Bienvenidos!

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Yay for Italy!

Two things happened yesterday: the first was that we went to watch the World Cup Final, and the second was that Mario got sick.

The World Cup was a lot of fun. We went to Pizzeria Italia near Mario's house with his brother and a few friends. The place was packed and incredibly noisy, but it was a lot of fun. Everyone went quiet when France got the penalty, then exploded with noise when Italy equalised. After that there was a lot of chanting and applauding and booing at Zidane's headbutt and finally, palpable tension during the final penalties. When Italy scored the winning goal it was crazy; people jumping out of their seats, whistles, foghorns, yelling and screaming, and all the cars outside were pipping and doing victory laps of the city. It was nice to be able to back the winning team for a change, although I don't think I'll be paying this much attention the next time it rolls around.

Things took a bit of a turn for the worse when we got home. Mario went to sleep, and I was watching random Panamanian TV, and at some point I must have taken his hand and it was burning hot. I woke him up and told him to change out of the polyester Italy shirt and into something a bit lighter, and told his grandma that he was feverish. When she found the thermometer and I took his temperature it was 39 degrees, so he called his Dad and got some medicine. Neither of us slept well last night - he because of feeling ill and I because of worrying about him, and waking up every time he turned or moved. Early this morning he had to get up and go to the bathroom, and at about the same time his uncle was sick as well, so I don't know if it was a stomach bug they both picked up. Mario was back and forth from the bathroom all morning, and when he wasn't in there he's been asleep. His fever has gone though, and he's managed to have some lunch, so hopefully he'll be better by tonight/tomorrow. I ended up oversleeping my 4:50am alarm by about 4 hours because of not sleeping last night, so I didn't go into the hospital today. We tried to call to explain but couldn't get through, so I'll just have to tell them tomorrow.

I can hardly believe I've been here for three weeks already. It seems to have flown by. I'm having a lot of fun, but I do miss home. Asides from my family and friends, I miss english cheese and tea, basmati rice, not having to fight the ants every time you go in the kitchen. I know I'm going to miss being here when I have to leave though. It's really special to me to have been able to meet Mario's family and see where he was born and where he grew up. It would be nice to come back maybe in their summer when it's not so humid, maybe one day when we have a bit more money and can do the slightly more expensive things.

I can't think of anything decent to finish this entry off with, so you'll just have to deal with it as is. Cheers.

2:07 p.m. - 2006-07-10

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