Tourist For A Day

     2:45 PM on Saturday I was at the airport waiting for my best friend Tristian to arrive with the Michigan Wolverines Men's Gymnastics Team for the annual Invitational Gymnastics Puertorrican Tournament. There he was, it had been almost a year from the last time i saw him, I have missed him so much. There I meet all of his teammates and his coaches they were all "White American" you're typical "gringo" expet for three of them, One of the coaches is Chinese and one of the team members is African American and the other is from Bangladesh. So after they got all their stuff we went to the hotel which was the Double Tree by Hilton in the Condado area. After they had settle down we went to a near by restaurant that offers local cuisine. Here i got the opportunity to meat some of the team members and Chow, the Chinese coach. After I helped them order their food and drinks I decided to not behave like a tour guide but to try to become one of them and be a "tourist". After we ate we went for a walk in the Condado area but not all together we separated in littel groups. The group I was in was composed of Stacy; the African-American, Syque; the guy from Bangladesh, Sam; gringo Olympic medalist, and three other that i don't remember quite well and of course my best friend and his father who was supposed to take care of the team because they were still under 21 and the university they are from is responsible for them.

This is an old one, but it was on my best friends birthday so whatever.

      When we were walking i noticed their amusement toward the atmosphere of the area. We then decided to go to the walk on the beach, most of them had never been on a beach never the less imagine how beautiful our beaches are. So we started walking on the beach and all the sudden i started to enjoy feeling the sand on my feet, i say this because normally i hate sand and it getting in every part of my body. So i noticed that if i could just think that i am not from here i could enjoy being on the beach and taking a walk  in it. Then we just stooped and started looking to the horizon and a "oceanic feeling" took over me i felt in peace. While we were all starring at the beautiful site the wind started blowing real hard and that windy noise was a bliss to my ears. Then just before were going to leave one of the guys asked my friend, "why did you left this place? I mean look at this Michigan is nothing like it." Immediately i looked at my best friend and he said " I ask myself the same question every fucking day while i have to deal with subzero temperatures and little sunlight." That just maked me appreciate more this opportunity ia have to live here. When we were done enjoin the view we headed back to the hotel but in our way back some girls  started screaming at us, calling us, yelling their numbers at us and when we all looked they started like screaming "locaaaaaaa mira mira OMGaaad que bellos". I am pretty sure that was because they saw the white boys, white skin, blues or green eyes, blond hair, big muscles. I looked like a broomstick standing by their side.



     So we went back to the hotel and decided we were going to hang out in Old San Juan  because Condado on Fridays its not the most visited place by the local youth. So we got ready and headed to Old San Juan. When we got there we started to ordered shots and a bar and at this point i feel part of the team you know I even talk to my friend in English I became fluent in like two hours. So we were at a bar and suddenly this four girls that a my friend Tristian knew came to us and started greeting us and when they greeted me they did in English so i said to myself " ok you all ready part of the group". So we went bar hopping and this guys were very loud they but like they look like tourist nobody says a thing. I took advantage of this like i could behave how ever i wanted and they didn't care and the locals could not tell a difference. Ordering in English was very funny because at the bars we were going, the cheap ones, the bartenders knew no English so i played the roll of a gringo traing to speak Spanish and all of that. Overall i think the most interesting part of this exercise was to see how locals treat tourist completely different compared  to the way they treat other locals and i remember walking down the street looking at the way the locals were looking at us and seeing myself in them because I am pretty sure i look at tourist the same way.  This is all I have for you today and ill see you next time.

This are the coolest guys I have ever hangout with, Tristian and I are in the right corner behind Stacy, don't ask who took the photo.