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I’ve given myself a week to sit and ponder everything from Panama, see what I missed about being back in the United States, what I learned, etc. My main goal of this trip was to figure out what I wanted to do in terms of my career, a lot of what we learned about in Panama was the transportation aspect which I still don’t have an interest in. I got (what I think was) a glimpse into retail supply chain at Proctor and Gamble which is still my favorite place to visit. They discussed how detergent is made differently depending on the region and how it is optimized to b work at its best. I thought that was so fascinating! We also focused on how different business models require different approaches. I like how a company takes a product that is already working great can tweak it to make it work even better depending on external factors that might be difficult to control otherwise. When I arrived home I accepted a business internship with a local food truck called Bakers Wakery, while I didn’t get a very clear idea about what I wanted to do career wise, but hopefully this internship will give me an even more clear idea of what I want to do. I think it will and very excited for the opportunity, I should be able to take what I learned in Panama about conducting good business relations in this opportunity. I think I learned more about how businesses run on a global level. I think that working in a global context would be something I’d want to incorporate into my professional career. I was fairly against living in a foreign country (namely Mexico per my previous study abroad trip) but Panama was fairly Americanized so I’m not sure if that helped me to feel better about living abroad or maybe it was the wide availability of air conditioning. I still think that I’d be happiest if I were to live in the United States and travel for an extended period of time out of the country preferably in a Spanish speaking country. I came into the trip thinking I’d be interested in working at a 3PL but I was underwhelmed at both 3PLs I visited, I don’t really know what I was expecting but I knew I wasn’t blown away or interested enough to do that or the rest of my life, however I certainly understand the importance of using one. I received some advice from one of the 3PLs, learn a third language. Their advice was to take Japanese, Portuguese, or German as the top three but they also mentioned Italian which I have been wanting to pursue a for some time more just for pleasure than anything else, but now I have a good excuse. I might take part of my summer to do that.
This study abroad trip was incredible! I learned so much about global business and the inner workings of different businesses. I think it helped that I was already done a large part of my business courses. I was able to understand how each part of the business groups works together. I didn’t understand what I was doing last year at the Puebla study abroad trip, I had only Microeconomics. Being able to have all the information laid out in front of me was nice. I will say that I am very glad that I had taken Spanish before I went. Not necessary but certainly helpful! There were two businesses that we visited that we had to have an interpreter and I feel like I got a little more out of those experiences than everyone else because I was able to hear it twice, once in Spanish and once in English. One of those two places however didn’t have an interpreter on hand so I got to play interpreter which was a blast! I learned so much about what I am capable of doing in Spanish. I think that helped to increase my confidence. I am ready to get into the fall semester and take some more business classes to continue shaping what I want to do with my future career.
Then we stopped by a zoo on the way back, you know you’re in a foreign country when deer are in an exhibit, it was a really neat zoo, very small but mostly animals that you can find in Panama. There was also a big eagle thing called the aguilar that has a wing span of about 12 feet. It was crazy he was huge definitely could’ve taken me down. I had lunch and took a short nap, then studied for our final exam and went to bed early.
I think the total passport check count at this point was five it made me nervous because I felt like I was going to lose it. I got a window seat again, there was guy between me and another classmate who took up more than his share of the row, but maybe as Americans we value personal space more, he was a Panamanian citizen. The flight was beautiful though! I don’t love flying over the ocean, probably has something to do with the fact that I watched Cast Away when I was too young. The area around Cuba was my favorite. The flight was a little bumpy but that’s standard for Atlanta. Customs here took around an hour which wasn’t too long considering the size of the airport so my passport was checked just one more time in person, once by a machine. Grabbed lunch; I’ve decided this trip has completely messed up my eating and sleeping schedule. This best part of the trip is coming. As a group we were talking about the movie Bad Moms with Mila Kunis and then we started talking about her husband Ashton Kutcher, thinking nothing of it we got on the escalator and I turned around to talk to one of the boys and I see this man, and I was like huh that kind of looks like Ashton Kutcher, but there’s no way. I went down a little bit to talk to the other girl because you know girls would know. I tried to keep it cool but I’m sure I looked sketchy but yep it was Ashton Kutcher. I rode the train in the Atlanta airport with Ashton Kutcher and his daughter!! I was (and still am) so flabbergasted. I didn’t take a picture so you’ll just have to take me at my word. I didn’t want to be creepy stalkerish.
