Friday, June 17th, 2022
Hola compadres,
Our day was long but our time to write is short. It's 10:45 PM in San Juan, and your loyal scribes Nicolás and Nathaniel are frantically typing away to bring you a full picture of the day while also getting more than 5 hours of sleep.
We had a late start today, meeting in the hotel lobby at 7:15 AM instead of the usual 6:30. Our first activity was a political simulation in which we portioned a hypothetical $100 million donation to Puerto Rico to the causes we believed to be most important. After an hour of presentations and friendly competition, we decided upon allocating 60% to education, with the other 40% going towards women's rights and health.
Our fearless tour leader Ben rallied us to the next "traveler" destination, the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. After sacrificing our retinas to the sun to bless our parents with an image (see below) of equal beauty and elegance to the pinturas inside, we ventured into the exhibit and relished in the genius of Puerto Rican art.
After nearly a four day delay, we were at last allowed a hallowed trip to the beach, where we enjoyed a windy and overcast 2 hours. Despite the chilly weather, our nonstop games of Three Flags Up and Ultimate Frisbee left us in desperate need of a shower.
After cleansing our bodies, we joined hands together to consume our final dinner of the trip, which consisted mainly in the authentic Puerto Rican dishes of hamburgers and pork chops. After a two-hour intermission between ordering food and receiving it, a revolution was brewing amongst the students, but we were placated by the playing of "Despacito" and other Latin hits on the upstairs dance floor area. A near 45 minutes of "getting down" to some puertorriqueño music left us sweaty and tired, much as the oppressive humidity of the island had on days before. While the other students went up to relax in their beds, your two faithful writers willingly stayed to record today's conquests.
The trip is coming to a close as we take our focus off of the beautiful Atlantic Ocean and put it towards packing our bags for the flight back to Los Angeles. As we have the honor of writing the last blog of our journey, we wish to give you our sincere thanks for following along with this life-change experience. We will see some of you tomorrow at 11 PM when our plane hits the tarmac at LAX. Thank you so much for making this visit possible!
Signing out,
Nathaniel Marko and Nicolas Cardenas
First, Nic and Nat (aka Nicolas and Nathaniel), thank you for choosing to pen a wonderful summary of your last day...and what a day it was. With this group's intellectual prowess, I am sure the discussions around the allocation of $100 million in aid were riveting and compelling. After that intellectual exercise, I am glad you were able give your minds a reprieve as you rested in the magnificence of Puerto Rican art at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. By the way, that photo of the group, in the midst of the bright sun, is awesome...and we hope your retinas have since recovered. Sounds like a playful day at the beach...and that you built up quite an appetite after so many active games. Thanks for your patience as you awaited the arrival of your burgers and chops. We know you head to the airport within the next two hours- best to you in saying goodbye to your friends from Hotchkiss, expressing gratitude to your leaders via Envoys, and reflect on special times with your peers and chaperones from Poly. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteDear scribes: I'm sure I speak for all the parental units when I say we greatly appreciated all the updates, photos, and details of your days this past week. What an amazing journey you have had, from exposure to new foods and culture to the opportunity to see firsthand how people are making effective changes in their communities. Big thanks to the chaperones for accompanying you and to everyone who was a part of putting this trip together. We can't wait to hear more when you get home... but we do promise to let you get some sleep first. Safe travels!
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