Amy flew back to Puerto Rico on August 2.
(Her August 1 flight was canceled.)

email from Amy:
August 24, 2001
The water is out in Monteverde... again.  I had to take a shower with 2 liters of water.
It's like living on Little House on the Prarie.  I had to heat up my bath water over the
fire (stove) and get water from the well (pool) to flush the toilet.  Unfortunately Luma
and I moved up a floor, so we have to carry the buckets of water up two  flights of stairs!
It really sucks.  Hopefully it will be turned on when we get home.
Luma and I both enjoy our classes this year.  I only have 18 kids!  They're really excited
about learning about the Oregon Trail. They're already "married" and call each other
husband and wife.  All the girls want to know if they can be pregnant on the trail... I
wonder what kind of problems that is going to cause at home!  "Mom... I'm pregnant
with Rafael's baby!!"

We are adjusting to a new principal this year who has very different teaching strategies
than us... but I've only gotten in trouble about 3 times.  Not bad!!  We are also getting
to know all of the new American and Puerto Rican teachers.    Everyone is really nice.

We have not done anything wild or exciting lately.  Hopefully that will change this weekend!
 We have plans to go to San Juan and to the Sal Sol festival in Coamo.

Our internet connection is really bad at school and the keyboard sucks, so I'm not
emailing too much.  Luma and I are waiting to get internet on our computer in our apartment.

That's all for now!!
AMY
 
 

Letter from Amy:
     So far it's been an interesting year. Luma and I moved up to
Carolyn and Kristie's old apartment. Besides the incredible infestation
of ants (they're even in the shower!) we love it :) So far we have had
no flying cochroach or large beetle issues -- so we're pretty thankful
about that. Carrie has also had a problem with ants... in her clothes
drawers!! But I think she's Raided everything in her bedroom
enough now that they'll never come back. We are learning to adjust
to life without Joanie, Carolyn, the Gillettes, and the Paulsons...
but we miss them!

The view from our new balcany

Carrie and Chris - her new roomate
     School is okay. We all enjoy our classes. Even if "some" of us
are having trouble with the administration... There are about
1,000 new rules this year (I've broken about 997) -- but our
time out of school is still fun!

     The new "thing" this year with my students is that they
rip out their loose teeth and bleed all over themselves. I think
I have 3 students with permanent blood stains on their shirts.
Unfortunately the Pokemon craze is still going strong and
Chinese Jump Rope is back!!

     Sometime in August Carrie, Luma, and I met Sonia
(a new friend) at the festival in Cayey.

Groupo Mania

The festivals here are sort of like State Fairs
We also went to the Sal Soul Festival in Coamo
with Byron and some of his new Harvard friends:

Huey Dunbar sang

David and Marsel had their baby: Ariana

Here they are visiting us

     We got a great deal at the Conquistador -- the best hotel
in Puerto Rico -- so we stayed there 2 nights. It was a
relaxing vacation -- and a little crazy... We met 4 girls
named Jenny; one of which was married to this crazy guy
named Doug. They work for a promoter at one of the
stadiums in San Juan --- and they hired us to sell
merchandise at the J-Lo concert!!

The road the the hotel

Do we have a great life or what?

Me and Luma in the hot tub
The Conquistador has a private island called Palomino.

Here are Luma and Carrie on their way to the island

Hanging out on Palomino (Carrie)

When we worked the J-Lo concert we stayed
at the Caribe Hilton -- another great hotel:

The Caribe Hilton

A view from the pool area

Carrie and me in the pool (behind the waterfall)

     Luma, Kristie, Sammy, and I went to another concert:
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. Apparently the new style among
the "younger generation" in San Juan is to wear winter hats
in 100 degree heat. We were hot just looking at them!
Everyone there was 18 and there were all kinds of crazy
crowd surfing and slam dancing going on -- so Luma and
I left early. We found a bar called Pepins that was 25 or
older -- and we weren't carded. It was very depressing.
It was also depressing to realize that people our age are old.

It has been so hot lately that one of our candles melted.

We are currently saving up money so we can vacation at more
fabulous hotels.
---AMY
 

NEXT:  October 2001