… Because it’s Cuba
       The last few days have been a complete whirlwind. I wish I could explain in detail
everything that I’ve seen and heard but it would be far too much. Instead I’ll have to tell you
only the bare bones.
       The trip was hectic and very long. I finally arrived in Cancun on Thursday at around 4.
However because of customs and busses etc we were not able to leave the airport until after 6.
When we finally got to the hotel for the night we were exhausted, yet energized because of the
prospects of the trip. We had dinner at the hotel and later I had a great time hanging out with
everyone on the trip. The next day our plane was supposed to leave at 4:30. However moments
before getting on the shuttle to take us to the airport we learned that the flight had been moved
back to 6:30. Why? –No one knows, and that brings me to the title of this post – because it is
Cuba. This has become somewhat of an answer to any of our adventures. So much of getting
used to this country is getting used to things being delayed, but it seems to be common and
very well tolerated here.
       We flew Cuba Airlines into Cuba and got to ride in old soviet planes…. They seemed pretty
safe though. When we finally arrived in Cuba, it took another few hours to get through customs.
We met out trip contact Julia, and were able to get in taxis and go to our homes.
       My home in Vedado (a neighborhood in Havana) is incredible. I was so impressed by the
house in general. It is an old home, probably built in the 40s. I’ve included pictures so you can
see a bit of it. The inside of the home is amazing, with super high ceilings and amazing old
doors. Our room is located in a separate area of the house, actually above the garage. It is
actually very nice because we have basically our own apartment, complete with kitchen,
bathroom, bedroom, sitting area, and a small private outside balcony mostly for hanging our
clothes to dry. One fun adventure we’ve had here, is leaning to light the hot water heater that
hangs above the toilet in our bathroom, which now that we’ve figured out seems to be a very
efficient way of doing it.
       That first night after getting to our rooms, we immediately went out to get dinner with the
group. We met at the corner of ave. de los presidentes y calle 21. It is a busy area of the
neighborhood even at 12:30ish when we met (of course it was Friday night). When we first
walked to the Habana Libre, which is the Hilton that was taken over by Castro and renamed, in
order to exchange money.  Once we had CUCs (the currency that is convertible to foreign
currency) we headed off to eat. At about 2:30 we were back at home and slept amazingly.
       Francisco, the man that owns our house, had breakfast ready for us, which includes toast,
eggs (maybe we got it the first morn but not the second), coffee, grapefruit juice, and a piece of
fruit (so far bananas). On Saturday, we walked around our area in Havana. We walked up to the
Malecon (the street that lines the water way) and then back towards Ave de los presidentes, were
we met our group for lunch, at a very nice restaurant. After eating, we went to Freddy’s (our
group leader) house for an informative meeting that Julia gave to us in rapid Cuban Spanish.  By
the end of it my head actually hurt from trying to take in so much in Spanish so quickly. Luckily
we went over everything enough that we all got it. After the meeting, Julia took us to a concert
celebrating Jose Marti (basically the father of Cuba) at a amazingly beautiful patio in old Vedado.
It was hosted by the department of Culture. There were many different artists that played
amazing music but it was all so fast that I hardly could understand any of it. As possibly
mentioned, Cuban Spanish is so fast! The concert ended at 10. We all went to our homes and
reconvened one of our homes. From there we went to a restaurant, were I got an amazing
chicken meal. That night we hung out on the malecon and watched the waves splash against the
sea wall while we drank the local drink: Havana Club rum. Which coincidently is made in the old
Bacardi factory, it is very good rum and only costs us 8 CUC (although we could have spent
much less if we had exchanged our money to the mondeda nacional).
       On Sunday, Walter (my roommate) and I went to explore Habana more. We went up to the
Malecon again and went farther east. I had lunch at a small restaurant, however it was not very
good. From the restaurant we started walking into Havana and ended up in Central Habana. We
saw a new side of Cuba there, it is much poorer than Vedado, and it shows in the level of
disrepair that the homes were in. The homes here were also much smaller. We had to hurry
through this area though in order to get back to meet the group. We met them outside of our
group leaders house and caught Boteros (the old 50’s cars that run basically like buses) to
Habana vieja. It was like a completely different world there, it was very touristy and nice. The
buildings were old and beautiful.
       We started class on Monday at the ISA. It is in an old country club. It has been very nice
here. So far the classes have been in very fast Spanish but I think they are doable and very
interesting. We are taking a Spanish class, a class on the revolution (which I thought was
supposed to be more history, but seemed more like philosophy), a class called Cuba:
Expreciones Artisticas (Artistic expressions). Tomorrow we take our next class, which is called
voces, which is at a different school much closer to my house.
       Today we tried to take the boteros to school and instead of taking us to the ISA, the driver
took us to Lisa, a less than great neighborhood in Havana but luckily a guy there helped us get
back on track and we made it to class only one minute late. So far, so good. Until the next time
that I can post!