Gilligans Island, Puerto Rico!

This weekend our exchange student coordinator took all of the exchange and international students on another trip! We went to the REAL Gilligans Island of the southern coast of Puerto Rico! If you look at the map, you can see we had to take a bus from San Juan to Guanica (southwest part of island), and this took a little over 2 hours.

Once we got there, some people who volunteered first actually got to kayak over to Gilligans Island, which was really just a 5-10 min boat ride off the coast of Guanica. The rest of us took a short ferry ride over there.

Gilligans Island was seriously tiny and there is NOTHING on it (except a few picnic tables). But seriously, not even a bathroom. I was told that only 250 people MAXIMUM are allowed on the island at a time and ferry goes back and forth there only from morning till the sun starts going down.

So, needless to say, this untouched island had water clear as glass to the bottom and all kinds of fishies and JELLY FISH!! which terrified me. They were the smaller kind of jelly fish that are not deadly but they will sting you and it will hurt!

So, we spent the day taking turns kayaking around the island, exploring the little trails on he tiny island and just soaking in the beauty of it! Around noon-ish, our exchange coordinator, Lillian, had ordered food to be brought into the island for us so that we could have a big thanksgiving feast! She brought us Turkey, Rice, Potatoes, salad and the best part...pumpkin flavored FLAN! The flan was amaaaazing!

Towards the end of our adventure on Gilligans Island, my friend Morgan, who brought her scuba gear, had found an area on the side of the island where there was a fisherman cove, and past it there were gi-normous, beautiful conch shells! The fisherman I guess just come through and have tools that take out the animal in the conch shell and throw the shells up on shore. It was like finding a treasure though they were s pretty!

So, when she brought some back, Alex and I wanted to go out there and get some for ourselves. Only problem was, to get there, we had to swim miles and over beds and beds of jelly fish that lined the floor of the sea, she said. PLUS, over by the shells, she had found the remainders of a dead SHARKKKK!!! ahhhh!

For some reason though, I was determined to get some conch shells! So, Alex and I swam behind her all the way there. Then on the way back, we had to swim on our backs with big heavy conch shells resting on our stomachs!! ha. It was probably funny to see. But, anyways, we got our shells and made it back without getting stung by jelly fish!

On the way back to San Juan, Lillian took us to Ponce,which you can also see on the map. Ponce is a very pretty, and big city in Puerto Rico. It is also where one of the best Salsa singers of all time was from, Hector Lavoe! So we were able to walk around for a half hour, get some ice cream and go to the little booths in the center Plaza. It was so pretty and decorated with lights already for Christmas!
Also there was this really cool firehouse too that looked like some cool castle!

We finally managed to get home around 8pm that night and were sooo tired. But I had a great time at Gilligans Island!

Halloween in Puerto Rico!

On Halloween night there were several big fiestas going on in the San Juan area. We finally narrowed our choice down to a concert/circus party called "Coors Light Circotic", in which several Puerto Rican artists performed + Sean Paul + some reggae groups too! The video above shows the advertisement for it.

Although there were no Halloween stores that we could find at least, in Puerto Rico, we were all able to at least be creative and make up our costumes! Treavor and I decided to be gangsters/mobsters together!
This is Treavor, Hubert and Ricky trying to be scary...
And Treavor and I in our gangsta poses...
When we finally got to the concert around 9pm we were actually really early so we got to stand front row, middle at the stage! The concert was in Old San Juan in a huge tent outside. It was originally supposed to be at the Colliseum, a very nice, clean venue, but there was a little problem...A couple weeks ago at the MTV Latin Music Awards, Calle 13 (a popular Puerto Rican reggaeton group) said some very disrespectful, awful things about Governor Fortuno of Puerto Rico---a VERY disliked man among Puerto Ricans right now. So, in response to this, Calle 13, who was supposed to perform at Circotic, was pulled from the show, and the show was moved from the nice Colliseum venue to a tent outside! Anyway, it made no difference really because the show went on just as great I think as it would have been in the Colliseum!

