This post might peg me as a bad person, a gold-digger, or someone that uses people, but I just want you to know, before you read this and judge me, the following events just kind of happened and we rolled with it. Any mal-humored joke is just a part of my sarcasm and a way of laughing at what happened. Here we go...
Studying abroad is an awesome experience, but it costs. I'm paying full time tuition at home, my apartment here, the plain ticket and all the living expenses and I have no money coming in at the moment. I brought enough spending money so that I would feel comfortable, but towards the end, you realize how much you've spent and you've decided that PB&J is the best lunch ever. Or is it? Is there a possible way of getting food for free? Welcome to "Using your Looks in Conjunction with your Brain 101," a necessary class to complete the last few weeks of any study abroad experience.
I LOVE FOOD. A lot. Ask me or my sisters about any type of food and we've probably tried it or heard about it. We are always trying everything and eating at new places, but this gets pricy. Here, Jenn and I will start talking about food and drive ourselves crazy. We say that we're "hangrey" (hungry and angry that we don't have access to the food). "Hanger" occurs when you are bored and imaginative about the food you could possibly eat, and we usually solve this problem by eating lots of chocolate and eventually falling asleep. This weekend, though, we decided we were going to set goals for each night we went out, without spending our own money.
Lesson 1: if they want to buy you a drink, say you can't on an empty stomach. Thursday night, we went out to the clubs down the street from our apartment. Thursday is Friday in regards to university life, so the whole avenue was packed with people spilling out of little restaurants and clubs. By the way, here, not just night clubs are night clubs. Regular everyday restaurants, like this small Chinese place, put on music and open up to sell drinks so people can hang out, which is really comical. So we go into this club and we go upstairs just to hang out, and soon, some friends we met the other night there found us. My one friend told me that the annoying thing about Puerto Rico is that it's so small that once you meet someone, you'll see them all the time, which is true, because I saw so many people that night we were friends with. Another friend of mine says he doesn't even go with a group to la avenida universitaria because when he arrives by himself, there's already a handful of people he knows in whichever part of the street. So we greet our friends, and the first thing they do is offer us a drink, so we begin our schemes. I just say "no thanks, I haven't eaten much today" and automatically they ask if you would like something to eat. Jenn and I ended up splitting 2 orders of spicy wings and only drinking water the rest of the night with built in body guards to escort us wherever we wanted to go. We were content.
Friday we had been talking about fried cheesecake all day. We had eaten it with our teacher in a really expensive restaurant during our first weekend in Puerto Rico, but weren't quite sure how to get back there. That day, we set a goal that we were going to get fried cheesecake that night without paying for it. Well, last weekend, my teacher had to kayak with a guy, Todd, that was here on a business trip, and she encouraged us to take him out to show him around and we ended up exchanging numbers. Now that his work week was over, he wanted to go out. He told us where he was having dinner and was going to treat us, but we couldn't make it in time because of the short notice and how long the bus systems take. On our way to meet him at the restaurant, these 2 guys approach us to ask if they can go with us where we're going and buy us a drink. I'm just going to go off on a tangent by the way and talk about the guy that started talking to us. He was here working as crew on a Yacht. He's from South Africa so he had like a British accent and he just starts rambling like Russell Crow so that he could go with us. The guy he was with was from Washington DC, and I didn't really get the connection. Later, upon talking to the Washington guy, I find out that he was sitting in a bar alone and South Africa convinced him to hang out and go out. Then, on their hanging out, SA decides to pick us up as well. So basically, this guy just goes around making random friends wherever the place may be. Anyways, his drink offer reverts back to lesson 1 where you refuse the drink and redirect the focus towards food. We agreed to let them tag along and met Todd at Marmalade, the most expensive and best reviewed restaurant in Old San Juan. He was eating dessert so we kind of missed the boat on that one, which brings us to Lesson 2: bring up a really good restaurant/food that you've tried nearby and convince them that they must try it before they leave. Jenn and I started raving about the fried cheesecake at Vaca Brava and telling them how they had to try it. Before we knew it, I was leading the way to the restaurant and we were seated at a table for 5. The waiter greeted us and the guys we were with started asking him about this fried cheesecake they had heard all about. Now us waiters have this tactic of "up-selling" which means that you're going to try to sell as much food at the highest price because a bigger bill gets a bigger tip, especially when you're in a tourist zone. So our waiter started up-selling, which is the proper response when a table of 5 comes in and asks for 1 dessert. This works a lot of the time when I do it, so I decided that I was more hungry that 1 dessert and that I would comply with his suggestions, which is Lesson 3: agree with any and all suggestions a waiter gives and convince the rest of your table it's a good idea by awing over how good everything sounds. While we're at it, let's not forget Lesson 4: where you ask more about the business trip your new friend is on and keep bringing up how nice it is that everything he does is paid for on the company's dime with the company credit card. Anyways, we ended up spending $180 on who knows what and then using my hoarse voice (which I've been losing since Wednesday) as an excuse that I was sick and needed to go home. It was late by then, and the bus system is done running around 10, so we had to start discussing how we were going to get home, to which Todd offered to split a cab. This brings us to lesson 5: where you use your foreign language to make the non-foreign language speaking party pay the full price. We talked to the cab driver in Spanish to explain to him that upon dropping Todd off, he would charge him the full price. Successful Friday night.
Well last night, Saturday night, we were actually with our good friends we met down here, so we weren't really trying to pull anything. They're just nice anyways so anytime we were hungry, which is all the time, they made sure we were well fed. This is part of lesson 6, which brings a sincere closing to this satirical post: surround yourself with people that aren't buying you things because they have other motives, but take care of you because you're friends and you just want to spend time with each other.
I hope this post doesn't offend anybody, I'm just joking about all the manipulation, but that's kind of how it happened and Jenn and I have been laughing about it all weekend. We really just went out with the intentions of hanging out, although fried cheesecake was a real goal that night, but I just have a hard time refusing food once it jumps up in conversation. However, if you really have it in you though, feel free to take these lessons to heart and use them at your convenience.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Weekend in the East (bio bay, luquillo, fajardo, El Yunque)
Where do I even begin with this weekend? It was filled with so much fun and so much awesome scenery. Basically, we went out to Fajardo to kayak in the bio-luminescent bay (laguna grande), go to El Yunque Rainforest, and end it at la playa de Luquillo, one of the most beautiful and calmest beaches of Puerto Rico.
But let's start from the beginning so my memory doesn't fail me (like it has in half of these posts).
