Random Fun

Here are some random pictures from the last week. Last weekend, we made a stop at Plaza de Las Americas in San Juan. It is the biggest mall in the Caribbean and it is huge...3 Floors, lavishly decorated and hundreds of stores. Here are a couple pictures of live models in a store window. I thought it was fun, they probably didn't.

Last Friday, our school sponsored a volleyball tournament. Here, volleyball is a pretty big sport and they have both boys and girls teams. The girls went on to win first place and the boys got second. It was fun to watch them out of the classroom. That is our school's gym.

Last night we were invited over to a teacher's house for dinner. They have an adorable 4 month old baby, Karla. Jon was trying to make her smile, we wasn't impressed. I think she might have been scared because he looked so pale! :)

To Ponce for some dancing

Another video of some native dances in Ponce. Enjoy.

Ponce Video

A video so that you can see the dancing.

Ponce

Last weekend, Mandi's mom and mom's friend were in town. On Friday night we all hopped in our cars and drove to Ponce. (I was keeping an eye out Maria's sister...but didn't see her) We went there to an amphitheater to see the Afropuertoricanos dance. It was a native folk dance that had a lot of African influence. It was nice. We got coco icecream from a vender on the street. Got a great picture of Barb by the "don't piss on grandma" sign (really, "don't walk on the grass" :) But we thought it was a good joke!) There is a great, old, preserved firestation in Ponce. Jon and I just happened to be wearing shirts that matched the backdrop. Cute.

It was a great evening. We had plans to go to the bioluminesant bay in Fajardo the next day, however, at that time "Omar" (who wan't really Omar yet) was in the area and we decided not to go because of the threat of rain.

First Weekend in October

Here are a couple pictures from last weekend. Bev Lindley, the gecko picture is for you. He (as well as MANY other of his friends) lives on our front porch and spends the day lounging on our deck chairs. Here he is posing for the camera. The fierce zoolander pose. :)

Jon and I attended a Catholic mass last Sunday. The church is located in the Guayama plaza. The priest was very radical. Only in Puerto Rico will you see a priest start the congregation clapping and come dancing up the isles. Jon didn't get a whole lot out of the service. He did pick up "palabra del Senor" after both the readings. So that is a start. There are many other churches in town, however, we have heard that the only English speaking service is given at a Baptist church down the road.... We'll see.

Enjoy the long weekend! Puerto Ricans, of course, celebrate Columbus Day!

Happy birthday Shirley and (coming up soon) Jenni, Chanda and Shauna! Happy anniversary to Jon & Katie and Mike & Becky! Happy belated birthday to Clementine and Amanda! Hope you all have wonderful days! :)

It still goes on...

Just in case you didn't believe me from the previous post... this is a continuation of the "parade"... and I have 3 other videos of it too... I'll spare you!

Anything for your vote

It is starting to happen more frequently as election day approaches. Invision...sitting in your living room, watching a nice, quiet episode of "The Biggest Loser", and then you hear it, coming from off in the distance, getting louder and louder. A bird, a plane... nope, the mayor. Or at least someone hoping to be the next mayor. And they sure do announce it, you really can't help but hear it. Truck after truck with people hanging onto the tailgates. Small children sitting on the roofs of minivans with their legs dangling in through the sky-roof waving proudly thier party's flag. And you can't miss the speakers. They are the size of a small house and it doesn't matter the time of night, they are loud. I haven't seen a political add on TV yet, but it is at least once a week that we have a party going on in the street.

This seriously went on for a good 10 mintues.... continuous.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN

So, don't you enjoy reading about the Mudds? Well, we would love to hear your comments. It is easy. Press the "comment" link at the bottom of every post and... add a comment! I know that there are a lot of you who follow our adventures and we would love to know who you are! Drop a line... or two!

A Weekend Away in Old San Juan

We decided to book a night in Old San Juan last weekend. Tom and Barb came up for the day and we toured the Bacardi Factory, walked the streets and had a dinner at a small, hidden, Persian restaurant. The Bacardi Factory was a great tour. You get a couple free drinks, then jump on a trolley which takes you to the factory where you get to see how Sir Bacardi does his job. Of course, they don't give you the secret recipe... but, it was still fun. We took a ferry to get there, I would say a good thing to do when you fly into San Juan for your visit here. :)

We had a great walk around the city as the sun set and the cool air swept up the cobblestone streets.... yeah, you like that?! Anway, we followed the stone wall around the outside of the city, walked through the first original stone door, and met a new friend at the persian diner who played us some tunes on a ... zither? Is that the instrument.... something that was very nice anway.

Afterwards, Andrea, Mandi, Jon and I hit up the night scene. We'll leave it at that! :)

Ike pays us a visit

Well, the storm had come and gone... however, we didn't feel the full effect until a week after the rain had stopped. Turns out that we had a lot of water sitting on top of our flat roof and all with all that moisture.... well, plaster doesn't stick that well to a cement ceiling. So, Thursday afternoon I came home from school to our living room ceiling laying on the floor. It still looks the same today (nearly a week later) because as it turns out, the entire city of Guayama is "out of limestone" which we need, I guess. So, we are thankful that we can't see the sky!

Our School

Okay, a lot different than the states. Here is our school. K-12. Puerto Rico likes its bars.... both for drinking and surrounding buildings. So, look past the bars and there is where we work everyday. Fun stuff. Enjoy.

On the way to school

Our internet is working surprisingly fast... so, here is a video of Guayama on our way to school. Burger King is a focal point of Puerto Rican culture. As you can see, Guayama is similar to any american city with a lot of the same comforts. However, notice the great green mountain that greets us as we drive to school - you must look past the Burger King. :)

Camping with the Coqui

Backpacking in Puerto Rico... continued...Here is a little taste of our experience before we went to bed in our tent. Sorry we are so weird. You MUST have sound to get the full effect of this video (Hans!).