Circotic started with a lot of opening acts which did circus-like stunts...people twirling fire, people hanging and doing flips from ropes tied to the ceiling, and this guy below could bend and twist his body into a pretzel!


This guy's purpose, below, was just to pump up the crowd but I thought his costume was pretty awesome..he mainly just jumped around the stage though to the song "I got a feelin', that tonights gonna be a good night"


Then, Cultura Profeitica came out to perform. This was a Reggae group that went on, which I guess is really popular because everyone knew the words to their songs except us!

And this was the lead singer of Cultura Profeitica..

And here you can see his SERIOUS Rattail that is actually one giant dreadlock! (gross!)

A big group of us left shortly after this because we knew it would be really hard to get a cab home---which it did take forevvverrr.
All in all though, Halloween in Puerto Rico was AWESOME!

Explosion Refineria en Bayamon

As this woman on the the iReport says, she is watching the fire and that is what it looks like from San Juan, PR...that is what I see when I look out my window from the tenth floor of my building! The actual explosion and fire took place Friday night around 12:30am in Bayamon, PR. Bayamon, PR is pretty close to San Juan as you can see on the map below.
So, late Thursday night, or Friday morning around 12:30am, as my friends and I were walking back into the dorm we heard an explosion, that sounded like a very loud thunder, but it felt like something much worse. The ground all the way where we were, in Rio Piedras, San Juan shook. In fact, an article from Straits Times said, "Authorities have not been able to confirm the cause of the blast, which created a 2.8 magnitude jolt on the Richter scale, according to the Puerto Rico Seismic Network. "

This jolt was caused by the initial explosion of at least one of the tanks at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility, which sent a total of 15 of the 40 tanks at the facility into a raging fire. Although no one was seriously injured from the explosion, residents nearby to miles away were alarmed when they were woken up by this explosion and their windows being blown out and shattered to pieces because of it.

Still, last night, 24 hours later, I looked out my window and the fire looks nearly the same. The firefighters are doing everything they can to at least just keep the fire contained. Governor Fortuno reported yesterday that they are doing everything they can to keep it from spreading to the San Juan bay and have already taken serious precautions as well. The Caribbean Petroleum Corp. apparently has a history of spills, so it is a good thing this one has not contaminated the water so far.

One thing making it hard for these firefighters to zap the fire out is, " a 4-inch pipe from a lagoon on the complex was broken, preventing firefighters from using 2 million gallons of water from the lake to battle the blaze. About 150 area firefighters and 215 National Guard personnel were battling to keep the blaze from spreading."

The FBI is looking into whether this explosion was accidental or deliberate. Although they can not make any assumptions just yet, an article posted last night on CNN.com says that they are investigating graffiti on two San Juan tunnels with painted messages such as "Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf, Soul, ACNF."

For now, I just pray that they can get battle this fire without anyone getting seriously hurt.

To read the full article I read from CNN.com here is the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/23/puerto.rico.explosion/index.html

Vacation from Vacation

The past four days were some of my favorite so far in Puerto Rico! Stewart came to visit me ;) He got in late Thursday night, while I had been at his hotel since that morning, checked in, laying out at his awesome rooftop pool, vacationing from my vacation! The hotel he stayed at was the San Juan Water & Beach Club, which is a really modern hotel right in the middle of Isla Verde (San Juan) on the beach! The hotel was so cool- there were white lounge chairs and furniture and blue lights everywhere, so once it was dark out and the hotel was lit up white and blue! The staff at his hotel was also incredibly nice and im pretty sure we were best friends with them all before he left!

When he got in later Thursday night we went to get some food at Lupis, a Mexican grill down the street from his hotel, and then went to the rooftop of a different hotel called the El San Juan (ESJ). The rooftop here was huge and made me feel a little like home...ha, because the owner of the bar on the rooftop there went to school in the south, so everything was decorated about the south- like one sign on the wall that said "put some south in yo mouth!" and there was a mechanical bull, so needless to say, we had a lot of fun!

