A Lo Cubano

Marathoning in the Big City.

2008-06-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I sat down at my computer, with the intention of registering for the Portland 1/2 Marathon. I soon came to realize that there is no 1/2 marathon in Portland... so on a complete impulse decision (a recurring problem for me), I went ahead and registered for the full, 26.2 mile run, through the city of Portland on October 5, 2008.
This gave me exactly 5 months to train... I am now down to 3 months and about 3 weeks. When I first started, running 3 miles was tough. Yesterday, I ran 10. It is pretty amazing to see the progress you are able to make and the success you can have, when you really put your mind to something. I still cannot envision myself running 26.2 miles, but I guess running 5 or 6 was hard to conceptualize 1 month ago.

Check out my run and the PDX Marathon:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/or/portland/374762367229

http://portlandmarathon.org/

So that is what has been eating the majority of my time this summer... fun stuff huh?
Other than that, I am still working for Bally Total Fitness as a Personal Trainer, and I am now a certified indoor cycling instructor (whatever the heck that means).
I am climbing a bunch, and getting better indoors. My problem is the mental aspect of climbing outside. It is one of the hardest and scariest things for me... and I am having a hard time getting over it, but my goal for the end of the summer is to start leading some sport routes.
This summer is flying by, at a rapid speed that I cannot seem to catch up with. I have done something exciting every weekend, and have more going on until.... well... basically the whole summer.
It feels like Ariel and I just moved into a house in SE Portland, and I will be moving out in about a week, to a house by school in SW. WHERE IS MY SUMMER GOING!?
And speaking of which, WHERE IS SUMMER!?!?!?!??! The rest of the nation is suffering a heat wave and a drought, when all week it has been rainy and 55 degrees here. Seriously... where is the sun?
Some one send it my way.... thanks.

1:49:44

2008-04-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I am proud to say, I finished my first ever triathlon with a horrifying time of 1 hour 49 minutes and 44 seconds. Although my goal was 1:45, I am okay with this, seeing as how my transition total was over 8 minutes. O well. There will be many more to come, and to be honest, the thought that I finished the tri that I about dropped out of, makes me feel accomplished. Also, I lowered my swim time by over 5 minutes (10:57 I believe) and was the first person out of the pool, running in my bathing suit in the cold cold Oregon rain, towards my bike. Pretty sweet.
Tomorrow I have a basic fundamentals class for personal training, which means I can officially start working on Tuesday.
3 more weeks of school... then finals. Then summer comes, and Ariel and I move into a basement (not a mucky one) where we will spend a few months living before I return to school in the fall.
This year has flown by. I can hardly believe it is April 6th. And I imagine it is only going to go faster.

?????

2008-03-19T22:29:00.001-07:00

Not sure if anyone still reads this... but I figured I would say a little something anyway.
It has been a crazy semester. Completely overwhelming but fun. I ended up withdrawing from my history class to make room for my sanity, and I think it was one of the best decisions I could have made. Mid-terms are finally done with, and I am happy to say I think I actually did alright on them.
I have been climbing A TON! I have a full pass to the gym down the street, and Farah climbs now too- so we try and go 3-4 times a week a least. For anyone who knows what I am talking about, I topped out my first V2 problem yesterday, and made it pretty far through a V3 today. YEAH!
I am also training for a triathlon which will take place on April 5th in Corvallis. I am really nervous, mostly b/c I have been slacking like crazy on the swimming. But I just want to finish.
I also am now officially employed by Bally Fitness. I am in the process of getting my certification to be a personal trainer, which is something I never imagined I would actually do! I have to take a 3 month class, and pass an exam, so it is kind of scary, but I think it will be well worth it. I think I am going to get my spinning instructor certification too! ahhh!
It is nice to have Ariel back in the states, and living in my room/bed in Portland. It is crazy how the second she got back, it felt like she was never gone! We will be moving into the basement of her friend's house at the end of May, and we will be working working working!!!!
Tomorrow morning I am headed to NM to visit the fam and hit up the sick powder at the ski/now board? valley!!! woo!
For any of you who are or will be in Taos for the next week, let me know...
Miss you all!
Have a great SPRING BREAK!

Dark Skies, Early Nights...

2008-02-05T00:57:00.000-08:00

I seem to have forgotten how dreary it gets here in the pac NW. For the last week I have not seen a patch of blue in the sky, and it is almost dark by mid-afternoon. This means I have to drink lots of tea, and spend plenty of time either @ the gym, or curled up in bed.
Classes are pretty tough, but I am starting to get into a routine, and hopefully I can keep it up.
I signed up for the Beaver Freezer triathlon in Corvallis (April 5th!) and so I am spending a ton of time training (or making an attempt to) for that. I am pretty stoked about it, because I do not think it is super competitive, and I am thinking it will be fun. As of now, my swim time is horrid... my biking is okay... and my running could be better. But I guess that is what happens when you are continually coughing up Cuban pollution for over a month.
Ariel, her best friend Col, and I are also doing another sort of "triathlon" called the Pole, Pedal, Paddle in May- so one more thing to look fwd to!
I really should be sleeping right now...
I hope the weather is better for all of you, wherever you may be.
Oh, and the picture is from Farah and my 21st b-day party!
:)

Closure to Cuba

2008-01-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my roommate tonight about my ultimate feelings on Cuba, and I came to the realization, that I can hardly begin to express my thoughts.

Here is what I have so far...

1. Cuba is absolutely beautiful. While there, I saw some of the most amazing beaches, trees, mountains, sunsets, and skies that exist in the entire world. Cuba is also maybe the dirtiest/ugliest place I have ever seen. Garbage day is once a "whenever we feel like it", but no one uses the trash cans anyway, so that hardly matters. The pollution is visible. Shit falls from the sky into your eyes and hair, and showering everyday is pretty much a must if you do not want to be a pimply, greasy, blackish tinted mess. Dead dogs lie in the streets, because no one is getting paid to move them away, and if they are, they probably get paid whether they move the dogs or not. Cuba is full of gunk, trash, goop, and "oh crap, what the hell did I just step in?".... So I guess my final thought on that it that Its the most beautiful disgusting place I have ever seen.

2. People are very patriotic in Cuba. People LOVE the country of Cuba, even if they are contra-Fidel and socialism. There are flags hanging in every window and on every street. "Viva Cuba" and "Soy Cuba" are painted on the walls every which way you look. At the same time, there is so much under the cover dissent about Fidel and the government. When I first got to Cuba, I kept thinking that the people really did not seem to hate the way things are run here. Now that I have gained the trust of friends, I have come to learn, that the people do want some change. Mostly, people just want to travel, and be able to see their families in the US. They also want to be able to have more access to communication, such as the internet. All of this is limited by the government. People are afraid to say anything though, and so it is hard to know exactly how any Cuban feels about anything. Then, there are the Cuban kids who claim to be anarchists, but have yet to take any action that actually stands up against the government. Instead, they just do the minimum that they can on a state based salary, which I believe is about as opposite of anarchy as it gets. This is so frustrating, because you cannot say to them "why don't you do something!?" because their response is always "like what?"... and yes... like what?
So, while there is dissent, there is this horrible forced apathy that goes on, in a country where the people take so much pride in who they are.

3. Then there are the freakies. If I were a 14 year old Cuban girl, I think I would have to bust out the All Star Converse knock-offs, and hang out in Parque G, every night until the sun rises the next morning. There is this entire new culture of kids, who listen to rock and punk, and they all hang out on Calle G, between 23rd and Linea... every night. But then I would be one of those Cuba loving, government hating, apathetic people that I have come to love and dislike so much at the same time. But honestly, in the world of Cuba, it is the freakies that have the most fun!

4. Nutrition. Oh Cuba. If the FDA came into Cuba (and I am not a fan of the FDA), and analyzed the food consumption, they might die of a heart attack. I am worked on, and am continuing to work on a project about nutrition and body image in Cuba, and I have come across some very scary facts, but some more pleasant ones at the same time.

√ The average daily Cuban diet can be broken down into the following:
30% fat
60% carbohydrates
9% protein
√ 32% of Cuban women and 30% of Cuban men are considered "overweight-obese", while 9% of all Cubans are malnourished
√ The suicide rate in Cuba, is highest among women, who have "issues" with their love/sex lives (aka: negative body image, low self esteem)
√ The Cuban body ideal is not a thin, emaciated, prepubescent woman like in the US, but is rather a thin woman with "carne and curves" and is mostly influenced by the machismo attitude of what a "real woman" is.

So while Cuba could really afford to re-evaluate its nutritional situation, the women are not starving themselves to fit an unrealistic body ideal, yet, there still exists an ideal to which women wish to conform to.

5. The lack of communication and exposure to the rest of the world is actually quite frightening. The internet here usually costs about 5cuc an hour, which is about 1/3 of a months salary. Cubans can attain and use an email account at the post office, but cannot surf the internet, and everything is monitored by the government. Cell phones hardly exist, except among the elite and those who have figured out how to screw the system and make extra cash. Television and radio are limited, in the sense that the only stations offered, are run by the Cuban government, or Hugo Chavez. Same goes for all the "newspapers" which do not actually give the people any news. Travel is similar, in the sense that there are not a whole lot of cars laying around, so not very many people have one, and gas is almost 4cuc a gallon anyway. Also, the bus and train systems are impossible to use, due to scheduling, delays, cancellations, sell out, etc. It is also pretty expensive, and not worth it to most Cubans. Leaving Cuba however, is on a whole other level. America is out of the question, unless you are one of like 2000 people granted a visa each year. If you do move to America, legally or not, you can NEVER move back and regain citizenship. Even returning to visit is difficult. It really tears up families when some members want to leave, but others choose to stay. Cubans cannot afford to hop on a plane to France for the holidays, and it seems that the Cuban government would like to keep it that way. How is an entire country supposed to work its way out of a hole, when they cannot even begin to see what lies outside the hole? The Cuban people are strategically kept in the dark, and left to be näive and closed off to reality.

6. Cubans spend their energy building strong social relationships. This was the biggest difference I found between Cuba and the US. I may have already commented on this in previous blog entries. But it really is obvious. While Americans work hard every day for long hours, making money so that they can acquire more "things", Cubans make friends and have conversations with whoever is willing to talk back (or even just listen). In the US, when people my age go out to socialize, it ends up being in a bar, or @ a restaurant, or in the mall... or somewhere where money is necessary. In Cuba, we would head for the Malecón, or 23rd, or Parque G. Very rarely were social gatherings revolved around any sort of money spending (minus maybe the bus or a cheap bottle of rum). It is amazing to see an entire culture that can amuse themselves day in and day out without money, and without the constant need to consume.

