Rocking that *International* Paradise

I’ve realized that most of my recent posts have been about travel, people visiting me, or big events.  I think it’s time for a basic update on my life.  So here’s the news since Christmas.  ·          This semester, I started tutoring a 10 th grade student in English, 2 nights a week.  He speaks very little English, which was the main thing holding him back in the class.  I do my best to translate/summarize each of the piece of literature he reads in class into Spanish and make sure he understands the plot of each.  I’m not sure if it’s the best method to take, but it helped him pass the first test, at least.  ·          Our mouse problem from the beginning of January seems to have more or less gone away.  Or they’ve just become much sneakier.  Either way, we haven’t seen or caught one in over a month, and that’s just fine with me.  ·    ...

When I (and I think most of the other American teachers can say the same) was offered my job here, one of the “perks” the school director described was a daytrip for the American teachers on the director’s boat.  Mr. Delgado painted a vivid picture of how he would fill the boat’s cooler with food and drinks and take the American teachers out one weekend on the blue Caribbean waters, stopping at a secluded island to swim and enjoy the sun. It wasn’t what sold me on the job offer, but I’ll admit it sounded pretty nice. The first semester of school passed without this fabled boating trip coming to pass, though we made one attempt at scheduling it in November.  But finally, last weekend, when we had Monday off for Columbus Day, we received our promised outing. It just so happened to fall on my friend Lily’s last day with me, so she was able to come along and was treated to an experience most of my other visitors will not be privileged to.  Lucky her!  Lucky me! At 9:...

Last weekend, I met my friend Lily in Old San Juan, and we began our 9 days together.  As is SO often the case with travel, the weekend was one of memorable mishaps—many small things adding together to make the weekend one we’ll never forget. On Saturday, Kelsey and I met Lily and went to breakfast at Café Mallorca.  Delicious as always, with good service from our waiter.  Walking back to the hotel to pick up Lily’s bags, my sandal broke.  Mishap #1.  Thankfully, Lily had an extra pair of flip flops, and though they were small, my feet didn’t hang off the back, so I wore them for the rest of the day. We took a walk around Old San Juan and visited the Casa Blanca (a residence built for Ponce de Leon, but in which he never lived; he died before its completion). View from the house We then made our way to the pier and successfully purchased ferry tickets to take us across the bay to the Bacardi plant.  As we got off the ferry, Kelsey realized her pho...

I’m pretty sure there is no feeling that compares to coming across the finish line of a half marathon.  (Well…actually crossing the finish of a full marathon would probably compare pretty well…but that’s beside the point).  When I envisioned this blog post a few days ago, I was almost certain it would start with a phrase along the lines of, “At least it’s over…”  As the San Blas Half Marathon drew closer, I began to feel unprepared as I heard more and more horror stories about the route.  I wondered whether I would have the half marathon experience some have had, exhausting myself and dragging myself across the finish at a slow walk.  I was more than a little nervous that I would embarrass myself at the world-class event. But that didn’t happen. Yes, the route is definitely tough.  (For those of you from La Crosse, Wisconsin, picture running up and down Bliss Road at least 3 times).  But it wasn’t as bad as I feared.  Although I slowed down c...