Puerto Ricans, Paintings, and Platypi

Made in Puerto Rico

A few hours after I put up my last post a couple weeks ago, I realized that I forgot to mention a really fun experience I had with Jongui and Francisco back in late April. As I'm sure I mentioned at some point in this blog, Jongui is from Puerto Rico; he did the Disney College Program last spring, and now he's doing a PI, but apart from that he's spent his whole life in Puerto Rico. Maybe he was getting a bit homesick, but for whatever reason, he offered to take Francisco and I to dinner at a restaurant called "Made in Puerto Rico."

This place is just one of a chain of restaurants, most of which are based in - go figure - Puerto Rico. Hence, it's got bona fide Puerto Rican food and an authentic Puerto Rican atmosphere. And when I say authentic, I mean loud. Very, very loud.

There was a band composed of primarily percussion-type instruments, playing what Jongui tells me are very well known Puerto Rican songs. Throughout the night, guests (who were overwhelmingly Puerto Rican - pretty sure I was the only white guy in the place) would get up and dance and sing along to the songs up by the band. It was like a club or something in that you had to shout to be heard by the guy sitting across the table from you, except instead of dub-step, you were competing against the hoots and hollers of Puerto Rican folk songs.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the night. On the contrary, I thought it was really neat the way it seemed like such a celebratory atmosphere. The walls were all painted with murals, Christmas lights were strung across the ceiling, and a straw overhang topped off the bar, giving it the impression of a local cantina. I asked, and Jongui told me that this restaurant accurately reflected the essence of the Puerto Rican culture: light-hearted, joyful, and of course, a bit raucous.

And the food was delicious, too! I'd already eaten a bit of dinner before we left, so all I had was an appetizer similar to mozzarella sticks, but we also ordered an appetizer of other Puerto Rican snacks that had everything from sausage to plantains. Overall, it was just a neat experience, and I was happy to have glimpsed a bit of the culture Jongui comes from.

Oh yeah, and they had some pretty funny things painted on the walls in the bathroom. My favorite was, "El futuro de Puerto Rico está en sus manos." I only needed two years of Spanish in high school to translate the joke: "The future of Puerto Rico is in your hands." It was painted directly over a urinal.

A Dog Chases a Fly

Remember Hannah's niece, Dayl? Bet you didn't know she was a talented artist.

Two weeks ago, on Mother's Day, I walked down to the Falcon Square clubhouse and picked up my mail. In it was a package from Reeses and Búbble, filled with Reese's (the candy, not Dayl's mom), Snickers, and sweetest of all, a painting that Dayl made for me. It was of a dog chasing a fly, though clearly Dayl's true artistic intent was a comment on society's fickle yet desperate obsession with the mundane. Quite a deep work of art for a three-year-old girl. The local art museum has yet to contact me about procuring it, but I'm prepared to turn down their inevitable multi-million-dollar offers to keep it for myself.

After putting it up on the cork board above my bed, I received a FaceTime from that same adorable little artist. She asked if I liked her painting, I showed her how I hung it up over my bed, and we chatted a bit more about preschool, church, dolls, and the other preoccupations of a toddler's busy life. It made my week.

Then, that next Friday, I went to the mailbox again and found an good-sized package waiting for me. It was a care package from Hannah containing various living essentials, a very nice note, and a whoooole lot of candy. Maybe learning that Reeses had sent me candy the previous week sparked a bit of competition in her. I think it's safe to say you won, Hannah, by about twelve pounds. Though I wouldn't object to a few more weeks of this competition - I'm definitely on the winning side of this thing. If any of you think you can beat what Hannah sent me, I have two words for you:  Prove it.

Later that same evening, Jongui and I started a marathon of ABC's series Once Upon a Time. It's a really intriguing plot, full of deep, multi-sided characters and great plot twists; and it's all basically a spin on the classic fairy tales we thought we knew, melding their worlds together in very complex and unexpected ways. We got through most of Season 1 last weekend, and though Jongui's in Puerto Rico this weekend, I have no doubt we'll be done with the second season by the end of next week. Anyway, I've been munching on all the candy steadily throughout our marathons, and I'm already almost halfway done. If you notice a couple extra chins in some of this post's pictures, you now have your explanation.

