Daphne's birthday

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On Friday, Daphne (Belgium) finally turned 20 years old (the youngest of the crew here). So we celebrated by going out to a nice restaurant in Old San Juan and having incredibly tasty expensive food and wine from Spain. A great time - the birthday girl had a blast which is always the most important. Our 2nd to last big celebration before we have to say goodbyes and part ways to opposite sides of the world...

Janice's First trip to the beach

So after over a year of not going to the beach, my roommate finally finished her work and was able to get there. On Thursday afternoon, we got ourselves out of bed, into the car with sunscreen and swim suits, and drove out to Pineda, just east of San Juan. My roommate Janice is from Puerto Rico, so we both thought it was pretty pathetic that she hadn't been to the beach in over a year. So here's Janice and her 1st trip the beach:
Although we were only there for about an hour, we collected some great shells, had a blast in the water, and watched the humongous waves at a distance. On the way back, we stopped at this little tienda to get some shrimp empanadas, a fruit smoothie, and this thing with banana on the outside and crab on the inside. I forget the name, but it's one of the best foods i've had in Puerto Rico so far.

More Thanksgiving in Culebra

Left: Me, on the boat to Cuelbra - ready for the beach, with my shell necklace, and Tommy Bahama hat

Below: Jordan (from France but has lived in St. Martin for 10 years) and Dario (from Pueblo, Mexico) -- on the way to Culebra.

Left: View from our aparment window/balcony. total paradise.

The French-speaking crew - from left, Jon Francoise (or Jeff), Emmanuelle, & Jordan. Notice part of Jeff's ridiculously awesome tatoo on his back - it's a huge angel. Jeff is from Guadeloupe and may come to visit me and Lotta when we are in Antigua from Dec. 10 - 13th, because Guadeloupe is right next door (island hop).

Dario and me, totally in bliss on the beach

Thanksgiving weekend in island paradise

The view from the balcony of our villa on the island of Culebra - where 10 of us spent our Thanksgiving weekend. Perfect paradise - this beach is called Playa Flamenco, and is one of the top 3 most beautiful beaches in the world. The sand was perfect white and so soft, the water clear blue, and a reef just within walking distance. We spent most of our time either on the beach or chilling in the rocking chairs on the balcony. The group consisted of 2 Americans, 2 Belgiums, 1 Sweed, 1 girl from France, 1 guy from Guadeloupe (french speaking island in Caribbean), 1 from St. Martin (another french speaking island in Caribbean), one from Mexico and 1 puerto rican. Talk about international. Thanksgiving dinner was pasta (with my dad's amazing pasta sauce recipe) and chuletas (basically steak) cooked puerto rican style. Next night was good ole' American hamburgers, cooked by the American (me). An absolutely amazing time.

Less than a month to go

Time flies so fast that I didn't even realize it's been almost a month since my last entry. Unbelievable.
Anyway, I've been trying to do everything under the sun as the semester comes to a close and before my time here runs out. While there are a lot of things that make me excited to come home, I am definietly going to miss so much about here - too much to even name right now.
What's coming up:
- 4 finals
- Swim finals (this weekend, Dec. 3rd)
- Trip to Antigua (British Virgin Island) with Lotta (from Sweden) on Dec. 10th
- Family getting here Dec. 17th
- Water polo finals on December 17th

I'll write more about my Thanksgiving weekend in a bit - love to all and take care!!!

As amazing as Puerto Rico is, everyone has to have at least one bad day. Mine was on Friday, when i had a trip to the emergency room, after being sick with a cold -flu like thing all week. I was still not feeling well, my cat died, and i had a mini panic attack after being so frustrated with everything. With a little help from my friends Hans and Michael, i got to see the doctor, and got the pills I need to get my well again. I guess everyone has to have one awful day every once in a while, so at least I have that crossed off the list. I've got the writsband saved, for good memories and my PR scrapbook. Right now, i'm doing some homework and am going to go watch the guys from the swim team attempt to play soccer. Weather is alright - bit cloudy and rainy still, but soon the sun will be back and I'll be back outside, at the beach where I belong. Love to all xoxoxox

Halloween 2005 - Lotta (from Sweden) and I decided that we would dress up as aerobics instructors. This is our running routine. Although we didn't really have anywhere to go for Halloween (unfortunately we didn't think we could go trick-or-treating because we were too old to get candy), we had a blast dressing up. And yes, this was my idea, and I know I should have lived in the 80s.

Me on the beach on the nature preserve in Fajardo. Just look at those waves - I was about ready to jump in and go surfing, which my imaginary board.

With only a month and half left to go before my family gets here (hooray! can't wait!), I'm getting a bit homesick. With the holiday season officially underway, I'm definitely missing Davidson fall weather and the beautiful change of seasons. The endless summer here has gotten me sick again -- the change in climate from hot and humid outside to cold air-conditioned rooms has given me my second major cold of the semester. And as most of you know, I hate being sick and am not a big fan of medicine, but I've been forced to resort to Tylenol Cold and Benedryll to keep me going. Still not complaining, because the cloudy rainy weather is just about finished up for the season, and the sun is coming out again to give us all great beach weather.
And while I still have not been surfing once since I've been here (i know, i know), I'm hoping to get over to the good beaches with a couple of my friends from the swim team in the next few weeks. I've got two trip to the beautiful island of Culebra and 2 trips to Vieques coming up. The swim team is going for a weekend in November to swim around the island - then stay the night and hang out on the beach the next day. Even better, the water polo girls that I play with are going to set up a game in the ocean that Sunday, so it'll be a great weekend filled with sun, sea, friends, swimming, and water polo. Life doesn't get much better than that : ).

