typical masks

te rasco la guinea!

never seen a street so packed, and the marching band!

calle estrecha de boricua y fiesta

titeres de sanse

cultura profetica en la perla

with sara la alemana in the beach

San Seb

La Festival de San Sebastian the weekend of the 16^th of January is a tapon packed sardine can of booze, drums, chants, and fried empanadillas. Everyone drinks in the street starting at 12:00pm to around 5am. I have never seen so many people in so little space, and I realized why Puerto rico is one of the most densely populated islands in the world.  Everyon is singing, dancing, and letting loose all of the stress that has built up over the last year. The food is amazing, and there are free concerts everywhere, in every plaza, from reggaeton to salsa, bachata, improvisation, and merengue. There is colorful Puerto Rican art ubiquitous in old san Juan, and I feel the heat of the islands sweep over me as I’m overloaded with a cultural experience. I feel the African and taino roots here. I went to church on Sunday, which lasted almost 2 hours, and was asked to carry the jesus procession to the other church along with 3 other men, similar to semana santa in spain. It was an enlightening experience, and I felt very culturally in tune walking up a steep cobblestone carrying a statue of jesus as everyone watched me. I sacrificed a little as jesus sacrificed for me 2000 years ago. I also met some new friends in the hostel from Germany, France, Chile, and Australia.  We went to the cultura profetica concert in la perla, which is a barrio outside of the city walls that is supposedly crime and drug ridden, but it has cultura feels like Colombia.  It was an amazingly fun reggae concert, and they quickly became my favorite band out of Puerto rico.

My first day back in San German turned out surprisingly well. I was about to check into the hotel that would have costed me 10 dollars at the residence but my newly found friend Joe offered me a place to stay, which seemed a little forward, but I was down to save 10 bucks and at least have someone to hang out with for the night. He and Emma, another NSE student, showed me around town and I am forever greatful for them making me comfortable my first day here. The accommodation came appreciated, and a couple of medullas(local beer) went well with a Martin’s colossal calzone, which is stuffed with peppers, onions, mushrooms, all types of meat, and purely everything you can imagine packed into a 9 dollar flash flood of flavor that heartily feeds too.  Joe and I also went to the bar in the neighborhood that the owner only opens up for his friends, and we enjoyed a great time with joe’s roommates and some old geezers that play dominoes way too well.

The following day I met all of my exchange buddies and Ricardo, our exchange supervisor, showed us around town and the campus.  It’s a grandote campus that yields winding roads and seems to be surrounded by dense jungle. The other exchange students seem really nice- Javier has a van and loves Dominican bachata, my roommate mitch comes from a big family too and speaks the California spirit on a carribbean beach, Ashley has done cool mission trips to Thailand, tess is the girl I try to make laugh, and gabrielle and Kirsten are completely fine drinking medallas and playing dominoes with us all night. I have met a lot of locals and friends thanks to Joe, and we have witnessed the greatness of boqueron’s beach, though I am told that there are way better ones in the area. Worthy of mention is Frede, Joe’s friend who plays futbol and loves to laugh.  Thankfully, he doesn’t have a blasting stereo system that’s worth more than his car, diamond earrings, curly wet spiky hair, a gold chain, and rims. That’s one of the things I find really funny about some of the people here.  They are blatantly trying to show off and I don’t see how the women here can be attracted to it. But, it’s a different culture and I respect it, and realize that these people may just be a product of what they see in reggaeton music videos and attempt to live that lifestyle.

Antigua, confusa