All in all, it is great to be back in the US. I can go to the grocery store whenever I want and get whatever I want. I can work out without feeling like pollution might overtake my lungs. I can call my sister, parents and friends @ any time and hear their voices more than once a month. I can understand everything that is going on around me.
There are things I miss a ton though. I feel more poor than I ever have, and everything seems extremely expensive. I miss my friends from Cuba, and social relationships that are wholly based on being social (rather than having to do something such as going shopping to enjoy each other's company). I miss the sun. I miss the beach. I miss having the freedom to loiter in the streets @ 3am with a half finished bottle of rum.

Let's hope whoever gets elected in 2009 is man enough (and I say man enough, because I know Hillary would never do it anyway) to end the embargo against Cuba, so that I can go there again sometime in the future!!!
Oh- and I voted in the primary election for the first time EVER!!!!!! wooo!

Back in the PDX

2008-01-25T15:57:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!
I am just writing to let everyone know that I am in Portland, moved in, and classes have started!
This semester is going to be long and hard, but I also think it is going to be fun. I am living in a huge house with 4 roommates. We are having a birthday party for Farah (my best friend) and myself tonight @ our house. Turning 21 again!
Classes are good. I have Abnormal Psychology, which I think will be the best class, Psych Methods, Media Across Cultures, and US/Mexico Borderland Relations. As part of the US/Mex class, I get to go to Oaxaca for spring break for a research/volunteer project. So I am pretty stoked about going back there.
It is pretty weird to be back.
Farah and I made "funfetti cake" for our party, and when I looked @ the box I realized it was probably the most fake and processed thing I will have eaten in 6 months.
Things seem super expensive.
I am freezing my ass off.
I guess I just need to adjust.

I hope everyone's year started off well!
Keep in touch, and I will do my best to keep updating (dad...)

PAZ

Too COLD!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

I made it from Oaxaca to San Cristobal, to find that it is FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZING cold there. I decided to warm up with some hot chocolate in a little Cafe, where I met this really great Ausi girl. I also met up with a guy who was in the Oaxaca hostel. We wll spent that night, and the next day trying to stay warm, then hopped the earliest bus to Palenque.

It is perfect weather here, and beautiful. This morning we woke up really early and went to ruins. Ruins have started to become less interesting, but these were GORGEOUS.... surrounded by jungle, and greeeeen!

Unfortunately, I have to keep making my way North East, so I can fly home.
So, I went to the bus station to buy a ticket to Merida a few hours ago... when I asked about the 11pm bus, the guy quickly clicked away from it on the computer and said nothing was available. Of course, I had seen that were 2 seats left and that he was full of shit. It took quite a bit of yelling and arguing for me to convince him that I am not a total gringa idiot, and then he sold me the bus ticket, quite unhappily. I just do not understand why this seems to be the case all over Mexico... I have been denied things that are OBVIOUSLY available over and over again. This bus was the more expensive one, since the others actually were full, yet he did not want me to buy it. I am so unclear as to whether it is because I am white, or just for cultural reasons... I really do not know. But it has left me frustrated, even though I am making it to Merida tonight.

Anyway, enough of a rant...

I will be coming home on the 8th. I will try and post photos before then!

El Borachito y Yo

2007-12-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

I am in Oaxaca, after a few days in Cuernavaca, and I plan to be here until the night of the 1st, when I will head for San Cristobal in Chiapas.

My journey here has been quite the interesting one. In Mex City I met a Dutch girl who decided to accompany me on my journey south. She was 31, smoked like a train, and could drink a 12 pack a night, but all the same, we had a good time. We met lots of other great travelers in Mexico as well. That has been one good thing about traveling alone- I keep meeting people everywhere I go.

Anyway, the real adventure came when I made it to the bus station in Puebla and continueed on to Oaxaca. The lady at the counter told me (although I am not sure she was being at all honest), that there was only one shitty seat left on the whole bus. So I gladly took it, wanting to get out of the grimy bus station. I got on the bus, and saw this very old man wandering around and sitting in all the wrong seats, until someone directed him to the seat on his ticket, which happened to be right next to me. At first his company was amusing and enjoyable, since he seemed a bit senile. A series of events however, turned it into the comical experience of my trip.
1. I explained to him that I was from New Mexico, in the US, which is NOT part of Mexico, contrary to popular Mexican belief. He asked me about 5 or 6 times after this where I was from, if I was from Oaxaca, if I was from Cuernavaca, if I was fully Mexican, and so on. Apparently my spanish is good enough to throw an old geezer into thinking I could not possibly be from anywhere else but Mexico.
2. He offered me gum about 4 different times, seeing quite obviously that I was already chewing and popping my own. Then, I took my gum out and stuck it into a bag that had previously contained food, and before I could tuck it into the pocket in front of me, the old man was smooshing his wad on the outside of the bag, leaving me with no options of where to put it.
3. About 20 minutes in to the trip, he yelled very loudy "vamos estar en Oaxaca en 15 minutos... preparan sus cosas"... the trip to Oaxaca from Puebla is 5 hours.
4. You know how on buses they have the shite paper towel like things that go behind everyones heads, for sanitary reasons or what not? Apparently the old man thought the one belonging to the girl in front of him was a hanky... which might not be so bad, except that he kept trying to put it back behind her head.
5. At one point on the trip he got up to go to the bathroom. About 20 minutes later, when he had not reurned, I was thinking to myself "oh god, this old guy croaked on the toilet". When he finally returned he seemed a little off balance, and when he sat next to me, I noticed that he reeked of alcohol. Apparently he went and got loaded on the toilet, which is I guess better than croaking.
6. This led to him babbling on to me about absolutely nothing, and again asking if I was from Oaxaca. I finally put on my iPod, which did not actually stop him from talking to me for the next 3 hours straight.
7. The booze fest also led him to become very drowsy. Señor Borachito proceeded to fall asleep, and fall over, onto me, in between episodes of talking to my not listening self.
Oh Borachito.

Oaxaca has been absolutely wonderful! Today I went to Monte Alban, which are some of the oldest ruins in Mexico. It was H-O-T, and I may be a little pink... but it was worth it.
Tomorrow I am going to participate in one of those all day goofy gringo tours that the hostels provide. There are so many places I want to go, and the tour hits quite a few of them for pretty cheap... plus I might meet some people.

Enjoy your New Year (just do not get drunk on the toilet please)- I hope some of you make it to the Ski Valley for the torch light parade, which I am bummed about missing the 2nd year in a row!

I cannot find the damn USB plug in, so pictures will come when I do.

Estoy Aqui...

2007-12-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

After a 10 hour bus ride, I am here in Mexico City... safe and happy.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of those who care.
Everything here is closed, so I am entertaining myself with internet. damn xmas.

Livin la Vida Loca...

2007-12-24T12:49:00.000-08:00

Wow. Talk about 2 of the fastest weeks of my life!
Since leaving Cuba, time has sped up times ten!!!! I often find myself wishing I wa back in the land of socialism and fidel, and sometimes wishing I were home making snow angels. But for the most part, I am having a WONDERFUL time in Mexico, and pretty much just enjoying life.
I turned 21 in Potrero Chico- it was quite uneventful, except that I drank a very large beer. But I made Nate drag me up a multi-pitch climb called Aguja Celo Rey. It was up this pair of spires for the first part, then up the skinny spire to the very top for the second part. It was amazing. And really high up! It made for a good bday.
We got in a good amount of clmbing, met some really cool people, and dreaded Nate´s hair... which took freakin forver, but so far it looks good!
Nate left this morning, so I am back in Monterrey until 8pm tonight. I am going to catch an overnight bus to Mexico city so I should be there tomorrow morning.
After that I am planning on heading to Cuernavaca. I have a TON of medicince in my backpack for VAMOS! (an organization that Del is quite fond of), so I am pretty excited to get there and hopefully meet the woman who organizes it all.
Then off to Oaxaca, Chiapas, then up the Yucatan.
I will do my best to keep you all well informed.

El Potrero

2007-12-17T15:18:00.000-08:00

Hello all!
Sorry my Mexico postings have been scarce, and sort of lacking in the visual aid... I will work on that sometime soon.
For now I am enjoying myself about an hour or so north of Monterrey, outside the little town of Hidalgo, in the POTRERO CHICO!!!!!!! This has to be one of the most amazing climbing areas in the world... it is up there with Tonsai in Thailand.... the only thing that is a little crappy is the COLD WEATHER!!!!!!! aaaah! Maybe I am just spoiled from the tropical Cuban sun, but I am shiverrrrrrring my ass off here... with not very much clothing besides.
Anyway, Nathan made it, climbing gear and all. So We climbed a little bit today, and plan on going out for a bigger day tomorrow.
There is a small cafe here, called "Tami's Cafe", and the lady who owns it is this crazy, and by crazy I really mean loopy, (and I say loopy because she gave Nate and I 4 forks, and rearranged our coffee cups for us about 7 times, and we could not decide if maybe she was stoned, or drunk, or both) older woman from Wisconsin. She basically has the best job in the world serving Coffee spiked with Kahlua to tons of granola climbers every day. Basically, I want to BE Tina someday.
Anyway, tonight is Posole night at Tina's, so I am off to warm my ice cold body.
** I am alive, I am safe, I am happy**
And I promise to get some pictures up.

how not to coger la gua-gua in mexico

2007-12-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Here I am... Monterrey, Mexico, after 2 days relaxing in Isla Mujeres, and one long day of travel. It is way too overwhleming to be in this big of a city, so I think tomorrow I am going to head out to one of the smaller surrounding towns.
Funny thing happened to me in Cancun, after 72 hours with no sleep...
Annie, Isaac and I were trying to get downtown so that they could head to Tulum and I could go to Isla... I stopped this younger guy and asked, ¿SABES DONDE PUEDO COGER LA GUA-GUA?, not even thinking that I was no longer in Cuba. He looked at me really strangely, and just sort of walked away. After a few minutes of thinking, it occured to me that in Mexico, rather than asking where I could catch the bus, I asked where I could f*** the baby. Awesome. So ya, that is how NOT to coger la gua-gua outside of cuba.
I will keep you all updated! I hope you are all enjoying the NM snow, and OR rain! (or whatever weather you might be in)

Tattoos, Prostitutes, and Parque G...

