the semester nears the end

This is the last week of classes - finals start next week - and then the first semester of my Ph.D. (and the first several months of living abroad) have passed! How quickly those months went by! 

Thanksgiving was great, although not quite the same as being at home. We really enjoyed having some family (our aunt and uncle from San Juan) and meeting new friends too, for a Caribbean Thanksgiving feast.  It was nice to be welcomed on such a thankful holiday!

table setting, complete with ocean view!

My head will be in the books for the rest of the week. I like to feel really prepared for tests, so I don't wait until the last minute to start studying. Nerd, I know. You guys should see my planner - so many little notes and scribbles of everything  I need to do over the next couple months. Mostly writing for scholarships and grants... not so much fun haha. A necessary evil.


I received a sweet letter for my friend in Malaysia, Natalie. She just recently visited Japan and I couldn't wait to hear all about her trip. She sent me little gifts from Japan, as well as her boarding pass and ticket stubs (how neat, right!?) I love receiving letters from her, we have become such great friends just through writing and exchanging experiences through snail mail. We've been writing for.. hmmm... 4 years now? And it feels as though we've known each other for 15 years.

her letter to me! Japanese tea, a cute magnet, postcards and
travel stubs

My package to her. Inside: Puerto Rican candies, African tea,
postcard, seaglass hair pins, mud face mask spa kit

Well, back to work. No rest for the weary. Evan is out surfing, I've been shopping for Christmas presents online and now it's time to get back to the books.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone :)

I'm excited for the end of the semester! I get to spend a little time in San Juan before heading back to Texas. That means more Christmas shopping!

thankful for the little things

This will be my first Thanksgiving away from home. 

When I was studying in Florida, I managed to get back to Texas every year to celebrate the brief holiday with my family. It was always a welcomed break from classes and a joy seeing those I love and my home state of Texas. 

But this year is different - it was too expensive to travel to Texas for a couple days. So Evan and I planned a little Thanksgiving celebration of our own. Originally, we had some friends from Florida planning to fly down and stay several days with us. We were super eager to see them. Turns out, he got a job in California, so it wasn't in the budget for them anymore. So Evan and I adjusted. We then intended to roast a little chicken, make some side dishes and a dessert, and invite my advisor over to join us.  However, he is now in London giving a talk at the prestigious Linnean Society. But just when we thought we would be celebrating alone, we get a call from our "uncle" (Tio in Spanish) from San Juan - remember, they were the ones who took us in and helped us out so much when we first arrived? It just so happens that they are coming to Rincon for Thanksgiving, and they invited us to join them. How wonderful, right? We are certainly so grateful for them!

How interesting that God makes himself known in the people and the events around you? I plan to bake a Coconut & Ginger Pumpkin pie and probably also a Kahlua Apple Pie. YUM. I will certainly tell you about the Puerto Rican Thanksgiving after Thursday!

*****

Every time that Evan and I get a new Cooking Light magazine, we have to sit down right away and read through it together. We are both so interested in cooking - he is more into grilling and actual cooking, I'm the baker. So between the two of us, we have dinner under control :) We brought a variety of cookbooks with us to Puerto Rico - no doubt placed in the "definitely going" pile during packing!

I think it's really important that a couple share a hobby, amongst having several of their own. It's great to do things together, but it's just as important to do things apart. For Evan and I, we like to explore new cooking techniques, recipes, styles, cuisines (maybe one day we will venture into gastronomy!). I'm thankful that we both share this love for food.

What are some other things I'm thankful for? Here are a few:

* Sophie is feeling much better. She goes back to the vet tomorrow. Hopefully the antibiotics have been working! I'm thankful for her improving health.

*  My Mom's ear surgery was successful. Even though she can't hear out of her ear just yet (because of all the gauze protecting the eardrum for a little bit longer), I'm thankful that she now has a new eardrum to repair her hearing loss. 

* My brother found a job, after just graduating college. He is amongst the few blessed college graduates to find a decent job in the field he wants to be in. Best of all, his boss is a friend and a mentor to him. I'm thankful that Cameron has entered the work field with a manager that he respects.

* My Dad has turned a negative into a positive. When we lost our cattle to the drought (figuratively, because we were actually forced to sell them), my Dad gained a some free time after work and on weekends. Now he's been able to turn more of his attention to his passion: restoring classic cars. I'm thankful that my Dad has more time for stress-relieving activities. 

* Evan is here with me in Puerto Rico. I'm so thankful that our goals and dreams align and allowed us each to pursue the next step together in a new and exciting place. It's great to experience the challenges and adventures with a  best friend. I'm thankful for Evan. 

*and so many other things.. my list could go on for days! It's all about realizing the blessings from God, and suddenly  you can become thankful for just about everything around you :)

What are you thankful for?

finally getting around

I am closing in now on the end of my first semester as a Ph.D. student. What an accomplishment, eh? I must say that there have been several road bumps so far, but everything has turned out alright in the end. And that's what matters, right?
I leave on December 17th to head back to Texas for a couple weeks. I am so eager for some of the things I miss:

* southern food & particularly southern breakfast
* Mexican food
* Church chocolate pie (everything is about food, pretty much haha)
* family  ( I can't wait to see them all!)
* colder weather

I know that last one is weird, considering that most everyone I have met over the past month down here is here for one reason: to escape the cold. But I've mentioned before that Autumn is my favorite season - I love seeing the trees change color. My mom sent me this picture of our road in Texas:

Today, I went running from our house to downtown for some free yoga. Every 1st and 3rd Sunday, Rincon has a Farmer's Market with organic foods, products and clothing. Then about a month ago, the yoga studio here that I attend, La Paz, started hosting free morning yoga classes in the plaza by the market. So I woke this morning and ran down there to join them. It was relaxing and great to meet some other women in the area that aren't native Puerto Ricans. Vivienne, the yoga instructor, is a beautiful woman from California who met her husband here in PR on a trip, married him and moved down here. What a cool story, eh? She's so down to earth and a mother of two super cute little boys. I love meeting people here like her!!