I was woken up at 10 AM Saturday with a call from my teacher, who was on campus to teach a workshop for intercity kids. She had to pick us up at my apartment early because she had to run back to her house in Old San Juan where she forgot her cell phone, so we drove back there. Old San Juan has very tiny streets, they're all one-way and have one side reserved for street parking and one for cars to drive. So we just blocked up her whole street by parking next to the parked cars so she could run in and get her cell phone. Mission accomplished.
On our way to the freeway to Fajardo, we were passing the hotel where her son's cafe is, so she asked if we were hungry. I always say yes to that question. We stopped there to get the famous 3-tea blend and a muffin and to visit for a while. Their tea is so good so I'm glad we stopped.
I played co-pilot on the way to Fajardo and had to pay special attention, because my teacher get's lost very often with directions and such. I fell asleep anyways, and my teacher just said she would let me know when she needed me. Ok, so you know when you're in the country, and the roads don't have names? They just have those route numbers with north, south, east or west and it's confusing. I've encountered these a lot with my parents and little sister trying to visit colleges in the middle of nowhere like Ohio Northern or Findley. Well, that is exactly what we were up against on the way out to Fajardo. From the main highway, we did find the route we needed, but from there it was very confusing. The directions from the kayaking company listed about 5 different turns we had to make. We didn't make any of them and we kept on straight, yet we ended up on the last route we needed before the beach. In other words, instead of making 5 turns, we continued straight and made it right to where we were supposed to be. I think a few revisions need to be made.
We unloaded at the beach and tried to look for the kayak company, but were told we were real early since we were taking a night kayak trip. This gave us time to play in the water and soak up some sun. Fajardo is the north eastern part of the island, where you have access to the other islands of Puerto Rico such as Vieques and Culebra. Those were in the background as we played in the water. We saw some cool fish and a lot that camouflaged into the rocks on the bottom and others that looked like the seaweed leaves, which was really cool. There were a lot of boats in the background as well as kayak companies setting up. As a per-departure snack, we got some pinchos, those kabob thingies. They actually had a shrimp one that Jenn tried and my teacher and I got chicken.
Finally, it was time for kayaking. These were open ocean kayaks, so we would be getting wet from the waste down, at the very least. We just wore our swim suits with a shirt over top, but it was pretty chilly. My teacher says we're not allowed to say that it's chilly because we're from Ohio, where it's snowing now. Surprisingly, we now think that 70's is cold because we spend the day in the 80's. Anyways, we put on bug spray and life jackets and grouped up to hear some instructions. Everyone got a partner, so Jenn and I stuck together while my teacher went with another single guy. She kept trying to get Jenn or me to go with him, but he was old by our standards and I'm too shy for that business. It was funny to hear them trying to communicate because he spoke no Spanish and she struggles with English, but they made a good team. Our kayak guide was funny, referring to kayaks with other companies as "the enemy" and teaching us how to hit them and make it look like an accident. Well, it was decided that I would be the person in the back of the kayak to steer and everything because I had been kayaking a few times in the ocean and my gym class in college was kayaking. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much I remembered from that experience.
We got into our kayaks and rowed into a single file line until our whole group was ready. We kayaked across the ocean docks where the boats sat to an opening of a river canal. This canal was awesome because it had mangrove trees that hang over the top of you and form a canopy. When you look up through the branches in the air, you can see a million stars. The little river was very shallow and pretty narrow so we had to be careful not to crash into the trees on the side and get stuck. We got stuck anyways, on a few occasions, but our guide just told us that we got the full experience that way.
After about half an hour of kayaking and some twists and turns, we got to La Laguna Grande, a bio-luminescent bay. This lagoon is filled with millions of organisms that react to movement by lighting up. In other words, when you stuck your hand into the water and wiggled it around, your hand lit up like tinker bell. It was the coolest thing ever. At one point, you were able to swim in it to see your whole body light up, but they discovered that all the oils, perfumes and bugsprays that we wear were killing the organisms which would also stop them from lighting up. The sky was filled with more stars than I've ever seen before. I saw the usual suspects, like Orion and the North Star, but they were surrounded and filled with a million other tiny stars.
It was time to go back and we all lined up again to start down the river back to the ocean. This trip would be easier and faster because we would be going with the current. I was excited about that, but then quickly learned that we would encounter enemy kayaks that would be entering as we were exiting. Not good. We crashed a few times into oncoming traffic and got stuck in a jam in the roots of the trees. We finally made it out and back to shore where they had snacks and water waiting for us. My teacher decided she was going to change and went to her car. When she got back, she told us about how she had to go pee but didn't want to go in the nasty bathrooms, so she went in her fast food cup by her car. She really is a character.
For dinner, we saw a restaurant as we were headed back to the highway to stay in Luquillo. The tables were outdoors and the scenery was gorgeous. We had great service and confused them on whether we spoke Spanish or English. We're too tan to look American, but our facial features are American, and then we always enter places speaking Spanish, so it's fun when they come up to our table and say "¿Inglés o español?" Well, with my teacher, it's always at least a 3 course meal. We got 2 appetizers: some shrimp in a fruity glaze and some ham croquettes, both of which were awesome. Then we went to look at the menu. Surprisingly, one of the cheaper things was Filet Mignon, and I don't feel like I get to eat that enough, so I ordered it. All of our dishes came out beautifully decorated with sauces in different designs. Everything was delicious, and when the waiter came with the bill, our teacher refused it and asked for dessert. We ended up getting a creme brulee made with sweet potatoes. It was awesome and also beautifully presented. We called our friends who were staying with us at the apartment, and they said they were at dinner at Taco Maker, a fast food taco chain. My teacher doesn't approve of that, especially since we were meeting up with another teacher and her student teacher, who needs to experience Puerto Rican restaurants, not Taco Maker.
We got back on the highway and went to the ocean side apartment and were exhausted. I shared a room with my teacher who was literally passed out with lights on and everything when I got out of the bathroom. We slept great that night.
The next day, I woke up to birds chirping and the sound of ocean waves, which I now believe is the way that everyone in the world should wake up. We threw on some clothes and went to Walgreens to get bottles of water and then subway to get some breakfast and a sandwich to eat later on our hike. I was very impressed with subway's breakfast; I had no idea they made the eggs right in front of you to put on the flat breads. We took our breakfast back to the apartment to eat on the balcony in front of the ocean and then got our stuff together to go to El Yunque. The other teacher and her boyfriend hike, kayak and bike all around the island, so they knew the spot to take us in the rainforest.