Sorry, Animal Kingdom

Over the past couple weeks, my friends and I have been making pretty consistent rounds of all the Disney World parks... All except Animal Kingdom. Sorry, DAK, we'll be back for you soon!

Last Friday was Epcot. Francisco and Jongui and I went and met some of Francisco's friends from his previous internship in World Showcase, but not before a quick ride through at Test Track! It still shocks me how easily Francisco seems to produce fast passes for all the best rides in Disney World, and he still won't tell us anything more than, "I know people." It probably helps that he worked on Test Track with Engineering Services on a regular basis last fall... But that still doesn't explain the other parks' attractions. I think there's some underground, possibly illegal operations going on here.

After we met up with the other interns, we went to dinner in China and watched IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, from Germany. One of the interns we met is actually a full-time employee who works with all the lighting and pyrotechnics for the shows in Disney World. It was pretty interesting listening to his explanations of all the sweet special effects Disney uses! After the fireworks show, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to satisfy our cravings for chicken wings. Actually, everyone else just wanted beer, but I felt like wings, and thankfully Bdubs has both!

The next day the plan was to meet Francisco and our friend Lingo at Magic Kingdom to ride the Mine Train ride a few times. They're officially in a soft-open period, and last weekend they gave all MK cast members the opportunity to ride it all we wanted! Francisco and Lingo had to drop a mutual friend off at the airport first, though, so I told them I'd just meet them there around two in the afternoon.

Well, I got there around two o'clock, and after about fifteen minutes, I gave Francisco a call to see how close they were. He informed me that they'd decided to go to Studios instead for Star Wars weekend, and they had just now parked there.

Thanks for the heads up, Francisco.

So, since I was already in the park and didn't feel like leaving only to drive to a different park for a couple hours, I decided to make the most of my afternoon there. I went and rode Mine Train a few times by myself, and made friends with a girl in front of me in line who was also riding it by herself, so neither of us felt entirely lonely!

After that, I realized it was almost 3 pm, which was the time for the daily Festival of Fantasy parade that I'd still never gotten around to seeing. It debuted almost two months ago, but I'd only ever seen it launch from backstage, as Sustaining helped out with the logistics of it all. So I found a spot on Main Street and watched the parade roll by. About half way through it, I noticed a familiar face behind a flamboyant coral-themed costume and thick makeup:  it was Libra!

If you don't remember, Libra was the marching band friend I had back in high school who graduated the year before me, who I met unexpectedly back in January through our mutual friend, Atom. She saw me and I saw her and though I got probably a bit overexcited, she did a nice job staying in character as she led the Ariel float down the street. As luck would have it, we ran into each other accidentally down in the tunnels after the parade, as I was leaving the park. We hadn't seen each other in over a month, so it was nice to catch up with her after seeing her perform in her dream job as a Disney character/performer. All in all, a nice afternoon despite its bitter beginning.

Then, last a couple days ago, Rug, Francisco, Lingo, and I met some other intern friends at Studios for another fun evening in the parks. We did Star Tours, Tower of Terror, an animation class, Toy Story, and Fantasmic. Though I didn't come even close to my best score on Toy Story, one of the interns divulged quite a few helpful secrets that I'm sure will come in handy next time I'm on the ride. Hannah's brother Búbble tells me he's broken 300k before, and I know he'll give me hell if I leave my internship having never broken his record... So for the next two months, I will not sleep; I will not eat; I have one goal and one goal only:  earn 300,000 points on Toy Story Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios.

If you're wondering about Perry, you were not the only one. I asked Francisco about it on our ride over there, and his answer was that he felt bad letting Perry roll all over the place in the backseat as he drove around town. So the obvious solution was to buckle him in. All I'm gonna say is, I hope Francisco takes as good care of his future children as he does his stuffed platypus.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go do some forearm stretches, dawn a sailor hat, and eat a big bowl of spinach. I figure developing forearms like Pop-Eye's should give me a better shot at that goal.