Next, I need to get myself a used bicycle so I can start cycling in the mornings! Everything is so close here in town, I really need to stop driving everywhere. I was very thankful for my awakened morning body that allowed me to run this morning!



Also, just a side note, when I have more than one drink here, I become fluent in Spanish. Or at least I think I am. haha. I guess a tiny bit of rum is a confidence booster in my second language skills. But apparently I was making sense :) Thank you, Rosetta Stone + 15ish years of Spanish classes + native Texan heritage. But mostly Rosetta Stone haha.

Cueva Ventana Day Trip

Recently, Evan and I made a day trip to Cueva Ventana - up on the Arecibo/Utuado border. We found this pretty cool site called Puerto Rico Day Trips. There are some amazing sites and we now have compiled quite a list of places to see! Luckily, we are here for several years so we'll have plenty of time to visit them all!

film shot from my DianaF+ lomo camera. Pools Beach, Rincon

double exposed Evan :)

me :)

 Those are all from a little surf outing to the other side of Rincon. I brought my plastic camera and took some shots.

ANYWAYS:

Cueva Ventana means Window Cave and that's exactly what it is. Hidden from the usual tourist areas and literally right off the road. We had to park at the Chevron station and pay just $2 to park there (I suppose once they realized they could profit off the locals and lucky gringos like us, they decided to charge for the use of their extra parking spaces). But it's not so bad because then there's someone always walking around watching your car for you!

The guy taking money explained to us how to hike the trail and which directions to turn - but we already knew after reading the day trip site. It was very accurate! We hiked up a slick, muddy trail - I went barefoot for a lot of it because my shoes just wouldn't grip it.

Then we came upon a little alcove where a huge tree grew, stretching its long, dangling roots down into a very dark pit below. This was the entrance to the cave!! Talk about feeling like a Tomb Raider haha!! I was amazed that this was a natural creation and so hidden even from the main trail that led to the second entrance of the cave. This was one of the best parts of the hike - lowering ourselves down into this pit below a huge tree (like Alice into the rabbit hole, except much more graceful) and then again having to lower yourself down another 6 feet from a rope so precariously tied to a dangling root.

We had to hike through a dark cave (with our flashlights, no doubt), listening to the bats overhead and dodging dripping water - cause I wasn't quite sure if it was water or.... you know haha. We hiked out of one cave only to come around a huge rockface and find another cave to climb down into!

So this one was much longer and with many more bats, cockroaches and muddy muddy places to dodge. We made our way through low-hanging cave trails and out into an open "room" with more bats and cockroaches. Then, we came around a tight-squeeze bend which opened up to the window... a completely majestic view. We were stunned and just had to stare for several minutes.

Of course, like many things, the pictures don't do it justice. You must see it for yourself and if you come to visit us, we will definitely take you here!! It's just breathtaking to stand at the opening to a beautiful valley/river/mountain view. We watched a storm roll in through the valley before we started to hike back out.

We are excited to explore some of the other cool places we've heard about! Like the Indian Caves of Arecibo coast, the canyon and cave tubing, the natural water slide.. oh boy, there are just so many places and things to see! So many adventures await us!! :) I'll be sure to share about each one so I can entice you to come here too!

*images taken with the iPhone, sorry for the quality!*

rainy rainy days

Well, we are slowly emerging from the wet season and about to embark on a new journey into the dry season. But I think the weather prefers the rain! Today especially, it's been cloudy and raining on and off. I feel like I'm at home when the weather changes!! It's actually a little cooler, I wore a jacket, I lit a candle that smells like warm apple pie = Autumn in Puerto Rico!!

a mask that my parents brought back for me from Africa!

Not going to lie, I'm amped to get back home and enjoy some cool weather. How ironic that Fall is my favorite season, yet my passions and career take me always to summer-like places?



Today I had to take Sophie to the vet. She's been sick since Monday, kinda just sluggish and not interested in anything. I figured she had a stomach ache, but she didn't really get any better. So we went to our local vet (30 minutes away of course..) and $100 later (way cheaper than in the States!) we found out she has a little disease called Ehrlichiosis which she got from Puerto Rican ticks. Unbeknownst to me, her tick medicine Revelation doesn't protect against Puerto Rican ticks. :( Sorry Sophie! So we have her on some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory to help with the pain. Pobrecito!

my travel journal

Evan and I got our list of classes offered next semester. We are required to take two courses - Chemical Oceanography and Geological Oceanography - so our Wednesdays and Fridays are completely consumed with class.

our research island

Rincon is acquiring several more occupants... tourists are beginning to flock to our region for the waves and the great weather. It's getting a little more crowded when we go out and the beaches are more populated. I don't really mind because it's nice to see friendly faces from the States. I've met lots of nice people at the bar - and of course Americans tip well so that doesn't hurt either :)


Evan and I have lots of new places to visit around the country. I'm hoping that maybe we could do some exploring on Friday.  Will keep you updated :)




P.S. Thanks everyone for letting me know that you read my blog and enjoy it!! It brightens my day :)