La isla del encanto

Once again, I've changed my natural habitat and once again I'm writing from my hotel room. This time it's a Holiday Inn and it's located in San Juan-Puerto Rico. More precisely, I'm at Isla Verde, which is a neighbourhood next to the old city center with a lot of hotels, appartments, bars and restaurants and -best of all- it has a beach!

So, where am I... La isla del encanto being it's unofficial name, Puerto Rico is officially called the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, making it United States' territory but they have their own government. I still don't completely get the situation but I've been told that "the territory belongs to the States but it isn't part of the States" And we thought Belgium was complicated,huh... For example, Puerto Riqueños can't participate in the American elections but they do get to vote in the pre-elections. Puerto Ricans are US citizens but Puerto Rico is not a state but -lucky them- they can join the US Army and they have been participating in all major US wars, including the middle eastern ones right now. I haven't talked to a lot of local people to know how they feel about the relationship with the States but I hope to do so in the next month.

In the Dominican Republic, most people told me San Juan would be similar to Santo Domingo. I have only been here a few days but they've been lying to me. Most striking is the difference in the traffic. Where are the old , nearly broken down cars, the guaguas, the constant honking, the fighting for lanes, the motorcycles without lights, the holes in the asphalt? Traffic here is soooo quiet and raods are very good... Cars are new, no buses seem to exist al all, people respect the traffic lights. People are being pulled over all the time for speeding even though to me nobody seems to speed.

Next are the fast food chains. I always thought there were a lot in Santo Domingo but here it's crazy.. Every street has a Mc Donalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Domino's, Pizza Hut and those are only the ones whose existence I knew about because the fastfood chain spectrum appears to be about 10 times wider as I thought it was.

Next, the beer served in the Dominican Republic is usually Presidente while over here it is...yes... Heineken. I'll try to re-educate the island but I'm afraid that I won't be able to erase years of Dutch beerbrainwashing (aka marketing).

What I've seen this weekend outside of San Juan is also different. Puerto Rico is very densily populated and there are good roads everywhere. Even in the villages the houses are nice and everything looks very clean.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look like the States, but you can definitely see the difference with the Republic. I'll try to upload some pictures this week.

If all goes well, I should move one of these days to one of the company's appartments where I will live with one of my colleagues. I say, if all goes well, since there has been some discussion on the fact if I should live with a male colleague... Something has been said on "mis morales" Yes, I can almost hear all your -what the fucks- all the way over here but after being a while in these projects, nothing surprises me anymore even though this is the first non-money related issue. Anyway, Puerto Rico shows to be US Commonwealth since human resources in the end proposed that both myself and my colleague would sign a paper stating that nobody forced us to live together. Will let you know what happens.

Saturday was my birthday. I was a bit sad that I couldn't celebrate it in Santo Domingo where I already had a social life but in the end I did have a great party though!! My fabulous and amazing friends threw me a party in Hasselt, and even constructed a surrogate ellen to join them! I got the pictures on the morning of my carribean birthday. I think I could be heard laughing throughout the hotel and they really cheered up my entire day! That also includes all the phone calls, emails and messages I got form everyone! It's nice to know I haven't been forgotten after 7 months of absence.

I don't have pictures of the actual party as there was no actual party but there was a beach, a restaurant, some rhum and some wine so it wasn't that bad either.