The bad habits have begun. It is Saturday as I write this. I wasn’t depressed this week though, just busy. Here’s why:
Monday, July 2nd- Mall with Alison and Drinks with Shaun
I jam packed my last few days. I just worked at the grocery store and this blog most of my measly six weeks of summer “vacation”, so I wanted to have a little fun. I decided to organize something with work people today, but in the end I only got one person to confirm for Monday. To be fair, I didn’t ask many people. I felt a bit weird about inviting people to do who knows what. Seriously, I didn’t even know what we were doing until Sunday or so when the one person who did go, Alison, suggested we go to the mall.
I got lost. Seriously, I ended up a block away and accidentally went up an elevator in an office building before asking some guys in the parking garage for directions. We window shopped for a couple hours. Me dragging her to teen stores like Earthbound and Bath and Body Works and her dragging me to high end diamond stores. She really knows her stuff! One of the sales associates at Tiffany’s asked if she was a jeweler! After our mall fun, I had another appointment set with another co-worker to go out for drinks. Alison and I met Shaun at a sports bar and had a couple drinks before we called it a night.
Tuesday, July 3rd- Another Wasted Day
Today’s fun packed day consisted of wasting my day. I had planned to pack, but my mom was busy doing my brother’s dialysis so I ended up procrastinating. I watched a few episodes of my medical drama and not much else.
Wednesday, July 4th- Packing
Okay! Go time! I packed all of my belongings for the next year with my mom today. Well, more like she packed and I gathered. My mom has this amazing talent for packing. She can make almost anything fit anywhere. With that done, we got my favorite local Chinese food and ate one last meal together with my parents and brother. We were going to go to my cousin’s place for 4th of July but with all of the last minute packing and coordinating there wasn’t time. I said goodnight to my brother and we all went to bed around midnight. I tried to sleep, but couldn’t, so after an hour I decided to just keep watching my medical drama until 3:30am when we had to start getting ready to go to the airport.
Thursday, July 5th- Moving to Puero Rico!
Here we go! At around 4am I said goodbye to my mom and got in a car with my dad to go to the airport. He stayed with me even as I was going through security. He’s sweet. I’m glad he let me go on this trip by myself. It shows trust. But I won’t lie that going through security alone jostled me a little. It’d never done that before and the security guards are aggressive looking. I had all of my electonics for the next year with me, so the guards took their time looking at my carry ons with the scanner. Uhh… Nerve racking!
After this, it was pretty smooth sailing. I ended up in a window seat and, after the plane, with a very talkative taxi driver. I told him I am a nutrition intern and he began telling me the history of his diets. He claimed to be some sort of nutritionist. …That’s a joke, because nutritionist is a label with no legal backing. Dietitians are required to be licensed and have certain educational requirements while nutritionists can be any old shmoe. Before I get further on my soapbox, let me tell you more aout my trip.
I arrived at my airbnb but the owner was out, so I waited outside until she arrived. She was so concerned. She apologized for making me wait in the heat, but I wasn’t worried at all. In Puerto Rico it’s about 80 degrees Fahrenheit all year round. In Texas, where I just moved from it’s about 112 right now. I had just set down my suitcase when the owner ussered me out. She’d asked if I was hungry and proceeded to drop me off at a restaurant. A fancy restaurant. I was not ready. I dined alone, and it was awkward. It was about a thirty minute wait for my food and I was silent most of the time. I did try an authentic Sangria though. I hate the taste of wine, but that Sangria taste has been with me since childhood. It’s a drink that my Hispanic culture sometimes claims to cure ailments.
Friday, July 6th- Apartment Hunting!
We need a place to live, so me and the other three homeless interns visited a few places. At the last apartment of the day we met up with another intern in our program and spontaneously decided to go to the beach. It was a great surprise trip, but I was not dressed for the beach and could only stare longingly at the ocean.
Saturday, July 7th- Getting in the Ocean for the First Time!
This time we did it right! We slept in, then went to eat. We invited the intern we’d run into the previous day and went to the beach prepared this time. I’d never gotten in the ocean before, so I was smiling like an idiot even as I spat up salt water. I can’t believe I live on an island!
Sunday, July 8th- Errands to Run
The supermarket tour for my internship was at 7am, so the three interns I’m sharing a house with at the moment and I woke up around 6am. The tour was given by the interns from this year and lasted around 3 hours! Ow. My feet hurt from standing there and listening to stuff I already know. Oh well.
After this, we did a safety training and traveled to the hospital for a check up (also a requirement for the internship). However we weren’t able to get the check ups done because we were missing some paperwork, so we went to the mall instead. We bought shoes that we need for our clinical rotations later on and got some dinner. Now we are hanging out at our Airbnb waiting to the confirmation of our move in date from the realtor.
Notes:
1) Sorry for the brevity. I still don’t have an apartment here in Puerto Rico since my flight got in on Thursday. I’ve been staying at Airbnbs since I arrived and trying to figure out internship requirements as well. Currently, I’m at an Airbnb without internet so I did a good chunk of this blog on my phone. Hopefully we get to move into our apartment by Wednesday. Once I have internet and an apartment I’ll be able to work on this much better. I can’t wait!
My Dragonfly Life 