Mi nuevo capitulo

Hey everyone,

I decided to give it a fresh start in the hopes I'd update my blog more, with a clean slate. So check out Mi nuevo capitulo at

gringa-latina.blogspot.com

Catch ya on the flip side :)

~Cat

Back from Hibernation :)

Hey All!

So I know I haven't given a real update for such a long time. I guess the roller coaster of life didn't really let me do so.

So guess what? I'm back from Puerto Rico!

lol Which I'm sure all of you already know :P and it is SO GOOD to be home :) I mean really don't get me wrong. I really did have a good time in PR, but I guess that experience really made me realize how much I really do like the life that I have. It made me realize that I really need my family more than I realized. I mean I always knew that they meant a lot to me and I didn't anticipate the impact that it made on me not having the option to see them. I mean, even when I moved out of my house, I am still only 70 miles away, and even though its a good drive, if i need or wanted to see them I totally could. Not having that option really affected me, even to the point of bawling like a 7 year old while watching Mamma Mia, because of how close the girl is with her mom while planning her wedding. So the wails of tears came from missing my mommy dearly and being single and never knowing if I will ever have moments like that with my mom lol. Anyway I digress... It was more than just being separated from my family, but actually not being there for some key moments on the west side.

For Instance... my lovely and wonderful niece Cinthia Diana Novoa-Smith was born in September, so for the first two and a half months of her life I only knew her from Skype and Myspace.
She's the first niece I have! And so beautiful!

I guess it's sort of pointless to dwell on why I'm glad I'm home, I guess sometimes I feel guilty for not really missing being there. Don't get me wrong, I really do miss all of the wonderful people that I met along the way in that adventure of my life, but really there's no place like home, and California is my home.

I think thats enough of an update from me right now, its getting late such, but I promise to be back more frequently. Please feel free to leave thoughts and comments. Much love!

~Cat

I'm back!

I know I know, there hasn't been an update on me in FOR-EVER but I'll get on it soon. I promise. Love y'all :)

~Cat

Hell Week- CONQUERED!

Woo hoo!



My hell week: an exam in Latin American literature, an oral presentation in group for sociology, and an exam in Spanish grammar....defeated!!



The beginning of last week was really rocky. For my literature exam I was especially freaking out because honestly I'd only read about a quarter of the material that was assigned...my excuse, and yes I know it is an excuse, is that all of it was SOO boring. The first book that we had to read was Christopher Columbus' diary, in which the first 40 pages were merely "today we headed west, we went about 25 leagues, but we only wrote down 22, later in the day there was calm so we didn't get that far" and repeated for almost every entry!! Torture to get through, and all of the following readings were still about La Conquista, letters by Hernan Cortes, Fray Bartolome de las Casas...all of it so similar, that it was so hard to get through, that honestly I didn't read it.

Our professor told us that our test was going to be very specific, the first part identification, she's going to pull out a quote, and we have to identify the text, the author, and write a small paragraph of the significance of the quote to the story!!! and the second part an essay with textual evidence backing up our claims. So the night before the exam realizing how much I needed to catch up on I was almost in tears, realizing that i messed up because for this class its only a midterm and an exam and a paper, and I was positive that I was going to fail. Test day came I felt a little better after studying and making flash cards with all of the readings, authors and summaries that i could come up with from memory, and what I got from the class discussions. I recieved the test and felt better because I knew more than I thought I knew...ha ha. So I recieve my grade for my test next class...whenever that is...So i'll let you all know how it went in the next blog.



Next on Wednesday was my presentation in Sociology about Delincuency and Poverty. This presentation was in a group, we've had it since the beginning of the semester. There are three of us, we divided the work that I was going to talk about Latin America, another girl about PR, and another girl on the global level. We pretty much worked on our parts independently, until the day we were supposed to email the presentation to the professor. We set up to meet at Borders Sunday at 9 am. So I had to be out the door at 7:30 to make it on time, because I didnt want to be late, and you never know the bus situation, especially on the weekend. Well I get off the bus exactly at 9, walk around to find Borders, I get there, and no one is there, AND Borders doesn't even open until 10. So I'm not freaking out yet, I got get some breakfast at a sandwich shop thats close by, and when I come back to Borders I text my group mates if they're still coming, and they reply yes. Around 10:15 I get a phone call from one of the girls saying they're going to meet at a Borders in a different Plaza. When I told her I was already here and it would take me like 3 hours to get over there, she was confused as to why I was there already. I kindly reminded her that we had said we were going to meet at 9 AM! So then she told me that the other girl said she couldn't get out of church in time, so that they set up to meet at 11AM instead, the catch is NEITHER CALLED ME!!! At that point I was heated, cause it was so early I didn't have someone to call to vent. So they rushed over to where I was, and we put the pieces of the presentation together. We were running against the clock because apparently because of some accident, all Borders have taken out all outlets in their stores, so we had the battery on our computers, and that was it, but luckily it was enough, and we finished just as the computers shut down on us. ha ha
Presentation day was pretty nerve wracking, especially with one of my groupmates stressing that she HAD to look over my part to correct my grammar. In the end, we rocked the presentation, the professor said we did a good job. Yes, I stumbled on some words because I was nervous but it wasn't crippling, and I'm actually pretty proud of myself for accomplishing it.