On Friday, I got back over to Isla Verde early in the morning so we could go to the beach all day and hang out in Isla Verde. We also went to a good little place to eat lunch on the beach called the Mediterranean Cafe! We had some great Calamari there..but where didnt we? Everywhere we went out to dinner I think we had calamari and it was amazing! Later that night we decided to go out in Old San Juan, eat dinner there and then go to a live Salsa show!

(I cant figure out how to turn this picture to the left, but this is a picture of the salsa club we went to!)


For dinner we went to the Parrot Club and had excelent food once again, and then walked just down the street to a Salsa Club, which I cant remember the name of. The Salsa Club was so authentic and I absolutely loved it! I hope Stewart is not too scarred either because when he asked me to dance there, I had to reject him--I didnt think we could hang with the salsa pros! Ha..They played all night long and we had a blast meeting all kinds of people there.

Saturday, since Stewart had a rental car, we went exploring all day pretty much in Old San Juan. We went to El Morro (the fort), the center of Old San Juan and just walked all around, because Im still amazed by the gorgeous architecture of the spanish style buildings and the narrow cobblestone streets.

This is Stewart in front of an area in Old San Juan known as La Perla. Its right on the north coast of Old San Juan, just before the El Morro fort.

Then, this picture below is us in front of the cemetary, on the right side of the actual El Morro fort. The sight in person is absolutely breathtaking and unbelievable that such horrible wars were fought in this gorgeous scenic area.

Saturday night was a big night and really fun! At the hotel Stewart was staying at, there was a big reggaeton DJ, Tony Touch and some reggaeton artists that were playing on the rooftop part of the hotel. They handed out flyers and told us it was free and to bring guests. So I called up some of my other exchange student friends and we invited them to the hotel to come to the free show! It was a blast because we never do anything like that and the music was really awesome and everyone had a great time and we all got home safe together!

Sunday morning Stewart picked me up around 7:30am so that we could drive to Fajardo, Puerto Rico, get on the 9am ferry and go to Culebra!!! I had to make sure he saw Culebra before he left because I know it the most beautiful island and reminds me exactly of LOST! (this is stewart acting out an important LOST seen for any fellow watchers!) We got to Culebra around 10:30am and were able to have the entire day there. We found some snorkeling masks and swam up to the coral reefs that are in the shallow waters still (even though I was a little terrified!) and there were these big beautiful white fish swimming all around--they loved us! There were all kinds of fish galore by the coral reefs though.

We also walked up and down the coast of Flamenco beach and looked at/got in the military tanks left on the island!

Later on when we proceeded to get something to eat at a kiosk nearby, we saw a girl I have met before that is from KY and goes to the other University in San Juan and her exchange student friends. We also met there some people from Colorado who came down to Puerto Rico for a wedding and decided to check out Culebra. So that was really fun to meet some new people and we hung out with them pretty much the rest of the night at the kiosk bar thing till we left the next morning. The next morning we headed back to San Juan and my amazing Vacation from my vacation (the academic recess) is officially over as I am studying for a test right now ;(

National Strike Day, PR, October 15, 2009

On Thursday, October 15, it was National Strike in Puerto Rico. This was also the day that Stewart was flying into Puerto Rico to come see me! So, I was going to the hotel Stewart was staying at to check in for him, because he wasn't coming till a little later, and it was at 8:30am in the morning when I took these pictures right outside my dorms! I was incredibly shocked to see thousands of people in the street marching already! I knew that this was going to be a HUGE deal in Puerto Rico because I heard that some thousands of people were expected to be on strike for the Governor, Fortuno's recent layoff of thousands of workers in the island, making Puerto Rico have the highest current unemployment rate of any US state of close to 16%.

Everything was shut down- buses were not running, streets were blocked off, the biggest mall in the caribbean which is here in Puerto Rico was even closed for this strike day. Other stores and restaurants and places were closed as well. Anyway, it was just such an experience to see puerto ricans, people in my classes and people i knew demonstrating their need for change. They have been hit incredibly hard by the recession in San Juan and it is evident that people want to see improvements in their land.

