The day began at 7:00am as I, Jordan Minor, walked to each cabin to wake up my fellow Glimpsers. But to no surprise, all of the girls had already woken up and headed to the bathrooms to ready themselves for the day that we have all waited for: Beach Day! In juxtaposition, at 7:00pm, the boys had just began to get out of their beds and unravel their enigmatic mosquito nets that protect them from various insects and creatures that roam freely here at “El Rancho Campeche.” The day kicked off with a pleasant breakfast that the delegation cohesively adores: pancakes and fruit. After cleaning up, each person gathered his/her stuff and proceeded to the bus, eagerly awaiting to arrive at our destination: Palmar de Ocoa. The drive lasted about 1 hour and 30 minutes, and the bus was packed with sports equipment and a couple of our Global Glimpse Ambassadors. Luckily for us, one of the ambassadors took the initiative to gather a list of our song requests and managed to put them onto a CD. As a result, we were thrilled to be able to get a taste of home as the music blasted through the speakers in the bus. Unfortunately, the bus is not outfitted with subwoofers, in turn belittling the sound quality of the music. Nevertheless, we appreciate the effort made by Franyel (I may have butchered the spelling of his name), and we were excited to see what awaited us at the beach.

We arrived to the beach, only to catch our first glimpse of the San Juan delegation. Elias, our Program Coordinator, made the ludicrous request for all of us to perform the choreography we learned on Culture Day. Obviously, we all rejected the idea, saving not only our energy, but our dignity as well. We stepped off the bus and we were greeted by a man-made tunnel, literally, created by the San Juan delegation. Afterwards, everyone settled down and we were all mixed up and split into groups. Then, each group would rotate through various stations ran by the Global Glimpse staff, and basically share a few words on different topics related to themes such as: the English classes, past theme days, and the housing situation. After all was done, we all stripped down to our bathing suits and ran into the clear blue ocean. We were ecstatic to feel the cool and salty water caress our bug-bitten skin, alleviating the itchiness from our bites and cooling us off in the hot weather. For about an hour and a half, we were free to do whatever we want, as long as we stayed within the boundaries and abided to the Global Glimpse Rules and Conduct. We then all sat down to enjoy lunch that was a combined effort from the kitchens of both San Juan and San Cristobal. Afterwards, we all played even more in the ocean and took pictures to capture the memories made at Palmar de Ocoa. Yet, the inevitable happened; A storm appeared in the distance and slowly creeped towards us. We all watched in awe as lightning struck the surface of the ocean. We were then informed that if it starts to rain, we would all have to get out of the water and abandon the beach. Fortunately, the storm ended up not affecting us at all and we continued to take selfies and pictures with fellow Glimpsers.

Sadly, all great things must come to an end, and we were advised to say our farewells to the San Juan delegation and begin packing up all of our stuff. On the ride home, everyone pretty much fell asleep as others, who managed to stay awake, listened to the music or gazed at the passing landscape as we made our way back to camp. Once reaching camp, we did a group exercise, ate dinner, had our nightly meeting, and prepared ourselves mentally for the next day: Living On $1 A Day.

Personally this was one of the greatest highlights of my stay here at San Cristobal and I’m glad that were able to reunite and talk with another delegation. I just want to give a shout out to my family, friends, and definitely the Warriors! Congratulations on making it to the 7^th grade Kayla! I apologize that I was not able to attend your graduation, but I hope that you are having a great time. Emma, I wish I could play CS:GO with you, I hope that your summer is good as well. Mom and Dad, I cannot wait to come home and eat some good food. I miss you guys so much and I definitely cannot wait to return to my only home: San Jose 408!!!