Guamani Private School

Our School! Here are some pictures of my English room and Jon's Math room, the cafeteria, the main office, gym, playground (since we are K-12), and a couple pictures in there from the "faculty meeting" that we had today (Friday). They provided breakfast, lunch, drinks, dancing and music. And it wasn't just water and Kool-aide.... you need to really ask Flip to step up those faculty meetings. Anyway, Puerto Rican style has its differences!

This last picture is of Jon and Mr. Reyas. He is my neighbor in the ghetto and Jon and Andrea's Spanish teacher on Mon/Tues/Thurs after school. So, we like him!

We are planning on going to El Yunque tomorrow to kick off our long Labor Day weekend. However, we have tropical storm Gustav to our south and tropical storm Hannah to our north and we might be destined for rain tomorrow.... but really, rainforest... rain... isn't that how it is supposed to be? We might just go anyway. I am sure you'll hear all about it! ....

Saturday ... continues after the caves

Saturday, August 23rd continued....

After the caves, we hit the beaches again. However, these beaches were on the north side of the island. First we went to Isabella - were there are great surfing waves. The current was so dangerous in that area that we couldn't really swim unless we had a board. There were some nice pools of water protected by a reef and we sat in those and had the waves splash up over us while Andy tried his luck surfing. After awhile at Isabella we continued to the west to Jobos beach where we had some authentic fried pork and mofongo - plantain, garlic stuff. The beach restaurant was very cute though - there's a picture so that you can visualize. Next, we stopped at CrashBoat beach on the west coast. It was dusk by the time we got there, no one was there and it was so calm and relaxing. The others jumped off the peer and I just enjoyed floating around in the clear water. You could see all the way to the bottom - even in 10 feet of water - at dusk. Amazingly clear.

We had a great day and probably got back at 10:30 that night exhausted. Sunday we were very lazy. Jon and Mandi and I went and found "lighthouse" beach - we picked out the perfect place to take Libby, Jason and Maia when they come - can't wait! :) Hint, hint! So, I guess the day wasn't a wash.

Again, thanks for keeping up with all of our adventures. We love to hear from you guys and you are all in our thoughts. Good luck to those of you starting school this week!

Climbing the caves

Saturday, August 23rd.

We went on our first BIG road trip today... all the way across the island, up into the north-western point (directly opposite Guayama). Our first stop was to hike through an amazing cave. It isn't really publisized at all. We pulled over in a gas station and our tour guide (a dog off the street - he may live at the gas station) led us up a path through the "jungle" to these two amazing caves. Besides as beautiful view there were many bats and bugs with huge pinchers (the one in the picture is actually bigger than my entire hand spread out). It was nice and cool in there - a great break from the hot day.

Sunday ... Beach Day!

(These pictures are for your Kellie!)

After our long trip to San Juan, we decided to stick around Guayama on Sunday and hang out at the beach. Jon had finally found a gas grill that he wanted to try out and I had bought a hammock along the street one day and needed to try that out too. Ahhh... lofty goals for the day, love it! The beach we went to was an easy 30 minutes away and the best sand/waves we have found yet. Andy built a "shelter" for us out of palm tree branches, Jon and I both tried a little boogie boarding - I mostly got a nose full of salt water, and once again we stared into the horizon in awe of how we live here, in a place so beautiful.

Old San Juan

Our first full school of week is over and we survived! And really, the kids are great. Nothing harder than what we experienced in Laurel. So, we are starting to feel more confident and comfortable. Friday was a very bazzare day, mostly because it was our first big day of rain. Thursday after school, Reyas, my teacher friend down the "getto hall" warned that we were expecting a "tropical wave" to come over the island after school. I guess that there are levels that a storm must go through before it becomes a hurricane - tropical wave, tropical depression, tropical storm and then a full hurricane. Luckly, we were only at the "wave" level on Friday and it turned out to just be a heavy rain all day, but what was amazing was that we had 1/4th of our kids not even show up. When I asked the other students where everyone was they said, "Missy, IT'S RAINING, no one should have school when it's raining - they are home in bed." Weird. It was just raining. Oh well, made for an easier Friday. I guess now that same storm has grown into a tropical storm called Fae - glad we never got to meet her.

Friday night we had a "teacher party" at Casa Benny (the house that Tom and Andy live at). There were about 10 other PR teachers that came to hang out, so it was fun to get to know them "out of school". They are great people.

Today, Saturday the 16th, we took a road-trip to San Juan. It was a great day, great weather and Barbara and Mandi came with us. I am very bummed because my camera didn't take all the pictures that I thought I was taking - I am missing about 15 maybe that I had taken throughout the day (tomorrow we are going to have to purchase a new camera) - so, anyway, I will share the pictures that did show up. The town is very quaint and clean. All the houses and buildings are painted bright colors and have great doors and railings around their balconies. There are horse-drawn buggies for the tourists and great stores and shopping. The next two are of a huge fort that was built on the western edge of San Juan. The city is lined with an old wall (used as protection against pirates and such) and this is the fort that San Juan is most known for. The others, I love the cemetaries here so I had so get a picture - and the last couple, a fountain which we were cooling off in. It was very toasty today. We even ran into one of Mandi's students and some parents of one of Jon's students. So really, Puerto Rico is a small world and we definatly stick out! But, the parents reasured Jon that the Junior class likes his teaching - especially the girls (who would have thought!). However, they do think that he has a lot of rules in his math class. :)

Okay, I wish I could show you the other pictures that I thought I had taken, but I guess you will just have to come see for yourself!

Video Sample

Day Trip to Luquillo

Here are some pictures from our night out in Guayama and our day trip to Luquillo on Saturday. The people at the bar were very friendly and kept trying to practice their English with Jon and I - even with the music blaring. You can see that our new bar friends got in a couple of the pictures too.

Luquillo was about 1.5 hours to the north-east. It was a great drive over the mountains and along the coast. Very awesome. It was a little rainy off and on, but it was still warm and relaxing. Falling asleep under a palm tree with your toes in the sand doesn't make for too bad of a day.