Thursday's exam, I thought was a piece of cake. Especially after studying the night before with my fellow exchange buddies, playing jeopardy with the flash cards that I made.

I can't be sure... but I'm think this is going to be a good semester GPA wise. On my first exam for Sociology I got a 99, I got an 85 on my first exam in my Spanish Writing class, where there was no A's on the exam, and I got totally embarrassed when my professor called me out for going above and beyond because I'm American and actually did well on the exam (ha ha). Once I get these results back then I'll have a better idea for sure, but its exciting :)

That is if we can get the grades...theres a lot of revolutionary stuff going on around here, that I'll get into more in another blog. But for now I shall bid farewell, and get ready for my roadtrip to Mayaguez and Ponce during the week off that we have due to striking issues. Until next time!!!

~Cat

So Its Setting In...

....the homesick~ness....

Definitely setting in. I've been here a month and a half now, and man it feels like time has flown by, but on the other hand it feels like forever since I've seen my family and those that I care about. I guess its just little things that are making me miss home.

Its kind of funny, the first thing that really made say, "Man I wish I was in Cali." At most of the bars here there are jukeboxes that people play music on and one night we were walking down the street, and I heard some banda music (you know with the big hats and the tuba in the background). The truth is I'm not really a fan of banda music, but whenever I'm in LA, partying with my girls, at the end of the night there is always a banda song playing. So I rushed my friends inside that bar and danced the minute that was left of the song, and then left the bar :P And along the same lines, whenever I'm dancing/clubbing I keep expecting to here "Oye Mi Amor" at some point in the night, but it never comes, just another thing that makes me miss Cali.

But not only music makes me miss home. I'm still on all the mailing lists for back home, so I read about the first meetings for all my clubs, the first social, community service, fundraisers, parties, Endependence Day, etc...and it really makes me sad that I'm not there, and I know I have absolutely no ground to complain or be sad, but there is a part inside of me that wants to be sharing those memories with my loved ones. My first niece is due to be born in a few weeks and I'm going to have to meet her when she's already three months old. My sister is in her senior year, and I'm not going to be there for her last powder puff/homecoming game. I guess I'm just going to have to take advantage of facebook and myspace, and live vicariously through the pictures that I see there.

Onto a lighter subject....

So last weekend part of the American Army (the 10-15 of us American exchange students who are pretty much always together) went to Culebra (another island off of Puerto Rico). We camped there and stayed from Friday to Sunday. The original plan was to leave at 5 am to Fajardo on the other side of the island to catch the ferry that takes us there. I ended up oversleeping my alarm which was set at 3:40, i roll over and its 4:20 already, so i run to the shower, and hurry cause I hate making people wait. I'm almost ready and its 4:55 so i'm freaking out, and run downstairs make it right at 5, and of course I'm the first one there. Morgan comes shortly after, and then we start texting the rest of the pack, who ended up over sleeping in an attempt to stay up all night and just leave with us. We called a taxi and headed out. When we got to Fajardo, we waited in line to get our ferry tickets, because the window wasn't even open yet to start selling. Then after a long FREEZING ferry ride we finally make it to the island and take a little bus to Flamenco beach (which is rated as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world according to the travel channel and I totally agree). We swam in the most clear water, got crispy from the sun, got bitten by mosquitos ants and such, and sat under the most beautiful blanket of stars (I felt like I was at Griffith Observatory, under all of those stars), played 'Hot Seat' and got to know eachother on a more intimate level, and laughed the night away, it was a pretty amazing weekend.

Even with the homesick~ness, all of the adventures I have here are great. Culebra, walking around old San Juan and getting tricked into buying a $10 bracelet because it matches what i'm wearing (okay okay not tricked), walking El Morro, taking a million pictures, wondering if we have school the next day due to a strike, meeting new people who think i'm boricua, searching for prince charming, taking $1 tequila shots, dancing salsa, kickin' it in PB2, or being a shopaholic, its definitley a semester to remember.

Well friends, I must leave now, I think i did better this time with the update and its not like a chapter book. But if you've made it this far again I thank you for caring enough to read my little updates. Please feel free to comment, I love reading your thoughts! Take care

Until next time....

~Cat

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

Addendum-

After all the commotion from Thursday when we were sitting upstairs watching the outside from the window. This girl Jasmine from our building who is a native here, was asking me and Brittany very preoccupied if what happened changed our view of the island.

It really got me thinking, if I was going to let this one crazy night cloud my entire experience of the island. And after much thought, I decided that I wasn't going to let myself have a bad time here after what happened.

This is still a beautiful island, with a ton of friendly people who talk super fast lol. I've still had a great time on the beach, dancing it up, and having a few malibu & pineapples :)

What happened Thursday could just as easily have happened in LA, so for now I'm going to enjoy my four months! :)

~Cat