La primera semana

Week one of our Puerto Rico residency might be best classified as a modest success.* Pat spent all 5 work days in an employee orientation performed entirely in Spanish, of which he feels, in more optimistic moments, he understood 33% percent. Combined with his 100% understanding of governmental bureaucracy, it’s a solid start.

* This is one step above mild success and two steps ahead of what NASA once termed a “successful failure.”

Teleworking is going fine for me. More than fine, exceptional even, if you’re a big fan of cats sitting on your notebook, laptop, mouse, and keyboard. If so, I have a Ruffian you can borrow.

We’ve been lucky enough to hang on the beach for about an hour a couple days after work, but this weekend we were finally able to really leverage our location. On Saturday we rolled into the nearby Isla Verde district to scope out the real estate, enjoy the beach, and allow Pat to try a surf break on for size.

Then on Sunday, after knocking out some grocery shopping (avocado status: still ginormous), we got in some serious time at the beach right by our temporary apartment. In addition to sunning ourselves* we tried out the beachside bar, Numero Uno Beach House, whose menu includes such items as seared ahi tuna and watermelon margaritas with fresh watermelon juice. So you could say we like it there.

*Before you ask, the answer is yes. SPF 50, actually.