Climb Every Mountain

Since New York, I've been entrenched in life once again, but have managed to have a little fun.

The Tony-Award winning musical In the Heights was here in April, and I really wanted to go. So I bought myself a ticket and took myself on a date. I got my ticket the day of the show, but it was still a great seat. It was, technically, and "obstructed view" but I could see everything fine. I think there was, like, a mic pole or something in my way. But the show itself was so great--I've had the soundtrack for a couple of years and I've listened to it some. There are a few songs I dig on, but it wasn't, like, life-changing for me, like Wicked. It seemed kind of cheesy--and not in that "all musicals are kind of cheesy" way but in a like, "Really? REALLY?!" sort of way. But it wasn't when I saw the whole thing. I just made me proud to be the daughter of an immigrant (well, half of me, anyway) and it made me miss my abuela.

Soon after the end of the semester at FIU approached, and I, luckily, had no actual final exams. I had one take home exam and a presentation, both of which, I think, went okay. I ended up with a B and a B+... I'm not thrilled about it, but I did what I could, I guess.

At the end of the semester, my professor had a little gathering at her house. It was a potluck, and it was fun to hang out with everyone outside of class. There was even a white elephant-style gift exchange, through which I got a game called Quiddler, a fun word game. And at 1 a.m. we ended up in the pool. It was pretty funny, and a great way to end my first year as a grad student.

I took my lack of exams as a sign that God Himself wanted me to get away and have an actual vacation, so I did. The Aussie, Tanya and I went to Curacao for a few days. All I wanted was a beach and a hammock and a beer, and I got all of that, although not at the same time.

Curacao is this little island off the coast of Venezuala, but is not Venezualan. It's part of the Netherlands Antilles, and it's linguistically fascinating because most people speak at least four languages if not more. I was having a ball! But that's nerdy news for another day.

We stayed at this little resorty place that was really lovely and had its own private beach, which we utilized on our last day there after exhausting all other beach options. Here I am at the resort...

Our itinerary was basically laying on a beach, snorkeling, eating, watching the sunset, and climbing a mountain, all of which were quite successful. Here we are the night I arrived, before we went to have a drink and watch the sunset. :)

That night we ate Indian food and everyone's was, like, one notch too spicy. Oops. But it was still delicious. Actually, we ate quite well in Curacao. I had THE BEST escargot I've ever eaten one night, when we went to the number one rated restaurant on the island. We were only the second party in the place, and the staff took really good care of us. We even got some freebies. Key. Another night, we ate at this tiny little place with an awesome vibe and I tried ox tail, which was different than I had anticipated. It wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing either... I did like it, though. The best part about that meal, though, was this...

I got my hammock! WOOTY WOO!

The downtown area of Curacao has a couple of distinctive features. There are the brightly colored buildings, which are apparently, like, Dutch architecture or something, this bridge that moves like a horizontal draw bridge, and this floating market, where people from Venezuela come over for the day with produce or what have you, and sell it. It looks pretty awesome... check it.


Let me discuss momentarily the mountain climibing situation and my lack of photos of said situation. My camera decided to be awesome and begin dying on this trip, so it was spotty which pictures I got and which I didn't. The mountain day, it decided not to work so I have no photos of the actual climb or at the summit. Let me say, though, that this was a LEGIT climb, not some hike uphill. Towards the top, we literally had to climb up rocks, hanging on to vines, trees, other rocks, whatever was there. It was kinda my favorite part. Climbing the whole thing was touch though, I can't lie. I struggled, but I made it! And it was so worth it at the top!

Poor Bree, though, decided to squeeze a cactus on the way down, and had spines in her hand for the rest of the trip and even after. Fail. But she still managed to use her magic brain GPS and get us all around the island, driving with an injured hand. Because she is amazing. Later that day we went to another national park and saw these natural water+rock formations, one of which was called La Pistola because it shot water up in the air like a pistol. Pretty cool! Again, no picks because of my stupid camera.

One day we took a trip to Klien Curacao, this even smaller island off the south bit of the larger island. It was so beautiful and the water was so blue, and there was even a shipwreck and lighthouse you could go explore if you wanted to. And we did. I wish I had pictures of it all, but again, my camera was experiencing its final, painful days of life.

Although Klien Curacao was lovely, it pales in comparison to the amazing sunset we saw on my second day. We went up north to Playa Kalki, and sat on the beach nearly all day. Then we went up to the restaurant at the resort there, and got THE outside table with a view. And we saw this...
It was out of control beautiful... This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice. It was really just perfect, and relaxing and wonderful, all of which I needed.

In other news, at work we put together a team for this year's Corporate Run, a yearly race in Miami. I didn't run, I walked, but here's just a little taste of how popular this run is...

There are people as far as you can see. And more in front of me. It was out of control. I wasn't in it to really compete, but I'm glad I did it. Our team did well, from what I understand, so that's cool too. All in all, it was really just a fun, bonding, healthy thing to do with colleagues and friends.

I also went to prom for the first time while working at ILS, but for some reason have no pictures of it; I think I just didn't bother taking my camera out. So I'll have to obtain some and then post them here. It was fun and lovely--the kids looked great and it was nice to see them dressed up and dancing and acting like kids for even a couple of hours. It was also fun for me to dress up and play pretty for an evening.

This post is so long overdue... I really just struggle with time to update, and waiting for pictures from other people and being lazy... Blah. I need to get it together!

Much love.