2007-12-03T21:58:00.000-08:00

I got into the Hotel at 4am on Saturday morning, and as I made my way up the stairs to my room, I realized exactly how much I am going to miss about this country. I spent the entire evening running around Habana with Cuban and American friends, from concert to concert, and meeting tons of new people.

The evening began with Berit and I standing outside Cine Yara to meet up with the freakies and my friend Frank. When they were late, we were really confused and a little worried, because we are generally the ones on Cuban time, and they are always waiting for us. While we were waiting, I ran into a guy that I had met at an ISA party, 3 chileans that I had met earlier, and someone else who knew me, but for the life of me I had no idea who he was. Sometimes I wonder how it is possible in a city of 2 million, to continually see people you know or have interacted with. I always feel like Cuba is the size of Lewis and Clark because of theses social circuits that exist.

Our friends finally showed up, and we headed over to Coppelia to find that they had run out of ice cream only minutes before. Only in Cuba would the largest heladeria in the country run out of ice cream on a daily basis. The Cubans love their sugar though, so I guess there is just never enough.
A bit disappointed, (there is nothing worse than denying a group of hungry Cubans ice cream), we made our way over to the far side of Parque Coppelia, where Pablo Menendez, and his band Mezcla, were playing some Afro-Cuba/jazz infusion jams. The music was really good, and there were quite a few people there. One of the things I love most about Cuba, is the availability of cultural events to everyone. This concert was free to the public, and so people were there, and everyone, not just tourists and wealthy Cubans, were able to enjoy the music.

After this, we headed over a few blocks to the U of Habana, where there was going to be a live concert. We were all really excited because someone heard that X Alfonso would be playing. He never did, which is a prime example of how no one ever has any idea of what is going on until it actually happens. But, nonetheless, we never even made it into the concert, because we were too busy drinking Bucanero fuerte, and talking to what seemed like hundreds of Cubans. I kept running into friends, and making new ones at the same time. Berit has sort of mastered the trick to meet new people here. We each have a project that we are working on, and hers is on tattoos, so every few minutes, when she would see someone with a tattoo, she would run up, explain her project, and end up chatting for a while. I decided to give it a go, but rather than explaining "I am doing a project about nutritional problems and body image in Cuba" I white-lied it to a "fashion" project. I needed to take photos for my project so this worked out well... Some of the most entertaining people of the night were:
1. A 20 something artist who insisted that I call him Sigmund Freud (his name was actually Froyd), and then proceeded to explain to me that he had a very special power for looking into a woman's eyes and knowing exactly what kind of woman she is... I told him that as a future psychologist, I was not a fan of Freudian philosophy... and that ended that.
2. Berit rounded up a tattooed kid with a pet snake, who Carla (my only female Cuban friend) wanted her picture taken with... the snake, not the boy.
3. On the way to the bathroom which is situated under the most expensive hotel in Cuba, "Habana Libre", I saw an extremely skinny woman, who I decided would be good for my project. Then I found out she was a very skinny prostitute, who was more than willing to pose. Even better for my project I suppose.
4. Then we somehow came across Julio, who was an extremely intoxiacated 16 year old, who decided that it would be vital to his existence that Berit and I show up at a disco club with him on Wednesday. He also tried to convince us that his grandpa was Elian Gonzalez's lawyer (there sure are alot of them here by the way), and then fell in front of a moving car, only to be saved by someone probably more intoxicated than himself. Julio did not last long with us either.
5. But then we met Carlos, who was very nice, and covered in tattoos, and born in 1990. For some reason, Berit and I could not help but find the words "born in 1990" very strange. But he was super nice and hung out with us for the rest of the night.

After a few hours of madness in the streets, when we realized the concert had ended, we did as the freakies normally do, and made our way pa'Parque G (Cubans do not actually say "para", but rather slur it all together into the next word). On the way there, our new friend Carlos ran into (we do alot of "running into" here) his friend Raymond who introduced himself as "everybody love raaaaaymond!". Raymond is also covered in tattoos and born in 1990. I noticed a white band around his wrist, and when I asked if it was a CAMBIO bracelet, he was so stoked that I knew what it was, that he took it off and put it on my wrist. I generally would have a hard time accepting a gift from a Cuban, who I do not know at all, but when he told me that they are the type of thing that you have to just stumble upon, I gladly accepted it. The bracelets are really impossible to find in Cuba, and even though they are somewhat controversial, they signify change from a roots level, which considering the amount of apathy in Cuba, is quite a relief to see.

When we arrived at G, there were hundreds and hundreds of freakies hanging out, and basically just loitering. And that is what we proceeded to do. At one point, a guy came up and offered to pierce my face, and showed me his gourmet assortment of body jewelery. I told him I had enough thanks, but it made me laugh out loud. If I were a Cuban, I would surely be a freaky. They really do have more fun! We ended up hanging in G with our old and new friends, until about 3:30am, when Berit and I decided it would be a wise decision to flag down a botero and make our way home.

Our botero driver, and his sidekick were great! The guy driving was good looking guy and probably in his early 20s, while the money collector man was old and appeared somewhat drunk (maybe why he was not driving), and had already developed his beer belly. The old classic chevy broke down at one point, but we eventually made it back. The guys even took us straight to the hotel, so that we would not have to walk alone in the dark. They bid us farewell, wished us a safe return to the yuma, and zoomed off.

And there I found myself, making my way up the stairs, realizing what a great night I had just had, and that beyond its faults, Cuba really is an amazing country that I am going to miss dearly.

Varadero, T Giving, Mariela Castro y más!

2007-11-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is so late... I wrote it last week, but the socialists are having a hard time stealing internet from the imperialist sattellites (I am sorry if I botched the spelling of that pops!), so the connection has been more than crappy. I will get photos up, once I can rely on my internet not crashing every few minutes.

I have less than 2 weeks left in Cuba... I have been here for almost 100 days, it went by so quickly that most of it seems sort of like a blur.
3 weeks ago, if someone had handed me a one way ticket home, I would have jumped on the plane without packing my bags... maybe because I was going through some serious culture shock, mixed with the mid semester slump. Now however, I am worried that I will not be able to do everything I want to. I do have a list though- and that is keeping me busy.

Last weekend, myself and 2 other girls hitch-hiked our way to Varadero to lay on the beach for a few days... It is only about a 2 1/2 hour drive, but it took us 7 hours to get to our final destination. We drank wine, lied in the sun, and basically just had an amazing lazy weekend. Varadero is a weird place though... it is the only place in Cuba where private business of any sort is completely illegal. So, there are not casa particulares to stay at, and no paladares to eat at.... everything is state run, and expensive as hell. But, being the dirt baggers that we are, we snuck off the main road a few blocks, and asked around if we could stay with anyone illegally. One wonderful woman allowed us to, for about a 1/10 of what we would have paid in the touristy hotels. But, we still did the tourist thing and had some lobster and shrimp paella for dinner... it was way worth it! It was a nice way to get out of the city and away from the group for the weekend, and I got to cross it off my to-do list.

On Monday, Mariela Castro (the daughter of acting prez Raúl) came to our class to speak about homosexuality and transgender rights (or serious lack of) in Cuba. She is the strongest activist for alternative sexuality in Cuba, and everything she said was really interesting. Plus, it was kind of celebrity-esque to meet someone so important.

A little update on the last weeks Turkey Day Fiesta:
What would November be without a proper Thanksgiving dinner to wrap it up right? Well in Cuba, we were all worried that we would be eating arroz moro en vez de mashed potatoes. However, myself and two other girls managed to cook almost an entire Thanksgiving dinner for 40 people, the day of, in a kitchen the size of my bathroom!
It started with pie making... which can be hard without certain ingredients. I managed to pull off my key lime- coconut pie (homemade graham crust and all) and then 2 squash (no pumpkin) pies with homemade real crust. They ended up AMAZING! If anyone wants to squash pie recipe, let me know.
So then I decided that we had to have something Cuban at the meal, so I got a recipe from my spanish Profesora for meat croquetas. Only, there are like 8 vegetarians on this trip, and I still had 6lbs of squash left over, so I decided to replace "pureed chicken" with mashed squash. Out of Cuban tradition, I deep fried them in soy oil... and they were the best part of the meal. I am actually going to post the recipe at the end of this...
Along with the pies and croquetas, we had mashed sweet potatoes, mashed garlic potatoes, yucca potatoe-ish things, 3 varieties of stuffing, a GINORMOUS salad, banana chips, macaroni and cheese, ham tamales, and as a sweet surprise, peanut butter and honey sandwiches on wheat bread. The turkeys (2 huge ones) were cooked by our hotel kitchen, and when we sliced them open they were still raw inside... so two of the boys managed to pan fry most of it. A good laugh at how ridiculous Cuba is sometimes.
Anyway, I hadn't eaten all day b/c I was trying so hard to make sure everything got done... but it was totally worth it come dinner time. Everything was so good- it might be one of the best Thanksgiving I have had in a very long time.
After dinner, we all danced salsa and drank lots of $2 wine, with our professors and friends. Then we headed out to the Malecón where we had 2 wheelbarrow races, and met a group of students from Sara Lawrence, who had also finished their T-giving festivities.
All in all, it was a great day... and it reminded me just how thankful I am to be in Cuba.

SQUASH CROQUETAS
1 squash (peeled, boiled, mashed)
splash of milk
flour (maybe 2 cups-ish?)
garlic
onion
salt
pepper
whatever other spices might be hidden in the dust of your cabinet
egg (beaten and in a shallow dish)
bread crumbs (on a plate)

*mix all ingredients except the egg and bread crumbs, until you have a good consistency for "log-rolling"
*roll dough into logs or small balls
*dip in egg
*roll in bread crumbs
*DEEP FRY in super hot HOT hot oil (my professor says this makes them soak up less oil... haha. no.)
*enjoy. you really will.

**My original plan was to do them with spinach... but you can only buy spinach in Cuba on Sundays.... que mala suerte. But it would have been yummy!
***For all you NMicans- how dank would this be to do with some green chile?!?!

¡Oye! ¡Mira!

2007-11-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

Another long week... and again, I find myself saying "wow, it's the weekend again!".
Tonight I ran around with the "freakies" and had the first ever warm and enjoyable conversation with a young female Cuban, Carla. That was sort of a nice change! I could barely understand anything she said, and the fact that she just got her tongue pierced made that even harder. She was only 15, but she was super comfortable hanging out with us. I feel like Cubans mature really quickly, and so here, it is perfectly okay to have a group with a 15 year old, a 21 year old, and 26 year old.