El Yunque is a rainforest that is a mountain, or basically the whole mountain is the rainforest. So, we had to drive up and around the mountain until we finally got to the trail to Las Minas waterfall. They have created trail paths with concrete stairs and big rocks to help everyone get to their destination, which was really nice. After hiking 30 minutes down hill and seeing some awesome scenery and plants, we arrived at the waterfall. It was so beautiful and everyone was going in it. We took off our clothes to get into our bathing suits and climbed over a bunch of huge rocks to get into the freezing cold water. I saw some fish swimming around and we kept screaming because of how cold the water was and also because there were huge rocks at the bottom of the falls where we couldn't see them below the water. We got some awesome and hilarious pictures of it all, though. We dried off and hiked up hill all the way back up to the top where we ate lunch by some beautiful scenery and then decided to head out to the beach.
Luquillo beach actually has a parking lot that you have to pay to park in. This is all because the beach has wonderful park facilities. They have great bathrooms, life guard houses, and awesome colorful tiled showers. Luquillo beach is arguably one of the best beaches in Puerto Rico. One of the teachers told us that most people think it's the best, but in her opinion, she likes the beaches on Culebra and La Playa Sucia better. But 3rd best in her book is fine with me. The water is very calm and there's almost no waves. It's also crystal clear and you can see your feet. The sand in the water doesn't have anything in it. No rocks, no plants, but you can see schools of fish swim by and there were actually a few people walking around with starfish they caught. We floated in the calm water and laid out a bit. One time when I went in the water myself, I ended up making friends with these 3 little kids. They thought my name was strange and said I seemed like I was from a different planet, but I just told them I was from the United States. The little girl told me she had never heard of it, but then proceeded to tell me how she was born in New York. My teacher said that I'm a good teacher because I taught some little kids that day how New York and Ohio are both states in the U.S. I pulled them around in their floaties and when we had to go, the kids didn't want me to leave, it was so cute. Sadly, we had to go home from there so my teacher could babysit her grand kids and Jenn and I could go back to our apartment.
This island is one of the most amazing places for me, and this weekends is one of the reasons why. There are so many diverse ecosystems in one tiny place and you can see so much. For example, just this weekend we went to the bio-luminescent lagoon, the ocean, and the rainforest. Another weekend we got to go to the caves and a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. I know why they call it "The Island of Enchantment."
But let's start from the beginning so my memory doesn't fail me (like it has in half of these posts).
I was woken up at 10 AM Saturday with a call from my teacher, who was on campus to teach a workshop for intercity kids. She had to pick us up at my apartment early because she had to run back to her house in Old San Juan where she forgot her cell phone, so we drove back there. Old San Juan has very tiny streets, they're all one-way and have one side reserved for street parking and one for cars to drive. So we just blocked up her whole street by parking next to the parked cars so she could run in and get her cell phone. Mission accomplished.
On our way to the freeway to Fajardo, we were passing the hotel where her son's cafe is, so she asked if we were hungry. I always say yes to that question. We stopped there to get the famous 3-tea blend and a muffin and to visit for a while. Their tea is so good so I'm glad we stopped.
I played co-pilot on the way to Fajardo and had to pay special attention, because my teacher get's lost very often with directions and such. I fell asleep anyways, and my teacher just said she would let me know when she needed me. Ok, so you know when you're in the country, and the roads don't have names? They just have those route numbers with north, south, east or west and it's confusing. I've encountered these a lot with my parents and little sister trying to visit colleges in the middle of nowhere like Ohio Northern or Findley. Well, that is exactly what we were up against on the way out to Fajardo. From the main highway, we did find the route we needed, but from there it was very confusing. The directions from the kayaking company listed about 5 different turns we had to make. We didn't make any of them and we kept on straight, yet we ended up on the last route we needed before the beach. In other words, instead of making 5 turns, we continued straight and made it right to where we were supposed to be. I think a few revisions need to be made.
We unloaded at the beach and tried to look for the kayak company, but were told we were real early since we were taking a night kayak trip. This gave us time to play in the water and soak up some sun. Fajardo is the north eastern part of the island, where you have access to the other islands of Puerto Rico such as Vieques and Culebra. Those were in the background as we played in the water. We saw some cool fish and a lot that camouflaged into the rocks on the bottom and others that looked like the seaweed leaves, which was really cool. There were a lot of boats in the background as well as kayak companies setting up. As a per-departure snack, we got some pinchos, those kabob thingies. They actually had a shrimp one that Jenn tried and my teacher and I got chicken.
Finally, it was time for kayaking. These were open ocean kayaks, so we would be getting wet from the waste down, at the very least. We just wore our swim suits with a shirt over top, but it was pretty chilly. My teacher says we're not allowed to say that it's chilly because we're from Ohio, where it's snowing now. Surprisingly, we now think that 70's is cold because we spend the day in the 80's. Anyways, we put on bug spray and life jackets and grouped up to hear some instructions. Everyone got a partner, so Jenn and I stuck together while my teacher went with another single guy. She kept trying to get Jenn or me to go with him, but he was old by our standards and I'm too shy for that business. It was funny to hear them trying to communicate because he spoke no Spanish and she struggles with English, but they made a good team. Our kayak guide was funny, referring to kayaks with other companies as "the enemy" and teaching us how to hit them and make it look like an accident. Well, it was decided that I would be the person in the back of the kayak to steer and everything because I had been kayaking a few times in the ocean and my gym class in college was kayaking. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much I remembered from that experience.
We got into our kayaks and rowed into a single file line until our whole group was ready. We kayaked across the ocean docks where the boats sat to an opening of a river canal. This canal was awesome because it had mangrove trees that hang over the top of you and form a canopy. When you look up through the branches in the air, you can see a million stars. The little river was very shallow and pretty narrow so we had to be careful not to crash into the trees on the side and get stuck. We got stuck anyways, on a few occasions, but our guide just told us that we got the full experience that way.
After about half an hour of kayaking and some twists and turns, we got to La Laguna Grande, a bio-luminescent bay. This lagoon is filled with millions of organisms that react to movement by lighting up. In other words, when you stuck your hand into the water and wiggled it around, your hand lit up like tinker bell. It was the coolest thing ever. At one point, you were able to swim in it to see your whole body light up, but they discovered that all the oils, perfumes and bugsprays that we wear were killing the organisms which would also stop them from lighting up. The sky was filled with more stars than I've ever seen before. I saw the usual suspects, like Orion and the North Star, but they were surrounded and filled with a million other tiny stars.
