Back in the US

I was back in the US for about a month. I visited my friends Christian and Tai in Virginia first. When I first arrived Christian showed me his new hobby - raising bees.

In the next couple of weeks we had a really nice time doing basically relaxing things. It was the end of their vacation before they had to start teaching classes. We spent a lot of evenings on their back porch, cooked some awesome meals, and mostly just chilled. Christian and I also worked on a project we've been thinking about together, and made a lot of progress with the ideas and even put together a rough prototype.

I also got to spend more time with Matthew, Jennifer and family. I even got to see Shirley, Matt's mom, who was visiting them at the same time. Francesca showed me her new baby chickens and I played with Bennett and his super soaker.

One weekend Dave and Emily came up to visit and we ate pulled pork (yum!) The next weekend I went to Baltimore to spend some more time with Dave and Em. I saw their place, Dave's new lab space, played mario kart, met some of their friends, and even managed to find some material for a turban to wear at burning man. We ate crabs too.

I don't actually have much to say about Burning Man, where I went next. It was much like when I went 2 years ago, minus the novelty.

Lateef and I actually left a day early and spent the last night in Reno. We took showers, swam in the pool, ate hot food, and went out to some bars, talked to random people and then spent the rest of the night dancing at a hip-hop club. It was awesome after living in the dust for a couple of days.

From Reno I visited my mom in Santa Fe. I saw her new apartment, and we went for a quick walk in the a park near Tesuque. We also made plans to go to the Galapagos.

The next stop was Puerto Rico. I was staying with my cousin and her boyfriend, Arturo. They brought along a friend, Frank, who is a French guy living in New Jersey teaching French. We tried to surf a bit, but mostly we left that to Christine and Arturo.

Friday night we went to Old San Juan, which is really beautiful. We stayed at this hotel called "Da House" which I found on tripadvisor. It's a kind of old boutique hotel that's been nicely renovated with air conditioning and private baths right in the old part of town near the "party" - which means salsa music outside until 2 or 3 in the am.

On Saturday night I tried out couchsurfing for the first time. I stayed with this really nice girl named Estela in San Juan. I didn't have any real plans for that night other than to make it to the airport on Sunday am. However, Estela was very gracious and introduced me to some of her friends, took me to a barbaque, and even drove me to the airport in the morning! So at 6am I boarded a flight through Panama City to Colombia...