I even saw a newspaper article with an expressway shut down and people marching with signs and same color shirts across the expressway. It was a wild day for sure. It didn't effect Stewart getting in to Puerto Rico though since he didn't get in until later.

Receso Academico en la !UP!

http://www.uprrp.edu/ultimahora/?p=2113

(This is the original article posted today, scroll down for translation in English)

Última Hora
10:19 am
Universidad de Puerto Rico decreta Receso Académico
Categoría: Última Hora &lowast Etiquetas: portada_ultimahora_1, presidente, receso academico, uprrp
UNIVERSIDAD DE PUERTO RICO DECRETA RECESO ACADEMICO
San Juan, P.R.—El Presidente Interino de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR), Dr. Miguel A. Muñoz, anunció hoy un receso académico y administrativo en todos los recintos de la UPR desde el lunes 12 de octubre de 2009 hasta el viernes 16 de octubre de 2009.

En un mensaje a la comunidad universitaria, y en referencia a las diversas manifestaciones acaecidas en varios recintos de la UPR la semana pasada, el Dr. Muñoz señaló que, “reconocemos el perfecto derecho de los miembros de la comunidad universitaria de expresar su sentir, pero el derecho a la libre expresión de unos grupos no debe coartar el derecho de otros a continuar estudiando y laborando por el bienestar de la comunidad universitaria y de Puerto Rico. Los propulsores de estas manifestaciones han expresado su intención de continuar esta semana en su empeño de violentar el ambiente de sana convivencia académica que debe reinar en la Universidad”.

“La seguridad de TODOS los estudiantes, y de la comunidad universitaria en general, es y debe ser nuestra mayor prioridad. No podemos permitir que elementos ajenos al sistema universitario socaven los principios democráticos de libre expresión y asociación que siempre ha promovido y respaldado la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Ante esta situación, y de conformidad con nuestra política de no confrontación, he tomado la decisión de decretar un receso académico y administrativo, comenzando el lunes 12 de octubre de 2009 y culminando el viernes 16 de octubre de 2009.”

El Presidente Interino aclaró que el receso académico y administrativo aplicará a todos los recintos de la UPR, con excepción del Recinto de Ciencias Médicas donde se tomarán las medidas necesarias para asegurar los servicios a los pacientes, que incluye las Clínicas del Plan de Práctica Intramural, el Centro de Diabetes y demás servicios relacionados al cuido de pacientes.

En su mensaje, Muñoz señaló que los propulsores de estas manifestaciones han argumentado que las mismas son en protesta por los efectos que la Ley Núm. 7 de Emergencia Fiscal supuestamente ha tenido sobre las finanzas de la UPR, esto a pesar de que dicha ley no aplica a la Universidad de Puerto Rico, de que no ha habido cesantías en la UPR como resultado de la Ley 7 y de que el presupuesto actual de la UPR es sustancialmente el mismo que el año anterior. También se ha argumentado sobre la venta de unidades universitarias y facilidades, lo cual es totalmente falso.

“La administración de la UPR ha permitido a estos grupos su pleno derecho a manifestarse, a pesar de que dichas manifestaciones han violentando la reglamentación universitaria, han socavado la responsabilidad y liderato de los Consejos Estudiantiles—como fue el caso en el Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez la noche del jueves 8 de octubre de 2009—y han impedido parcialmente las labores académicas del sistema universitario del estado.”

“Estas acciones han promovido el desasosiego y la confrontación en la comunidad universitaria y han limitado la libre expresión y el derecho de asociación del estudiantado que en su mayoría no desea ni apoya un paro universitario, ni la desarticulación de las labores de la UPR,” dijo el Presidente Interino.

