A couple of days ago I was in the kitchen with my wife when there was a massive bang in the living room.

I went running in and at the same time, my daughter was running in my direction to meet me.

Daddy, something terrible has happened…

She’s shaking and crying, she’s almost hysterical.

My first thought is that something has happened to my son, he’s fallen out of the crib, or he was in the stroller and it’s been knocked over onto the hard floor...

I don’t know.

When I reach the living room I can see that my TV and stereo have smashed on the ground.

I check my son, he’s still sleeping in the crib, didn’t even notice.

But my daughter is beside herself by now, I guess she was trying to build a fort or something and pulled the TV down. 

I scooped her up and checked her over, not hurt.

She thinks she’s in trouble.

I just held her and told her over and over again everything was okay.

How could I be angry?

Poor little girl, I was just so grateful she was safe.

It took me nearly an hour to calm her down. 

The TV is totalled though, whole front of it smashed.

For me, I would have been fine without getting a new TV, but we do movie nights with the family on the weekends and it is fun.

So yesterday we visited Panafoto (if you move to this part of the world you will definitely know them) and selected a ridiculously large 86 inch TV.

Two things.

First, I am always amazed at how technology advances with the price continuing to come down. Capitalism is a marvel. 

And two, I was able to shop for the entire TV, compare models, negotiate prices, organize the delivery, etc…

…all in Spanish.

Small things like this really amaze me. 

When I came to Panama 2.5 years ago my Spanish was terrible, yes I had a background in Spanish from when I hitchhiked through Latin America when I was like 20 years old, but I had lost so much of it in the nearly 20 years since that even the simplest things were tough.

Now I am able to understand the culture so much better here in Panama, I don’t need to use Google Translate which is always clunky and a pain to use for more than just basic things.

It feels good to be an expat in a country with a different language and be able to fit in and take care of myself and my family.

Part of being an expat is adapting to your environment.

If you plan on living overseas you should check out the courses I used to build up my fluency https://expatmoneyshow.com/language

It’s better to start learning now, not later.

Talk soon,

Mikkel