On Monday, a few of us woke up early and went to Necrópolis Colón, which is a national monument cemetery. It is HUGE! And by huge, I mean you need a map, and it extends about 10 square blocks. Everyone who was anyone is buried there. One of the graves is the "Blessed Mother". The story goes, that she died in an accident with her baby, and they were buried together with her baby at the foot of the coffin. In Cuba, they excavate all graves after 4 years, to make room for the new bodies coming in. According the the legend, when they dug up the mother and baby, the baby was magically in the mother's arms. So now, it is a big symbol in Habana for mother's who have lost children, and for fertility. Of course, there is a donation box now placed on the grave, because what would catholocism be without a little extra cash right?
But really, the cemetery was absolutely beautiful, and I spent easily 2 hours walking through it, and getting lost.

Anyway, on Tuesday Jacob, Laura, Danny and I went to our profesora Julie's casita and made dinner. Julie is like a new york jew, stuck in a cuban world. Imagine trying to communicate with about the nosiest woman ever, who wont let you have a word in edge-wise, and whose mannerisms are so over the top dramatic, but in your second language. This is Julie.
We made chicken parmesean and rice. It was soooo good! So nice to not be eating meat and rice. Then Julie, being the Cuban that she is, decided we needed dulces of some sort. So, she tried to make cookies for the first time ever. Cubans do not eat real cookies, nor do they know how to make them. Here is an example of how NOT to make oatmeal cookies. First, Julie put a bag of oats in a pot. Then she put in about a tsp of sugar, and turned on the stove. Laura and I ran in the kitchen and explained that you need something wet (maybe milk, or eggs, or even both) for anything to work. Laura and I had to laugh a little because we have never seen anyone try and cook oats before making cookies. Laura and I finally managed to patch up Julie's honest effort, and threw the cookies in the oven with no temperature gauge. 20 minutes later, we had "galletas de Julie". I could really go for a mom-made oatmeal, white chocolate chip, w/dried cherries cookie after that.
I have noticed since being in Cuba, that children and extremely well behaved and that it is a rare occasion to see a meltdown of any sort. However, Julie's 9 year old son Marcel, is quite the exception. I believe "little shit" is the nicest description/euphamism I can think of. Basically he treats his mom like crap, because he knows she wont do anything about it, and he knows and uses about every vulgar word there is. He is a horrible, horrible little monster child, but for some odd reason, he won a place in my heart, and he is my new little Cuban novio. Julie does pretty well for herself money-wise, and it seems that Marcel has more than most Cuban kids do (but far less than any American kid... (no playstation or xbox). I think the fact that he has the little extra advantage that he does, makes him one of those spoiled rotten kids. It is just hard to see that, since to us, he still has practically nothing. It might also have to do with the fact that Julie has a hard time focusing on one thing for more than like 5 seconds at a time, including disciplining Marcelito.
In any event, making dinner was a ton of fun, and a good way to mix up the hotel buffet. I think myself and a few other girls are going to attempt to make Thai food for Julie next week! Not so sure how well it will work here... we'll see.

Yesterday Mary, Maile and I went downtown not really knowing what we were going to do. We ended up getting off the gua-gua at Parque Almendares, which I now know is notorious for public masturbation. Awesome. We were lucky enough to avoid being exposed to any of it. Instead we played on the swings and climbed trees all afternoon! It was a nice spontaneous afternoon.

Today 4 of us decided to treat ourselves to sunset at Hotel Naciónal. When we got there, we went out back to where the lawn overlooks the Malecón, and took some pictures. Everyone who has been there told us the mojitos were amazing, but we cringed at hearing they were 4cuc a piece. We then heard a familiar Texan accent from behind us, and met another American, Michael. Michael is a very large Texan, who comes to Cuba twice a year to stay in fancy hotels, guzzle mojitos, and suck on fatty cigars, plus he takes his son scuba diving every once in a while. He even brings his own Splenda to Cuba, for the bartenders to put in his Mojitos so he can avoid hangovers! He was pretty hilarious, and maybe a little tipsy of the Cuban rum, but within 5 minutes, he had bought 16cuc worth of Mojitos for us, and was our new found "dad". haha! It was another successful day in Cuba.

This weekend myself, Sarah, and Carly are headed out to Varadero, the nicest beach in Cuba. The original plan was to go camping, but due to technical difficulties, that was cancelled at the last minute. Porque estamos en Cuba.

No Necesito Dormir...

2007-11-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I actually feel like I have not slept in about a week... and really, I haven't.
Cuba has been a little crazy, and this last week there was so much going on that it was hard to decide what to do each day and night.

On Tuesday after class, we went down to La Rampa, where every Novemeber they have a giant book fair! There were hundreds of books, all of them in spanish, and all of them costing less than a dollar. I ended up buying a few, incuding a children's comic book about the life of Ché, a political comic book, and Paradiso, by José Lazama Lima (Cuba's most famous author). One thing about Cuba, is that the country makes culture and art (books, operas, ballets, concerts) very affordable to even the poorest of the population. Cubans of all classes were at the fair, and everyone had the ability to purchase at least one book. Then I think of Barnes and Noble, where a copy of "Brave New World" might cost you $14 dollars. Being well cultured and "educated" comes at way too high of a price in a country that prides itself on being the wealthiest and most powerful. When wealth=knowledge, you know there is something wrong.

On Tuesday night I went with my friend Frank, and some people from our group to the youth run venue "Madriguera" for a hip-hop show. There was hardly anyone there, but the show was awesome! There is actually a ton of talent in the hip-hop scene here, which is hard to believe considering how almost-non-existent it is. It was a late night, but well worth it.
On Wednesday, 5 of us girls hopped on the gua-gua to the Capitolio, so we could see a flamenco show. On the gua-gua we met these 3 crazy chilean guys, who are studying phys. ed. here in Habana. They were absolutely hilarious, and had no plans, so ended up going to the flamenco show with us. When we all walked in, it was as if EVERYTHING went quiet, and every single person turned to look at us... awkward! But after a few minutes, they got used to having the extranjeros join the fun, and we felt a little less like sore thumbs. The dancing was intense! They say Cubans are horrible at flamenco because they cannot dance seriously, but these girls were incredible! The show only lasted about 45 minutes, but again- well worth it!

Thursday, we were supposed to meet Frank again for another hip-hop show. We ended up buying a bottle of rum, and sitting on the sidewalk, talking and drinking until about midnight... then we went to look for the show, which was not happening. This seems to be a trend in Cuba... no one ever knows what is going on until it happens... I know I say that all the time, but it is very very true. So, slightly disappointed, we decided to go to Parque Lennon. Yes, Lennon, not Lenin. Here in Cuba, the people have this strange fascination/obsession with John Lennon. So much in fact, that there is a whole park dedicated to the man. There is a sweet life size statue of him sitting on a bench... and you can hang out with John Lennon whenever you so please. (Apparently there is a HUGE fiesta on Dec. 8, the day he died, which is sadly the day we fly out). We ended up just hanging out with John until about 2am. So yes, another fun, late, well worth it night.

Finally, the weekend arrived! Time for a break from all these academic strains huh? Every Friday our school has a giant party outside the artes plasticas building... **for those of you sensitive to the subject of female body parts, skip down to the next paragraph :)** I think I mentioned this already, but the entire building is shaped like a woman. And the place where they throw the parties has a giant fountain-like thing, shaped like a vagina. (this comes into play later in the story). So we all decided to go to this party, where there were about 500 students all dancing like crazies to cuban techno music, with bottles of rum inside plastic bags... About 20 minutes after being there, I see like 5 Cubans jump into the vagina pool, and think to myself, "wow, that is a horrible idea". Seconds later, I was picked up by someone and thrown/heaved into the vagina full of sucio water, and Cubans. Since I was sopping wet, I decided it would be best to just go with it, so I danced in the vagina for about 2 hours. When I got home and washed my clothes, I decided again that being in the pool of nasty stagnant rain water, with lots of sweaty people was a really gross idea. But I got over it. It was the most "Cuban" moment I think I have had here. So maybe that makes it fun and worth it?

Last night (Saturday) we were supposed to go to a show where X Alfonso (a famous hip hopper) was supposed to be. We got there and had a hard time getting in because it is a strict "Cuban's only" concert venue. But we made it after flashing our Carné's about 100 times. The show was supposed to start at 9pm. At 9.45 we found out that X Alfonso was not playing, and that is was some rock cover band, which explained the presence of hundreds of under 18 "freakies"... (that is what the punk, goth, rock, emo kids call themselves here). So we decided to hang out and see it anyway, and we met this really cool guy Patricio, who was "old" like us, and disappointed about the lack of X Alfonso. The show started at 11.30pm, and it ended up being HILARIOUS and AWESOME! we made our way to the front of the crowd where we jammed out to covers of Nirvana, Papa Roach, Blink 182, Gavin Degraw, and Eminem. Yes, maybe the weirdest mixture of genres ever. There were hundreds of kids running around throwing beercans at each other (which is their form of "moshing" in Cuba). It was about the best experience I have had here... absolutely. After the show we went to our Profesora Julie's house where she was having a small part for us. We only stayed for about 20 minutes though, then headed up to 23rd and G, where all the freakies hang out. By this point it was about 1.30am. One thing I have learned in Cuba is that if you are downtown past 1am, you will be there until quite possibly 5am. The transportation just sort of stops at that time every night. So, it took us an hour and a half to find a botero to take us home. Exhausted, I crashed at 4am.

Thank god it's Sunday. Although, I think we are going to a dinner party at Frank's house and then there is another hip-hop show later tonight, and I am sure something tomorrow night too. But hell, who needs sleep anyway?
¿Así es Cuba no?
I only have 4 weeks left so I might as well enjoy them, :)

The Castro/Chávez Love Affair

2007-11-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

I am finally done with the first true academic thing I have done since last April. 12 pages later, I learned more about Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, oil, economics, and what a dip-shit Cheney is, than I ever could have imagined.
*Castro and Hugo are actually soul-mates... hiding their love from the general public... it's true.
*The US recieves 15% of its oil imports from Venezuela, and Venezuela ships 60% of all of its oil to the US.
*Cuba receives 100,000 barrels of oil every day from Venezuela.
*There are 40,000 Cuban doctors, educators and other social workers in Venezuela.
*Bush thinks the "good Lord" will take Fidel away from us soon.
*Cheney thinks that Chávez is the president of Perú (this is actually true).
*“[w]e have to re-invent socialism...but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition.”
--Hugo Chávez

Today I rode a bike with not only 2 flat tires, but the tires were actually not attached to the rims. This about sums up Cuba.