Picture perfect - what a postcard. Even while I look at this picture, I can't believe I was there. This is from the nature preserve on the north east tip of the island, in a place called Fajardo. Absolutely beautiful.

Today, I hiked through mangroves to a lighthouse with a view of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, hiked through the rainforest to swim in a waterfall, and got caught in a tropical storm on the hike out. All in all, I would say it was a pretty good day. I'll put pictures up when I muster up the strength and energy to hook up my camera to the computer, but for right now, you'll just have to wait to see the pictures.

We hiked soaking wet through the rain for about an hour to get back to the bus from the waterfall, and it was beautiful. I felt like I was in a dream, and I still can't believe I went swimming in a waterfall in the middle of the largest rainforest in the Caribbean (se llama el Yunque).

For now, a bit of sleep before 7am practice. Hasta luego!

Hurricane, Filiberto, and more

As for the hurricanes, Puerto Rico doesn't get hit as badly as the U.S. does. In fact, with global warming, hurricanes not only get worse and more intense, but also they're shifting farther north (which is why Florida and now Lousiana and Texas get the worst of it). As for hurricane season here in Puerto Rico, we haven't had any big hurricane warning yet (yet being key word), and it mostly just ends up being cloudy and rainy. The past week and a half have been cloudy with very little sun, and this weekend brought a monsoon of rain. Hurricane season runs through November, and November should bring sun and cooler weather (cooler meaning 70s instead of 80s).

As for the situation with the Filiberto case (for those of you who don't know, Filiberto was a Puerto Rican who stole a bunch of money from an armoured truck in 1983 and has been evading arrest since. The FBI found him at his house in Puerto Rico, went to arrest him, and shot him), i was worried at first because I thought there would be a lot of anti-Americanism here. The result of his controversial death is graffiti everywhere saying "Filiberto lives," and everyone thinks that the FBI was really wrong in killing him. From what I've gathered, when the FBI went to arrest him, he open fired on them and the FBI fired back - the controversial part is who fired first. The end result was he died - they shot him and then closed off the area around his house and people say he bled to death. Anyway, really interesting story and I haven't felt like i'm in danger, because I'm American. In fact, Puerto Ricans in general like connection they have with the U.S. -- only 3% belong to the Independistas party (those who think PR should be it's own country). the other 97% is split between the those who want PR to be a state and those who like it how it is (as a associated territory). A very cool place to be right now as a political science major.

Universidad Sagrado Corazon - it used to be an all girls high school (sound familiar SHPers?), but was turned into a co-ed university a ways back. There are nuns that live on campus and take classes too (I don't have any in any of my classes, but some of my friends do). It is connected with my Sacred Heart high school - just can't get enough of that Catholic school!

Ocean Park in Santurce, PR. This is the beach that is within walking distance from the University. Just about 10 minutes downhill from my dorm. Still can't believe it's real.
Although been cloudy and rainy for the past week and a half, the waves have been good (I can see them from my window) and I can't wait to get to the better surfing beaches with the girls from my hall.

These are two of my closest friends here - Daphne and Hans, from Belgium. We're outside the Museum of Art in Ponce, PR, where we spent the morning looking at European art (good idea for an exchange student trip, drive to the other side of the island to look at European art? especially when most of the exchange students are from Europe). As you can tell, I didn't really like the Museum (sad to say, i just don't like art history), but the company was good as always.

This is Gaby - the jokester of the team. Always goofing off. The story behind this one was that somehow he lost his shirt at the swim meet, and needed one to wear so he could go into Wendy's for food with the rest of us after the meet. I happened to bring an extra one, so I let him borrow this one. It's a Cat Pack shirt - and Rach, I was thinking of you when I took this picture; now I just need to get a picture of him wearing a field hockey shirt. Crazy puerto rican swimmer with Davidson athletic gear - love it!

Looking good. That's an "R" for "rookie." Luckily it came off as soon as we jumped in the water. Valerie and I were the lucky ones that got mustaches. Pretty sweet.

Natalia here has blue eye shadow, that the team used to paint our faces - for the freshman and the "rookies" (like me), who were swimming in their first competition. So this is initiation of sorts.

This is a picture of us on the way to our first swim meet of the semester. From the left that's Valerie (another rookie and big time surfer), me, Natalia (Valerie's roommate and surfer), and Francesca. We had practice before the competition, which was weird and frustrating because i didn't swim very fast in the competition - but oh well!

First entry from Puerto Rico

Hey everyone!
So i've officially been here in Puerto Rico for 2 months; i've had 8 weeks of classes and only 6 left - yikes! Time is flying fast, and I finally caved in and created this blog, because it'll be much easier to keep track of what i'm doing (rather than writing mass emails).
Quick list of things:
1. I've decided I'm coming back to Davidson in the spring for sure. As much as I like it here, there are a lot of parts that are really frustrating, and I think a semester is enough.
2. Hurricane season is almost over - just a couple more weeks before the clouds and rain go away and we get some sun back.
3. Swimming is good - hard but good - and i'm getting used to keeping up. The head coach is crazy, but talks too fast for me to understand most of the time which i guess is a good thing. The team is really nice and I'm really glad I joined. Two of the girls live on my hall and are big time surfers - so next time the waves get good i'm going with them (they have an extra longboard) to the good surfing beach here in San Juan. I can't wait!

I'll make this one short - leave some room for more pictures. Miss you all and i'll be sure to update this frequently!