I took three days off from work this week to go back to Puerto Rico for the Chinese Tradition of Tomb-Sweeping Day. Very similar to El Dia de Los Muertos, it is a day in which Chinese families get together to pay respects and give offerings to our deceased loved ones at their graves. In our long history in Puerto Rico, we have four immediate members of our family buried in a cemetery here in the municipality of Bayamon, both of my paternal grandparents, a first cousin, and my own father.

We flew in on Sunday morning, the whole family minus one sibling, the older brother. The younger sisters, thanks to the wonders of nationwide cellular plans, immediately found and contacted their friends for plans for the day. Personally, I knew that few of my friends, if any, were around, so I spent a good part of the day being grumpy from lack of sleep and trying to adjust to the heat of the tropical island.

One interesting note: Sundays seem to be the perfect day to shop, regardless of whether you are in Atlanta, or in Puerto Rico. You’d think that the shorter open hours would dissuade people, but people seem to want to look for any excuse to not stay at home. They built a new highway in Carolina here, leading straight to a Belz Factory Outlet in Canovanas (I think?), and thanks to poor road signs (some things never change), we made the mistake of taking that route instead of the usual Carretera 3 to our home in Carolina, not once, but twice in these few few days. For some people, it is an excuse to do some more shopping. I was grumpy and had the look of death walking through the Outlet.

Interestingly enough, my Sidekick worked, connecting immediately to SunCom, a smaller cellular company, since T-mobile does not have an official presence here. All of my data services worked just fine, and soon I was sending e-mails and getting on AIM, you know, the social thing to do.

Monday was an interesting day. I decided to do the alumnus thing and visit my old high school in the Condado. Saint John’s School is on its way to completing its plans it started my senior year of high school in 2002 for developing the school into an even better institution. It was a bit awkward seeing old faces again, students and teachers alike, and of course it was weird telling people that I was taking a break from school. So much definitely has changed in four years.

I bought souvenirs for friends in the Condado, walking down the stretch of Condado Ave., visiting souvenir shops, eating mango gelato, and getting vanilla lattes from Starbucks. I still find it weird ordering a vanilla latte in Spanish in Puerto Rico, a place famous for its own local coffee.

Having some time to kill, I decided to do somethign I would have been too busy to do in Atlanta. I stopped by a small tattoo and piercing parlor recommended by a school friend, and got those nipple piercings I always wanted. Kind of random, right? I got these barbells inserted, and I like them very much. Did they hurt? They hurt exactly as much as you think having your nipples pierced would hurt. I had the guy to give me a heads up before insertion, and I went to my happy place. I think while he was making the exit puncture on my right nipple, I let out a moan.

The highlight of the trip, besides the nipples, was seeing Rinell, my best gay friend in PR from my high school days, for the first time in four years. We kept in contact through e-mails, phone, IMs, and most recently through MySpace, and seeing that crazy sonavabitch and catching up was great. We only got to spend some time at a Starbucks (where else?), but I think it was worth it. He will be heading back to New York soon, so I will catch up with him again hopefully soon.

So what’s a trip to the island without some great car-trip drama? The family spent a good amount of time in the car on Monday night, and especially on Tuesday. On Monday night, we drove to Ceiba on the easternmost northern tip of the island to visit a cousin’s family, and we stayed the night in our beach villa at Rio Mar. On Wednesday, we went to San Patricio in Guaynabo, west of San Juan, to visit family at the one remaining restaurant of my father’s chain, and then we headed out west, to Mayagüez, on the westernmost part of the island.

to be continued…..