¡Feliz Día De Los Muertos!

2007-11-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Missing Halloween and Día de los Muertos is a good way to become a little bit homesick in Cuba...
Unless of course, you can convince most of the 26 crazy American kids living with you, to get last minute costumes together, blast some reggaeton in a hotel room, drink rum, dance, and hand out candy! That more or less sums up the night.
During the day of Halloween I was walking downtown in the afternoon when I came upon a kids party store, which looked like it might have masks... ummm it had HUNDREDS of masks! And for one Cuban peso, I could not help but buy a handful... in hopes that someone would feel like dressing up.
Anyway, I spread the word that I might have a pretty cool costume, and within about 2 hours, everyone was jam packed into my room, celebrating my favorite day of the year!
There were some awesome costumes- quite a few people dressed as other people on the trip, and then there was Frida, Capitalist Kid, Spiderman, a Cuban garden, a metrosexual pirate, and one kid ended up shaving only the top part of his head (so he could be an old man). Pretty good stuff. I went with a Ninja Turtle, and wore a traditional Cuban Guayabera in green (which I somehow stumbled upon in a thrift store). The best part of the costume is that the mask has a little "M" on it, signifying that the Ninja is Michaelangelo, when in all reality, we all know that the red Ninja is Rafael. It was a good effort though.
When we went downstairs in our costumes and handed out candy, the employees were histerical- They loved our costumes, and were pretty stoked about getting candy. One of the guys working at the restaurant thought he needed to give us something in return, so he offered us coleslaw.... to which we told him, he could just enjoy his candy, and on Halloween you can only eat sugar. That got us out of having to eat the mayonnaise mess.
I ended up sitting at the bar with 2 other girls fromt he trip, and our Colombian friends (not in costume), Pablo and Jorge, until 3am. We talked all about Cuba, our own countries, and politics and what not. It was a strange topic to discuss on Halloween, but I was glad nonetheless that I could be taken seriously with my turtle face pushed up over my hair, and a pillow "shell" still stuffed down the back of my shirt.
Oh Halloween- no matter how old you are, it never ceases to be an amazingly fun night!

Señor Frog

2007-10-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

My mom requested that I post a photo of the frog in our toilet... but I think I need to give the story as well...
It was about 2am and I got out of bed to go pee. I almost sat down when I realized there was a really cute frog, chilling out in some pee from before. So, the first thing I did was grab my camera and snap a photo... but then the frog jumped out of the toilet and on to me, and then all over me, which made me scream and woke up my roomie. She grabbed he camera and the frog hopped into the shower. We then continued to blind the frog with our camera flashes for a few minutes, then finally went back to bed. :)

Mid-terms? We do them vacation style in Cuba!

2007-10-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

After a week of relaxation, vacation, and some intermittent madness, we are back from Pinar del Rio, and once again settling into Habana life. All in all, the trip was a nice little week long vacation from reality, in lew of intensive midterms.

I am not sure how to break down the week- but I will do my best to do it in a non-painfully-long way...

First stop: Valle de Viñales
I might actually choose to live here and never return to the United States, were it not situated in a socialist country where there is never any snow. Really. Viñales stole a little piece of my heart. After we arrived, I decided to go for a long run, since it was not obscenely hot for the first time that I could remember. I ran forever, because every bend that I went around in the road brought me upon one more breathtaking view of a mountain, or a cliff, or even a field or farm. The colors in this valley are so unbelievably rich, that you would almost have to see them to believe that they exist. It is a town full of farmers, and tobacco growers (not sure on what you would call that) and so I was greeted every hundred feet by genuine smiles, and a tip of the hat. Being on that run left me feeling completely emotionally and physically satisfied, which is something I really think I needed at that point. Anyway, I have every intent of returning the weekend after Thanksgiving to stay in the home of Oscar Rodríguez, who is more or less single handedly trying to get climbing on its feet in Cuba. I am minus my climbing shoes (I am still kicking myself for that) but I hoping to borrow some and at least do some bouldering.
Some other highlights from Viñales- a really cute frog who made a home in our toilet, and a beautiful hike where we saw newborn piglets and made our way up to a cave, and a community league baseball game...

Next stop: Ciudad de Pinar del Rio
We only spent one night here, and did not do a whole lot. It is sort of like a miniature, more laid back Habana. We did however celebrate the 21st birthday of a girl on our trip. The previous night we all watched "Dazed and Confused" so we decided it should be a "Sleazy 70's" party theme. There was lots of rum, tons of domino playing, and enough 70's attire to make someone sick. To top it off, the hotel room was decorated like a 70's getaway sweet, complete with orange couches, and flowered walls. Good old American parties!
The day we left, we made it to a cigar factory, where we just sort of looked at about 100 Cuban workers quietly rolling cigars. It was rather strange, and made most of us feel sort of uncomfortable. It was also weird, because we could not purchase cigars at the factory, although, one of the brave boys (obviously the one from NM!) managed to sneak a deal with one of the guys rolling, without the guards seeing, and walked out with 15 super cheap, high quality cigars. When we got outside, there was a man on a bike behind the bus. He tst tst'ed me and I followed him to a good hiding spot where he whipped out a nice box of Cohiba Siglo V cigars and said "¿cinco convertibles?", to which I responded "¡claro!", and walked away with a box of cigars that otherwise would have cost 15 convertibles in the stores. The workers do a lot of black market sales, because every week they are given a box (or something like that), and if they can get 5cuc out of it, it adds quite a bonus to their "salary". I realized how sketchy this all was, once the cigar factory guard blew his whistle and yelled at me to get away. When I walked by him however, he winked and sent a "gracias" my way, which makes me think he gets a cut, and just has to pretend to be scary after the illegal deal goes down. See, I am learning a ton here in Cuba!

Last stop: Playa Maria La Gorda
For four days, we were forced to stay on a gorgeous beach, with nothing to do except play volleyball, play soccer, play domino, read, swim, tan, and swim. It pretty much sucked... about as much as a broken vacuum. Ok- it was quite fantastic to not have to do ANYTHING for four straight days. On one of the days we went to the national park in Guanahacabibes, where we took a beautiful hike to Cueva las Perlas. Being active in the outdoors definitely hit the spot, although it reminded me just how much I miss the mountains and forests. The next day.... I am not sure how ready those of you who know me, are to hear this.... I WENT SCUBA DIVING! Yes, "I would rather die than snorkel in the middle of the ocean even while holding your hand" me, toughed it up and plunged 15 meters down to the ocean floor! And I have to say, it was the most incredible experience of my entire life, and I already cannot wait to get certified and do it again. For the first time in my entire life I was not the least bit scared of the water, or the things living in it. I felt totally comfortable, and enjoyed every second of it. The snorkelers saw 2 barracuda, making me happy that I chose to Scuba instead. The whole thing was rather sketchy, since none of the 4 of us that went were certified or trained in any way, and the only debriefing we got was "breath in and out slowly, and if you hear me jingle my bell, look at me". But I made it out alive... and happy!
Other than that, we played way too much domino, soccer and volleyball, and had Nip/Tuck parties (which has become our guilty American pleasure... amazing show by the way- everyone should check out the new season) and drank gallons and gallons of tea, since it was the first time we had seen it at every meal.

On the way back to Habana we took a break at the Orquideario in Soroa. This orchid garden is unbelievable! It is the second largest orchid garden in the world, with 20,000 plants, and 700 species of orchid, 250 of which are native to Cuba! I cannot really even describe it, other than it was incredible. We finished off the day by hiking to a waterfall called Cascada Iris, where we all swam in the refreshing water, and stuffed 13 of us into an extremely small cave. It was a good way to end the trip.

All in all I had fun, but once again it is good to be "home". It is funny when you start feeling like a hotel is home, but I kind of like it here. It is definitely a step up from smelly college dorms!
Sorry if the post still managed to be painfully long! I have a long paper (on the relationship between Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro) due next Monday, so they will be shorter for a while.... I promise.

Cuba: where the week-end never really ends.

2007-10-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

I have officially hit the "six week slump", where I consistently feel lazy, tired, and overwhelmed. It seems to have hit at quite the right time however, since on Saturday we are packing our bags, boarding the big fat "I'm a tourist" bus, and trucking our way down to Pinar del Rio for an entire week! It is supposed to be the most beautiful region in Cuba, and I have been told that it is the place to buy really inexpensive, but amazing, cigars (of course, I would never go against the will of the US government, and support socialism in such a manner; and further more, I would NEVER consider attempting to smuggle Cuban tobacco into the states as gifts... right?).

Anyway, our intinerary, however tentative it may be, looks absolutely amazing! The last day we are hitting up the largest orchid garden in the carribean! I might just die of happiness. Also, Viñales, which is located within the Pinar region, is the only place in Cuba where the people have even heard of rock climbing. There is actually a very miniscule climbing community within the town, which I am going to make a serious effort at finding. I am hoping to make some dirt-bagger, cuban, climber buddies, that will invite me back to climb another weekend before I leave. I sort of feel like no matter where you go, climbers are the same sort of people, and I am hoping that holds true for Cuba as well.

Speaking of climbers, we found the only brewery in Habana! It actually was not bad... not great, but decent. Ok- on Cuban standards it was pretty damn amazing! And much needed! There were 3 choices: clara, oscura, negra. Basically light, dark, draught. I went for the oscura (Ariel will be proud of me), which I later decided was the best choice. Some of the people I was with got the media-dia especial, which was a burger, and a pint of beer. The burgers definitely belong on my list of "creepy Cuban things" since they were described on the menu as a combo of "lechon, puerco, res, y nuestra especial", which roughly translates to: pork, more pork, beef, and something special. I stuck to the beer.

Not a whole lot to speak of from this last week, except that it went by extraordinarly fast, and I am still trying to figure out how it is possibly the weekend AGAIN! I have never in my life felt like I have so much weekend, all of the time. I guess it has to do with the fact that it starts @ 3:00pm on Thursday, and ends on Monday @ 1:30pm. Plus, every other day is a national Cuban holiday, celebrating the life, death, or victory of some person, or revolutionary battle. This Pinar del Rio trip is sort of like a very extended fall break I suppose. I am guessing I will be slightly excited to get back into the class thing once I get back, as strange as that seems.

Ok- the thunder is really intense right now, so I think using Cuban internet might not be so wise. I will post more once I am back from the trip. I hope everyone is enjoying life right now, wherever you may be. Keep reading, and thank you for the comments!!!!!!!

