Another good weekend.

This past weekend was pretty awesome. My friend Jason flew in and we visited some places that have been on my list of things to see. First off, we went to El Yunque, which is the sub-tropical rain forest here on the island. We did some hiking in the park and climbed up to El Morro Tower which had a spectacular view. We also did a day trip to Vieques, which is a relatively large island off the Eastern coast of Puerto Rico. My friend Krista and her boyfriend, Colin, also came with us. Vieques was beautiful! We really wanted to go to Culebra, but the ferry tickets sold out before we got there (which was a little frustrating because we left at 6 am to get to the ferry). It ended up being a great day anyway. We spent the day at Sun Bay Beach. There were an alarming number of wild horses running free on the island. There was a large herd of them at the beach and even more along the sides of the road. It is common to see wild dogs all over the island, but this is the first time I have seen loose livestock of any kind. After lots of sun (and layers of sunscreen), we took the ferry back to Fajardo and had some local cuisine.


I had a chicken mofongo. Mofongo is a very common dish here and it is made many different ways. It is mashed plantains (either tostones which are unripe plantains that taste sort of like potatoes or maduros which are ripe plaintains that are sweet) with some sort of meat in the middle. It is served in a large wooden goblet lined with the plantains with the meat in the middle. It is really good. I've had it with mahi mahi and chicken. The restaurant we went to prepared all the meat on the grill first and it was amazing.

Then we went on a night kayaking expedition in Bio Bay. This was my favorite thing that I have done since I have been to Puerto Rico. There are pics of it online, but none of them capture how cool it really was. We kayaked for a few miles through a channel that was completely covered by mangrove trees. It opened up into a large bay. The bay is home to these tiny microorganisms that are bioluminescent. Every time our paddles, hands or feet touched the water, the water would start to glow a pale blue. It was like Avatar when they walked through the forest. Krista and I were splashing each other and it was like throwing tiny drops of light. Unfortunately, they do not allow swimming in the bay anymore. The sunscreen/bug spray/body oils of people were starting to affect the microorganisms. It is something that can't really be described or captured on camera. Puerto Rico has three places on the island that are home to the dioflagellates that produce the glow. There are only 5 places in the world where you can see this. Clearly I hijacked the pic, but we couldn't bring our cameras because we got wet in the kayaks.

Missing home.

So this weekend was really nice. Cathleen's fiance came to visit and it was great finally getting to meet him!! They spent most of the weekend off on their own excursions, but the three of us went to Old San Juan on Friday. I played official photographer for their save the date photos at the beach. We found a new favorite beach too. It is called Escambron and it is beautiful. The tropical storms were causing some decent sized waves, so we even saw surfers for the first time since we have been here. For some reason it is really hard to find a map that shows the beach even though it is run by a branch of the National Parks Service. Oh well, I liked it partially because there weren't that many people there. The pictures turned out really cute!! I think the hard part is going to be choosing which one to use.

We also went to El Castillo de San Cristobol. The pics above are from the visit. It is very similar to El Castillo de Morro that we went to when I first moved to Puerto Rico on our class trip, but just a mile or so down the road. I actually liked El Castillo de San Cristobol more. Both were built in the 1630s and haven't really changed all that much. They were used to protect the harbor and the city. It was crazy how many soldiers lived there. A ton of them died from various diseases that happen when you shove too many people into a small area. One of my favorite things was the dungeon. It was kind of creepy, but not as big or deep into the fort as you might think. It was sort of like a long, narrow holding cell. There were a few drawings of ships on the wall that were thought to be of Spanish ship captains who were awaiting their executions for mutiny. (That is the top pic.)

