9/16/2022
It’s finally time!
My name is Marla Jimenez Pagan, and I am a Biology B.S. major in my third year. I decided to travel to Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico for my education abroad this fall. I always dreamed about going to another place outside of my hometown to enrich myself in the culture and improving on my own Spanish skills!
This semester has riled me up full of nerves. New environment, new people, different customs, language, and a brand-new campus! It can be intimidating for many, but I have reminded myself to take it one step at a time. While I prepared for this trip, I packed all the comfy clothing I could find and even brought along some must-haves of mine, like my oversized plush toys and decorations so I could feel right at home in this new place.
My classes so far has consisted of Caribbean Literature, Speech, Neurobiology, and Physics. In Puerto Rico, school typically starts mid-August until early-December, so I am already a month into my classes so far, but I feel quite confident in my classes, as they are exciting and many professors are understanding and down to earth. My favorite class so far though, is definitely Caribbean Literature. It has helped me immensely in getting to know the world around me, especially from reading through its history and getting to learn many of the significant figures all around Puerto Rico. I also found that many professors and students alike, are willing to help in any way possible and even show you around San Juan, Puerto Rico! So it has never been a dull time.
Outside of classes, I spend my time on the weekends discovering new beaches and local restaurants to eat at and enjoy the views. For a tiny island there is a lot to see and learn. From going to Old San Juan to discover the colorful and rustic views of the city to going all the way to Aguadilla, where there is a charming and relaxed lifestyle right beside the beach. In any location though, you’ll see many locals even dancing the streets to salsa music at night, regardless of the day!
Beautiful theater for the arts school located in University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. I often spend my time sitting in the halls in between classes to catch a breeze, and sometimes get a treat of students singing and playing music in the building, which echoes through the halls!
During the weekend, I went to the beach located in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. It was a beautiful sight to see during the sunset, as you are able to climb right on top of the rocks, and see the open ocean and the small little beach side by side. There were even small little crabs and other wildlife living within the rocks!
As Puerto Rico is located in a tropical region, it is normal for it to rain daily. It can range between 5 minutes to over 8 hours on any given day! While I was at the beach in Vega Baja, no rain was predicted to drop. However as the weather can be quite unpredictable, it still rained. Thankfully it was over very quickly, and got to capture the beautiful sight of a double rainbow. Can you see the second one? Look closely! It also captures how beautiful the geography of the island is, could you imagine several pool-like beaches? So cool!
I hope to continue to take you on this amazing journey through the island, see you soon!
9/30/2022
Dos semanas despues….
The reality of my education abroad has finally set in. My travels to Puerto Rico so far has been great, but with the seasons changing and classes getting harder, the least I can say is that it has been different. Typically in Maryland, we are familiar with natural disasters and different seasons consisting of the wintery snow to the blazing heat waves. On the island however, the current season lies on hurricane season, rather than the upcoming fall season. On the 18th of September, hurricane Fiona brushed through the west coast of Puerto Rico. For many individuals living in the states, it is no big deal considering it is a category 1 hurricane. Unfortunately, this doesn’t remain true here. I learned how weak the power grid in Puerto Rico was after the 2017 hurricane called Maria, which left an island-wide power outage for months, lack of potable water, and many other resources. From then, the island has been incredibly fragile to natural disasters, so fragile that although I live in the North-east of the island, I was left with no power in my dormitory for 5 days, even though the hurricane was in the western region! Although, I can say I was much more fortunate. I was able to evacuate safely into a hotel where it was run with a generator and still had access to all my needs.
That being said, it didn’t lessen my worries for the rest of the island. If you didn’t know, I have family living on the western side of the island, so it was a little nerve-wrecking not being able to communicate with my grandparents. This also meant that I was out of school for over a week, since campus was also out of electricity and many students have to travel across the island to get to school. I took advantage of this time, and went to the west side of the island in order to give assistance to individuals that needed help with clean-up in the area and getting access to water.
Here is me in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico at my grandparents’ home! I came to check in on them and replant some plants that blew away with the strong winds and helped nail in the beautiful hammock many of us use to cool off on a hot day! Thankfully the damage was not extreme. I stayed awhile in order to go to the local church, which was a temporary location where many locals joined together to cook warm foods with the generators and share with the community. What unity this community has!
Once I got back from the west side of the island, I went to my campus to check the status of the school. Sadly, it was still closed, as you can see with the lack of light showing through the buildings, being generated by tiny generators or batteries for security reasons. Thankfully the campus has been giving updates with their student body and incredibly understanding of everyone’s situation, so I am more than hopeful that the island will come back to a sense of normalcy soon.
I also took the opportunity to hike down to the beach a little. This beach is a hidden beach in Playuela, a “barrio” in Aguadilla. Many locals come down here and snorkel through the reefs, and relax in the cold water on a hot day. It was a whooping 99 degrees here! It was a very fun experience as I got to see marine life such as fish and turtles swim around in this water.
Once I got back from the west side of the island, I went to my campus to check the status of the school. Sadly, it was still closed, as you can see with the lack of light showing through the buildings, being generated by tiny generators or batteries for security reasons. Thankfully the campus has been giving updates with their student body and incredibly understanding of everyone’s situation, so I am more than hopeful that the island will come back to a sense of normalcy soon.
Excited to share to you more of my future updates! ~ Marla