Ruta de Centenial 99!!

Yesterday was amazing. We took a two hour bus ride to Ponce to the main campus for the school system that the Optometry school is a part of. Typically I just call it IAUPR, but its actual name is the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, or Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico. It has five of six branches across the island. They have an anniversary celebration every year and this year was the school's 99th year. Next year is going to be an even bigger party. It was crazy. They had a ton of different things going on. We first listened to a few speeches, I'm not going to lie, I only understood about half of it. A couple of the larger schools came in with drums, horns, and singing. It was really cool to watch. Then we looked at different vendors who were selling little crafts, baked goods, and leather goods. We ate lunch and then listened to this awesome 80s cover band. At first one of my friends thought the lead singer was lip syncing, but he was just that good. He played some Bon Jovi, Journey and a whole bunch of other stuff. We were all excited because it was in English and we don't hear music in English here very often.

I also bought a book. They had a book signing for a book called Equus Rex. It is a compilation of stories about famous horses and riders. It is goes from mythology to present day. I almost didn't get it because it is in Spanish, but my friend Liz and the author talked me into it. They both thought it would be a great way to expand my Spanish, and I think they are right. I still maintain the author was just being nice, but I took a lot of crap yesterday because he gave me his card and told me that I could call him if there was anything that I didn't understand in the book. My friends thought he was hitting on me, but he was about 60, so I didn't really take it that way. And if I don't understand, I will ask Liz for a translation, but I don't think I'll be making any personal calls to the author.

After that, we went and listened to some traditional Puerto Rican music. It is so amazing to me how much music is a part of the culture here. I love it. Everyone dances. It doesn't matter how old a person is, even the people in the wheel chairs dance. It is so cool to watch. The whole crowd seems to move together. No one is offbeat. This is going to sound corny, but it is almost like watching ocean waves because so many people move all together. They do this dance that has the same steps as the electric slide, but doesn't look like the electric slide. I tried to get it on video yesterday, but the camera on my phone doesn't do all that well with movement and the sound was awful. They also have some really cool traditional songs. One of them we heard when we were at the Gran Melia and again yesterday. It is called "Manaña por la Manaña". The link is to another band playing it, not one I have actually seen, but the song is really cool. All of the traditional bands that I have seen are set up just the same. There are at least three men singing and they all dance together and they have multiple drummers with Congas and all types of percussion instruments and a decent sized brass section. Their songs also last forever. It isn't unusual for a song to go on for 10 mins and then just fade into another song. I really wish I had puertorican rhythm.

It was cool being able to see the southern part of the island. It was actually pretty different from the Northern part. It is not nearly as green and is way drier. It is amazing what a difference a 2 hour drive can make.

Done.

Wow. I'm finally done with this round of exams. I couldn't be happier to have a little break. Yay!!!! I don't know that we are going to do anything tonight to celebrate because about half of my friends are running a 10k on Sunday. I was not that ambitious, but everyone is trying to keep it low key for the weekend. I am going to something called the "Road to the Centennial." I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what I signed myself up for. From what I understand it is some sort of celebration for the 100 year anniversary of IAUPR. It is being held at the main campus in Ponce. I've never been to Ponce and basically I just sign up for anything that gets me off the campus for a little bit. None of us really know what we are doing once we get there. The only thing I do know is that everything will be in Spanish. Hopefully I'll learn something. I just got an email saying that the bus leaves at 8:30 am and that we are all going to have matching shirts. Either blue polos or green t-shirts. It kind of reminded me of our sixth grade trip to D.C. Hopefully the trip will give me something interesting to write about. (FYI this is the IAUPR campus, not the UPR campus where all the riots are, so I think we are pretty safe.)

On an even more exciting note, we are going on a mini trip next weekend. Steve O (the one who threw us a superbowl party) is taking us to his uncle's beach house in Rincon!!!! He made it sound like there is room for all of us, but I think about 10 of us are going and it is a two bedroom beach house. I'm bringing my air mattress and Steve O has two more air matresses, but I think it still might be a tight squeeze. We don't really care, we are getting out of Bayamon for a little bit.

I'll write some more when exciting stuff actually happens and isn't just in the works!!

Thank god for music

I thought that I wouldn't have anything to write about for a while, mainly because I haven't left the compound for two weeks. Last weekend I didn't even leave my apartment once, other than to take out the trash. Pharmacology consumed my life. I know that Optometrists like the dark, but I seriously need some sunshine before I go all out vampire. I think we are going to take our notes to the beach this weekend for a few hours. Once next week is over, I will be able to have a bit of breathing room. I am going to need it. Dr. May told me before I ever left, that I had to get out and have some fun every once in a while or I would go crazy in Optometry school. He was right. This month is really testing the limits of my sanity. I mostly blame Pharmacology for that. It is extremely hard to memorize lists of words that you have never heard of and don't know how to pronounce. I had to take a little break on Sunday after studying for 10 hours straight because my neurons were a bit wore out. I picked out a movie with the intentions of watching half of it and going through flash cards while watching the second half. I ended up streaming what I thought was going to be a cheesy chick flick staring Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt called "The Lost Valentine". I really needed to watch something that didn't require much thought, and a Hallmark Original Movie seemed about perfect. It was a little cheesy, but I have a soft spot for all members of the Golden Girls cast. By the end I was a sobbing mess. I'm either becoming a softy in my old age, or the stress got to me a bit. It may have been a combination of both.

