Thalia Añora
Pre-Departure (Jan 8, 2025)
¡Hola mis compadres! / Hello my friends!
My name is Thalia, and I’m so thrilled to share with y’all the adventures to come during this trip! I’m not going to lie, I’ve been preparing for this since I got the greenlight — I just can’t believe the time is already here, how exciting! This will be my first study abroad trip, but traveling outside the country won’t be too unfamiliar to me since I’m from the Philippines. And from my research on Panama, the vibe doesn’t seem too different from the islands back home. So I’ll be interested to see how the city and culture is different from not only here in Baltimore, but in the Philippines as well.
In preparation, I’ve been looking into all the locations in the itinerary, as well as asking friends from the country about which places I should visit. Panama looks incredibly gorgeous, so I can’t wait to see it with my own eyes. I’ve also been touching up on my Spanish so that I could immerse myself in the culture, the people, and the city. I can’t say I’m fluent, haha, but it’s the effort that counts I think! I can understand enough to hold a conversation which is great: another challenge I’m excited to take on. I’m also almost done packing! I’ve tried to carefully select my clothing options since it’ll be really hot in Panama, I don’t want to sweat them all out the second I get there. I’ve also made sure to include a few books to read in my off time when I won’t be exploring, or really just for the long hours on the plane. I’m currently reading Book One of A Song of Ice and Fire from the Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin, and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
For this trip, I’ll be in the UMBC Faculty-led program, studying The Practice of Management: Global Perspectives in Panama. I thought this course was perfect for the major I’m designing through UMBC’s Individualized Study Program, titled Creative Enterprise and Socio-Cultural Leadership. A lot of the work I see myself doing in my career will be based on cultivating community through the lens of the art industry. So, I thought this course would be a beautiful addition to my curriculum, regarding the fact that later down the line I’ll need to know how to efficiently manage teams. This learning opportunity outside of how our own systems operate is such an awesome way to receive and apply that skill. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how I can expand throughout this journey.
I’ll update y’all when I touchdown.
Talk to yall soon! xx