It was time to go back and we all lined up again to start down the river back to the ocean. This trip would be easier and faster because we would be going with the current. I was excited about that, but then quickly learned that we would encounter enemy kayaks that would be entering as we were exiting. Not good. We crashed a few times into oncoming traffic and got stuck in a jam in the roots of the trees. We finally made it out and back to shore where they had snacks and water waiting for us. My teacher decided she was going to change and went to her car. When she got back, she told us about how she had to go pee but didn't want to go in the nasty bathrooms, so she went in her fast food cup by her car. She really is a character.
For dinner, we saw a restaurant as we were headed back to the highway to stay in Luquillo. The tables were outdoors and the scenery was gorgeous. We had great service and confused them on whether we spoke Spanish or English. We're too tan to look American, but our facial features are American, and then we always enter places speaking Spanish, so it's fun when they come up to our table and say "¿Inglés o español?" Well, with my teacher, it's always at least a 3 course meal. We got 2 appetizers: some shrimp in a fruity glaze and some ham croquettes, both of which were awesome. Then we went to look at the menu. Surprisingly, one of the cheaper things was Filet Mignon, and I don't feel like I get to eat that enough, so I ordered it. All of our dishes came out beautifully decorated with sauces in different designs. Everything was delicious, and when the waiter came with the bill, our teacher refused it and asked for dessert. We ended up getting a creme brulee made with sweet potatoes. It was awesome and also beautifully presented. We called our friends who were staying with us at the apartment, and they said they were at dinner at Taco Maker, a fast food taco chain. My teacher doesn't approve of that, especially since we were meeting up with another teacher and her student teacher, who needs to experience Puerto Rican restaurants, not Taco Maker.
We got back on the highway and went to the ocean side apartment and were exhausted. I shared a room with my teacher who was literally passed out with lights on and everything when I got out of the bathroom. We slept great that night.
The next day, I woke up to birds chirping and the sound of ocean waves, which I now believe is the way that everyone in the world should wake up. We threw on some clothes and went to Walgreens to get bottles of water and then subway to get some breakfast and a sandwich to eat later on our hike. I was very impressed with subway's breakfast; I had no idea they made the eggs right in front of you to put on the flat breads. We took our breakfast back to the apartment to eat on the balcony in front of the ocean and then got our stuff together to go to El Yunque. The other teacher and her boyfriend hike, kayak and bike all around the island, so they knew the spot to take us in the rainforest.
El Yunque is a rainforest that is a mountain, or basically the whole mountain is the rainforest. So, we had to drive up and around the mountain until we finally got to the trail to Las Minas waterfall. They have created trail paths with concrete stairs and big rocks to help everyone get to their destination, which was really nice. After hiking 30 minutes down hill and seeing some awesome scenery and plants, we arrived at the waterfall. It was so beautiful and everyone was going in it. We took off our clothes to get into our bathing suits and climbed over a bunch of huge rocks to get into the freezing cold water. I saw some fish swimming around and we kept screaming because of how cold the water was and also because there were huge rocks at the bottom of the falls where we couldn't see them below the water. We got some awesome and hilarious pictures of it all, though. We dried off and hiked up hill all the way back up to the top where we ate lunch by some beautiful scenery and then decided to head out to the beach.
Luquillo beach actually has a parking lot that you have to pay to park in. This is all because the beach has wonderful park facilities. They have great bathrooms, life guard houses, and awesome colorful tiled showers. Luquillo beach is arguably one of the best beaches in Puerto Rico. One of the teachers told us that most people think it's the best, but in her opinion, she likes the beaches on Culebra and La Playa Sucia better. But 3rd best in her book is fine with me. The water is very calm and there's almost no waves. It's also crystal clear and you can see your feet. The sand in the water doesn't have anything in it. No rocks, no plants, but you can see schools of fish swim by and there were actually a few people walking around with starfish they caught. We floated in the calm water and laid out a bit. One time when I went in the water myself, I ended up making friends with these 3 little kids. They thought my name was strange and said I seemed like I was from a different planet, but I just told them I was from the United States. The little girl told me she had never heard of it, but then proceeded to tell me how she was born in New York. My teacher said that I'm a good teacher because I taught some little kids that day how New York and Ohio are both states in the U.S. I pulled them around in their floaties and when we had to go, the kids didn't want me to leave, it was so cute. Sadly, we had to go home from there so my teacher could babysit her grand kids and Jenn and I could go back to our apartment.
This island is one of the most amazing places for me, and this weekends is one of the reasons why. There are so many diverse ecosystems in one tiny place and you can see so much. For example, just this weekend we went to the bio-luminescent lagoon, the ocean, and the rainforest. Another weekend we got to go to the caves and a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. I know why they call it "The Island of Enchantment."
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Hay un amigo en mi
Today was one of the most wonderful Valentine's days I've ever had in my life, all thanks to my students. Actually, here, we call it "El día de amistad" or "friendship day." It's not about whether or not you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, it's about appreciating your friends and letting them know how much they mean to you. I wish it were more like that in the states, because based on many of the Facebook statuses I've seen today, people get hardcore depressed on this day because they don't have a significant other.
Anyways, Jenn and I started the day with our pink shirts on and jeans because we knew we would be getting Valentine's T-shirts from the school. We were so excited about them too because they would have the school's name on them. Besides the school name, they said "Let's paint a world of love" in Spanish. All the teachers and kids were wearing them and we got some pictures of us in them.
Next, there was an assembly for the whole school to make proclamations of peace and love as a school and also to share in some singing and music. It was awesome. We actually started with a prayer, which surprised me. They respect diversity but they also respect God and aren't afraid of offending people. The 4th graders got out their recorders and their teacher played the guitar and they sang a few songs for us. They were so good, and I video taped them, but my computer is being slow and won't upload the videos. Then, the cutest little autistic boy from one of my 6th grade classes got on stage to play his clarinet and sing. He can be a handful in class, but he sang and played with all his heart today. He played a tune in between verses of "Hay un amigo en mi" or "You've Got a Friend in Me" from ToyStory.
All of the teachers, even us student teachers, cried during this performance. It was just so touching to see his talent and to see him really singing from the heart. Afterwards, different students from the classes read proclamations of peace and it was so precious how the kindergarteners, who have trouble reading, had memorized their lines. They ended by everyone singing the Alma Mater and we went back to our classrooms.