After we were finished at the rail company we were going to head straight over to the Miraflores Canal Locks but there weren’t any ships to watch so we took a lunch break at the hotel, which most people used to go to the laundromat by the plaza. The Canal was not what I was expecting. It was mostly a museum which made it a lot more entertaining than a lecture. We got to walk around and look at exhibits and there were a few interactive machines. One calculated your percent of water in your body and another you could move the locks on the (simulated) canal. We went all the way to the top to watch for a boat to come through but it was so packed you couldn’t get a spot on the rail to see, so I headed down to the floor that sold ice cream and actually got a decent spot to watch. At first there was only a little sailboat which still costs about $2,000 to pass through the canal, to conserve water they waited for a cargo ship. I got a little scared for the tiny sailboat the cargo ship was massive. I spent most of my time watching for the water level to rise on the other side of the locks but the locks operated in the opposite manner the water level was dropping where the boats were, which I only noticed when the sailboat only had its poles left above the ground level. The process seemed to take a while but in reality, it was only about 30 minutes once the cargo boat got in the canal. The passage was a tight squeeze for the cargo ship only 1 foot on either side of the ship. After we watched the ships pass through we headed back to the hotel. My group met up to work on our tourism project and were able to get a few hints from Dr. Esper which eased my mind. I’m a huge fan of working against a clear rubric.
We hopped off the train where our bus met us and took us directly to Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) which is just a very fancy port. It has a few automated cranes that stack containers. One special thing about MIT is they are the main value added service provider. They do maintenance, add stickers, etc. MIT was about twice the size of the Panama Railway Company in terms of TEUs (twenty-equivalent-units). MIT was probably the most high tech company we had been to yet. There were more operators inside doing their jobs. Most of the crane operators sit in a hunched position but with the automatic crane only monitors are needed. We then headed across the logistics park to Logistics Services Panama, where they had snacks and coffee for us. That’s always appreciated by college students. We got to tour their warehouse facilities which was different than the other warehouses that we’ve seen. We were able to see how things are added on. For example we walked upstairs and watched the boxes of shoes be transported up there via a conveyer belt, unloaded, workers would put stickers on, re-boxed them and sent them on another conveyer belt to be out-bounded. All the other facilities that we have visited have been forklift operation only, so this was a more in-depth look.
We biked down to near where we ate dinner our first night here and stopped for lunch. Unfortunately this was not an air conditioned restaurant. That is one thing I’m ready for, good AC everywhere and not hot and humid all day long (well at least until later in the summer for Arkansas.) The way back we were all over being hot and sweaty, so that was not as fun. The view was incredible though! On one side you were able to see the skyscrapers and the other you were able to see ships passing through from the canal. We headed to Casco Viejo, I had read about a brewery place that had craft panamanian beers. It was a really neat experience, I think a business like that would do very well in NWA (and it has.) After that we were able to wander around Casco Viejo without a big time constraint. I bought quite a few more souvenirs so I feel a little better about that. I had two dreams that I was back home and didn’t bring anything back with me.
He was a past president of the arkansas alumni in panama so we meant a new Arkansas alumni! We also ran into a guy on the farm from Jacksonville, it was comforting to hear an accent! The greenhouses were interesting. They were water proof and you had to walk though two doors to get in so you wouldn’t let bugs in. It was very humid in there too. Just comes with being climate controlled. Then we hopped back on the bus to continue into chitre. The bus was so bumpy that my Fitbit counted the bounces as steps. But I slept almost the whole way regardless so I don’t have much to say! One thing I did notice on the way is that you can rent a car for a short driving distance (or at least that’s what I understood from the sign). We went by the oldest church in the Western Hemisphere but it was closed so we couldn’t get in to look at the architecture. The outside was still beautiful though! We had lunch at the center in Chitre I had a sandwich and it was good but kind of sweet which was strange to me. We stayed at La Cubita resort and when we arrived we were greeted with cool towels for our necks very swanky. The pool and the hot tub were closed so that messed up my plans to chill by the pool. We did an art class and painted a plate it was kind of like painting with a twist so I had fun. It took almost two hours though and it was right 
Not a good idea, I got swept by a wave and rolled right into someone else and obviously lost my sunglasses in that event. We had pizza again for dinner then we hung around the beach and the pool for the rest of the night. The sunset was beautiful on the beach but it was nothing compared to the stars. I was walking along the shore and saw (and heard) waves crashing in and a clear night sky filled with stars. I think that will be my favorite memory. It was the epitome of peace.
My horse enjoyed antagonizing the other horses. He would get up close and nip and them which made me a little nervous but overall, he was a chill horse. He galloped a few times but it was always to meet up with another horse. We returned the horses and had lunch at Beach Break before heading back to Panama City almost all of us took a nap 
Customs through the airport was very easy to go through it only took us about 30 minutes to go through. Nothing like an American customs line. We all shoved into this van with all of our luggage, we were like little sardines. It was so humid when we first stepped out you could immediately tell we were in a foreign country. We went straight to the supermarket from the airport to pick up the essentials. It was a fun experience, it reminded me a lot of being in Mexico. It was interesting to see how the prices were different. One thing I noticed was that Silk Almond milk was almost $7 when at home it only costs $3. After the supermarket we made it back to the dorm and got all checked in. I headed straight to bed but some people stayed up a little later hanging out.