En su mensaje a la comunidad universitaria, Muñoz hizo un llamado a la reflexión constructiva que ayude a buscar soluciones a los problemas que confronta Puerto Rico. “Esperamos que este receso académico y administrativo contribuya a calmar los ánimos y permita a TODA la comunidad universitaria reflexionar sosegada y constructivamente sobre los problemas que confronta Puerto Rico y las soluciones que puede ayudar a articular la comunidad académica universitaria,” concluyó Muñoz.


ENGLISH SUMMARY:

University of Puerto Rico orders Academic Recess

San Juan, PR "The Acting President of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Dr. Miguel A. Munoz, today announced a recess academic and administrative staff at all campuses of the UPR since Monday, 12 October 2009 to Friday, 16 October 2009.

In a message to the university community, and with reference to the various events occurring at various campuses of the UPR last week, Dr. Munoz said, "We recognize the perfect right of members of the university community to express their feelings, but the right to free speech of some groups should not curtail the right of others to continue studying and laboring for the welfare of the University community and Puerto Rico. The proponents of these events have expressed their intention to continue this week in their efforts to violate the academic environment of healthy living that should prevail in the University. "

"The safety of ALL students, and the university community in general, is and must be our highest priority. We can not allow outside elements to the university system would undermine the democratic principles of free speech and association that has always promoted and supported the University of Puerto Rico. In this situation, and in accordance with our policy of non-confrontation, I made the decision to declare a recess academic and administrative staff, beginning on Monday, 12 October 2009 and culminating on Friday 16 October 2009. "
The Acting Chairman clarified that the academic and administrative recess apply to all campuses of the UPR, with the exception of the Medical Sciences Campus where they take the necessary measures to secure services for patients, including the Clinical Practice Plan Intramural, Diabetes Center and other services related to the care of patients.

In his message, Munoz said the proponents of these demonstrations have argued that they are protesting the effects that the Emergency Law No. 7 Prosecutor allegedly has had on the finances of the UPR, this despite the Act not applies to the University of Puerto Rico, there has been no layoffs in the UPR as a result of the Act 7 and that the current budget for the UPR is substantially the same as the previous year. Has also been argued on the sale of university units and facilities, which is totally false.

"The administration of the UPR has allowed these groups have every right to demonstrate, even though such demonstrations are violating university regulations have undermined accountability and leadership of the student councils, as was the case in Mayagüez Campus Thursday night October 8, 2009-and prevented partially the scholarly work of the state university system. "
"These actions have promoted unrest and confrontation in the university community and have limited free speech and association rights of students who mostly do not want or support a strike university, or the dismantling of the work of the UPR," said Interim President.

In his message to the university community, Munoz called for constructive thinking to help find solutions to the problems facing Puerto Rico. "We hope this recess academic and administrative help to cool tempers and allow the university community to think calmly and constructively about the problems facing Puerto Rico and the solutions that can help articulate the university academic community," Munoz concluded.

*************************************************************************

Side note: They are also attempting to kick all Puerto Ricans/locals of out my residence today that are not exchange students!! This is only for this Academic Recess week- my guess is that they don't want to have to deal with any more strikes or unrest than already occurring this week.

Slang, Sayings and Spanglish...

Now that I have been here for over 2 months I think it is safe to say that Puerto Ricans have their own unique dialect for sure- completely unlike any of Latin America or Spain, or even their neighbors in the Dominican Republic. They have a lot of random words they use, that I think of as "slang" that you would never find in a dictionary, probably derived from the languages once used by their Taino Indian ancesters who ruled the island before Christopher Colombus and the Spanish settlers took over in 1492. Also, some things they say are pretty much, legitamently Spanglish- they will take english verbs and make them Spanish by just adding -er, -ir, or -ar to the end of them (which makes something a verb in Spanish). It is kind of funny actually. So here is my short guide of interpretations for anyone thinking of visiting Puerto Rico, this may be useful!

• First thing first, Puerto Ricans refer to themselves as being "Boricua". This is derived from the fact that when the Taino Indians ruled the island they named the island Borikén.
  

Spanglish...