In the classroom, we had a little party for the kids. They had "secret friends" to give gifts too so we went exchanging. The students had to get up and describe their secret friend so we could guess who it was. They said the sweetest things about each other, like how nice their secret friend was or smart or pretty. We all got in a circle to say nice things to each other and it was also a time to ask forgiveness from a friend you might've done wrong to. The teacher started by asking forgiveness from a few students she had been hard on and they hugged and kissed and made up. That's another thing here, you can hug and kiss the kids like they're your own. The teacher also spoke about the kids who represented the class the best and our class slogan the best of "equality." Then other students were able to say sorry to their friends, and one girl actually started crying because she had been mean. It was really sweet. We gave out Valentine's gifts to everyone and had cake. The game we played was really fun too. We taped a paper to everyone's back and everyone got a marker. You had to go around and write something nice on everyone's paper, and we played too. Afterwards, we got to read our papers and everyone got to feel special. My papers are hanging right about my desk right now. I'm going to miss them soo much when I leave.
Well, we did the same activity with the second class and they loved it as well. I got cake and plenty of chocolates so I am good to go. Today was just so full of love with them and my teacher was great. She bought us a teaching philosophy book in Spanish that she's actually published in. She signed it for us and everything.
Well tonight, a guy from campus asked to go out with Jenn, so to be safe, I'm going with her as a third wheel. So Valentine's night won't be too bad.
Have a beautiful Valentine's everyone! And if you don't have a significant other, be thankful for your friends and tell them how much you appreciate them or say sorry to someone you've wronged.
Anyways, Jenn and I started the day with our pink shirts on and jeans because we knew we would be getting Valentine's T-shirts from the school. We were so excited about them too because they would have the school's name on them. Besides the school name, they said "Let's paint a world of love" in Spanish. All the teachers and kids were wearing them and we got some pictures of us in them.
Next, there was an assembly for the whole school to make proclamations of peace and love as a school and also to share in some singing and music. It was awesome. We actually started with a prayer, which surprised me. They respect diversity but they also respect God and aren't afraid of offending people. The 4th graders got out their recorders and their teacher played the guitar and they sang a few songs for us. They were so good, and I video taped them, but my computer is being slow and won't upload the videos. Then, the cutest little autistic boy from one of my 6th grade classes got on stage to play his clarinet and sing. He can be a handful in class, but he sang and played with all his heart today. He played a tune in between verses of "Hay un amigo en mi" or "You've Got a Friend in Me" from ToyStory.
All of the teachers, even us student teachers, cried during this performance. It was just so touching to see his talent and to see him really singing from the heart. Afterwards, different students from the classes read proclamations of peace and it was so precious how the kindergarteners, who have trouble reading, had memorized their lines. They ended by everyone singing the Alma Mater and we went back to our classrooms.
In the classroom, we had a little party for the kids. They had "secret friends" to give gifts too so we went exchanging. The students had to get up and describe their secret friend so we could guess who it was. They said the sweetest things about each other, like how nice their secret friend was or smart or pretty. We all got in a circle to say nice things to each other and it was also a time to ask forgiveness from a friend you might've done wrong to. The teacher started by asking forgiveness from a few students she had been hard on and they hugged and kissed and made up. That's another thing here, you can hug and kiss the kids like they're your own. The teacher also spoke about the kids who represented the class the best and our class slogan the best of "equality." Then other students were able to say sorry to their friends, and one girl actually started crying because she had been mean. It was really sweet. We gave out Valentine's gifts to everyone and had cake. The game we played was really fun too. We taped a paper to everyone's back and everyone got a marker. You had to go around and write something nice on everyone's paper, and we played too. Afterwards, we got to read our papers and everyone got to feel special. My papers are hanging right about my desk right now. I'm going to miss them soo much when I leave.
Well, we did the same activity with the second class and they loved it as well. I got cake and plenty of chocolates so I am good to go. Today was just so full of love with them and my teacher was great. She bought us a teaching philosophy book in Spanish that she's actually published in. She signed it for us and everything.
Well tonight, a guy from campus asked to go out with Jenn, so to be safe, I'm going with her as a third wheel. So Valentine's night won't be too bad.
Have a beautiful Valentine's everyone! And if you don't have a significant other, be thankful for your friends and tell them how much you appreciate them or say sorry to someone you've wronged.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Be thankful for what you got... and break something
Today, I learned how many things I take for granted.
This week, they posted a sign in our apartment that said the whole University would be turning the power off from 7am-3pm today, Sunday. I don't know if this was part of a monk exercise, maintenance work, or just a sick joke to watch all the exchange students run around like crazy.
Anyways, we slept in until 11 today, so things should've been half way over. The AC was off, but it was still comfortable. I was extremely thirsty but too scared to open the fridge to get my water because we have food in there. So I didn't. I went to the bathroom and learned, for whatever reason, that the toilet's flusher runs on electricity. Gross. I went to use the sink and learned that it too is also an electric sink in one way or another. Sanitary. I ate a breakfast bar and remembered how Abby said she would make us her "cream cheese scrambled eggs" today, but she politely reminded me that we also needed electricity to make those. Perfect. I'm thankful for electricity.
So we packed up our tooth brushes and face wash and walked to Denny's to get a taste of home when we needed it the most. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and when a lady came out of her stall, she was laughing while washing her hands. I've decided not to judge people doing things like that from now on, because you never know why the heck they're doing their crazy things. Plus, there has to be a good reason for it, because otherwise they wouldn't be doing things just to do them. Once that was over, I ordered this skillet breakfast meal with caramel and banana french toast, bacon and eggs. I swear I have a much bigger appetite here, because at home I never finish my meals, especially not ones that big, but I finished that whole thing.
I'm thankful for my mom who does my laundry and that every house I've moved into has had it's own washer and dryer. I officially hate laundromats and how they stick their soapy little hands in your pockets. I'm also glad we ignored our laundry for the past 2 weeks and decided to wait to do it today, when the power was out. We had to go down 5 flights of stairs with laundry and lug it down the street to the laundromat, pay $2.25 a load and $.25 for every 4 minutes of drying time. Ridiculous. So now, I'm sitting in the Subway across the street waiting for my dry time to be up so we can lug everything back home.
The power better be on. I want to take the elevator up to my 5th floor suite, flush my toilet, open my fridge, and break something.
This week, they posted a sign in our apartment that said the whole University would be turning the power off from 7am-3pm today, Sunday. I don't know if this was part of a monk exercise, maintenance work, or just a sick joke to watch all the exchange students run around like crazy.
Anyways, we slept in until 11 today, so things should've been half way over. The AC was off, but it was still comfortable. I was extremely thirsty but too scared to open the fridge to get my water because we have food in there. So I didn't. I went to the bathroom and learned, for whatever reason, that the toilet's flusher runs on electricity. Gross. I went to use the sink and learned that it too is also an electric sink in one way or another. Sanitary. I ate a breakfast bar and remembered how Abby said she would make us her "cream cheese scrambled eggs" today, but she politely reminded me that we also needed electricity to make those. Perfect. I'm thankful for electricity.