Although it was a great weekend and Cathleen enjoyed Travis' visit, dropping him off at the airport was still pretty tough for her. I think a little bit of that rubbed off on me today. I'm missing home. Most days I'm just fine, but today I really want to be on a trail ride with Nicole and Wendy just enjoying the pretty colors of fall (I appreciate them more now that I know I won't get to see them.) Or helping Brett with his homework--which is so much easier in person than over the phone. Or at wine night with Nicole and Dani. Or watching Millionaire Matchmaker with Elizabeth (its a guilty pleasure--I know its shallow.) Or Packer Football with either Dad or Dean.Or catching up with Anna and Molly which usually involves cheese curds. Or taking the bikes out and then watching UFC with Wade, Kate and Dillon. Or going to Parfrey's Glen with Geoff. I guess this is the hard part about living on a tropical island. It has its perks, but it will never be home.

Rincon!

We finally have a break in exams. This month only has one exam. It is next week and it is optics. To reward ourselves for studying so hard and not having a weekend, we rented cars and a beach house and went to Rincon, PR on the far West Coast of the island. It was super cheap because it was the off season and the beach house was amazing. We spent most of the time at the beach or just hanging out on our rooftop patio. I wish we could have seen more, but we really needed to relax and that is exactly what we did.

Cathleen's fiance is coming today. He is coming a day early to surprise her and she is going to freak out. It is payback for her surprising him last month. I will be nice to meet him and put a face to all the stories I hear. It should be another good weekend.

Visitors!

Sorry it has once again been far too long since I have updated my blog. For some reason I have not been able to open the blogger website. Every time I have tried it tells me the connection has been reset and the problem seems to only be with this one website.

A ton has happened since my last blog. First off...school is going great. I've had a ton of exams and have gotten really good grades on all of them. On two of them, I beat the class average by more than 20 points. (I think I'm aloud to brag a little because I've been working my butt off.)

This past weekend (thurs-sun) my cousin, Matt came to visit. He is in the army and was home on leave from Iraq. He has been there for the last nine months and will be going back again on the 25th. It has been a year or two since I have seen him and I knew it was going to be a good weekend because he is a character (yeah my family is full of them). I took him to Old San Juan where we walked along the edge of the fortress that was built about 400 years ago. It is beautiful and we had a rip tide warning so the waves were crashing up over the edge of the walking path. We also went to the beach near the Isla Verde area. The waves were crazy big and standing in knee deep water would have knocked me down. The next day we got in the car and just drove. We didn't have any plan or direction, just drove wherever we felt like going. It ended up being a little longer roadtrip than we planned and thanks to Matt's GPS feature on his phone we did make it home (no thanks to the mislabeled map in our car). The whole roadtrip was spent winding around the mountains. The roads were crazy narrow and that didn't motivate people to slow down a bit. Matt started getting a little car sick from trying to read the map as the roads were snaking and his ears were popping. We stopped several times to take pictures out of the car window(see above). We were in pretty rural parts and it was nice to see what Puerto Rico really is, not just the San Juan side of the island. We had a blast until it started raining. Then the water just started pouring and it was like driving through creeks that were rushing across the road. Matt kept telling me that we would be fine, but as soon as we got home, he was telling everyone that he thought that the water was going to move our car sideways. The water wasn't that deep but it was moving pretty quickly. Some of the town we went through were pretty cool. I made Matt roll up his window when we were driving through one of the larger towns. Apparently listening to George Strait with your windows down gives away that you are not a local. Hahaha. We got stared at a lot.

The next night we took him to the El San Juan Hotel. The hotel has a casino (I still have never gambled) and a club and this really awesome open area where they have two bars in the middle and a live salsa band. People go to dance and some of the people are really good. Its fun just watching everyone dance. We have a couple classmates that know how to salsa and they promised to teach the rest of us!!

Overall, Matt had fun which was much deserved. I just wanted him to have a little fun before he had to go back. I was so happy to have him, and sad to see him leave. I'm going to worry about him until he is safely and permanently back in Louisiana. He claims that when he gets back from Iraq, he is gonna visit again.

Lots of Love,
Nik

First off, just wanted to brag a little because my first two exams for Optometry school went really well!! I have plenty more exams to go, but that was definitely a good start. Optics is next, which is my favorite class so far.

