This will put you in the Christmas spirit...in a merengue, tropical sort of way

Nothing spreads Christmas cheer like some Puerto Rican dudes dressed up as the 3 Kings, throwing out red, plastic balls from the bed of a Ford F-250. It also helps that they blast this 'Feliz Navidad' song from 5 foot speakers mounted from the back of another F-250 pickup truck.

Keep in mind they drive in idling speed, slamming your ear buds with the music from this video below. I was more than slightly annoyed when we were behind this parade a couple of weeks ago, trying to get to a nearby Subway took twice as long. However, Santa has since softened my heart and I now realize that I'll probably never see something like this in the states...therein lies my newfound desire to write a blog post about this parade.

Feel free to use some of these awesome choreographed dance moves during the holiday season, they're sure to spice up the typically mundane family Christmas party.

What I plan to do when I get my own house

Some friendly PR pick-up basketball

I just got back from playing pick-up basketball with about a dozen Puerto Rican guys. The players who were sitting out and waiting for the next game to start were drinking Medalla Light (similar to Coors Light) in place of Powerade or conventional water. Sort of odd I guess...but when in Rome, right? At least I waited until after we finished playing to enjoy a cold one.

Questions, Anyone?

A few weeks ago, we visited the girl volunteers at their school in the mountainous area of Puerto Rico, about an hour and a half from San Juan. I forgot about this story until now but I thought I'd share, thinking "better late than never."

Before each class period we sat in on, we introduced ourselves and said where we were from in the United States. I tried to keep it short and to the point, considering most of the kids were bouncing off the walls from the 50g of sugar they had just consumed during their morning snack break.

During the second grade classroom visit, I told them my name was Stephen, I was from Ohio, and that I was a volunteer in San Juan. "Any questions?" I said. After a silent, awkward pause a boy with jet black, spiked hair raised his hand. "I like animals," he said.

Failure on my part I guess. I don't think teaching is in my future, we'll let Ashley handle that.