When it comes to space, I’ve noticed some similarities and differences between Panama and the U.S. One similarity I’ve noticed is that the cities and country are set up about the same. In the city, everything’s close together, there’s a good amount of skyscrapers, and many people live in apartment buildings. In the country, everything is spaced apart, you have to drive a while to get to town, and families live in houses. I’ve also noticed that the setup at the university is similar. Although QLU is much smaller than UofL, the space in the classrooms is the same; they have a whiteboard, a desk at the front for professors, projectors, and the remaining area with desks and chairs for students. Everything’s spaced out the same way, there’s not more or less space than classrooms in the U.S., and the space is utilized in the same way.
One difference I’ve noticed is objects in houses. I haven’t been in any of the houses, but it seems like most of them don’t have air conditioning or heat because many of the windows are open, and people dry their clothes outside on a clothesline. Of course, this has to do with money and climate. Money, because many people don’t have enough to keep air conditioning going in their houses, and climate because it’s always warm, so there’s no need for heat and the clothes can easily dry outside in the sun.
Another difference I’ve noticed is the setup in restaurants. I’ve gone into a few restaurants and haven’t known where to go to order. You can tell if it’s a sit-down restaurant, but in places like cafeterias, I sometimes get confused if I order at the register or at the counter. Maybe I’m just not being observant enough, but you usually can’t tell where the line is, there’s just people standing everywhere. This is a very small difference, but I’ve also noticed that there aren’t many booths in restaurants. In the U.S., there’s usually booths and chairs, but I’ve only seen a few places here with booths to sit at. I don’t know if this has to do with space, money, culture, or anything at all, but it’s just something small I’ve seen.
