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.
