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QUOTE=Joe Perez;1411792]Still, it's better than San Juan, where I first learned to drive (and with a 4MT in my cousin's Tercel, no less.) Things like lane-markings and hard shoulders are considered to be purely aesthetic there (the sidewalk is a perfectly good passing lane, after all), and they never bothered to put up signs at freeway off-ramps indicating which road you're about to exit onto. You just have to know.
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Yup! SJ is a mess of cars. I didn't realize you were also from PR. Fellow Boricua here. 20 year old me with first car in PR back in '89...
I was actually born on the mainland (my father was the only one of four brothers who settled here, as opposed to PR where the rest of the family went, after the communist revolution), but I spent a lot of time on the island as a kid. Learned a great deal about electronics, marine engineering, diesel mechanics, bread-making, the textile industry, and so on. Ironically, I learned only very poor Spanish (mostly profanity and sailor-talk), as my father was very much of the opinion, having worked his *** off to get here, that "We're Americans, and we speak English!" I never forgave him for that...
Whenever I hear Micheal Jackson's Smooth Criminal, I am instantly transported back to Fajardo, working long days as an apprentice in the repair shop and then cuddling up in those almost totally threadbare Snoopy bedsheets in the lower bunk in a small bedroom in what, I must admit in retrospect, was a remarkably nice apartment on the "rich" side of town. Makes me kinda wonder what sort of transactions were happening which I didn't see.
I didn't have a lot of things. An old pair of hazy binoculars with a cracked primary lens on the left side, the board game "Risk," a few books, a collection of shells / coral / etc that I'd gathered from the ocean, and a Sony AM/FM/Cassette radio with detachable stereo speakers. The kind where you inserted the cassette sideways. There was one FM station which played American top 40 music that I used to listen to. I first experianced Smooth Criminal on that radio late one steamy night with the mosquitos in full force. It blew my ******* mind.
I can practically smell the bilge water just thinking about it...
Wanna know what else blows my mind? According to Google Maps, Panadería La Viña is STILL IN BUSINESS!
I am seriously tempted to buy a plane ticket right now, just so I can taste those pasteles de guayaba one more time...
99mx5, I have to ask you this, as I can think of no other objective person whose opinion I'd value on the matter: Orange Tang?
I've been a resident of all three West coast states. Here's my impression of the driving culture in each:
California: impatient and competent
Washington: impatient but incompetent
Oregon: patient and incompetent
Being from Washington I can confirm this. Sun? Freak out. Rain? Slow the **** down and freak out. Snow? Gun the throttle and slam the brakes. But by a subaru with all season tires first so you think you can drive in the snow like that.
99mx5, I have to ask you this, as I can think of no other objective person whose opinion I'd value on the matter: Orange Tang?
OMG! so much want! pastelillos de guayaba. The powdered sugar ones are to die for.
Yeah... that orange Tang. I remembered being exposed to it when I was little and at grandmothers house when we visited before moving there. I'm guessing its better than crappy tasting water.
I was born in Southern California and spent my time there from 15 - 30 years old. Seems like Tang was consumed to mask the bad water taste and the fact that it had a whole days worth of vitamin C LOL!
OMG! so much want! pastelillos de guayaba. The powdered sugar ones are to die for.
Dear god, yes. My mouth is watering right now.
And the round picadillo-filled ones as well, with that egg-glaze on top. If I were told that I could eat only two things for the rest of my life, those would be they.
Granted, I'd be dead in a year, but it'd be a delicious year.
How the hell did PR, which has failed at literally* everything else, manage to eclipse even the French when it comes to pastry?
Two 'spics living in America, driving gay Japanese cars inspired by the British, we are. Seriously, if I ever get back out to NM, we are going to find the best Cuban / Puerto Rican restaurant within a hundred miles, and eat until we puke. I'll buy.
Sidebar: WHY DO NO AMERICAN BAKERIES SERVE THESE?!?!? They're literally** the best thing since the residual heat from the big bang decayed enough to allow coherent matter to form.
Originally Posted by 99mx5
Yeah... that orange Tang. Seems like Tang was consumed to mask the bad water taste
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
I'm literally*** crying right now. It's such an odd-ball thing, how Orange Tang is the de-facto drink of the island. Every kitchen seems to have it. And yeah, the water was... interesting, even in Hato Rey.
* = Seriously, the infrastructure barely works there on a good day. I remember when I was young, a sinkhole opened up in the road in front of mi abuela's house which was so deep that when I jumped into it, I disappeared from my mother's line of sight and she completely freaked out. And this was in a "good" barrio.
** = Literally, not figuratively. And I'm counting oxygen, gravity, language, and the wheel here. They are seriously that good. Like "I have a tab open in my browser now where I'm looking at flights to PR" kind of good.
Totally unrelated: Here is an audio recording, with photo montage, of the final hour at the Jonestown complex, on Nov 18, 1978:
I've been listening to this in the background for several hours now.
I can't quite think of a good word to describe the emotions invoked. It's oddly interesting, somewhat perplexing, and quite morbid. For most of the recording, you can hear children in the background. Then there's a part when they all start crying. Then they're all silent. Then everything is silent. And you just listened to 300 people die.
The title of the video is misleading. It's not "graphic" in a visual sense. Only on an emotional one.
Joe, flights from here or orl to SJ are super cheap. Jet Blue was ~$200 rt last time. Neat place. Really into mofongo which is hard to find most places other than there and here. Tpa and orl are flush with boricua and their restaurants and food. I eat at a lot of places where nobody really speaks much English. I'm good with ordering food and that's about it. I wish I'd known last time you were here.
Joe, flights from here or orl to SJ are super cheap. Jet Blue was ~$200 rt last time. Neat place. Really into mofongo which is hard to find most places other than there and here. Tpa and orl are flush with boricua and their restaurants and food. I eat at a lot of places where nobody really speaks much English. I'm good with ordering food and that's about it. I wish I'd known last time you were here.
*mofongo is... worth googling because
HAHAHA!! I was going to mention mofongo last night! You are totally right! Props!
05-06-2017, 06:58 PM
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