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San Juan, Puerto Rico:January 26 - 28, 2008
Holo! From San Juan, Puerto Rico.Just after two short days at sea, we made it from Nassau, Bahamas to San Juan, Puerto Rico.We arrived on Saturday, January 26 at 8:00 a.m. and were ready to rock and roll!Since the ship left from international waters and is docking back in the US, customs and immigration demanding a face to face inspection of the entire ship community… great!!Each of the Residence Directors and myself were up with the sunrise getting ready to set up the passport stations.If you don't remember, we collect all of the passports from everyone on the ship and lock them in safe.We don't have the students carry or keep their passports at all, for safety reasons!In about 90 minutes, we cleared 900 community members to give them their passports, get inspected by customs and return their passports back to the office.Once all said and done, we were ready to hit San Juan.
On Saturday, a few of us went to walk around downtown Old San Juan, which is very nice.Colorful houses, nice architecture of buildings and piers and oceans all around us.For lunch, we ate at a nice little Spanish café!I had a stuffed plantains and a nice a sandwich called media noche, which were both GREAT!!After lunch, the group headed around town to shop and visit some of the local stores.
On our way back, we walked around one of the Forts in the city and then headed down to the beach.We climbed through different hills and finally made it down to a nice secluded area of the beach.We walked around, hung out and just enjoyed the nice weather, the sound of the ocean and chilled for a while.
In the evening, I was a designated trip leader for the one of the Welcome Receptions at a university.75 students and myself headed to Universidad Interamericana!! The university had a bunch of their students attend the social as well and we had a chance to dance with Latin music and have some Latin food!!It was great to mingle with the Puerto Rican students and have them socialize with our semester at sea students.
On Sunday morning and afternoon, it was chill day for me and some of the staff.We ran down to K-Mart to get some last minute items we needed for the trip before we leave American land.After a nice lunch, I headed down to the beach to swim and lay out in the sun and relax again.It was nice and relaxing in January to sit on the beach in 85 degree weather on a beach and to be working sort of at the same time.The best part about the two days so far was while we as staff walk around the town, many of the Semester At Sea students recognize us and always acknowledge us and say hi whenever we see each other.It is a great feeling to know that the students have that much respect and friendly rapport with us already.
In the evening a group of us decided to partake in a activity that can only be found in Puerto Rico, Bioluminescence.What does that mean you ask… good question!!Basically, bioluminescence is the ability of living organisms to emit light.Basically, we got in two persons kayaks and paddled through a lagoon for 2 hours and as we paddled we saw the organisms in the water LIGHT UP!!Yes that is right.. everything that touched the water, light up.It is pretty cool, but hard to explain, that is for sure.It was difficult to take pictures of this event, but I will tell you, if you get to Puerto Rico, you really need to partake in this activity.
After a long Sunday, day and night, I woke up bright and early on Monday to be the trip leader for the El Yunque Rain Forest and Beach trip for the day.We started off early to head up to this amazing rain forest and hike around there for about 2 - 3 hours.It was so nice to walk through a real rain forest surrounded by very green trees, nice flowers and beautiful waterfalls.Listening to the birds chip, the trees hit their branches in the wind and watch nature at its finest was sure an eye awakening experience.How many times do we really go through each day not noticing things like this.After the hike, the students and I headed to lunch at a local Puerto Rican Restaurant.On their buffet line we had chicken and rice, beans, plantains and flan!Let me tell you, it was so good.The food in Puerto Rico has been amazing… so tasty, and very appetizing!!Once lunch was done, we all headed down the street to the local beach for some swimming and relaxing.It was yet again a HOT, beautiful day here and the ocean water was so warm that we just sat there in the calm waves talking to each other and soaking everything in.Isn't this great.. being at work and being at the beach and rainforest all day.. come on, what can better than this.
Look at the photo albumn for the pictures of San Juan.I may not get to posting all of them now, but I will continue to add on.These are not all of the pictures, I am just posting the best ones so you can see what it is like here in Puerto Rico.
Overall, things are going well!!Our community is growing stronger everyday and things are off to a great start. We are off to sea and now heading to Brazil for our next port of call.We will be at sea until February 5th.During that time, the students will be full force in classes, getting involved in our activities that we are sponsoring and socializing in a community that is full to excitement and energy.Think about it.. you have to get to know people as they are only 600 feet away from you at any given time.Talk about meeting people at every corner.
Life is too short to not notice what is happening around the world or being with others experiencing it.In only a week with the students and the staff, it feels like we have know each other so long.As much as we are all busy here on the ship, yes… it is busy and we really do our work, take time to look around and keep in contact with others and look at the now!Taking day by day and going with the flow seems to be my new motto and my new life and it is working out so well.
Hope to hear from you soon!!Send some mail.. look at the mailing dates.Send me some news about you and what is going on… send me updates about things happening in the US.Internet is slow here and I hate looking for up to date news… so hearing it from you would be awesome.
Take care..Brazil here we come!!
Happy Malaria Monday.. some of us have to begin our Malaria pills… fun times!!!
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