• Chillear = to chill
• Tripear = to trip (but used to mean "he/she is trippin" (ha) ), o Estas tripeando- You're trippin'
• Janguear = to hang out (pronounced haungear)
• Gufear = to goof off
• Mai, o Pai- mami o papi = term of endearment

Words/Slang unique to Puerto Rico (as far as I know... )

• Zafacón = Garbage can
• ¿Qué es la qué hay? = Used constantly here. Puerto Rican slang for "What's Up?"
• Pichea = My favorite Puerto Rican Word. It means "Forget about it!"
• Nena = Term of endearment
• Wepaa = My second favorite Puerto Rican word. Term of excitement which can mean, All Right! Congratulations! Yeah! Woo Hooo!
• Guagua = A city bus
• Chavos = money, change
• Cafre = Puerto Rican saying; meaning low-class or really tacky behavior. Often displayed by trailer trash. Some of our friends have referred to it meaning "ghetto"
• Cabron = Bad word. Not exactly unique to Puerto Rico, but I had never heard it before I came here and it is used a looooot by young people. It has a million meanings too:

-Hey cabron! (Hey dude!)

-That damn cabron (insulting)

-That new CD is cabron (nice)

English words they use constantly thrown right in the mix of a spanish sentence...

• Dame un break = Give me a break!
• Que cool = How cool! (My roommate says this one all the time!)
• Anyways = Mid-sentence in Spanish it is just funny to hear even my professors say "Tendran el primer examen el lunes pero Anyways, vamos a continuar con capitulo 4 hoy en clase."
• Relax = They just really like this english word I think! I hear it all the time!
• Estas Brutal! = They use the word Brutal all the time to mean "cool" basically here!

MAS Fiestas!

This weekend we went out a little bit more than usual too! This picture on the left is me with Alex and Isabel at a place in Rio Piedras called Refugio, the picture above!!

Refugio is a little whole in the wall bar that a lot of the other international students and our other Puerto Rican friends go to all the time! I think this place is really interesting because of the atmosphere. It so laid-back and as you can see in the picture above it looks like a little house, made into a bar, and people pretty much buy drinks in there and then stand outside and drink in the street! And, somehow they get away with making their own drinks, "Chichaitos" (pronounced chee-chi-ito), and they pour them into glass pint bottles and sell them for $2 and people buy them and drink in the street with them. They are rum mixed with I have no idea what else potent! I actually found a blog about it here http://ny.remezcla.com/re/article.jsp?a=379 , its where I got the picture of the place too. Anyway Chicaito Sounds sketchy right?

I definitely dont drink chichaitos, dont worry! But those are very very popular around here. Other Puerto Rican "musts" as far as drinks include "Gasolinas" and Medallas (Med-I-yas)! Gasolina is a packaged and sold puerto rican alcoholic beverage with rum and fruit juice basically- but made and sold in little pouches that look exactly like a Capri Sun pouch! They seriously give these capri sun looking drinks to people in bars and thats weird to me too because they look like drinks for kids! Then, Medalla is the Puerto Rican beer here that everyone drinks because it is cheappp!! Less than a dollar at most places! It is OK beer- it tastes like a Natural Light really.

Anyways, thats just a little of Puerto Rican drink culture. Chichaitos, Medallas and Gasolinas.

Now, Friday night was the real Fiesta time. Our friend Christina (actually not in either of these pictures below) had her 23rd birthday Friday. So we celebrated at a Mexican Restaurant, Lupis, in Isla Verde. Here's the girls all dressed up, waiting at the bus stop! From the top left: Shanel and Angie. Bottom left: me, Isabel, Morgan and Kaitlin. There ended up bein more than 20 of us and we had a blast because we actually got to go out in a nicer area in Isla Verde. After the restaurant, we went to a place called Bed Lounge, which was all white sofas and lounge chairs. It was a lot of fun and we made our own dance party!

This picture below is me with Hubert and Cathy at dinner! Anyway, we had amazing time Friday and were very safe and all got cabs home together at the end of the night!

