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…