Really?

Hey All!

Everything is going well over here, just figured i'd give an update before i attack the pile of reading that awaits me, for those of you who know me well, know that I am the hugest procrastinator and being in PR is not an exception.

Its kind of funny that I don't have the same work load that I do back home, but I find myself still so tired all the time, and thinking, "wow omg i have so much to do." I actually even dropped a class, which leaves me at 12 units. I haven't taken 12 units since freshman year when i was on academic probation. I had to drop the class though, it was Sociology of Gender and Sexuality, which I was only taking for my own personal growth. It sounded interesting, but it wouldn't count for anything since my coursework is so specific.

The main reason why I dropped the class is because on Tuesdays and Thursdays I had four classes back to back with ten minutes in between. All of my other classes were in the humanities building, and my sociology class is in Social Sciences which is super far away. Which means that finishing my 10 o clock class I would have to run over to Social Sciences, sit in that class and run back to Humanities. That part wouldn't be such a problem if my classes got out on time. The thing about the Gender and Sexuality class is its a major discussion/arguing class. I actually walked out of a conversation because it was already 3 minutes after class was over, and i felt rude, but i was already late to my next class. The next thing is that there is a lot of reading for that class, and with my literature class and other grammar and writing classes it would just add extra stress to me feeling behind in my work. So I made the decision to drop the class.

Dropping the class wasn't that easy either. Since it was past the deadline for the international office to do the changes i had to go to the offices to get a slip signed. So I figured the class that I wanted to drop was sociology, which falls under the college of social sciences, that is where I would need to go to drop the class. I looked around the building for a good half hour trying to find the office that would help be because no one seemed to know where the office was, and when I got there the woman was so RUDE! She told me that I was in the wrong place. That because I fell under the education department I needed to go there to change my schedule, it didn't matter if it was a sociology class. The thing was the way she was talking to me was like if i was some idiot, that didn't know, and totally didn't sympathize when I told her that I was an exchange student. And when I asked where the education building was, she looked frustrated that she had to deal with such a stupid person like me! In the end she didn't even give me good directions! Lucky for me this girl in my next class took me there and I got it taken care of. Otherwise my classes are going well, I think i'm understanding everything. Although this whole Smith last name is really getting to me here. One of my teachers doesn't remember my first name so only calls me by Smith, and another teacher is so surprised that I speak Spanish so well, but still asks me if i'm understanding, even though when she calls on me I get the answer right, which is more than I can say for some of my classmates. Its kind of funny.

Anyway....

So this weekend has pretty much been Birthday Weekend for one of the girls in our little clique her in PR. So we went out Thursday night down the street to the clubs and stuff, wearing white, as a signal of peace to the police, as a follow-up to what happened last week. Friday we went to the beach, and then to dennys, and the plan was to do an beach party sleepover on saturday but the weather didn't allow us to.

Freakin Rain!

So since we were going to be at the beach all night, Brittany (Another girl from our clique) and I woke up hella early (at this point I don't remember the reasoning for it) and went to Walmart. It was a short trip there, and before we actually went into walmart, we went into Marianne's a great little shop that has super cute clearance buy one get one free super cheap, so i had to go and fulfill my shopping problem there :P

The main reason we went to walmart was because Brittany wanted a crock pot, so that we could have some real cooked meals here instead of just eating Ramen, and sandwiches. So we went on the hunt for one. And in the appliance aisle we didn't see them all we saw were rice cookers, and Brittany let her southern out and was like "what the hell is a rice cooker" which i assume is the same as a crock pot, but given the fact that I've never really cooked out of either of those two things I don't really know for sure. Finally, we found actual crockpots and it was bigger and cheaper than the rice cooker so it was a huge score. We proceeded to shop around the store, she got food to make a pot roast in her crock pot. We get to check out, and the crock pot doesn't scan. The cashier, who apparently was either new or not a good cashier, punched in the numbers and it still wouldn't scan, the manager came and told her to punch in some different numbers, and i still didn't work, so they put her purchase on hold while the manager when to go get a different barcode, and to avoid a huge line. So I checked out my stuff, and apparently this girl had never seen reusable shopping bags cause she was making me bag my own stuff and pretty much throwing the stuff at me. The manager comes back with a new label and they scan it, and it says, not able to sell. So then they take us to customer service, and explain to us that they can't sell us the item because its been recalled. At that point I got angry and was just telling them how can they have the item on the shelf and cause all of this waiting for nothing, and that there was nothing we can do to buy the damn crock pot. So angrily we went to go get the other one on the shelf and took it to customer service and told them here so you don't have this problem again!! And that wasn't the worst of it....

We walked out side of Walmart and it was sunny for about a minute, and then we felt rain drops. We headed to the bus stop, which is the only bus stop here that we've had to take that doesn't have a bench or a cover on it. Then it starts raining like there is a freakin' storm, hard rain, wind getting all of our clothes wet, and all of our stuff. I had my small umbrella, but it didn't do too much against the wind so we were soaked. We waited for out B7 bus to come for 2 hours!!! and it never came!

Finally we were just so desperate that we called the taxi company to send us a taxi, but they told us that they have units always available in front of walmart so it would be easier to go look for one, instead of having them send us one. So we walked all the way back to in front of walmart, in soaking shorts, tanktop, and flip flops that were slipping everywhere. And where we got to the front of the store, we didn't see any taxis. So we waited about five minutes later Brittany spotted one, and we asked him if he'd take us to Rio Piedras, and we got in.

This was definitely an interesting cab ride...two american girls soaking wet, in a cab with with a creepy man in his 30s/40s. Atleast when he noticed us shivering he turned down the AC, but he was definitely flirting. Asking where we were from, since i was the one who spoke spanish he was asking more questions. When I told him I was salvadorean, he was like, "oh are salvadorean women, good" and I was just like "Good in what way?" and he said "For everything" and I simply replied "Of course" He proceeded asking us how long we have been in PR and how long we were staying. Then busts out with "Are all salvadorean women chubby and cute like you?" I just laughed and said, "oh there are all kinds of us" and what definitely made me crack up when he asked me, whats your sign? Oh I'm capricorn. Friggen halrious! While sitting in traffic he gave us his card, so that in any case we needed he'd be available. Very interesting taxi ride...enough said.

Kind of out of order, but when we came home from the beach on Friday, i had a sore throat, and i thought it may have been because I had swallowed some salt water or something, but when i woke up on Sat before we went to walmart, it was hurting way worse, so I was really hoping that I wasn't getting sick, but after all of the wind and rain, I definitely have a cold. So for now its dayquil and water for me. I know my updates are kind of long, but congratuations to those who have made it all the way through! Please feel free to leave the love!!! Miss everyone!

~Cat