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
January 15, 2025
Buenas, mis compadres! (Hello, my friends)
I was right, Panama feels like home. From the second the plane touched down, I was overwhelmed with a familiar scent of audacious tropical humidity, mixed with a tireless but dusty hint of central aircon, gas fumes, particles of ocean in the air, and maybe a faint acidity. Even walking down the streets around the hotel felt akin to nights of my cousins and I walking around our own city in the Philippines. But even in its uncanny parallels, Panama is different enough to inspire growth, an opportunity presenting as a friendly challenge. Observing the community so far, the peoples’ collectivism here in Panama is undeniable. Despite being rich in sundry crowds from immigrating cultures, communities that might look and feel entirely different from each other still have a strong identity in what it means to be Panamanian.
Exploring the city has been one of the best opportunities to not only get to know the neighborhood, but to get to know myself and the areas in which I am growing/ have grown– based on how I’m exercising the length of my horizons through navigating this new terrain. I’ve also never felt so safe wandering around a city the way I do here, knowing that there’s this underlying understanding that everyone takes care of each other here/ watches over each other. It’s refreshing. I’ve spent the first few nights getting myself acquainted with the neighborhood: the park that is surprisingly bustling with life despite it being 8pm, the empanada spot a block down who sees us as temporary familiar faces now, the small bakery across the Christmas Tree sculpture where the old man always plays guitar.
Before we were thrown into the deep end of schoolwork in the actual program, Quality Leadership University (QLU) has been spoiling us with structured excursions all around Panama. Our days have been filled with back-to-back adventures. So far, we’ve been treated to dinners of authentic Panamanian food and traditional dances, take in the rich history of their old city (Casco Viejo), explore the rainforest and feed monkeys, see an incredible view of the Panama Canal, and spend a whole day absorbing the sun and sea at Isla Tagboa. Doing it alongside an awesome cohort has also been a factor in elevating this experience. I can’t believe we’ve been able to do so much already here in Panama. It didn’t take long to acclimate, honestly.
I can’t wait to tell you guys more about it!
PS: Am I fluent in Spanish yet? Good question. Maybe not, but at least I can semi-confidently hold a conversation with my uber driver, or the locals that so graciously expend their patience just for me to find the right words and meet me halfway.
January 22, 2025
I still can’t believe the amount we were able to fit into this trip. I have so much I want to write about!
These last couple organizational meetings invigorated me. I was already excited to get acquainted with the City of Knowledge, but BAC Panama was entirely useful to me — as were the rest of the visits. Culminating this trip, I’ve just been trying to organize the overwhelming consumption of information, feelings, thoughts, and everything else in between — as well as how I want to organize it, because I want to hit the ground running for when I come back to the states. I’m grateful that through every piece of this Panama experience, I was able to gain invaluable insight on how I want to structure all aspects of my own projects and ventures. And from a cultural context: insight on how I want my own culture (my people, cities, states), to feel like, and potentially what I can do to spin the needle in my own backyards.
I don’t know why I was anticipating the Panamanian countryside to feel different from the Philippines if I’ve been raving about the fact that Panama City feels like my home city. But wow, what a refreshing surprise that was that I felt like I was riding through my own home again. It feels a little cathartic: one of our last days being one that inspires excitement in me again by being something familiar, yet still something so entirely unknown to me. Isla Grande felt like home away from home. But being home feels a little different —- being home is a return, vs. taking in Isla Grande was an expansion.
Visiting the Embera village as the crown to this adventure was almost cathartic, if not perfect. Delving through the corporate realm of Panama to then leaving with the richness impressed by Indigenous Panamanians entirely out of the corporate realm — a richness that corporate could never give if they tried — was the best balance to immersing into the culture. On our way to the village, being in the middle of the life blood, the artery, the liquid gold of what makes Panama as rich as it is in every aspect, was an honor. Being able to witness the original Panamanian peoples’ culture made the rest of what we’ve witnessed throughout the city make sense. The collectivism, the desire to build and take care of each other, the understanding of place and role, was set precedent by the village that was generous enough to welcome complete strangers into their own homes to play with their kids and feed them. And again, what an honor the witness.
These last few days, I’ve also had the pleasure of getting to know the few in my cohort (there’s eight of us total). Outside of our structured excursions like the organizational visits for the syllabus, and the immersive days into the depths of Panamanian coasts and rainforests, I’ve been exploring the city with my group. From rooftops with views extending past the city-scapes, late night empanada runs around the corner, dancing in the apartment, ice-cream pitstops, and a hunt for pupusas gone array — I think enthusiasm and confidence might be contagious, honestly. It’s been a pleasure.
January 29, 2025
At last, this long awaited adventure has come to an inevitable end. Albeit a shorter trip than other programs, the timing of it all felt almost perfect (though, you won’t see me complaining if we were to stay longer). From the takeaways of the actual course to the immersion in Panamanian idiosyncrasies, it was a beautiful balance to create an unforgettable experience.
It sounds a little cliche, but this experience really did broaden my perspectives and horizons. Sometimes when you’re so narrowed and focused on an area, subject, or idea, it feels harder to zoom out and give air to whatever it is you’re steadfast in. For me, and what I’m studying with my degree, it’s been trying to navigate solutions to improve the tangibility and the feeling of community for our own backyards in the U.S. (you could imagine what a headache that would be). Having this experience allowed me to step back and breathe, and remind myself that the rest of the world is not the U.S. and doesn’t have the same issues as our issues here, though they are intertwined. I should emphasize that all of this has been absorbed within the span of a little more than a week. But on that note, I still learned a lot through understanding Panama’s sense of collectivism and how their legacy is rooted in honoring and upholding their central Indigenous identity (which is incredibly refreshing and diametrical to systems in the U.S.). It highlighted the importance of understanding “place” and how it anchors community — which is the next main line of question that I’ll be exploring for my next initiatives.
During the moments in between, I was able to capture photos on my film camera whenever an opportunity was there. I got them developed immediately the second I landed back in the states, and seeing how they turned out was a treat! Taking portraits of people there was a way for me to create more meaningful conversation and connection. Shooting the trip on film also forced me to be intentional with my shots with which point of time to freeze, as each roll is limited. I think that aspect helped me to be fully present in the experience: to know where I am and what I’m shooting.
The only thing I’d say I wish happened sooner was for our cohort to have broken the ice earlier on. Because it felt like we had only just gotten really comfortable with each other right before it was time to go! Nonetheless, we had fun. I think I might’ve really lucked out on this abroad trip in all aspects.
Thank you for following me along this journey!
Your UMBC x Panama host is officially signing off.
P.S. I never ended up being fully fluent in Spanish, but no way I thought that was going to happen within 10 days. It did heavily improve though, which I’m super proud of!