Culebra and the Catamaran

Yesterday was my favorite day in Puerto Rico all semester. We took a catamaran out of Fajardo to Culebra where we did some snorkeling and some sitting in the sand. It was a much needed day of relaxation. Culebra was beautiful and there were tons of awesome fish in the coral reef where we went snokeling. I was more than a little freaked out by the jelly fish. The guide told us they were just moon jelly fish and that even if we got stung by one that it would hurt less than a fire ant bite. Wish I would have known that before I was in the water and not when we were done snorkeling. There were actually quite a few of them. We also saw two stingrays. Jason took my camera and dove down to get the closeup of the one. It was really cool. I love having a waterproof camera here! So today is Thanksgiving. We are going to celebrate tomorrow at my friend Liz's house. Her husband is in the Coast Guard and had duty tonight. It will be our second Thanksgiving, thanks to the Canadians who wanted to celebrate in October when there Thanksgiving is. I'm so thankful to have a great group of friends/classmates. We have really formed our own little family here and it makes being away from family on the holidays just a little bit easier. I would be absolutely miserable here without them.

The Riggs Wedding

Sorry it took me so long to post about this, but I thought I would share a few pictures and try and update everyone on life here in PR and my little visit back home.

The most exciting news from this semester was Jim and Nicole's wedding. I flew home at the end of October for a weekend to be in the wedding. I was supposed to fly into Milwaukee on Thursday afternoon, but due to delays, I didn't get home until almost one in the morning. Stephen picked me up from the airport and it was so nice to catch up with him. I'm so lucky to have great friends.

Friday morning was pedicures with the aunts and a few cousins and then a last minute dress fitting. I had to have it taken in again!! I was pretty happy about that. Then we had a massage and went to set up the reception hall. After was the rehearsal dinner. I will say that there was not a dull minute with the wedding party. Definitely no shortage of personality there.

The wedding was perfect. It was outside at Devil's Head Resort. The weather was awesome. Even with my acclimation to the heat, I didn't even freeze too badly in our one strap dresses. I really loved our bridesmaid dresses. Nicole could not have looked more beautiful and it was amazing how smoothly everything went. Nicole was brought in on a horse drawn carriage with a team of four Percherons. The carriage even matched the colors of the wedding. It was an absolute fairy tale.

The reception was really fun too. I was so happy to see so many of the people that I miss from home. Chris and Terese and Kathy even drove up for the wedding. I was super nervous for my maid of honor speech, but it went smoother than I expected. I had to drink a couple glasses of wine first, but I made it through. I had a back up plan to just burst out sobbing if I started to fumble it up. Glad I didn't have to use it.

They also had a bounce house which was amazing. The whole wedding party went down it. It was really for the kids, but it was this giant slide. I think I had more fun on it than the kids.

My only complaint was that my visit was just too short. I've really missed home this semester and I had a super hard time leaving. My attitude since I got back really sucked too. The weekend reminded me how much life moves on even when I'm not there to see it. I know I'm moving forward in life by going to school, but it comes with the price of putting every other aspect of life on hold. That feeling and my crazy stress level this semester put me in a really bad funk. So bad that I didn't even wan to blog because it would just sound like me bitching. One night after I got back, dad called me to tell me that he wished I was with him at a Will Hoge show and I burst into tears. I didn't get out of it til this past weekend when I had a chance to breathe and go to the beach and a pitbull concert. I needed it.