Bienvenidos a Puerto Rico

**Due to lack of internet I'm a little behind in blogging. But I got internet today! This post was technically written on July 31st, which was my first full day in Puerto Rico.**

Despite being briefly incommunicado, I am alive and safe and sound in Guayama, Puerto Rico.  Upon arrival in San Juan, I realized my phone would not make or receive calls or texts (local or otherwise) and as soon as I left the capital city, I apparently also left the shred of internet access my phone had been providing me.  But more on that later.

My parents and I left our house at 2:30am Tuesday morning to drive to the Minneapolis airport after I had packed everything that very night and slept for about 3.5 hours. Therefore I dubbed my first flight, from Minneapolis to Miami, “nap time”, and, despite my fellow passengers consisting of a group of 51 high school students on their way to Nicaragua, I slept the entire way.  On the flight from Miami to San Juan, I caught my first travel-channel glimpse of a tropical island with blue water bright enough to make you squint. This island, however, was not Puerto Rico.

I didn’t see Puerto Rico until 20 minutes before we landed. When the pilot announced we’d be landing in 30 minutes, I shoved my face into the window and waited. And glanced over at my seat buddy who did not appear to be excited at all. And touched my hand to the glass. And there it was. It wasn’t bright like the other tropical island. In fact, what struck me first was actually how many buildings there were. Then how many trees. Then how many green patches. Then the accentuated shape of the coastline which was curvy and jagged at the same time, winding in a way that had no rhyme or reason. Each time I looked out the window, I’d catch a glimpse of one of these things and then a series of clouds would cover the entire window. When the clouds parted, I’d catch another piece of the island. The clouds disjointed my view four times, each time pulling back the veil for only a few seconds and then saying, “Ah, but I have something else up my sleeve!”  This was my first impression of Puerto Rico and, thus far, it seems to be pretty accurate.

I made it to baggage claim and both of my suitcases came through. Yes! My next instructions, according to a pamphlet from the school, were to find the street exit, walk across the street, find a covered awning where cars could wait, and look for someone with a sign that says “Guamani School.” No problem, right? I walked out the ground transportation exit, saw only taxis, no awning, no signs, and after a few minutes, assumed I was in the wrong place. So I corralled both suitcases and followed a few people up a cement ramp, which also led to a street. No awning. No parked cars. No signs. I figured I’d try my luck back at the first exit, except I had to take a bizarre route down a ramp and a staircase (I’m sure anyone watching this moment had a good laugh watching a 5’ 3” girl with two suitcases and two carry-ons half stomp half catapult down the stairs).

Regular cars were now waiting to pick people up, but still no sign. After 20 minutes I tried to call Mr. Delgado, who was coming to pick me up. Instead of the phone ringing, however, a very uppity male recording told me, “Your account is not authorized to call this number.” Um, what? I waited another 10 minutes and then typed an e-mail from my phone, stating I was at the airport and was I in the correct spot. At this point, it had been over 30 minutes since I’d left the plane and my only company was a little old lady who also appeared to be waiting for a ride that had mysteriously not shown up.  I was formulating a plan to get to Guayama without the use of a phone, even though I didn’t know where in Guayama, when a car drove up and asked, “Miss Kramer?” Phew.

Mr. Delgado and I figured out that my phone did, in fact, not work because he had been sending me text messages asking where I was but they were never delivered.  He’d waited at a sports bar until he figured he should come look for me anyway. Mr. Delgado announced we’d be picking up a returning teacher in about two hours, so he gave me a tour of Old San Juan. It was quite interesting to see all of the old pink, orange, yellow, and green houses squatting amongst ritzy department stores. Several of the roads were still cobblestone, and none of the roads appeared to make any sense. They were very narrow and windy and I suspect they secretly formed a labyrinth of unmarked one-ways or that Puerto Rican cars are like the bus in Harry Potter that magically squishes into a several-inch span in order to pass. At one point, there were cars parked on both sides and a police officer had stopped next to one of them and waved us through anyway.  (We made it! Somehow!)

We passed several cruise ships and eventually made our way to a restaurant to kill some time. Mr. Delgado asked me not to get seafood because Guayama has better seafood than San Juan and he didn’t want my first impression of Puerto Rican food to be terrible. I went the traditional route and picked mofongo which is made from plantains which are mashed in a mortar bowl, the indent is then filled with meat, seafood, etc. , it’s flipped over, and then fried with olive oil. Not spicy at all, so fear not, Dad.

After picking up the returning teacher from the airport, we meandered back to Guayama, which was about an hour and a half long drive. On the drive, Mr. Delgado said he had a bad feeling about a hurricane this year because there’s a Puerto Rican saying that if an avocado falls from the tree before it’s ripe, there will likely be a hurricane. He said one of his non-ripe avocados fell off of his tree today and since there hasn’t been a hurricane here in about ten years, he’s getting suspicious.

Back in Guayama I got the keys to my apartment and then it was time to unpack. I am living in the Green House (it is labeled thusly out front and, I learned today, members of the community know the address if you just say “the Green House”). It consists of three apartments. Mine, which is painted the same “sunrise green” as the house, has three bedrooms  (ahem, visitors….). The floors are all tiled, there are sun decorations everywhere, and vibrant red, green, yellow, and blue furniture in the living room.  Overall, a very cute (and big!) apartment. The other two apartments are inhabited by  returning teachers who are going into their third year at the school.