So we packed up our tooth brushes and face wash and walked to Denny's to get a taste of home when we needed it the most. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and when a lady came out of her stall, she was laughing while washing her hands. I've decided not to judge people doing things like that from now on, because you never know why the heck they're doing their crazy things. Plus, there has to be a good reason for it, because otherwise they wouldn't be doing things just to do them. Once that was over, I ordered this skillet breakfast meal with caramel and banana french toast, bacon and eggs. I swear I have a much bigger appetite here, because at home I never finish my meals, especially not ones that big, but I finished that whole thing.
I'm thankful for my mom who does my laundry and that every house I've moved into has had it's own washer and dryer. I officially hate laundromats and how they stick their soapy little hands in your pockets. I'm also glad we ignored our laundry for the past 2 weeks and decided to wait to do it today, when the power was out. We had to go down 5 flights of stairs with laundry and lug it down the street to the laundromat, pay $2.25 a load and $.25 for every 4 minutes of drying time. Ridiculous. So now, I'm sitting in the Subway across the street waiting for my dry time to be up so we can lug everything back home.
The power better be on. I want to take the elevator up to my 5th floor suite, flush my toilet, open my fridge, and break something.
Fun and Busy Friday and Saturday
I feel like I haven't had time to breathe these last 2 days, but we've been having a lot of fun keeping busy!
Well, this whole week at school was "La Semana de las Bellas Artes" or "Fine Arts Week." On Monday, we got to sing together and one of my 6th graders played the Sax for everyone with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and the Harry Potter theme song. On Tuesday, we watched bongo players and dancers. I actually got to learn how to play the bongos and did a 3-step beat on them. On Wednesday, we learned how to dance "la plena." We didn't have time to participate on Thursday, because our classes were misbehaving and it took forever to do a simple task on Twitter. Also, Carla, another student teacher, took us into town to an awesome shoe store and we had these crazy loaded baked potatoes on the street. That brings us to Friday, when we finished up the week with a school wide chalk mural on the sidewalk outside of the school. Each class had a different central idea to draw about, and ours was "equality." Being 6th grade, we had the end of the sidewalk to work with and then it spit out into the parking lot. The kids took full advantage of the parking lot, and I just thought it was ironic that our theme was equality, but we had the most space out of anyone.
So between classes on Friday, Jenn and I decided to pick up some boxes from the USPS so we could send some stuff home to our families. The "it fits, it ships" boxes would be the cheapest, but their large box isn't all that large. Regardless, I'm planning on sending home some souvenirs and leaving behind my towels and sheets to lower the weight of my suitcase. It was already 1 pound over on the way here, and I'm lucky they didn't charge me for that.
We returned back to school and tried to teach, but the kids were so wound up with the fine arts week, the fact that it was Friday, and also because we had a school event that night.
After school, we went back into town to do some shopping. And the stores here are ridiculous and have awesome prices. When you walk into an accessories store here, be prepared to be bombarded with accessories. Same goes for shoes, clothes, etc. They have so many flashy things and the whole store is just covered in them. It kind of reminded me of the little holes in the wall in Chinatown with all the purses and jewelry and belts, except the stores here aren't little, they're big regular sized stores just packed with stuff all over. I got the cutest sandals for $5 and some really cute wristlets and dresses. I bought so much stuff and on the way home, we stopped back at the school to see the kids' soccer games. They were so good, but it was so hot, so we went back home.
The school event to go on that night was called "Cine Bajo las Estrellas" or literally, "Theatre Under the Stars." It serves as a fund raiser for the 6th grade by them selling concessions. We had sushi beforehand, but when we arrived to the school at night I had a pincho and some popcorn. All of our class was there and they were so excited. They set up a projector for us and started the night with a photo power point with "Party Rock Anthem" in the background. The kids love LMFAO and they were all dancing and shuffling. Finally, we got to watch Cars 2 totally in Spanish, which helped me learn some new words. A lot of the younger kids ran around the whole time, but the older ones and all the adults sat on their blankets or lawn chairs to watch. Afterwards, we went and got nutella milk shakes before bed.
Today, Abby and Melissa, the 2 student teachers from Boston, were going kayaking with their teacher, so Jenn and I decided it would be a beach day. We went to Condado again and it was nice and hot. We were in the hotel zone, though, so we had to keep moving position so a hotel tower wasn't shading us. I got a lot of sun and my cheeks look a little red. The water there is so salty that when you dry off, you can see salt rings on your skin. We decided to get Starbucks before coming back and I found that they had my Tazo peach tea, which is one of my favorites.
We caught the bus and went back to meet Abby to go out in Old San Juan for the night. When we got there, we went to see if my teacher was home, but she wasn't. She later texted me that she was with her grandkids. So we went to Señor Frogs, a very touristy place. But in those places where they assume everyone's a tourist or American, we like to respond to their Spanish and speak back to them. We danced for a bit there and then met up with our friends to go and eat. I had some steak fajitas, which were awesome. They drove us home afterwards and now I'm about to go to bed.
Tomorrow, we need to find something to do outside the apartment. The university is shutting all power off tomorrow from 7am-3pm and we're going to need air conditioning!
Well, this whole week at school was "La Semana de las Bellas Artes" or "Fine Arts Week." On Monday, we got to sing together and one of my 6th graders played the Sax for everyone with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and the Harry Potter theme song. On Tuesday, we watched bongo players and dancers. I actually got to learn how to play the bongos and did a 3-step beat on them. On Wednesday, we learned how to dance "la plena." We didn't have time to participate on Thursday, because our classes were misbehaving and it took forever to do a simple task on Twitter. Also, Carla, another student teacher, took us into town to an awesome shoe store and we had these crazy loaded baked potatoes on the street. That brings us to Friday, when we finished up the week with a school wide chalk mural on the sidewalk outside of the school. Each class had a different central idea to draw about, and ours was "equality." Being 6th grade, we had the end of the sidewalk to work with and then it spit out into the parking lot. The kids took full advantage of the parking lot, and I just thought it was ironic that our theme was equality, but we had the most space out of anyone.
So between classes on Friday, Jenn and I decided to pick up some boxes from the USPS so we could send some stuff home to our families. The "it fits, it ships" boxes would be the cheapest, but their large box isn't all that large. Regardless, I'm planning on sending home some souvenirs and leaving behind my towels and sheets to lower the weight of my suitcase. It was already 1 pound over on the way here, and I'm lucky they didn't charge me for that.
