It has been a while since I have been on here for many many endless reasons which I will briefly list
1) there was a rain storm 3 weeks ago
2) since then the internet has been out
3) there have been a few complaints with promises to fix it
4) we are in Puerto Rico-nothing gets fixed in a timely manner
Therefore here I am in the lobby on the 2nd floor of my dorm using the internet with 15 other girls I don't know. So much has happened since I first stepped foot on this mysterious island and I have no idea where to start.
First! Out of the 11 National Student Exchange students that came to this school 5 of them left within the first week for many different reasons. That leaves Victor, Emma, Holly, Tirzah, Jackie, Nani and myself-here in Puerto Rico. My roommate Virginia even left which really sucked but she is still on the island so not too far away. After all that drama it has been calm. By now we are pros to these streets also known as hills and stairs. I have spent many nights with friends at the local bar Los Tigres down the hill playing dominoes, pool and our favorite latin music. I have spent many afternoons exploring the towns streets sitting in the plazas, exchanging glances at eye candy, laughing about random things and being stuck in the rain more times that could be counted on one hand. So far I have had so much fun that I can't even believe. Some fellow NSE students and I even made our first trek to San Juan 2 hours away to go to the Electric Daisy Carnival which was beyond off the chain. The nights highlight-dancing on stage with LMFAO. Still can't believe it.
But even with all that I've found time for myself. To do the things I have been wanting to do and have found more than a million reasons why I shouldn't. So far...
-Said to myself stop worrying about how much you have and HAVE FUN!
-Got bold and tried fish and chips-at the Marriot-delicious :)
-Went even crazier and has squid rings-might I add that really was crazy?!
-Currently reading 2 books-1 in English and 1 in Spanish
-I will be buying a bike soon
-aaaaand I will be signing up to participate in the Mujer Brava bike ride-20 miles only!
There are many things that could be not liked about this island, school and the people but there are so many things that weigh out the negatives. There have been so many times that people have honked at us walking down the street and honestly we still can't tell if its a good honk or a bad one--we accept it as a friendly honk :)
Puerto Ricans are really nice and comfortable with strangers. Bubble space is not so common here and everyone is so nice its hard not to be nice to everyone. At first being here in San German was hard because we are in such a remote place where it is hard to get around...really hard. But after the few weekends we have escaped has made being here all worth while. We can finally breathe and relax--if we want to. The town of San German has so much charm, history and sweetness to it. Everytime I take a trip to the Walgreens (only brand name pharmacy in sight) or even to the Supermercado (brightly painted green) I find something new I could get involved in or just admire.
The hardest part about not being a native spanish speaker and moving to Puerto Rico is the language. Not to mention no matter how many classes I have taken in Spanish it hasn't made it easy for me to communicate. Everyday I try and decipher what everyone is saying. Some days I can actually hear and some days I am completely clueless but I find that this "spanglish" is helped with some personal study like reading a book.
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Today my friend Emma and I decided to go into town to do a few errands aka go all the way down to the post office to mail birthday packages. Little did we know our trend of super missions was going to hit us again. We left campus about 11:45 and we both had 3 hours and 15 minutes before our class at 3. You wouldn't think that walking the 2 or so miles would take that long but it did. We ended up first at Walgreens-which has turned into a hotspot for getting the essentials before our weekly Wednesday trolley/shuttle ride to KMart and the grocery store. We ended up taking about 45 minutes choosing birthday cards, getting water and debating on hair colors for a virgin dyer. After that we headed toward our destination and stopped at the Office Supply store where we were pretty successful getting XL maps of Africa and North America and some other supplies. During that time it started to rain outside--and then it poured. The thing about Puerto Rico is that there is rain without fail EVERYDAY between the hours of 1 and 5pm for about 45mins. And of course that's when it would hit. But this rain was different. Never had I seen rain so fierce! There were rivers that we created in the streets!! After 5 minutes staring at the rain from the window we mustered up the courage to make the 1/2 block trek to the coffee shop--hahaha wow now that was funny we really did not expect what happened. Walking into the coffee shop soaked with about 15 students from our University was the least to say AWKWARD. We proceeded to fill our empty bellies and by that time it was 2:15 and we still had 5 blocks to go before class at 3. Once we got there we stood in line fr about 15 minutes and hurried back to school as fast as we could with a mixture of sweat and rainwater in our clothes. I was about 30 minutes late to my Adv Grammar class but luckily the professor did not notice and I was in the clear. --That's just a typical day when one of us decides to be productive--it rains and then pours. ----
There is so much that could be said about Puerto Rico and my experience here but I can only say so much without getting toungue tied and lost in my own words. So for now I will leave it at that.
I say if you ever have the chance take it--don't be afraid to leave everything behind because in the end you will grow more than you ever thought before. :)
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