¿Racismo?

2007-10-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone I have talked to, or that has given a guest lecture in Cuba, has commented on how racism does not "really" exist in Cuba. It has been said several times, that it is underlying, and not official racism; racism not against skin color, but rather developed out of experience. This is a big fat lie, that I have yet to come to terms with living here.

Our professor, Julia, explained that "it is not that I am against the color of their skin, but I have had many bad interactions with black people, so I do not like them. But I am not racist".

This is all so frustrating, because it seems to be a very common feeling, amongst whites in Cuba, and I do not want to cut ties with my friends who are among them.

Anyway, the point of this blog- I was finally exposed to the most overt, government initiated racism, I have ever seen in my life yesterday.

5 of us went downtown early in the morning to meet up with a friend, Alejandro (who is black), to go to the beach with a bunch of his friends. We were walking to the bus stop with him to meet up with his friends, when we were not surprisingly stopped by 3 police officers. In Cuba, if a black man is walking with one or more "extranjeros", he is usually asked for his ID card, asked a few questions, and usually left alone after that. These cops however, decided that Alejandro was hustling all of us, even after we explained that we have all been friends for 6 weeks. 2 of the cops proceeded to put him in handcuffs, then took him to the police station. We walked all the way to the station, where they questioned him for 20 or so minutes. Outside, we were all arguing with the cops, who would never do anything to an extranjero. Anyway, the finally came out with Alejandro, told us we could all go to the beach together, and "disculpe la molesta".

We figured this was the end of the situation, until we arrived at the same corner where Alejandro was first arrested, and the 3rd cop was still hanging out there. He asked Alejandro for his ID, pretending like he had not just done so. We told him the other 2 cops let him go, and told us we could all go to the beach in peace. The cop completely ignored us, and radioed into the police station, that he had a hustler, with 5 extranjeros. We all busted out our resident ID cards, and shouted that we were students, not tourists, to which the cop did not respond at all. Finally, after 10 more minutes of yelling and arguing on our end, and cold silence from the cop, the first cops got on the radio and said that Alejandro had, in fact, been cleared. Without saying a word to the cop we turned around and left.

I have never felt so angry in my life! Alejandro said it was not a big deal and that he had to deal with that all the time. If he had been a white Cuban, he would have had no problems to begin with. There is so much racial profiling that goes on here, and an "official" racism definitely exists.

Aside from the arrest, the rest of the day went wonderfully! We met up with Alejandro's 5 friends, then headed out to Guanabo, a beautiful beach with HUGE waves, and no tourists. We spent the entire day there, laying in the sun, body surfing, and playing pelota with a stick and a H20 bottle cap, and only 3 bases. By the end of the day, we had all forgotten about the mornings troubles, and turned our worries to our burnt skin.

*I am also a 100%, government approved Carnet holding, Cuban resident!

¡Que Corre-Corre!

2007-10-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

So, I went through what I would like to call my "mid-Cuba-crisis" earlier this week. It resulted in the loss of 12 inches of hair! The barber (Fernando) thought I might be drunk when I asked him to cut everything off, but when I asked him to cut a braid so I could donate it, he realized I was just a crazy American.
Anyway, here it is.

¡No Me Arrastre Mas!

2007-10-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

In Cuba I have often come across things that make me say "ummmm, that is creepy". This phrase has become so much a part of my routine here, that I decided to dedicate an entire blog post to "cosas que me arrastre mucho"... or things that creep on me in Cuba (as there is no word for 'creepy' here).

1. Many of us have pondered the idea that maids here have to go to a "towel oragami school" in order to work in a hotel. Mostly, they make your towels into cute hearts, or swans, or even little dolls. The maid at our hotel in Trinidad however, went above and beyond what any school could possibly teach her, and left us an elephant (we think) with a nicely scribbled human face on a piece of paper, and a giant blanket heart. ¡CREEPY!

2. The first day on our Santiago trip, we stopped by the previously mentioned creepy crocodile farm, that I found to be equivalent to that of a slaughter-house meant for tourists to see the living crocs before they are eaten. Anyway, the sign as you enter insists that you have to eat some of the already dead crocodile meat, and has a cute little picture of a croc in a chef hat. At first I thought it was a little depressing, but once I saw the baby crocs on leashes for tourists to pet, I decided this place was 100%, no questions about it, ¡CREEPY!

3. Also on our Santiago trip (but in Santa Clara), I witnessed quite possibly the creepiest show put on for tourists in the entire world. The "aqua-ballet" began with 3 hembres (women) and 3 barrones (men) dancing around in full body bathing suit tuxedos and dresses. Once they were in the water it was more like synchronized swimming with a touch of flair. However, about half way through (after about 4 costume changes) they all came out in HOT PINK, VELOUR, TIGHT SPANDEX, full body bathing suits. It had crossed my mind throughout the entire show that what we were watching was slightly creepy, but at this point I had to say aloud to the girl sitting next to me, "holy shit this is hella ¡CREEPY!".

I am starting to realize how most of the creepy things that occur in this country are aimed to make tourists really happy and excited to be here. That in itself is almost creepy.
There are many creepy things not aimed at tourists also, and this is my favorite:

4. Going to the store in Cuba, is sort of like going down only the aisle in an American supermarket labled "sweets and snacks" with a small section reserved for "canned goods". The only problem is that the canned goods hidden within the hundreds of cookie options are not so "good". They sort of remind me of something you might order for your sister online, at a trashy prank-gift website. The best one is "Lunch con Aceitunas", which roughly translates (or does not need translation) to, "Lunch with Olives". The problem here, is that whatever "Lunch" is, is not specified anywhere on the can. The picture seems to show some sort of mystery meat... most likely Cuban ham, or something of the pig genre. Cuban canned deliciousness = ¡TOTALLY CREEPY!

Really, all of these things make me laugh really hard more than anything.
***And for anyone who takes things WAY to seriously, Cuba is not at all a creepy country, it is just littered with creepy objects and instances that might make some people slightly uncomfortable. These things however, do not add up to make Cuba dangerous, scary, or our enemy.***

Our Great "Abuela Fidelina" Adventure

2007-10-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Last night was one of the best experiences I have had since being in Cuba. Jacob Laura and I had plans to meet up with Alexander once again (the book guy) but we were somewhat skeptical that things our plans would work out. But, he showed up at the right place and so did we, so after buying a bottle of rum, he walked us 1 or 2 Kilometers (which in Cuban is really like 3 miles) to this tiny barrio that looked about as removed from Habana as it could get. You cannot get to this place by car, and most of the roads are dirt. Anyway, we arrived as his grandmother's house, and she quickly said hello and hurried off the kitchen. Abuela Fidelina is an angry, short, old Cuban woman who smokes too many cigarettes, and has 30 grandchildren and too many great grandchildren to count. She was pretty cold to us at first (in a sort of old womanish way), but when we told her that the food she made us was "la mejor en toda la Habana" she decided that we were her new favorite grandchildren and even gave us all kisses. The food was pretty damn good, even for a standard Cuban meal of arroz morro, fried fish, fried bananas and avocado. While we were eating tons and tons of people kept coming in and out of the house, and Alexander explained that the entire family lives in this community so everyone stops by every night to say hello to Abuela Fidelina. We got some really strange looks, but everyone said hello and wanted to know where we were from and why the hell we were all way in this sketchy neighborhood.

After dinner we (the Americans, Fidelina, Alexander, a cousin and his wife) drank some very libre cuba-libres (of course) and talked about really random things. It was nice to just sit in a family room and hang out and laugh. It made me realize that what I really miss about the states more than anything, is my family. It also made me realize how nice it is to feel like you belong somewhere where you totally do not, and how exhausting it is to try and fit in all of the time.

Fidelina has practically adopted us however, and Alexander made us absolutely promise (about 10 times) that we would be around next Monday when he calls us. He actually ended up being a really interesting guy... he sells black market books, and he reads them all first, which explains why he is so knowledgeable on Cuban politics. He buys the books straight from the factories for next to nothing, then sells them to tourists for several times the price. Selling books here is hard though, and I do not think he makes too much of a profit... especially when he gives books away to crazy white kids like us 30 seconds after introducing himself.
Anyway, the whole night ended up working out really well, and although I do not have any pictures (I felt too awkward being the tourist who busts out their camera the second they get to a new place) I plan on taking some at some point when we go back to visit Fidelina and bring her some New Mexico style guacamole.

Patria o Muerte

2007-10-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

When my sister first thought about going to Thailand, she measured money amounts in terms of elephant rides... for example, a $20 shirt was 10 elephant rides...
Here, we measure things in terms of ice creams. One ice cream is equal to one cuban peso, or about 4 cents. A taxi ride is ten ice creams, and avocados run about 8 ice creams. This is how I have managed to not spend too much money here. When I see something that I want, say, a juice box that costs 2.50 CUC, I just think... wow- that is 60 ice creams. That's a lot of ice cream.
There is also something that we have named "Ché ice cream". For a long time we just called it "3 ice cream- ice cream", meaning it was 3 pesos. however, there is a 3 peso coin with the fabulous face of Ché on it. So, a 3 peso ice cream has now become "Ché ice cream". It is ok to splurge on Ché ice cream once in a while. Then you have the slightly more expensive Copellia 5 peso ice cream, which is ok because it is famous, and you get your 5 ice creams worth. However, if someone has "too many ice creams- ice cream" it means they paid for it in CUCs (about 24 ice creams in a CUC), which in Cuba is really just a waste of money.