I just found out that my cousin Matt is coming to visit me this weekend. He is home on leave from Iraq and is more than deserving of a vacation. He is going to fly in on Thurs and out on Sunday. It worked out pretty well because all of my hardest exams will be done with by then and I will actually have a chance to show him around the island. (Not that I really know where to go yet. I still haven't been here all that long myself.) Either way, it should be a great time!!! It has been a year or two since I have seen him which is much too long. I wish his brother, Cody could come too.

P.S. Are the Packers or the Eagles going to have a team left after this season opener? Easy on the injuries, it is only the first game of the season. Yikes!

Guninea Pigs.

I'm not going to lie. I've been pretty boring lately and I figured that no one except Anna M. would really be interested in knowing what I'm studying. (Mainly Physiology and Anatomy), so I really don't have all that much of an update. Books. School. and a little bit of beach time.

We were recently paired with both a Second Year and a Third Year. As it turns out, not only are we the newbies, but we are also the guinea pigs. Both of my "buddies" seem really nice. My second year is named Abbie and my third year is the third year class president, Gabriel. Gabriel was a little disappointed that I was an emmetrope (I don't need to wear glasses), so I promised that he could practice on my friends and family when they come visit. I guess that means that I won't be the only guinea pig. Haha. It is actually really important to have the chance to practice and I hope that someone would do the same for me when I am a second and third year. It still amazes me how helpful all of the second and third years have been. Almost everyone that I have talked to has offered any help and/or advice that I could possibly need.

Cathleen (the blonde one in all my pics) went home this weekend to surprise her fiance. We had this elaborate plan to get him to go to the airport thinking he was picking up Cathleen's parent's friends and it actually worked. She said he was so excited he almost passed out. I'm so happy it went as planned. It was sort of weird not having her here. We have been pretty inseparable since we got here. (and no Cat, I'm not replacing you). We will all be glad to have her back and not just because we can't watch another episode of Dexter without her. Hahaha.

Only three more power points on the respiratory system to go!!!

Homework and Hurricanes

Not that I'm complaining, I realize that hurricanes can be quite serious and all, but Earl was a disappointment. We never lost power, we hardly saw rain, and the whole next day (with classes cancelled) was all blue and sunny skies. The storm wouldn't even have been bad enough to make the direct TV satelite signal break up at home. In case there is another one, know that I live in a large cement building 20 mins away by car from the shore. I'm about as safe as I can be on this island. The worst part about Earl is that he did damage to the island that we were going to visit over our long weekend (Culebra--look it up it is supposedly one of Travel Channel's top 10 beaches in the world).

School is going well so far. It is intense, but thanks to all of Dr. May's warnings, I was prepared for that. I still think it is kind of weird not having to go to work on a daily basis. I think that contributes to my feeling that this whole experience is more like going to camp than going to grad school.

Brett is about to start middle school. I've been pretty good about not being too homesick, but I really wish I could be there for his first day of school. I can't believe how fast he has grown up. When I'm done with this whole experience, he is going to be driving. I'm not going to be ready for that. The good news is that Dad bought him a cell phone, and even though I think he is too young, I love that he texts me almost everyday. I'm not sure if it is because he misses me, or whether he just likes using his new phone, but I'll take it either way.

My hermit crab is still alive and well. Cathleen found him a bigger shell and we put it in his container. I thought it might take him weeks to upgrade, but he made the big move within a couple of hours. I'll have to take a new picture. His claw is also growing and for some reason has turned bright blue. We named him Corona, because he made the trip home with us in a Corona bottle.

Elizabeth sent me a care package that came yesterday. I was so excited!!! I love surprises and I knew that Elizabeth would send me random things that are very Elizabeth and would make me smile. It took a long time for it to actually arrive, but I ate the cookies in the box anyway...and they were still good! I have the flip flops that were in the box on right now.

Off to class!