We returned back to school and tried to teach, but the kids were so wound up with the fine arts week, the fact that it was Friday, and also because we had a school event that night.
After school, we went back into town to do some shopping. And the stores here are ridiculous and have awesome prices. When you walk into an accessories store here, be prepared to be bombarded with accessories. Same goes for shoes, clothes, etc. They have so many flashy things and the whole store is just covered in them. It kind of reminded me of the little holes in the wall in Chinatown with all the purses and jewelry and belts, except the stores here aren't little, they're big regular sized stores just packed with stuff all over. I got the cutest sandals for $5 and some really cute wristlets and dresses. I bought so much stuff and on the way home, we stopped back at the school to see the kids' soccer games. They were so good, but it was so hot, so we went back home.
The school event to go on that night was called "Cine Bajo las Estrellas" or literally, "Theatre Under the Stars." It serves as a fund raiser for the 6th grade by them selling concessions. We had sushi beforehand, but when we arrived to the school at night I had a pincho and some popcorn. All of our class was there and they were so excited. They set up a projector for us and started the night with a photo power point with "Party Rock Anthem" in the background. The kids love LMFAO and they were all dancing and shuffling. Finally, we got to watch Cars 2 totally in Spanish, which helped me learn some new words. A lot of the younger kids ran around the whole time, but the older ones and all the adults sat on their blankets or lawn chairs to watch. Afterwards, we went and got nutella milk shakes before bed.
Today, Abby and Melissa, the 2 student teachers from Boston, were going kayaking with their teacher, so Jenn and I decided it would be a beach day. We went to Condado again and it was nice and hot. We were in the hotel zone, though, so we had to keep moving position so a hotel tower wasn't shading us. I got a lot of sun and my cheeks look a little red. The water there is so salty that when you dry off, you can see salt rings on your skin. We decided to get Starbucks before coming back and I found that they had my Tazo peach tea, which is one of my favorites.
We caught the bus and went back to meet Abby to go out in Old San Juan for the night. When we got there, we went to see if my teacher was home, but she wasn't. She later texted me that she was with her grandkids. So we went to Señor Frogs, a very touristy place. But in those places where they assume everyone's a tourist or American, we like to respond to their Spanish and speak back to them. We danced for a bit there and then met up with our friends to go and eat. I had some steak fajitas, which were awesome. They drove us home afterwards and now I'm about to go to bed.
Tomorrow, we need to find something to do outside the apartment. The university is shutting all power off tomorrow from 7am-3pm and we're going to need air conditioning!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Condado Beach/Utuado countryside
Saturday is always beach day here, it seems, but we wanted to go to a new beach. We had gone out Thursday to this nice ocean front club, so we decided that was the beach we wanted to go to and decided to go to Condado again. We figured out the bus to get there and got to this really ritzy touristy place and went to the beach there. It was so nice but there were a lot of guys there in speedos with their "partners." They had a beautiful boardwalk and scenery and we got some awesome pictures. We decided to eat at this burger place that the guys on Thursday told us about, and it was the funniest thing. We go into the house-type building and it's kind of empty with random couches, chairs, weird artwork and a ping pong table. After walking through, we came out to a patio where two guys were grilling burgers. They were sooo funny; they were like legitimate surfer dudes and they were from America. The guy cursed when we came out of the house and said "we have a fry situation," meaning the potato cutter they use to cut the fries was broken, so he had to cut the potatoes himself. Then, I asked the other guy what he recommended, and he said muenster cheese on the 4 oz. burger. When I told him I wanted pepperjack, he looked at me and said "so... not the muenster?" He looked so annoyed that I asked his opinion and didn't take it. There were also a bunch of different guys skate boarding in and out of the restaurant and one of them skateboarded to get our drinks from the store. It was just the most random thing.
Later that night, we wanted to go out to our teacher's town again, but a cab was $96 and the driver actually recommended us to rent a car because it's cheaper, so we did. We took the bus to the airport and got a car and drove to Utuado through a bunch of hills. Our friends were giving us directions on the way, and told us to keep going straight when we were supposed to turn, sending us down this really creepy narrow road. Our friend who was driving, Abby, started freaking out and thinking of car jacking stories and wouldn't stop the car. She swung around for a u-turn and she drove like a bat out of hell back down the hill hitting basically all the pot holes. Finally, we found our way there. We went to the chinchorrito, the hole in the wall place, for dancing and also for the pinchos, or shish kabobs. I mostly hung out with the guy who owns the little shish kabob tent because he has this Mexican salsa I like and since I help him flip the kabobs, he gives me free bread. Writing that sentence just made me feel like a bird. Anyways, I hung out with the people around there and when a Salsa or Bachata song that came on, I found someone to dance with since those were dances I learned back in the states. Everyone was really nice and at the end of the night, they paid for us to get a hotel so we didn't have to drive back late. They were like nice little condos, like the ones we stayed in the last weekend. When we woke up though to find our friends staying in the other room, they were gone and so was their car. We started freaking out and had to walk down this really steep hill to get to the main road to try and find our way to the Grandma's house we knew. When we got to the bottom, I asked a man with his golf cart for directions, but he totally ignored me and continued up the steep hill we just came down. When he parked it at the top though, the brakes totally gave out and the golf cart came zooming down the hill and we had to jump out of the way as the cart crossed the street and went straight into a jungle like ditch. It was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen in my life and we almost peed our pants. Think of the scene where the jungle swallows the car in Jumanji and that's what it was like. Anyways, we decided to just walk down the road to ask the gas station for directions, and our friend's car was parked there. We were so happy to see them, and they thought we were nuts for thinking they'd leave. They were just getting some snacks for breakfast. So we packed up our things and decided to get a real breakfast in town at a real Puerto Rican place. We went to this small cafe and got churrasco, or a type of steak, tostones, which are fried plantains, rice and beans. It was all really good and afterwards we took our rental car back home and of course stopped at the outlet mall on the way and did some grocery shopping before returning it.
This weekend was full of hilarious times all because we decided to rent a car and go out of town on a whim, but we had a blast. Tomorrow, we start teaching full time so it's time to get back into work mode and be teachers.