Now back to studying again... ;/

Zip Lining through La Marquesa Forest Park!

On Saturday, the Office of Exchange Students and International Students took all of us on a free trip to go zip lining through a rainforest!!

We went to La Marquesa Forest Park in Guaynabo (right outside of San Juan), which was about a 30 minute drive in a bus. We had a good group of about 50 of us that came, international and exchange students.

For anyone who has never zip lined or doesn't know exactly what it is:

A zip line canopy tour allows you to sail from tree to tree and platform to platform on a network of pulleys and double horizontal cables that are mounted between 10 and 70 feet above the tropical forest floor. During your adventure, you will be wearing a harness (that attaches you to the cable system), helmet and gloves. The staff members will help you with your gear and make sure that all your gear is on properly and securely.

The zip lines at La Marquesa Forest Park were about 50ft above the ground. I was terrified! I HATE HEIGHTS!

But, you only live once and zip lining through a rainforest is not something you get to do everyday, so I did it! And it was awesome!

There were 14 different platforms that we went on and each zip line was different in length and heights. And actually at one point we had to repel from a higher platform to one below it--I screamed like a 2 yearold kid throwing tantrum probably.

All in all, I am glad I zip lined, it was really a lot of fun! Even though I was shaking terribly the entire time we did it!

Fiesta Time!

This week I worked hard so I allowed myself to "play hard!" I had two exams and a paper due Monday and Tuesday, but then Wednesday was a Puerto Rican holiday and there was no school! It was Grito de lares, which I am told is celebrated because it was the first time Puerto Rico fought for their independence.

Since my roommate, Yesenia, is only here Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we hardly ever see each other and we never get to go out and do anything together. So Tuesday night we all went and met up at a little bar on our street to celebrate Grito de lares! Here's (bottom left to right) Kaitlin, Joyanet, me and Yesenia! Above us are some of her friends!

Then, Friday (as usual) we went to the beach, this time in Condado! Condado is the best beach for big waves that we have been to so far. They are the kind knock you over when you're only in ankle-deep!

After the beach we went to a Mexican restaurant in Condado that we heard was good called Tijuana's. The food was tremendous! And they let us wear their hats!

Thats me, Isabel and Joyanet!

Rat tails to Reggaeton

So I know that Kentucky is not known for the best, hip hairstyles in our country- Just go to the KY state fair and you can see every length and style of a mullet in your wildest dreams- but seriously, the puerto rican rat tail is a different story.

It is the rat tail with gobs of gel and hairspray, and is usually either cleary curled or straightened. This seems to be the hairstyle for men (and some women) here. If you ask me, it is VERY unattractive.

On the other hand, something that is cool in their culture is REGGAETON! Reggaeton is a genre of music universally known for coming from Puerto Rico-- It started in the 90's as a sort of "reggae en espanol" but now is a combination of reggae, hip hop, latin pop, etc. Here's a video of a very popular reggaeton song called "No Te Veo" that came out a couple years ago and was a number 1 hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiYEpU80RTo

(The video is horrrrible, don't pay attention to that, its just an idea of what reggaeton sounds like!)

Reggaeton is more "Club" music obviously. SALSA music is much more beautiful and the music that all generations live and breath here.

Here is a very popular Salsa song here that everyone's always singing--some say its the "2009 Salsa Song" called "Yo No Se Manana" by Luis Enrique. Heres the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXIgjQFMCiI

Culebra!

This weekend, a group of us traveled to Culebra, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico! First, here’s a little history and some facts about the island!

Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive at the island in 1493. The island was populated by Taino Indians prior to this and was used by pirates as a refuge for more than 3 centuries. It is located approximately 17 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, 12 miles west of St. Thomas.

In 1902, Culebra was integrated as part of Vieques, another Puerto Rican island just 9 miles south of Culebra. One year later, on President Roosevelt established the Culebra Naval Reservation. In 1939, the U.S. Navy began to use Culebra as a gunnery and bombing practice site. This was done in preparation for the United States' involvement in World War II. In 1971 the people of Culebra began protests for the removal of the U.S. Navy from Culebra. Four years later, in 1975, the use of Culebra as a gunnery range ceased and all operations were moved to Vieques.