This weekend was really busy! The weekends here are really like 4 days, so we end up doing alot.
Friday night we went out to dinner with our tour guide, Jesús, from the Santiago trip (a few of us became really good friends with him...) Then we made him come with us to our friend Julio's house for a Reggaeton party. Yes, Cubans LOVE Daddy Yankee... I always ask why and they answer with "why not?". Well... I don't really know how to answer that. We danced some salsa at this party also, so it was ok. It was a little intimidating because lots of the people at the party are dance students at our school... and Cubans already dance like pros, so those who are majoring in dance are pretty much untouchable. Our boys on the other hand, have quite a bit to learn.
Saturday was a Cuban national holiday, celebrating the 47th anniversary of the CDR (Committee in Defense of the Revolution). Cubans do not take holidays lightly... pretty much all of Habana was a giant party, with bon fires and huge vats of everything soup, and cuban flags everywhere. It was sort of like fourth of July for Cubans. Jacob, Laura and I went to La Rampa for the art fair. This is a huge fair that is only in September, and sells really random things. From there we decided to walk down to the Malecón and hang out. While there, we met 2 pretty drunk guys, who started talking to us about the US government and Fidel. One guy, Alexander, gave us a book the Fidel wrote on neoliberalism and globalization, and he made us promise to read it and then meet him Sunday at a bar to talk about it. We kept walking and there were tons of kids doing crazy dives and flips into the rocky water, and it seemed like 1/2 of Cuba was hanging out on the Malecón. Then we all decided it would be a good idea to try and walk to Habana Vieja (maybe 4 miles from where we were). We ended up walking through really broken down neighborhoods in Centro Habana. It was a pretty eye-opening experience. Everyone was outside doing something... playing marbles, kicking around a soccer ball, playing baseball. We met a kid who was painting VIVA FIDEL on the street, and he pretty much just made fun of us (in good humor) while we watched him paint. We made it all the way to Habana Vieja, and went to the Prado art market, where we each purchased a Cuban painting. We finished off the day by eating chinese food in el Barrio Chino, which is quite possibly the strangest two blocks I have ever been on.
Overall it was a really good day. I saw so many Cubans just having fun and enjoying themselves. It made me realize a huge difference from Americans. If someone in Cuba is not having fun, they go outside and figure out how to. Maybe that's why I love Cubans.
Sunday we went to meet Alexander and he was there! So we had super cheap home-brew from this sketchy little bar, and talked all about Communism and Capitalism. He was really anti-socialist, which is the first time I have actually come across that. Although, he did seem to have the idea that America is the land of perfection and opportunity, and we had to explain that we definitely have problems of our own. Anyway, he invited us to his house on Tuesday, where his mom and grandma are going to make us dinner, we just have to bring rum. It's amazing how easy it is to make friends here, and to be welcome into homes by entire families. It seems that rather than worrying about owning more and more things, and having more and more money, the Cubans focus on meeting more and more people, and making more and more close relationships.
After meeting with Alexander, we went to a dinner party @ our trip leader's house. It was nice to have a real meal, with no bread or rice, and no ice cream. I think we are going to do this every other sunday, switching off the people who cook. It might keep us all sane.
Yes, you can go insane in Cuba... quite easily in fact.

Keep your fingers crossed for the ROCKIES! (sad news about the Mets)... we have ESPN in our rooms, so we are going to try and have a World Series party with some friends from school.

PHOTOS

2007-09-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

The rain finally stopped and it was beautiful out today! We all played some more ultimate frisbee and celebrated the sun!
Here are some photos from yesterday's epic storm. (on the 2nd one, check out the guy knee deep in the red shirt!)
Oh- and everyone should see the movie "Dot the I" w/Gael Garcia Bernal. I saw it last night at the peso theater and it was AWESOME!

gua-gua's, lluvia, juice boxes of rum...

2007-09-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

Cuba is still as awesome as it was 3 weeks ago!
I have met more locals, including some students at the art institute, and practiced my spanish, which could still use some serious help.

This past weekend was sort of crazy and I ended up doing a ton! On Friday night I went out with 2 girls from our group, and we met up with some boys (Amado and Fran- cousins) who they had met the week before. They are really into hard rock (i.e. Marilyn Manson, Korn...) which seems to be pretty popular here. We met up with a bunch of their friends and hung out on the Malecon. Then we spent about 3 hours, walking and riding the gua-gua to get to a house party. The gua-gua ride was hella sketchy because they tried to fit like 200 people on the bus, and we ended up in the doorway, which was fine until they tried to shut the door while driving. The door almost pushed us out of the gua-gua, but we managed to barely squeeze in and stay on. My shoe ended up getting stuck in the door, and I had to wait until the next stop to jump out of the gua-gua and un-jam it, without losing my spot. We got off the gua-gua in Diez de Octubre, which is one of the poorest areas in Habana. Amado and Fran live in this area also, so we stopped by their house to get water. The house was pretty small, and there were several people hanging out in the yard. When we showed up, their moms were really excited to see us- and explained that foreigners never end up in "this barrio". Amado explained to us that 16 people live in the house, and there are 3 generations within the 16 people. It was pretty intense to see the living conditions that according to our friends are pretty normal. Amado also picked up his guinea pig Oshua, who spent the rest of the night with us.
We ended up at a house party- which was playing really loud drum and bass/techno music, with a strobe light, and kids spinning fire poi. It sort of made me feel like I was back in Taos or LC! We made some more friends and had a lot of fun, before making the 3 hour journey back to our hotel. It's funny b/c in America I would never hang out with the "hard core/grunge crowd", but I am glad I did here because for the first time I felt like I was not a lame white tourist, and I was able to meet some really awesome people. Amado and Fran are great because they totally made fun of us all night, but still helped us with the spanish.

Sunday afternoon we started a pick-up game of Ultimate Frisbee in the grass at ISA... we started with 12 people (2 not in our group). Apparently frisbee is not so big in Cuba, so everyone wanted to know what the hell we were doing. By the time the sun went down and we had to stop playing, there were over 30 of us on the field! It is sort of hilarious to see someone who has never held a frisbee attempt to throw one in the middle of an action packed game. But everyone just had a ton of fun, and it rained for most of it, so we were all soaked and muddy to top it off. I think we are going to try and play pick up at least twice a week. Sometimes being the "crazy Americans" is the best way to meet people.

On Sunday night, 4 of us decided to "just go have a beer" at El Sauce'. In Cuba, you can NEVER "just have a beer". When we got there it was closed... and there were two guys who looked equally as disappointed standing outside. Turns out they are ISA students like us who also just want a beer! So, we walked to this place that is like an outdoor McDonalds, but it also sells beer and rum in many forms. (In Cuba you can by Rum in a juice box... it even comes with a straw). Anyway, instead of beer we ended up buying a bottle and making our own Cuba Libres. We also ended up hanging out and talking for like 3 hours! Julio is a sax player, and Rizo is a designer (mostly fashion). Sometimes I feel like art students are way more interesting than other people. Hopefully through them we can meet more students, and see more of the city.

The weather here has been absolutely crazy! For the last 3 days it has rained. When I say rain, I am not talking about the NM "storms" that result in 1/8 inch, or even the portland mists that last for days... In Cuba, rain means you cannot leave the house, because the streets are flooding, and you will end up feeling like you jumped in a pool, after only about 10 seconds. Yesterday, we all had to sit @ El Sauce' for a good half hour waiting for the rain to stop before we could walk through six inches of water, to class. Today however, was the best. Just as class ended, a huge thunderstorm started, and within a minute there was water flooding in and out of every classroom. The lightning was right on top of us, and it rained harder than I have ever seen it rain for almost an hour. It was pretty amazing. At one point on the walk back to the hotel, there was water up to the tops of my calves.
As much as I LOVE these tropical storms, I could really go for some sun.

Tonight we are headed out to a movie theater to see Obsecion with Gael Garcia Bernal... Apparently the theaters here are a few chairs in a room with a big screen TV. ???

So ya... I feel like I am ALWAYS doing something here. It is hard to be bored, but also hard to catch up on rest. I think I am going to have to GO GO GO for the next 3 months... good thing a shot of espresso here is only 1 peso (4 cents).

Classes

2007-09-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

First, an update on the missing finger... Evan is doing much better, and has moved back into the hotel with us.

Classes are good so far. We have 4 classes.
Spanish (6 hours a week!)
The Socialist Experiment
Cuban Culture
Making Modern Cuba

Spanish is great! We split into small group, so I am in a class of 8. Our teacher Marcia is really sweet, and spent like an hour today telling us all the drama in her life, and showing us pictures of her entire family (most of whom live in the US now). She also suggested us all hitting up a bottle of Rum before class to loosen up. (that seems to be the solution to everything). It should be a good class, and even 6 hours seems like not enough. Our classroom is in an apartment, and is about the size of my bathroom at home. Once you sit down you can't really squirm around at all, and the power goes out every 30 minutes on the dot. It sort of cracks me up, but also proves that people in other country's are willing to put up with shitty conditions and make due with what is available in order to have an education.
The Socialist Experiment is an independent study, where we have to do a photo journalism project on a topic of our choice. It sort of ends up being a research methods class as well. I am going to do something with nutrition and health in Cuba... not sure what. That class begins tomorrow and is 3 hours long!
Cuban Culture is taught by this totally crazy lady Julia Portela. Julia Portela is like a New York Jew stuck in the Cuban world. She is loud, blunt, hilariously inappropriate, and wants to know every last detail of your love life... plus she tells us we are all too skinny and need to consume more sugar than we already do here. I generally have no idea what she is saying because she drops the middle and end of almost every word. (for example "somos cubanos" becomes "somo cu-ano") But when I do, I get a good laugh. In class yesterday she spent half an hour telling us different propios (pick up lines used on the street by EVERY Cuban male).
Some good ones that I thought might be worth sharing:

Te amo como un camion que esta clavar en un hueco.
I love you like a truck stuck in a hole.
??? not so suave. In fact, if anyone can make sense of it, let me know what it means...

Tu eres como un mango, dulce y rollizo.
You are like a mango, sweet and plump.

Tu eres como el ciudad de Trinidad, vieja, pero interesante.
You are like the city of Trinidad, old but interesting.

But I have gotten one's closer to "Hey lady, I love you forever", or "I love you for you" or "you want to be my princess mi amor?"
haha- I think there is a special school that little boys go to so they can learn all of these lines- both spanish and english.
So ya, basically I have just learned a bunch of one liners in my culture class...

Our Making Modern Cuba is basically just guest lectures and field trips on every topic imaginable. Yesterday we had two women talking about Santeria (Afro-Cuban religion). But they will range from Cuban dance to sexuality, to food, to politics...etc. We are in this classroom called Aula Especial- the Special Classroom. It has swamp cooler and smells like a basement, but at least we get a break from sweating all through class.

Oh- a few days ago, myself and another girl hit up the famous ice-creamery "Coppelia". It is the largest in the world, and was built after the embargo because Fidel wanted to prove to America that he could outdo them with 29 flavors. When we went there were only 2 (chocolate and coconut) The movie Fresa o Chocolate was filmed there also, making Fresa (strawberry) known as a flavor only suitable for women and gay men. Chocolate is the machismo ice cream clearly! haha! But the lines are crazy long (sometimes like an hour or more wait) and they serve more than 30,000 people a day. You get a huge bowl of helado for 5 pesos (about 25 cents). And that is why I love Cuba.