Later that night, we wanted to go out to our teacher's town again, but a cab was $96 and the driver actually recommended us to rent a car because it's cheaper, so we did. We took the bus to the airport and got a car and drove to Utuado through a bunch of hills. Our friends were giving us directions on the way, and told us to keep going straight when we were supposed to turn, sending us down this really creepy narrow road. Our friend who was driving, Abby, started freaking out and thinking of car jacking stories and wouldn't stop the car. She swung around for a u-turn and she drove like a bat out of hell back down the hill hitting basically all the pot holes. Finally, we found our way there. We went to the chinchorrito, the hole in the wall place, for dancing and also for the pinchos, or shish kabobs. I mostly hung out with the guy who owns the little shish kabob tent because he has this Mexican salsa I like and since I help him flip the kabobs, he gives me free bread. Writing that sentence just made me feel like a bird. Anyways, I hung out with the people around there and when a Salsa or Bachata song that came on, I found someone to dance with since those were dances I learned back in the states. Everyone was really nice and at the end of the night, they paid for us to get a hotel so we didn't have to drive back late. They were like nice little condos, like the ones we stayed in the last weekend. When we woke up though to find our friends staying in the other room, they were gone and so was their car. We started freaking out and had to walk down this really steep hill to get to the main road to try and find our way to the Grandma's house we knew. When we got to the bottom, I asked a man with his golf cart for directions, but he totally ignored me and continued up the steep hill we just came down. When he parked it at the top though, the brakes totally gave out and the golf cart came zooming down the hill and we had to jump out of the way as the cart crossed the street and went straight into a jungle like ditch. It was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen in my life and we almost peed our pants. Think of the scene where the jungle swallows the car in Jumanji and that's what it was like. Anyways, we decided to just walk down the road to ask the gas station for directions, and our friend's car was parked there. We were so happy to see them, and they thought we were nuts for thinking they'd leave. They were just getting some snacks for breakfast. So we packed up our things and decided to get a real breakfast in town at a real Puerto Rican place. We went to this small cafe and got churrasco, or a type of steak, tostones, which are fried plantains, rice and beans. It was all really good and afterwards we took our rental car back home and of course stopped at the outlet mall on the way and did some grocery shopping before returning it.
This weekend was full of hilarious times all because we decided to rent a car and go out of town on a whim, but we had a blast. Tomorrow, we start teaching full time so it's time to get back into work mode and be teachers.
Friday, February 3, 2012
My Teacher's Kids and About School
This week has been kind of busy with planning for next week, when Jenn and I start co-teaching our literary unit full time. On top of it, we do zumba and we're training for the World's Best 10K on my momma's birthday (Feb 26).
Thursday, though, we skipped work outs because our teacher wanted us to meet her kids. She has a daughter who is 23 and a son who is 25 and they own their own cafe/coffee shop in a hotel in Isla Verde. So after school, she took us there. She always feeds us so much when we go out, and we got to have dinner pool side at the hotel. I got chicken with a mashed plantain sort of thing. Then, we hung out with her son at the cafe and had some really good tea. They get these herbs grown right on the island to make it, and my teacher mixes hibiscus, mint, and lemon tea together and it tasted awesome. We both had 2 cups. They also gave us gelato (Jenn and I shared coconut and nutella cookie) and some muffins. As her son was closing up, our teacher had us help him clean by washing the dishes and counters. She always volunteers us for work, but we don't mind because she already has done so much for us and we still have fun while we work. My teacher is also going to law school and had a class that night, but she decided she wanted to skip it so we got to take our time there.
Later, our friend Abby had met some other students at UPR that wanted to take us out, so we decided to hang out with them that night. We went to Condado, which is a ritzier part of the island, and went to this really nice ocean front club with draped white sheets and a beautiful view. We were surprised at how nice it was; it was like one of those places you would film a music video at. They decided to take us somewhere in Old San Juan after, though, and it was this crappy hole in the wall with graffiti all over the walls and everything. It was just so random how we went from one extreme to the next.
Today, Friday, we went on our first "field trip" with the kids. Tomorrow, they have to take a big test called the "PIENSE" which determines their level of learning for when they go on to high school. They have been studying for about a month and working really hard, so the teachers made sure to make today fun for them. The math teacher actually brought in balloons for the class to blow up and write things on about the test and then we counted down to pop them all together. It was fun and the kids loved it. Then, they got to tear up and destroy their test review booklets. With my teacher, though, we took them to the market for some milk shakes. The kids loved it and it was cool to see the market, which reminded me of the West Side Market in Cleveland. They scoop fresh fruit and milk into the blender to make the shakes.
School gets out at 1 on Fridays instead of 3 pm so we got to go to the pool and lay out a bit. Tonight we're going to the mall for sushi and shopping. My poor silver flats that I always wear are broken and I need to get a new pair :/. Hopefully we'll get out to the beach tomorrow for some more sun!
Thursday, though, we skipped work outs because our teacher wanted us to meet her kids. She has a daughter who is 23 and a son who is 25 and they own their own cafe/coffee shop in a hotel in Isla Verde. So after school, she took us there. She always feeds us so much when we go out, and we got to have dinner pool side at the hotel. I got chicken with a mashed plantain sort of thing. Then, we hung out with her son at the cafe and had some really good tea. They get these herbs grown right on the island to make it, and my teacher mixes hibiscus, mint, and lemon tea together and it tasted awesome. We both had 2 cups. They also gave us gelato (Jenn and I shared coconut and nutella cookie) and some muffins. As her son was closing up, our teacher had us help him clean by washing the dishes and counters. She always volunteers us for work, but we don't mind because she already has done so much for us and we still have fun while we work. My teacher is also going to law school and had a class that night, but she decided she wanted to skip it so we got to take our time there.
Later, our friend Abby had met some other students at UPR that wanted to take us out, so we decided to hang out with them that night. We went to Condado, which is a ritzier part of the island, and went to this really nice ocean front club with draped white sheets and a beautiful view. We were surprised at how nice it was; it was like one of those places you would film a music video at. They decided to take us somewhere in Old San Juan after, though, and it was this crappy hole in the wall with graffiti all over the walls and everything. It was just so random how we went from one extreme to the next.
Today, Friday, we went on our first "field trip" with the kids. Tomorrow, they have to take a big test called the "PIENSE" which determines their level of learning for when they go on to high school. They have been studying for about a month and working really hard, so the teachers made sure to make today fun for them. The math teacher actually brought in balloons for the class to blow up and write things on about the test and then we counted down to pop them all together. It was fun and the kids loved it. Then, they got to tear up and destroy their test review booklets. With my teacher, though, we took them to the market for some milk shakes. The kids loved it and it was cool to see the market, which reminded me of the West Side Market in Cleveland. They scoop fresh fruit and milk into the blender to make the shakes.
School gets out at 1 on Fridays instead of 3 pm so we got to go to the pool and lay out a bit. Tonight we're going to the mall for sushi and shopping. My poor silver flats that I always wear are broken and I need to get a new pair :/. Hopefully we'll get out to the beach tomorrow for some more sun!
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