Puerto Rico

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  San Juan, Puerto Rico
Friday, January 27, 2006

Hello all,

It's about time I got something else up on this, I know, but Puerto Rico went by so quick that I never made it to an internet café or anything to type something up. Needless to say I had fun there. It was very interesting and I loved seeing all the Spanish everywhere. Now I know just how much Maya has drilled into me. All of the traffic signs and most everything else really, were in Spanish. One tour guide told us that only about, (oh now I can't remember), but it was either 40 or 60% of the population speaks both Spanish and English. Two out of our group understood Spanish, and 1 (not me) spoke it well. I did the short phrases, and the comments here and there, but Allison did the longer stuff.
So onto what I did while in Puerto Rico. It isn't what a lot of people came on thinking; an extension of the U.S., and not a suitable replacement for Venezuela. Well sure it had a lot of influences from the U.S., but it was completely different in a lot of others, language being the most obvious. Also, it was what you made it. If you did all the touristy things, than of course it's more of a vacation.
Me and the group of girls I've been hanging out with did a lot of exploring the first day we were there. After a quick stop at a dentist's office (one of my friends needed to get checked out) we stopped at an emergency room. No one was hurt or anything, I needed to go for my Medical Soc. class to compare and take field notes. It was pretty interesting except that I got a lot of strange looks from the people in the waiting room because I was watching them, and even stranger looks if I asked a question.
We eventually ended up in a city called Isla Verde, and spent the afternoon there before coming back to the ship for dinner. We had had lunch in port and were starting to get tired. Besides, we had the welcome reception to get ready for.
The welcome reception was great. They split everyone who got in, into four groups to go to four universities who were going to sponsor us, for lack of a better word. The y basically threw us a party and showed us the greatest aspects of their university and country. We went to the Caribbean University. They met us with a big group of students/faculty, live music, and men on stilts. Then the Dean gave a speech and the mayor said a few words too, and they read a very ornate document that said we were honorary Puerto Ricans.
After that they showed us some of the traditional dances, (very beautiful) and taught us to salsa. Well tried in my case. They also gave us food. I'd tell you what it was, I honestly don't know except that it was very good. Then they gave us two gift bags to remember them by and basically had to kick us out because everyone was having so much fun. They came the next night to the ship and we did a reversal of roles. I think they beat us though.
The second day we went to El Yunque, their Rainforest. We hiked and stuff, and stopped for a break at a waterfall. All gorgeous. It was so hot though. I had worn capris thinking it'd be cooler in the shade, but I was wrong. The hike was work, but we saw some trees that the guide said could get to 5-6 feet in diameter.
We spent the rest of the time import exploring San Juan, new and old. I like Old San Juan better. Capital hall is down there, and a bunch of other buildings, like El Morro, a fort. It was all very beautiful, and colorful, and very very warm. We had to stop and buy water and gelotto after a while.
All in all, it was a great first port, it kind of baby stepped me into things. I hope all of you are doing good. Six days 'til Brazil!
P.S. classes are doing well, too. Yes they are making us think and work

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