San Juan day 1 (again): Shopping, FAA, walking and cursing

Date: 07.03.2014

Today was THE day for stnz, because it was time for his FAA-interview. He had all the necessary paperwork done and only missing the FAA interview. Before it, I asked the guys if we could go to a shopping mall, so I could buy some new shorts I was lacking this whole trip. Fortunately, there was a shopping mall near the FAA-office, and as a bigger coincidence: it was the one of the largest shopping malls in Puerto Rico and the FAA-office was inside it :D.

Before we left to the mall, we visited a nearby surf store, and me and halen started drooling when we reached the second floor and saw all the longboards. Must.. get.. one... or two...

Timo also spotted some skateboards which were replicas from the original skateboards - he couldn't decide which he'd take, or both, if we could take those boards with us back to Finland :).

The Addams Family -themed car

During this trip I've been reminded many times why I like to be single now. I've been feeling a little old and misplaced because I have to play the mom all the time "Put the computer down and come to eat" "The videos can wait, real life cannot wait - we need to go now!" "Change your shirt & shower, you smell" "Don't be so angry, try to smile sometimes" "Everything I say is wrong, I'll go somewhere else then and try to be quiet" "You should eat better, you only get angry and hungry fast with that kind of food" "Ew, don't do that, you'll gonna hurt yourself" "Remember to take / call XX, really, do it NOW or you'll forget it completely". I really do sound like a mom taking care of the guys. I don't like it.

 The mall was pretty big and full of nice stores. I found my shorts, a cabin bag for some gear and one pair of Converse's, which were designed a little different than any Converses I currently own. Halen was shaking his head when he saw me very happy after buying the shoes, that I had odd perversions. Little does he know :D.

Their mom was missing and they got their truck stuck at the mall :D

After some ok breakfast it was time for stnz to go to his interview and me and halen did the shopping. It took 1 hour before stnz could come back, because of all the paperwork. It turns out, he needed 1 hour flight with local instructor to get his license after all.

That's why we headed out to Isla Grande flying school after the interview, to set up the flight before we needed to go somewhere with a plane.

Stnz was lucky and the instructor had the time to go immediately for a checkflight. The flying school only had Cessna's so it was going to be an easy and fun task for stnz because he knew those planes already very well.

Before starting, he drove us somewhere because halen didn't want to sit and wait at the school without his pad.. Turned out, that we were ~3kms away from the old city, so we started walking there.

We had time to walk there, go and eat some frozen yogurt (which was bad, the Charlotte airport frozen yogurt was "the stuff"), get some coffee, do some sightseeing and almost got bored. I got my 10 000 steps per day filled in the start of our walking trip..

After stnz was ready he picked us up and told us how much he had playing with the plane, we drove back to the mall and went into a supermaket. Food here was a lot better than the earlier supermarket we used, but the arrangement of the shelves seemed a bit illogical to a Finn. I really had some difficulties to find any zip-log bags I needed desperately (I'll tell you more later on why I needed those).

We headed back home, which freshly brewed espresso (we only have an espresso machine here, and the lack of coffee in the mornings is really a problem). It'll wake us up tomorrow morning when we have an early start for the day, again :).

Halen the tourist

Elderly woman watching the street from her window

First time on the trip I was reminded of work.

My new PRRECIOUS

The knee starts to look a lot better after I got some antibiotic ointment for it :). It still doesn't feel fun to walk around with.

After we got home, Timo made us some really good tortillas, even though he burned the first batch of the tortillas warming them in the oven instead of the microwave :). I only had two before the guys ate all the rest :D.

Unfortunately halen lost his new jewelry I found him from the mall, he lost one of the balls of his industrial piercing earlier this week while diving, and had to buy a whole new jewelry for it to get the ball. I promised to put it on him when we got back to the apartment, but we couldn't find that thing anywhere. Understandably this got halen frustrated, and he decided to stay at the apartment when we went to do some night photography. Poor Timo, I think we need to find a tattoo/piercing shop somewhere in San Juan, so we can get the ball for the barbell.

.. After eating halen's good cooking and drinking some stnz' tea, it was time to try some nighttime photography on the beach, more of that later on :)

Day 1 in NOLA: Pre-Mardi Gras Saturday

Date: 22. 2. 2014

After surviving our first shock considering our living quarters we headed to see the last parade of the night - the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, which most certainly was the best one for us. We're punch of nerds, so it was really The One for us.

Before it we joined the block party, to see all kinds of people and costumes. I really loved there, but halen was once again hungry, and angry. Fortunately we found a near by market-mardi gras-pizzeria -blend which served some really awesome pizzas.

This sign amused me a lot - it was hanged on the wall of a bar, next to the crowded crossroads where the party was happening :D

There were lots of kids selling jello shots, beer and drinks on the street.

Just missed these guys kissing :(

Check out that tail!

There was also a bar in the middle of the street. The drinks were free, you just left some tips for the "bartenders". Had a quick chat with one of them - fun guy :)

Playing games

There were few of these odd balls of bicycles. Just getting on one requires friends. So I couldn't ever get one :(.

Halen is getting his pizza

Dude with a fez. Under some cute lights.

The decorations in the store was pretty nice and cute, and reaaaallly different than what we're used to.

Angry halen seem to be changing to happier halen.

There was a really good selection of foods. And not all junk food like in many other places

 Upstairs they had a store full of Mardi Gras related stuff. From the beads to masks and such.

The store from upstairs. Fresh food was under that other level.

There was lots and lots of stuff to get used to as a stiff old Finn. The lay-back attitude, people who like to start conversations and talk with strangers with no apparent reason, saying hello to passers by, it's always a shock to visit the states, and in NOLA it kinda was highlighted. They threw me off my game calling me "honeybun" at the register, and starting talking about random stuff. But it really fits this city, and this neighborhood. You just cannot be tense and anal in this kind of surroundings and this kind of people. That's the best thing for me right now, after being pretty stressed out for over a year(s).

But yeah, after getting our tummies full of (once again unhealthy :D) food, we joined the party in the streets once again, waiting for the parade to arrive. More of that later.

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I'm a bit late with the blog updates, the visits in these cities has been way too short (I was skeptic and now certain that the philosophy "places are seen in few days" doesn't work) and I've been too tired to get the posts online. I'll try to get the Mardi Gras images up tomorrow - I'm really considering taking a off-day from the constant running around..