Summertime is usually a time to relax, have fun in the sun, wake up no sooner than 10am, catch up with all the projects and activities you weren’t able to do due to the lack of time to get around to them and just enjoy yourself. Well, not here in the mountains. Nope. Not. At. All.
See, I live way up in the mountains of Puerto Rico in a town called Adjuntas. There are only about 20,000 inhabitants, one Burger King (only fast food restaurant), no shopping centers, not a single decent video store and no traffic lights in sight. Yes, you read it right. No traffic lights whatsoever. For the people living in Adjuntas the only way to entertain themselves is by going down to Ponce, the nearest city (also referred to as “the nearest establishment of civilization” by yours truly), which is a 15-20 minute drive. Not so bad if you think about it, but with gas prices up to 99.7 cents per liter it’s become difficult for someone like me, being a college student and all. Most of my friends are spending their summer out of the island, others are doing their thing on the opposite coast, and the ones who are in town are…Lisa. Just one friend in town, and she doesn’t come down from her house much (yes, she does live up higher than I do). What does that equal to? Me being stuck up high in the mountains doing nothing but read novels, listen to my mom bitch and moan about everything I do (and don’t do) and watch bad TV. After a week, all of it gets really old. Did I mention it’s been raining on a daily basis for hours on end? Hmm.
It’s only been two weeks worth of the above mentioned, and I’m going insane. Which is why during this summer, just like pretty much every summer before, I’ll be taking summer classes! This is my freedom in disguise. I’d rather take classes during the summer than be stuck here for two months. I did it once, and for my own well being (and my mother’s) I can say it will never happen again. Ever.
So, here I am counting the hours away until the gateway to heaven (Mayagüez in this case) opens up and I am able to drive to the hot hell that is Mayagüez. I have a very strong love/hate relationship with the town my campus is, in case you haven’t noticed.
Just twelve more hours. Just twelve more hours…
