S.R.:Puerto Rico

Sorry for the long break guys, there was so much going on, especially since it was our first time arriving in a port. Puerto Rico was a blast. We arrived early Wednesday morning at 8. Some kids woke up to watch the ship come into San Juan but of course Alex slept in until we docked at around 8:30. We were greeted by the Governor of Puerto Rico. He came on the ship and gave a speech about his country and how proud they were to be Puerto Ricans but at the same time they did embrace the fact that they were part of the U.S. I got a couple good pictures of him walking around the ship afterwards with Desmond Tutu. Desmond by the way has been all over the ship hanging out with us. Last night I was in line with him at dinner and he threw so much Tabasco sauce over his food that it almost made me nauseous.

Back to Puerto Rico though. The day we arrived I had a kayaking trip at 1 in the afternoon. We drove about an hour away to one of the nicest beaches I have ever been too. The kayaking was no joke; we ended up kayaking for 3 miles and then hung out on a remote beach until we wanted to leave. We didn’t get back until about seven that night and we took it easy before we went out. That night my friend Keith and I went to a salsa dancing club where we were easily the youngest people there by 20-25 years. But it was still so much fun. We just split a bottle of wine and some calamari and watched everyone dance. After that we met the other 700 SAS students at Senor Frogs for the rest of the night. That was pretty funny, because it was the first chance for everyone to go out and party with one another since the start of the voyage. I have some really funny dance videos, especially of Ashley.

The next day we took it easy. We took a tour of Old San Juan, and went to a beach called Isla Verde. I.V. was just as nice as the beach we had went to the day before. After being there for most of the day we went back to the ship. From there we went to a really nice restaurant in Old San Juan called Café Puerto Rico and had dinner. That night everyone headed to the more local spots to hang out to experience a little more of the Puerto Rican culture, and it was a much more fun evening than Senor Frogs the night before.

On the last day, because we had to be on the boat by 7 that night, we didn’t do too much. I woke up early and went out with Ashley and some of our friends from Boston to Old San Juan to shop. I got a couple postcards, magnets for the room, since I’m doing that in every port, and I also bought some food for the room. It was so hot that I had to go back early though. The girls decided to stay and drink until the ship docked. They were a mess when they came back. Ashley and two others right before they got on actually chugged a pint of Bacardi in a restaurant bathroom before getting on the ship, it was hysterical hanging out with them afterwards because of how the ship started rocking again as soon as we pulled off. I grabbed my stuff and spent the rest of the day at the beach that was closest to the pier. Almost all of the students ended up there that day. We got a bunch of good pictures and footage for my doc. film class too which was good.

Well now we are on our way to Brazil for CARNIVAL. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe this voyage even. Everybody is talking about Brazil and what’s to come.Nobody has any clue what to expect for this semester. We are learning about Brazil all week in our global studies course and it just keeps making me more excited. Unfortunately though we do have a week until we get there, which means classes everyday.

I’ll post more soon and will throw up some pictures from Puerto Rico at some point today, I promise. So check back.