The one thing that has always kept me sane (ish) is my music. I found a new band the other week that I fell in love with. They are called Needtobreathe. Don't ask my why there aren't spaces, still haven't figured that one out. They used to tour with Will Hoge and they are extremely talented. I looked up their tour schedule and was really excited to see they were going to be in Milwaukee this summer. Unfortunately, I clicked on the ticket information and realized that they are opening up for Taylor Swift. As much as I love them, I don't know that I could sit through that kind of torture again. I saw her once at the state fair before she became ultra famous and she was awful, like I wanted to take an ice auger to my ears awful. Not to mention I'm sure the tickets are going for something way out of my price range and I would have to listen to thousands of screaming adolescents. Needtobreathe is going to be on a cruise called the "Rock Boat" next year over my x-mas break. Will Hoge, Sister Hazel and Marc Broussard do it every year too. It is a week long cruise with a ton of bands. I told Dad that I would give up presents for xmas and my birthday for the next five years if we could go (plus it would be some good father-daughter time) but he didn't respond, so I'm gonna take that as a no. Damn, I wish I had Brett's ability to talk Dad into stuff. I would probably even enlist his help, but he isn't old enough to go. I hope it is still in operation by the time I can afford it by myself.
Here are a couple of links to Needtobreathe, if you are curious.
Something Beautiful
Said to Much

As Promised.

They all actually put their prescriptions in the trial frames. Jeanna is my favorite because she is a +6.00 in each eye so her lenses make her look like Bubbles from the "Trailer Park Boys." Hahahaha!!!!! Go Packers!

One Memorable Weekend!

Well this was a weekend I am sure I will never forget. Friday was entirely uneventful. Lots of studying, which is also what I did all day Saturday. Saturday night we went out for Simran and Cathleen's birthdays. First we had dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Sofia's. The food was amazing. I had a steak risotto with a mushroom barbera sauce. It was in Old San Juan and any restaurant in the tourist parts is over-priced, but it was one of the best meals I have had on the island. There were 19 of us for dinner. It was crazy and it took forever. We thought we were going to miss our boat, but we made it. We took a boat called La Rumba into the bay by Old San Juan. It was a double decker boat with two dance floors and a DJ. It was a bit weird because some people brought their kids. And not like teenagers. There was a kid who was sucking his thumb and another in a stroller. I think it just seemed weird because we didn't get on it til nine-thirty at night and the boat had a bar on it. I think that views on drinking are different here. The drinking age is 18, but they serve people who look younger than that to me without ever checking IDs. They are also very open about drinking and driving. People will drive their cars with a Medalla in the cup holder and not worry about taking a sip in front of a cop. I guess it is more weird because the laws against drinking and driving do exist here, they just don't enforce a whole lot of their laws (especially driving laws) as far as I can tell. Anyway, we were on this boat for a good long while when all of a sudden people stopped dancing and I turned around to realize that some guy was lying on the dance floor having a seizure. I grabbed my friend Steve O and took him up to the DJ to have him shut off the strobe lights. I didn't know the word for induce or seizure. It is amazing the words that you don't think you are ever going to need. Anyway, the DJ wouldn't shut off the strobe lights or the flashing lights on the dance floor. Steve O got so mad at him and they were just screaming at each other. I heard some words that I did understand in Spanish and knew it wasn't going to be good. Simran saw Steve O yelling at the DJ and came over to help. She told the DJ that we were all doctors and that they needed to shut the lights off immediately. They actually listened to her. And to be fair she never specified what kind of doctors or whether we were in training or not, Hahaha! We all got a kick out of it. We don't know for sure, but I think the guy is going to be ok. I saw him sit up when they pulled into port. They got him down the stair and off the boat, but his seizure lasted for about a minute and a half. It is amazing how fast you can switch gears when you have to wonder if you are going to put CPR training into play. Yikes. After the boat there was a short visit to Señor Frogs. They made the girls go on stage and sang them happy birthday, but the guys who worked there pushed the cake into the face of the girls and spilled a red drink on Simran's dress so we decided to call it a night. We were actually snug in our beds by 2:00 am. Considering that most of the night life is up and going until 6am, that was pretty good.

