Puerto Lico and Flied Lice

Puerto Ricans can't pronounce "r's". At least they chose not to in most words. Whenever you ask them where they are from, a strong "Puerrrrrto Lico" comes out of their mouth. You'll notice they stress the R in "Puerto" but their tongues go numb for the "Rico". I asked my client about this and they explained that it's a documented quirk of the local dialect. Furthermore, there's another variation within Puerto Rico. It was funny to hear my client refer to people "from the island". My look of confusion must have tipped him off as he explained that they called anyone from the interior of the island "islanders". The funny thing is that Puerto Rico as a whole is an island.

In any case, these mountaineers have a different pronunciation for the "r". A cross of the gargly French "r" and the angry "gh" that is very common in Arabic, they tend to stretch their "r" sounds.

Why am I rambling about how Puerto Ricans pronounce the "r"? It's because this week we went out for Chinese food for lunch with the client. This was quite the experience as they explained to me how Chinese food in Puerto Rico has been transformed much like Mexican food in the US.

To start, you get french fries with your meal. That's correct. French fries accompany your fried rice, noodles, or just about anything else you order. Then there's the fried rice. They pork isn't crispy and flavorful. It's served in bigger chunks and soft. The strangest part of the rice was that it tasted sweet. I can't begin to describe how wrong this felt in my mouth. The chicken stock flavor mixed with very little spice. It looked like fried rice, it just didn't taste like it. It didn't help that for $5 I was served about 3lbs worth of food in a Styrofoam container. The sheer amount of rice made obsessing about the flavor that much easier.

That's when I started to laugh and the client looked at me perplexed. I explained how we often make fun of Asian people who are learning English because they can't pronounce the "r" and fried rice comes out as "flied lice". Well, Puerto Ricans have taken this to the next step and make a completely new dish out of Flied Lice.

Diary of a Mad Yogi: Running Outside - My Route

I'm back in Puerto Rico for another two weeks. I've decided to skip the gym at the hotel altogether and enjoy the good weather. So far I've managed to get a couple of runs in.

On Monday I did a ~6 mile run, here's the route:


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Today I cut it a little bit shorter since running on tiled sidewalks and concrete is killing my knees:

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It was still a good run and over 5 miles. I just have to keep this up all week and I may make up for all the mofongo, totopos, and rice & beans I've been eating.

OMG

AlertDC to Transportation

5:37 PM

Metro reports that 2 train collided and one train is on top of the other train. Metro reports massive injuries at this time. The green line and the red line are affected. Further information to follow.

Sent by DC HSEMA to e-mail, pagers, cell phones....powered by Cooper Notification RSAN

Diary of a Roaming Consultant: Beauty Sleep

I don't know if it was the cheap Trader Joe's Proseco we had with dinner, nerves about missing my flight earlier Sunday morning, or general unrest with having to go back to Puerto Rico, but I simple wasn't able to sleep Saturday night. I would wake up in a panic every hour, look at the alarm clock, try to do the math in my head to see if it was time to go, and jump out of bed. The physical strain would bring some awareness with it, at which point I would go to the bathroom, come back, and figure out I was 4, 3, 2, or 1 hr early. The first time it happened I jumped out of bed, rushed to the shower, and started to get ready when a quick look at the distant kitchen clock showed me what time it was. Without my glasses it was a little blurry, but the hour hand was far too close to midnight for things to be right.

In the end I woke up and got ready with plenty of time, was waiting outside when my cab showed up, and arrive at the airport plenty early. The flight was on-time, even arriving at San Juan a few minutes early. No drama at the rental car office, swift check-in at the hotel, everything was going for too well. The sun was even out. I got back to my room, changed into shorts and a t-shirt, walked across to the street to the Walgreen's to get some cold drinks, and then plopped my ass down in the sun by the pool. I managed to get 30 minutes on one side, snoozing on and off, flipped over, started to fall asleep again, then noticed the cold drips on my back. At first the mist/drizzle felt good, cooling down my skin. When it started to pour off my back in little streams it got annoying. Thankfully I packed up and went back to my room before the torrential rain started.

By this point it was close to 3PM, I hadn't eaten a decent meal all day, and I was trapped in the hotel. I considered driving over to Borders to take advantage of a 40% off coupon, but the hotel's staff warned me it was a 20 minute drive away, by law all business in San Juan close at 5PM on Sundays, and that since it was Father's day they would most likely close early. Instead of getting in the car and going book shopping, I braved the weather and walked the 100 or so yards over to the Chili's near the hotel. Wet, cold, and hungry I ordered myself a glass of red wine to raise my spirits and a juicy burger. It didn't take long for me to devour the meal. The only reason I spent as much time at the restaurant as I did was because of the dismally slow service.

Back at the hotel I thought about turning on the TV but instead I crawled under the covers and read for a bit. Around 6 I talked myself into a short 1 hr nap. When the alarm went off at 7 I turned it off, set it to go off at 6AM the next day, and went back to sleep. At this point I wasn't thinking about how difficult it would be to fall asleep if I woke up halfway through the night. As expected, I was awake at 1AM. Before I could absorb reality and open my eyes, some part of my mind talked me into pushing my head deeper into the pillow and just going back to sleep. A quick wink at the window showed bright lights, but once things came into focus I realized they were just street lights. It was pitch black outside. Getting back to sleep wasn't hard. I'd managed to be up and about for 8 hours on nothing more than fumes and now I was crashing, hard. I woke up again a few times later in the morning. First at 4AM, then at 5AM, and finally when the alarm went off at 6. By then the effects of 12+ hrs worth of sleep could be felt throughout my body. I was relaxed, comfortable, and even a little toasty from the little bit of sun I'd gotten the day before.

I can't remember the last time I managed to sleep this much. I know it's normally not healthy or useful as one wakes up feeling worse off than when you started, but this time it was truly beauty sleep. Had there been any tangible transformations as a result of my slumber, I would've gone from ugly toad to prince in shining armor.

Let's hope the stress levels this week stay low, the sun stays out, and rain stays away. This prince could use a tan.