Pics-
our classroom (almost too small to take a picture)
me @ coppelia!
really cute kids...

cross country adventure

2007-09-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

So we just got back from the longest trip of my life… Before we left, all we all knew was that we were going to Santiago and would be back in less than a week. Well, we all assumed we would be driving straight to Santiago, but we definitely toured the entire country, in more like 13 days. Good thing I always pack way too many clothes! Haha!
The first day we stopped off at a croc farm, where crocs are grown for meat… it was weird and more of a tourist trap than anything. Then we headed off to the Bay of Pigs and all the American kids went for a swim. The museum was super interesting b/c I really knew nothing about it at all. Then we ended up in Cienfuegos at this super posh all inclusive beach resort. We all took way too much advantage of the unlimited limonada con ron, not realizing how many days we had ahead of us. We were there for 2 nights, which felt like 10.
Then we took off to Trinidad, where we stayed at an even nicer all-inclusive beach resort (we were on Playa Ancon). Trinidad is AMAZING- and might be my second favorite place in Cuba so far. However, the second day, there was a group of us in the ocean shortly after a crazy storm. One of the kids Evan sort of freaked out and started yelling, “what is that? What the hell just happened?” then he ran out of the water and his whole hand was gushing blood. Then Laura saw a huge Barracuda. Once we got him to the small clinic at the resort, we realized he was missing half of his ring finger on the right hand. (it was like my bakery accident X 100) He had to be rushed to the Trinidad clinic where they sewed things up then transferred him to the hospital in Habana. Since being in Habana his parents have flown in on an emergency visa, and he has had a skin graft, and a pin placed in his finger. It’s really sad because he pitches for LC baseball and he is an amazing guitarist. He is in really good spirits though, and we all bought him a Cuban guitar, which he should be able to play in like a month or two. It was Interesting to see how health care really works in Cuba. When Evan went into the clinic they did not even care who he was, they just wanted to take care of him. EVERYTHING has been completely free for him- including surgery. Pretty amazing. But the whole situation is insane and everyone is still sort of trying to absorb it. There have only been 25 Barracuda attacks worldwide in the last 100 years. I am still afraid of the ocean, but I will get back in anyway. We also got to hike through the Escambray Mountains, which are absolutely beautiful.
After the Barracuda incident we headed to Camaguey, which is a small town that used to have lots of pirate problems; so they built their streets like a maze, and apparently even locals get lost sometimes. We also witnessed a creepy “aqua ballet” at our hotel.
Then we finally made it to Santiago, which was where Ché came in through the Escambray mountain range to fight. There is a huge memorial for him, and we got to visit where his remains are buried.
On the way back we stopped off in Santa Clara, which is my absolute favorite place in Cuba as of now. It is a small university town, with a great center park, that always has live music. The town seems alive all of the time! There is a small bookstore that was near our hotel, which we spent hours in. Most of the bookstores in Cuba mostly sell political and academic literature and it is hard to find leisure reading. But, I bought like 7 books for about 9 dollars, all of them regarding Fidel, Bush, Chavez, Marx, and/or Socialism and Democracy.
Now we are back in Habana, and done being white tourists. I have spent a ton of time attempting to hand wash my clothes in the bath tub, without tinting everything pink. Last night we went to a local’s only restaurant, where our options were pork or ham… but only cost about $1.25. When we came out of the restaurant there was like a 9 year old girl taking a pee on the sidewalk. It is things like that, that remind me how freakin weird Cuba is. Tomorrow we start classes, so I will keep you all updated on how those are going.
Oh- and as of now, our days with 24-hour Internet are September 28th and October 12th. Those are both Fridays so I might try and get that changed… I would rather not be in my hotel in Habana on a Friday. But I will be on and off between then.

The pics are:
1. our school (ISA) which is in the shape of a woman's body
2. Old American car... they are everywhere!
3. Old woman smoking her cigar in Habana Vieja
4. Maile and me (my roomie)

Some rules for Cuba.

2007-09-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

There are a few very important things I have learned in Cuba the last few days:
1. NEVER set anything of value down and walk away. It is like dangling a steak in front of a starving dog.
2. ALWAYS ask for a price before you order or agree to anything. Peso pizza is the way to go.
3. Drink the rum. Rum is good. And it’s good for getting rid of nasty stomach bacteria… and it’s almost cheaper than water (in some cases it is cheaper).
Last night we all went out dancing as a group to celebrate my roommate’s 19th birthday. We ended up at a really small nightclub where we danced for about 4 hours. The night was absolutely amazing- the Cubans are great dancers (even to bad American jams) and they love to see lots of crazy white kids dancing like they know how. I also managed to convince the chef from our hotel to come and meet us there, and he showed up and hung out with us for a while. However, 2 of the girls set down a purse that they were sharing, and several minutes later it was gone. They lost both of their cameras and quite a bit of money. It made me realize how desperate people here are for anything that can bring in extra money to them and their families. In the states if I go dancing, I generally feel comfortable enough to leave a bag on a chair when my friends are near, but here, there is no chance of it being there when you get back. Our sponsor likes to think of it as “forced international aide”. But it really is sad that many Cubans, when exposed to the temptation, often will not think twice about stealing. I talked to a woman who is a tour guide in the city, and her average monthly income is about 20 CUC (about 18 USD) a month. She said the average for all Cubans is no more than about 26 CUC. In a city, this could be very difficult to get by on, and its no wonder that purse was gone instantly.
Today we had the option of visiting some different museums and having lunch in Centro Habana in smaller groups. Jacob, Laura and I decided to go to the Museo del Revolucíon. When we went to look for lunch we asked a man on the street (Pablo) how to get to a place we had heard was good and cheap. He convinced us that our choice was a bad one, and that we should follow him to a Palador (family run restaurant- not state run) that would be even better, and cheaper. So we walked through a really run down part of the Centro and finally got to this place where we had to ring the doorbell and hurry ourselves in. Once we got up, the lady who owned the house told us all about the lobster special, and said she would bring us 3 plates of it. Luckily, we decided to get a price first. In everything we have read, it has been made clear that you can eat in the Paladores for under 4-5 CUC a meal. The lady, thinking we were unaware, offered us the generous price of 20 CUC per person. She also said we could have chicken for only 16 CUC (this is about 14 USD by the way) After arguing with her, and explaining that we were not totally ignorant, we left with our new friend Pablo who spent the next 20 minutes trying to convince us that we would have to pay that much no matter where we went. As we were all trying to figure out this mess I looked across the street and saw “Bombay Pizza”. There are two currencies in Cuba, the Convertible Pesos (CUC) and the Cuban Pesos. The Cuban Peso is practically useless, but it is what the Cubans use. There are 24 Pesos to a CUC, which is almost equal to the dollar. The pizza menu showed small pizzas for 6 Pesos a piece. You do the math. We even overpaid and gave them 2 CUC for 3 pizzas, because we had not yet changed any money into Cuban Pesos. Pablo was a little embarrassed that we had outsmarted him, so we bought him a beer and we parted ways. But now we know, to always ask a price or you might end up with a $20 lunch.
Last night I learned another very interesting thing about Cuba when I went to the gas station to by a pint of rum for my roommate for her birthday. I decided I was a little dehydrated, so I asked how much the liter bottle of water was… 1 CUC. And the pint of rum? 1.85 CUC. Ouch. It is almost cheaper to just stick to the rum. Haha.

Bienvenidos a Habana...

2007-09-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this is a little long...
After an interesting journey to the PDX airport at 3am on Friday morning, and what felt like the longest 6 hours of airtime, our Cuba group made it to Cancún. We checked into the nicest Holiday Inn Express I have ever seen, and made our way to the only restaurant that would seat 27 of us. Fortunately for us, it was called “Margarita y Marijuana”. It was super late, but we all had a really good time, and a few of us bought our group sponsor a double shot of tequila, which made for a fun time. Then, the two guys who were waiting on us brought a huge tray of full shot glasses. They went around the table and made each one of us take a “marijuana shot”, which is a sick mixture of tequila, sprite, and cherry syrup. It was quite the bonding experience. Lying on the beach in Cancún all day Saturday made us all realize how badly we wanted to be in Havana.
Once we arrived here, it was dark so we came straight to the hotel (which is amazingly nice) and were greeted with ham sandwiches then our beds. Day one in Cuba was mostly relaxing. This morning we went on a short tour of Havana, where we did not actually see much, since we were in a bus. Then we were dropped off at the Havana Club, which is an exclusive club but a membership is included for guests while staying at our hotel. Laura and I were pretty stoked to see well-kept tennis courts. So, for about four hours we just sort of lounged around the private beach, ate some mysterious (but good) white fish, and drank Cristál. It is a pretty rough life here in Havana so far. :) But really, I am excited to get out and really see the city and the rest of the country, and to meet some people, practice my Spanish and try some new food. Which reminds me, whoever said the Cubans do not speak Spanish, they are right. They speak Cuban. It is impossible.
Tonight however, some of us are heading out to the Malecon to an anti-imperialist concert of some sort. Good way to be introduced to Cuba I suppose.
O man! I almost forgot the best part of my day… or maybe the worst. I went to go to the bathroom in the Havana Club, and I walked in after making sure I was in the right one, only to walk in on a very naked older man, attempting to switch into his swim trunks. I was not really sure what to do, so I went out and waited, then he came out a few minutes later, looking as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. I am pretty sure he definitely knew he was in the mujeres bathroom. I guess that’s Cuba.
From September 6-13 we will be traveling down to Santiago, so I am guessing no Internet for that time. However, we will have Internet here at our hotel for the next four months. We pay by the day, but are going to rotate so at least one room has it every day.
So, keep in touch, read my blog (which I am hoping will become MUCH more interesting that my random ramblings of today, in the very near future) and share this address with anyone who might care.

The Countdown...

2007-07-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

Wow. 5 weeks until I will be only 90 miles from the US, but still as far from Americanism as is possible.
5 weeks until I will be considered a "Cuban Resident", speaking spanish, drinking mojitos and dancing Son every night.
It has just begun to sink in, and I am actually a little freaked out. As ready as I am to pick up and go, I have no idea what to expect, and there are things here that are going to be especially hard to leave behind.
I am mostly afraid of the supposed lack of communication outside of Cuba. No phone calls home = ok, but no emails or even snail mail = very difficult.
I know I am about to have the most amazing 5 months of my life, and I just need to mentally and emotionally prepare myself for a completely new way of living, and a major adventure!
Hopefully I will be able to keep this blog somewhat updated. Check back soon.