I was up studying again at eight and hit the books hard so I could enjoy the superbowl. Steve O had us all over. Steve O is a friend of my classmate, Liz, that lives here with his family. He and his dad own 14 Domino's pizza's on the island and his dad is a gourmet chef. Steve O had us over one other time for the Pacquio fight, but not nearly this many of us. His dad went all out. He made us steak and veggie kabobs, burgers, hotdogs, corn on the grill, home made mango salsa, and flan for desert. It was absolutely amazing. We were so spoiled!! Their house is really cool too. It is in a gated community where you have to go through two manned gates to get to their house. Once you are in the gates, it is like you just stepped off the island into somewhere else that is not even close to the rest of Puerto Rico. The best part of the night for me was that all of my closest friends were rooting for the Steelers. We had a class bet that you had to pick a team, and if your team lost, you would have to wear trial frames to class all day. Most of the Canadian's don't watch American Football, and didn't know any better, but my friend Phil is from just outside Pittsburgh and he convinced them to all root for the Steelers. They decided to stick together so that if they had to wear trial frames, they wouldn't have to do it alone. Only Steve O, Mohit, Roble and I were rooting for the Packers. Roble was so funny about it. He borrowed one of my Packer shirts and was telling everyone that he was born and raised in Green Bay, Somalia where he has been a life long Packer fan. He is actually from Somalia, but he has lived in Buffalo for a lot of years and is a Bills fan (and you have to be a true fan to love the Bills). We were loving it. I couldn't sit still. I was on the edge of my seat. I'm so glad we pulled it off. Only about 10 of the 50 people in my class chose the Packers to win, so I can't wait to see the rest of them in their trial frames tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll take a picture. It was an amazing win, but a little more suspenseful than I would have liked.

Oh and to follow up from my last post, this is a link to an article about what is going on at the UPR campus. Our Spanish Prof. sent us the link.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maritza-stanchich-phd/violence-against-student-_b_817297.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=uopx

Calm before the Storm.

To follow up my last blog, most of the perogies were a success. A few of them lost their contents, but I think we are pretty impressed with ourselves. I tried to call Grandma Nielsen because I thought she would get a kick out of the perogie making.

I am so excited for this weekend. I've been studying like a madman all week in preparation. Today is my roommate, Cathleen's, birthday. We are going to go to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Sophie's and then on a cruise through the bay on double decker boat with live salsa music. Another one of my classmates, Liz, was supposed to teach us how to salsa in preparation, but we just haven't had time. Liz is Colombian and knows how to salsa, meringue, and some other type of dance that starts with a B. (Baracha I think. Apparently that one is hard). I guess we will have to take the crash course. It ought to be a blast. I'll take pictures.

Last night our downstairs neighbor's threw Cathleen a surprise get together. Mike made a cake from scratch and had some appetizers. It was really fun and our Spanish professor came too. She is about our age maybe a few years older. She is super interesting. She is Puerto Rican, but she has lived in Brazil, been to most of Europe, and did part of her master's program in NY. Currently she teaches us Spanish and IAUPR, and at UPR she teaches a Spanish class. She speaks four languages. She was working on her PhD in Literature here on the island, but she was telling us about all the rioting and problems they are having on some of the other campuses. It was a really interesting conversation. We knew that some of the students were boycotting other colleges. There is a general feeling that the Puerto Rican government is pretty corrupt and that most of the people in power are either drug or mafia related (or both). It has gotten so bad that the police plant undercover cops into the campus and have them try to start riots and damage things. I guess they also severely cut funding to most of the programs, took away most of the academic and athletic scholarships. Many people here feel that the government wants to encourage the more educated people to leave the island, and they are leaving because their programs are being cut. The people are leaving here by the thousands and the ones who are staying are the ones who aren't educated or don't have the money to leave. It is pretty sad that the government is encouraging the dumbing of a population, but I guess that will make the people easier to control. Wend if you are reading this, skip to the next paragraph because I don't want any worried phone calls from you, but Puerto Rico has has 122 murders so far this year. Its only the 5th of Feb. Most of them are gang/mafia/drug related, but still. We had no idea that it was that bad. It is crazy. For the most part we are safe because of where we live and where we are. I'll try to keep you all updated on that situation, but we are so cut off from the news that updates may be few and far between.

This weekend is going to be the last chance to do anything fun for a while. After this week, we will have two exams every week all month. Ick. We may take our notes to the beach, but there certainly won't be any exploring the island for a while. March is a much better month. We have our annual "Eye-Ball" party on March 25th. We are all pretty excited. We love any excuse to get dressed up. There is also a chance that my cousin, Bri, will come visit me over her spring break. I would love it. I don't have any exams near her visit, so it would work perfect. It would give me something to look forward to since Dad and Brett are going to make a trip to Texas to see great-grandma this year and won't be making it down to visit anymore.

On an entirely different note, GO PACKERS!!!!! They have to pull this off. I don't want to wear these to class.