We only got a few hours to spend down there but we’ll be going back next Friday so we’ll have plenty of time to see everything and of course buy plenty of souvenirs. On the way to dinner we stopped by one of the large Panama signs and took a photo opportunity break. We got a great group photo of all of us. For dinner, we ate at a place called Mi Ranchito. Dr. Esper bought all of us a sample platter of traditional Panamanian (fried) food; plantains, sausage, fish, empanadas, yucas, and some cheese thing. I had jumbo shrimp with the eyes still looking at me… It wasn’t deveined either. I don’t like food that can still look at me. The thing that throws me off the most about Panama is that the sun sets around 6:45 and in Arkansas it is currently setting at 8:30 so that’s what time my body things it is. Its messing up my sleep cycle. So my roommate and I met up with one of her friends from the Panama trip the year before who was here for an internship to walk around the City of Knowledge. Almost everything was closed and it was only 8:00pm. We just walked back to the dorms once we figured out everything was closed. I headed straight to bed. Even though we had a long day it was filled with lots of activities and we have a hike tomorrow that we have to leave at 6:30 for.
We could also see the canal and all the containers being passed through there. My trainer would be proud of me I stayed at the front of the pack! We thought we were going to beat the bus back down so Alex said we could go to McDonalds until the bus caught up, but we actually saw the bus on the way down so we were able to catch a ride to down. I was starving and dying for some coffee so I ordered the special of the day which I thought was going to be a biscuit type thing and a normal black coffee. The biscuit thing was two hamburger butt buns, a slice of ham, and cheese. My coffee wasn’t black like I thought it was going to be, I think they watered it down to make it an Americano like me. I stayed at the front to try to help everyone else order which was good practice since ordering food isn’t my strong suit. On our way back to the dorms we saw a sloth! It was incredible I’ve never seen one in person not even at a zoo! 
When we arrived back at the dorms we had plenty of time to shower and get turned around, although my hair didn’t dry because it is pretty humid here. We had our first lecture day at USMA today it was about the Panamanian economy. Economics isn’t my favorite subject so I didn’t love this lecture. We talked about a lot of things related to the GDP and unemployment rates. To me econ is interpreting a lot of graphs. We discussed all the different areas of industry in Panama and how they related to the GDP and how that changed throughout the years. I thought it was interesting that Panamanians invest more than they save because they trust the government. I’m not sure if I would make that decision in the United States. On the way to the bathroom I made a new friend, she knew I was American and lost so she asked in English if I was looking for the bathroom and then apologized because she didn’t speak a lot of English, to which I responded in Spanish that it was okay and she seemed relieved that I could speak some Spanish. She wanted to practice her English with me so that was a neat experience. After that we headed to Albrook mall to have lunch and look around to gather information for our respective “companies” that we were assigned and of course shop. Albrook Mall is the 3rd largest in Latin America so I was a little overwhelmed when I first got there. Just because it was so huge with so many stores. I think we saw three food courts. For lunch I had the hardest time ordering. I have been trying to eat healthier which can be hard when the workers don’t understand what I’m trying to say and when I don’t understand what I want and/or how to get it. I started off wanting a bowl but it turns out that’s only available with lettuce and I’m not sure about the lettuce here yet so I had to do a plate thing. I thought there was a steak type option but it looked very saucy and I wasn’t sure about that on white rice so I got grilled chicken. I didn’t want any extra spicy things or vegetables so at least that was easy “no, gracias” almost everyone can do that. The sauce was another issue I wanted the chipotle sounding one but it turned out to be a black looking sauce so I just pointed to an orange one. It worked out great though, my rice plate was great a little spicy though! Walking around the mall reminded me of the Angelopolis in Puebla, so I wasn’t feeling a lot of culture shock in the today. I wasn’t able to find a lot of stores that centered around travel except for a luggage store so I think our project will take a bit of creative thinking. When we got back to the dorms I went on a swim in the pool here it was only ½ a mile, the pool felt good to splash in but not good for swimming to work out. I stopped for dinner at Sabor Chicken and got a chicken breast with fries for only $5. It could’ve used some southern barbeque sauce though. Im excited for our lecture about the Panamanian consumer, I like learning about how buying patterns differ between countries, so I’m especially excited to see how that relates to supply chain. I hope this points me in the right direction for what I want to do with a supply chain degree.
Pensive in Panama 