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.
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