We needed to find a pull up bar where I could do not just regular pull ups, chest to bar pull ups but also bar muscle ups.   It was fun doing a competitive workout at a brand new gym which came a long with a few challenges.   Halfway through I ripped my hand and the gym owner was kind enough to let me use his gymnastic wraps so I could complete the workout.   I very much appreciated this as I did not want to have to do the workout again!  

The people in Panama have been so kind.    I was able to find an AA meeting to go to Friday night, which was perfect - someone from the group came and met me at the hotel I am staying and we were able to walk to the meeting.   I hadn't had a chance to go to one since I had left the US, so I was glad I was able to find one here.   We went to dinner after the meeting for fellowship and already I feel like I have people i know and care about me here :)   Great to find AA community wherever I travel to.

Panama City, Panama

The seminar went great - participants were eager to learn and it was a fun weekend working with Adriana and Austin.  I hadn't worked with Austin in a long time and I learned a lot from him.   This was the first time I delivered 2 of the theory lectures on the same weekend #alwaysimproving
This job continues to challenge me on a weekly basis - there is something I am constantly working on improving to make the seminars go well!!!!   I remember when I took my level 1 back in August of 2008 and what an impact it had on me, and now just a little bit more than 6 years later I have an opportunity to make a difference in people's lives every weekend.

This huge change in my life hasn't come without its own set of challenges - from figuring out what to do about a phone while in SA, to getting wifi figured out, transportation, food, you name it.   I was lucky enough to have a great living situation with the owner of CF Florianopolis walking distance to his box which allowed me to train there this past week I was there :)

Along with all the changes, I managed to get a stomach bug tuesday night - very pleasant, NOT!!!!   I was in some serious pain that night and the following day and its slowly been going away this past weekend.   As I get ready to return to Florianopolis tomorrow my goal is to get a few things this week there - a wifi card so I can use my laptop anywhere I want, look into getting a cell phone and see if I can get more consistent with eating 4 meals a day which is where I operate best.   Not sure what I will do about transportation yet, but there's time for all that...