Bailamos, celebramos, y estudiamos!

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Hola Todos,

Yet again, another entry to describe the craziness of the last few days! Last wednesday we lucked out with no class, because they were having graduation at the college that day. We took the opportunity to go to Viejo San Juan and finish the pruebas (little quizes) of around town that our teacher from Benedictine gave us. Unfortunately, it was blazing hot that day, and we were all "strugs" but we were able to finish up the quizzes and even get some souvineer shopping in.

Other than that, this past week was pretty normal with classes and school work, except for Friday. We have some friends in our comunicacion oral class, that were able to set up a 'field trip' for us with the help of our professor and the head of the student exchange program. So, Friday, we were excused from class, and at 8am, hopped into a van (aka "la guagua") that took us to "El Yunque", or more commonly known as the rain forest. We were all extremely excited for the trip.

The drive was about 45 minutes (again, with no functioning seatbelts), but a lot of it was up windy, narrow roads into the mountains. It made us not feel so great......but we made it there, and were ready to do some intense hiking. It was pretty incredible, and we took a lot of pictures. It rained on us for a bit (hence the name rainforest I guess!) and then the sun came out and it was incredibly gorgeous. We made it to a little waterfall (cascada) where we all had a chance to hop in and swim. It was pretty fun.

Then, we finished walking around, and headed back to the van. The van was having technical difficulties and so we were stranded for a bit in the rainforest. We took the time to practice some salsa dancing, with a friend Jackie, who is a pretty good teacher. Once the van got fixed, we headed down to a beach famous for food Kiosks. We grabbed some lunch, and then headed to the beach to enjoy the beautiful weather and the beautiful water.

By about 3, we headed back to campus and relaxed for a bit because we were all so exhausted. Then, we headed out to do some SALSA dancing. We had a small group of friends take us dancing at the Marriott and it was a fun experience. I've decided though that we were born without a special muscle in our hips...The Puerto Ricans just move so much better than us! Haha. We spent the night dancing away and it was great. We then headed back to school where we had to sneak in, because we were pass curfew. We didn't have any problems though.

Saturday, I woke up, went for a run with Kaela on the beach again (it never gets old) and then spent a few hours laying out enjoying yet another beautiful day at the beach. Afterwards, we walked to a supermarket, caught a little bit of the "Cupo de Mundo" game of "Los Estados Unidos" vs. "Inglaterra" and then got ready to head to a live, Puerto Rican soccer/futbol game. Unfortunately, the Islanders (The Puerto Rican) team lost, but it was still a fun experience.

Sunday was spent doing homework all day - we had 4 essays for our one class. Needless to say, it was a hard assignment that made my brain hurt! We finished up just in time to spend a quality hour or two at the beach, which will NEVER get old :) .

Monday was my birthday, and I'm officially the big 21! I woke up, and immediately opened the package from my family that I had been storing under my bed the past few days. It had some fun party stuff, and pictures of my family celebrating with me. Then, I went to class and in my second class, the students were so fun. They had bought me a cake and balloons, and sang me happy birthday both in Spanish and English. That night, we headed to Bebos, a restaurant famous for good Puerto Rican food. It was good food and they sange to me in Spanish too. Afterwards we just headed to a little bar, where we got a few drinks on the house. But, it wasn't anything too crazy.

I've only got 2 more days of class left and then it's finally sweet summer time! I've got only one speech, one essay, and a portfolio keeping me from finishing up summerschool.

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy the pictures!

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