Puerto Rico!

WELL, here I am, not wanting to write in a journal but figuring that it's pretty easy to type. Hello, blog.

Yesterday, January 4th, 2012, at 2:55 am, I set off for a super crazy journey to Puerto Rico for the month of January with a group of the most awesome people in the world! :D After a full 14 hours of travelling (including a photo scavenger hunt through the airport in Atlanta, Georgia...hello, ed department Jan term trip, I love you.) we finally arrived very tired and very hungry to the wonderfully beautiful island of Puerto Rico. We stayed up much too late...but we saw the pool on the roof. Yeah...pretty awesome.

Today we went into Old San Juan for the first time. We were literally on our feet for 12 hours straight with very few breaks, but hey, that's part of the fun, right? :) We visited el Castillo del Morro, which I think was the first fort built in the New World. Pretty cool. We also journeyed our way through Old San Juan and Lori, Nolan, and I split up from the group at one point and got some rice and beans for lunch instead of Subway. Best life choice of the day, right there. I'm pretty sure I will be spending a LOT of my time in Old San Juan as it is extremely beautiful and fun and I want to talk to people in Spanish (I need to get over how shy I am to speak in Spanish when most of them are capable of speaking in English).

After spending a couple of hours sitting around waiting for the circulation come back to our feet from so much walking around the city (with our awesome tourguide Papo), we went to the most fun dinner of my liiiiiiiiiife. Well, maybe not, but close. The dinner itself was rice and beans (yum), pulled pork (yum), and some yuca...which was good for the first few bites but then something about it really got to me and I couldn't eat any more. We ate it in the Dominican Republic too, and I didn't really like it there either. At least it reminded me of good times in the DR, though. :) Dessert was some flan that I, surprisingly, didn't really like either. Go figure?

THEN! They had free salsa dancing so you KNOW I was all over that. The instructor was super funny and nice, he had a hard time pronouncing my name at first (big surprise, no native Spanish speaker can ever say my name right, dumb...) but eventually he got it. Then he was like, yelling it, basically. "KIERSTEN! The number one name in the world! Kiersten! Kiersten!" haha, he was super nice though and introduced himself to all the group and then started the dancing. It was really simple steps, but still fun. The whole group did it. :) Then the lesson part ended (which I was sort of thankful for because everyone was just staring at us haha) and a live band started playing (YESSSS), so naturally Nolan and I took to the floor. I really need to learn some new moves, but it was super fun! The leader guy was super funny and a couple of times told the whole group "Kiersten! Do it like Kiersten!" but I'm 99.9% sure he was just saying that because 1) he was proud that he could finally pronounce my name and 2) because it was such a big deal to pronounce my name, it was the only one he remembered. Regardless, Nolan and I tore up the dance floor and loved every second of it. I deeeefinitely want to go back, at LEAST for my birthday. :) Some random dude asked Melany to dance with her...twice...hahaha funniest thing ever, seeing her dance with him. When we were leaving I went over and told the instructor gracias (with a few other people) and he gave me a big hug and pinched my cheek haha, I think I love him.

When we came back, we felt like our feet were going to fall off, so we soaked them in the bath tub. Well, that was our idea, anyway. First off, Lori filled the tub with the hottest water imaginable, so we had to go get about 5 buckets of ice and pour them in the tub before it was finally an acceptable (albeit still SUPER hot) temperature. Then, when the soaking started, the craziness ensued. All I can really say is that it involved platypus feet, sucker fish, farting bathtubs, foot water fights, magic natural socks, and Taylor Swift. Needless to say, I have THE best roommates in the world and this is going to be the best month of my life.

After that craziness, we showered, and when we went out to go to Nolan's room, we found cookies on our door that were from "los tres reyes!!" The note said "Lori, Maylyn ,and Kiersten: Que esta sea el mas magico dia de los reyes!" haha, so naturally we decided to get a cup of water and fill a box with grass to put outside Bob & Nancy's doors for their camels. At midnight. In Puerto Rico.

I love my life.