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Written by Matt Landau
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Wednesday, May 14 2008 |
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The moment after I saw the movie, I remember distinctly wanting to be a Ninja Turtle when I grew up. But my dreams seemed to have been ended when my mother rushed us out of the sequel, claiming it was too violent for our precious and innocent eyes.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, May 14 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Thursday, April 03 2008 |
As a young person in Panama, sharing an apartment with
someone might just be the best decision you ever make. It slashes rent in half,
offers a kind of default social life, and can even be the catalyst for various
business endeavors. When I arrived in Panama though, I wanted originally
to live with no one but myself.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, April 03 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Tuesday, April 01 2008 |
When home in the US, I enjoy paging through the
local and nationwide newspapers that my family and friends tend to leave open
on their kitchen tables. Occasionally, I'll come across something that has been
circled or underlined which, as a rule, gives a fascinating window into the
lives of its readers.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, April 01 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Saturday, March 29 2008 |
I've never really considered myself an animal lover as much
as an animal eater. Before I got to Panama, I had safely restricted
wild animals to a faraway land: the pages of magazines, the plots of TV shows,
and the false fronts of toy stores where stuffed elephants and toucans ran my
dad around twenty bucks.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, March 29 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Wednesday, March 19 2008 |
With various crises in the US
set to stifle the Panama
real estate boom, Europeans are holding up the proverbial rear, crowding real
estate offices around the country with their Capri pants, Spanish dictionaries,
and crusty loaves of bread.
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Last Updated ( Monday, April 21 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Friday, March 14 2008 |
"I'm with my personal shopper, can I call you back later?"
were some the most fulfilling words that had come out of my mouth in a long
time. I had often regarded personal shoppers much the way I did spiritual
advisors, as pointless ways rich people disposed of their income. But upon
moving to Panama
and getting my one of my own, the concept of a personal shopper suddenly took a
turn for the shrewd.
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Written by Matt Landau
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Friday, February 29 2008 |
As a child, my
highlight of vacations to new places was inescapably the assortment of things I
could buy that were considered otherwise illegal or improper at home. In Germany for
example, as young teenagers we'd rush to magazine stands to buy adult magazines
from old men behind the counters who wore the type of smiles that read they'd
been enjoying their product for many many years.
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Written by Pascale Schwander
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Tuesday, February 26 2008 |
A client just bought a new dress and I suggested she find a nice necklace
and earrings to match. It's a wrap dress from Diane Von Furstenberg --
beautiful, but a little plain to me. I suggested she try a sautoir, one of
those long necklaces that Coco Chanel used to wear in the in the 1920's. But,
after searching in a bunch of different stores, the only necklaces I could find
were either very beautiful (but VERY expensive) or so cheap that everybody
could tell.
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Written by Pascale Schwander
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Wednesday, February 20 2008 |
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If you are like me and almost all woman in the world, buying new swimsuit can be a nightmare. Now that I spend most of my time in tropical weather, where you wear a swimsuit at least every other day, I decided I wanted the perfect bikini for myself. Nothing less!
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Written by Matt Landau
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Monday, February 18 2008 |
Growing up, I like to think my childhood saw the cell
phone's rise to popularity much like my father and his father observed the two
World Wars. I consider myself lucky enough to have lived through an era when
diamond-studded faceplates and obnoxious ring tones didn't exist; back to a
time when mobile phones were the size of small shoeboxes and anybody who owned one
was indisputably cool.
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Last Updated ( Monday, February 18 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Wednesday, February 06 2008 |
Because things were slow in the office, I sent my assistant
the other day on a kind of fanciful wild goose chase. She was to find a
specific new palm pilot which I hadn't been able to locate-in fact, one which they
said couldn't be purchased in Panama.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, February 06 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Tuesday, January 29 2008 |
At the age of 22, I moved to Panama with, among a number of
other goals, the intention of learning Spanish. I had planned not to buy
dictionaries or enroll myself in language courses because those would have
defeated the purpose. The idea was to pick up the language through osmosis; a
process of natural cultural immersion which seemed way easier than it actually turned out to be.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, January 29 2008 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Tuesday, January 22 2008 |
When I first heard that they'd be filming segments of the
new James Bond flick in Panama,
I was half asleep and subconsciously wove the thread into a dream I was having.
It came to involve me as a sidekick to Bond himself; going everywhere he went
and doing everything he did, all the while offering small snacks as well as a
pen to jot down some notes he didn't want to forget.
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Written by Matt Landau
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Saturday, November 24 2007 |
Having allergies as a kid was not unlike being named
something embarrassing like Skippy or Toot in that lots of people took joy in
poking fun at a feat I was not directly responsible for. My body's helplessness
in digesting certain foods was not a function I had control over, yet I was
chastised as if being allergic was the worst decision I'd ever made in my life.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, November 24 2007 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Sunday, November 18 2007 |
It was reasonably late in my life that I discovered there
was a name for my fear of crowded places. And more specifically, the term agoraphobia, upon stumbling over it
recently in my Spanish-English dictionary, gave validity to what my family had
always considered a silly and embarrassingly illogical concern.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, November 18 2007 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Monday, November 12 2007 |
Not long ago, when seated in a pretty outdoor café with a
friend, I was asked "what's one thing you want?" I pondered the question for
several moments and asked for some clarification but it got me nowhere. "Yeah,
you heard me" she said. "What's something thing
you've been wanting lately?" Yes, it was a question that I had entertained all
my life, but oddly enough, no one had ever confronted me about it. I had never
been forced to make a final decision, and for that reason, I may have spoken
prematurely. "A metal detector" I said. "A really good professional metal detector."
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Last Updated ( Monday, November 12 2007 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Friday, November 09 2007 |
As Americans we are known for a number of embarrassing
things, among them being loud, fat, and terribly unpleasant when it comes to ordering
a steak. But there do exist some US
customs that, while perfectly ordinary in nature, still tend to mystify locals
in Panama.
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Written by Matt Landau
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Thursday, November 01 2007 |
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Holy week in Panama is called Semana Santa: a time the people of the
isthmus are supposed to commemorate and enact the suffering of Jesus
Christ. Instead though, the week is characterized by a number of
amusing components that the juvenile expat in me finds jocular. Among
them illegal liquor sales, outrageous beach parties, and KKK parades.
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Written by Matt Landau
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Monday, October 22 2007 |
It was one of my first days in Panama with fluent Spanish a
distant twinkle in my eye, that the inevitable happened and I signed up for a
gym membership. It was to be an important part of the New me: a Matt who would
defy the typical American stereotype of being fat and lazy and generally embarrassing
to be around.
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Last Updated ( Monday, October 22 2007 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Thursday, August 30 2007 |
It is my belief that no one really wants to retire in the
true sense of the word. If you're from North America or Europe,
you probably characterize retirement as a relaxing and enjoyable way of
passing your years. Essentially the opposite of how you characterize the time
before retirement, affectionately termed "the grind".
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Last Updated ( Monday, September 03 2007 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Monday, August 13 2007 |
I hadn't been in the States for more than one hour when I
noticed a sign clearly displayed on the way to baggage claim: Caution, this sign read. Please Watch Out! Glass door is transparent.
In case you needed it, the sign had been translated to Spanish as well, proving
to me that thankfully, stupidity in the USA is not limited only to
English-speakers.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, August 15 2007 )
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Written by Matt Landau
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Monday, August 06 2007 |
I was always under the impression that not having to make your bed or do your laundry were privileges reserved for princes of small countries and heirs to small fortunes. To those elite and select few, household chores were never part of the equation and now living in Panama, I can luckily say the same.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, July 31 2007 )
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