Smackie the Frog

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I’ve been in Puerto Rico, and it just seemed wrong to spend a lot of time updating my weblog. But we’re in kind of a lull right now, chilling out before going to get dinner, so I decided to give it a go.

Overall I’ve had a really good time. Sure, there have been moments that haven’t been so great, some of them the direct fault of me. But I’m going to chose to ignore those and concentrate on the good things.

It has been, for the most part, very relaxing. The first 4 days we were in a house in Humacao, and that was marvelous. We were a block away from the ocean (which was a little grimy, but still the ocean), had a pool in the back yard, our own rooms, and best of all, a mama cat and her 5 baby kittens. We fed them and they took a liking to us, and now we all miss them very much. We even got to see the mom hunt down a lizard to teach the little guys how to kill.

Yesterday and today we’ve been in a hotel in San Juan. The ocean is much nicer here, but the accommodations, not so much. I’m sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, and last night there was a party with loud bass music going until 2:00 am. I could have definitely done without that. But we are only here for another night, so I think that I can probably survive.

I’ve discovered, much to my, and everyone else’s, surprise, that I like Puerto Rican food. In particular, Mofongo, which is mashed plantains and fried meat. It is the “national” dish of Puerto Rico, and I’m a huge fan, although I don’t think that anyone else is. At all.

If someone were to ask me what the biggest surprise has been, I’d say the language. We all knew that they speak Spanish, but I think we were all expecting them to speak more English. In San Juan it is okay, but in Humacao, almost no one spoke it, which makes things a little interesting.

So tomorrow night I’ll be home. Back to my house, and animals, and job. I’m not real happy about leaving here to return to that.