Culebra has many beautiful beaches including Flamenco Beach (Playa Flamenco), which is the picture to the right. Flamenco Beach (where I stayed!) is ranked # 2 in the top 10 most exotic beaches in the world. The beach extends for a mile of white coral sand and is framed beautifully by arid tree-covered hills.

Many military relics, including tanks like the one we saw below in the picture, remain in the area of Flamenco Beach. Culebra and Vieques offered the U.S. military an experience of great value to the battles in the Pacific as a feasible training area for the Fleet Marine Force in amphibious exercises for beach landings and naval gunfire support testing.

Culebra was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life! Before this I thought Santorini, Greece was the most beautiful, but this is better! The water was clear as glass, there were coral reefs in the shallow water even with pretty little fishies everywhere! It was paradise. I felt like I was on the TV show Lost because it was so un-inhabited and green. There were no hotels, houses or restaurants or grocery stores around on Flamenco Beach. Only the camping ground and one small villa rental on the whole stretch of the beach. There were wild animals everywhere in our camping ground too! I am talking hugggeee iguanas like this one >>>>>!!were wobbling around us! They were so funny looking.

So, to sum up, CULEBRA = PARADISE ISLAND!

Me Encanta Viejo San Juan!

Today some of us decided to take full advantage of the strike day and we went exploring in Old San Juan!

Old San Juan is considered the oldest settlement within U.S. territory with buildings dating back to the 16th and 17th century when Puerto Rico was under Spanish Possesion. Isn't it gorgeous?? I love the everything about Old San Jun--the narrow cobblestone streets, all the buildings with the huge, tall wooden shutters and the intriquite designs on the balcony railings!

Oh, and also the bright colors of all the buildings make it that much more beautiful! Look at this place here! Wow, that is a lime green house...ha. And there are plenty more places just like this!

Eventuall we made our way to the far point of Old San Juan where "El Morro is located.

El Morro is the most famous fort still in existence today in Puerto Rico which was built in the 16th century for use by Spanish troops to keep seaborne enemies out of San Juan. The word "morro" actually means "promontoy" in English. Today this castle welcomes people of arriving cruise ships to the bussiest port in the Caribbean.

We went up to the top level mostly, "Land Defense Level" and to a couple other levels. It was really amazing to see how well this fort has been preserved after 500 years!

Las Huelgas (Strikes) Galore!

Teachers, janitors and other staff members are going on strike here mucho. It's not what I am used to, to say the least! Students here inform us that this is common at UPR and has been happening for a while. I dont know any details really other than their strikes and protests are against the efforts to privatize UPR. Employees demonstrating today wore orange t-shirts that said “El convenio se respeta”, or “respect the agreement.”

So when these strikes happen, professors, janitors, etc. don’t show up for school. The staff at UPR plans this and it is official. It is known by us students pretty much through word-of-mouth or teachers will tell us day before that they will be on strike the next day and there will be no class.

There was a strike last Wednesday, then classes were cancelled last Thursday due to Hurricane Erika, I don’t have class Fridays ever and Monday was Labor Day. So, basically I went a week without classes and now classes are cancelled again tomorrow officially due to strike again. Crazy, right?!

It is actually very frustrating though because presentations, tests, etc keep getting pushed back and we never really know when things are due!!

On the other hand, we have been getting serious beach time! We went to beaches in Isla Verde, Ocean Park, and Condado this past week—these are all on the coast of San Juan.

It was the first time I had been to Condado and geez, the waves were intense! Condado is on the edge of Old San Juan and San Juan. After we swam there, we decided to go back later for some sushi at a cool sushi restaurant named Opium. Here we are at Opium—(from left to right) Christina (de Basque Country in Spain!), Isabel, Treavor, Alex, me and Terrill.