Note: Surfing is in fact rarely relaxing and frequently just the opposite experience.
So a bit of surf lingo to start off: a “quiver” is a surfer’s collection of boards and is perpetually lacking at least one board which would really make it well-rounded. Now that the terminology is out the way – I’ve spent my free time this week getting a nice surf rack setup for my quiver. After a bit of internet research, a few Home Depot runs, and a few hours of stressing out the cats with drilling, it was all done. See Jenn so elegantly presenting my work below.
Unfortunately we don’t have too much to discuss this week as we’re getting ready to make a trip back to Maryland and have run out of time to pursue other adventures. We were hoping to get a bit of ziplining done but that’ll have to wait until we return. We may go out to meet our Spanish teachers for some beers later today at La Placita, a food market by day and bar/hangout spot come evening. We’ll update accordingly if it is as interesting as it sounds.
It’s been about 2 months since I started my new position and I figured it’s about time I pull some weight and write something. (Note: The government frowns upon employees posting online so I won’t get into too many details.)
All and all things have been really good with my new position. My coworkers are all entertaining and more importantly, seem pretty competent. My boss is demanding but takes care of everyone on his team. Additionally, he has taken to mentoring me in a learning a variety of Spanish curse words. I’ll leave those for a separate post.
The work itself is interesting and will undoubtedly be challenging. The project our team is currently undertaking involves pulling down an eleven story tower down which sits directly on top of an active hospital; needless to say demolishing a building “quietly” is not an easy task. As a side note, I also need to figure out a way to get the tile mosaic off the side of the building (about 80 feet up) and put down in front of the main entrance without destroying it; feel free to contribute ideas.
It’s definitely a unique experience being the only gringo in the office (and throughout most of the hospital). So far I’ve said my share of idiotic things in Spanish but everyone seems to enjoy it and are quick to correct me. It also works both ways – I’ve become the non-official email spelling and grammar checker.
The guys also are excited to show me around the island and they’ve been a good resource for figuring out places to go explore. Unfortunately, in the last 2 weeks we haven’t had too much time to get out since we’ve been working on setting up our new apartment; another post on that coming soon too.
So things are pretty good and we’re starting to settle in to our new home. As a bonus, Jenn’s work has been happy with her teleworking… so good stuff all around. I’ll leave everyone with a picture of some of my work buddies that hang outside of my office.
Los Dulanys 