I don’t know about you, but in my elementary school if you brought cold lunch (lunch from home) you were considered a total dork. However if you did bring cold lunch you were considered cool if, and only if, you brought Lunchables or a Capri-Sun. All of the “hot lunchers” (kids who ate lunch at school) would make fun of the “cold lunchers” but worship the kids with Capri-Suns and Lunchables.

Well recently I discovered there is a drink here in Puerto Rico (only) called Gasolina. Running at right around 8 bucks, It comes in a box full of 10 pouches.  It looks just like the Capri-Sun, comes in a 6.75oz silver pouch and has a straw. . There are 3 different types of cocktails, one is a mohito (9%alcohol), one is a margarita (11%alcohol), and one is a pink martini (9%).  They are pretty dang good too, if I do say so myself.

Yes! A pouch drink for adults and finally I can pull out my teenage mutant ninja turtles lunch box. Throw in a Gasolina and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I am ready for a day in the office. Sure makes you look forward to lunch again.

I have seen on many occasions (twice today) people blatently throwing their trash on the ground, when a trash can is within the 15 feet of them.. I was in back of these two kids with their mother. The kid finishes his M &M’s and throws the wrapper on the ground, turns around and looks at me then proceeds to walk away. I don’t get people I mean yeah he is just a kid but his mom watched him do it. I guess she was more concerned with keeping the Pueblo grocery stores shopping bag on her hair to keep the rain off.

Yeah, this island is small, only 30 by 100 miles. I would think people would know the consequences by now. As of 2007 there were right around 4,000,000 people living here and one of two people own cars

When we first moved here we stayed in Humacoa for about a week. The beach was just lined with a fresh coat of used diapers, old toys and shoes.

Last time we went to Old San Juan we went to some nature conservation place and watched a video in english about how we should be taking care of our island. I am just guessing, but don’t you think it would be better to show this video to the people who actually live here. In Spanish?

I gotta say after living in Denver and going hiking around the Boulder area I came to think that by Colorado’s standards, Utah’s forests are not very well taken care of. But compared to Puerto Rico’s standards Utah is as sterile as an operating room.

Dear Puerto Rico,

Trash goes in  the trash can, duh.

Every day I look up from the beach and see the passenger airplanes taking off from Luis Munoz Marin International Airport noting that my departure from this island is eminent. In all of the time I have been here doing nothing, I have actually gotten a lot done.

With most of my family being the main readers of this you will be happy to find that it has been two months since my last cigarette. I still don’t feel like I quit it, I guess I have seen so many people put down cigarettes for months even years only to pick it back up again and smoke like the freight train had never even stopped at that lonely train station in Ely, Nevada. I have learned how to save money and make 3000 dollars last for 6 months while still living it up,  occasionally going to really nice restaurants and drinking every day. I found that cheap rum will last you longer in drunkeness factor than a 12er of the cheapest beer out here.

6 beers = 1/4th bottle of Palo Viejo Puerto Rican Rum
6 beers = about 5$
1/4th bottle of Palo Viejo Puerto Rican Rum = about 2$

I never thought I could drink more than when I was living in Denver but I guess that is what happens when you don’t have a job and the highlight of the day is going surfing, coming home to watching season 3 of Lost and getting drunk

One of the reasons I wanted to move here in the first place was to learn how to surf. We went to the surf shop and I thought the surf boards were a little out of my price range and figured I would try bodyboarding instead. After snapping my first bodyboard (dropping in on 15 foot waves on a 60 dollar bodyboard won’t last very long), I decided to spend substantially more money on the next one. Bought fins and a rash guard and nice surf shorts. All said and done I probably spent more money on bodyboarding than I would have on a surf board. But the more I look back on it the more I am glad I got into bodyboarding. Since bodyboarding is so much more radical and more technical than surf boarding.

In my days the fearless leader on our war against cockroaches and ants, I have found that our number one weapon is Combat roach and ant killer (never skimp on the no name bug killer, they don’t work). Mosquitos have been a huge problem for the past couple months, and since we have no screens on our windows they seem to enter our house as they  please and suck our blood. I guess you just get used to constantly having mosquito itches all over. I may have west nile virus when I get home.

After being washed in the local language of Spanish, I still don’t speak it very well. I do believe that I have learned how to get by by knowing as few key word as possible. While most people here do speak English as a second language many however do not. And I became very good (if I do say so myself) at saying stuff like “no habla espanol” or “habla espanol un poco”.

I have gotten down and dirty with my artistic side thanks to my lovely girlfriend who has been pushing me in the right direction by giving me one of her drawing pads and one of her nice drawing pencils. I have been doing this whole cut and paste thing with these cans as noted in a previous post. For some reason it reminds me of sewing back at home and I will be glad to get back to my sewing machine.

(one of my more recent can wraps)

I think my style has changed immensely in the six months that I have been here. I have welcomed the whole Cuban look with open arms. While sort of keeping to my old look and adhering to modern fashion. Yeah, it does sound sort of faggy, but the more I see what the older generation is wearing (fedora’s and 50’s garb), the more I realize that that is something amazing.

We went to Salvation Army (we like to call it Sally’s for short, thanks ma) today just outside of old San Juan to check out the latest shipment of class of 2008 shirts, new made in china domino sets and an exceptionally large array of jackets. I bought a couple books to read for the ride home. That is one more thing I have learned after moving here and probably the most important. While living in Utah I had always meant to read more but always found something else I would rather be doing. I think that most people would think I was retarded for not reading (mostly myself and I was beginning to notice it in my lack of english vocabulary). Maybe I will get a goodreads account now. Nah.

I will be back home on June third see you then…

I have not been surfing in a couple days due to all of the thunderstorm and rain we have been getting lately. On top of that, the weather out on the atlantic ocean has not been cooperating enough to make some decent waves here. I have been sitting around the house more than usual and after reading that article about drop shopping, started decorating old cans (relabeling them so to say).

This time I decided to relabel a can of beans that we had not used yet. Pulled the label off and cut out the upc. The background of the piece I did was from Lord of the Flies. It ended up fitting on the can perfectly and I only had to extend the page down a bit so it would stretch all the way around the can. I then glued the upc back on (so you could buy it at the grocery store).

After I was all finished with it I walked down to Pueblo (the local grocery store) and put it back on the shelf. I was all nervous that I was going to get caught or something. But what for? Its not like I stole anything and Pueblo is actually making out like a bandit since the item could get bought twice. After all, it is more likely to just get thrown away. I think a grocery store that is next some artsy college would make for a better place to do this. But not too close, since anyone with any real knowledge for art would most likely call me a scrapbooker for food cans.

Whatever, it made for a good picture.

P.s. Sorry for the lack of posts. The last couple weeks have been a blur of cheap rum, ramen, and lame crime novels.

UPDATE! I went and stopped by Pueblo to see if my can was still on the shelf and sure enough, it is almost a week later!