Long time no post.... my bad

Wow, sorry I know it has really been too long since the last time that I posted. So much has happened.  My days here for the most part have fallen into routine: class, class and more class. Luckily all of my classes are pretty interesting. The only one that I’m not super stoked about is my Art History class… but I knew I was going to not like that. The last week has been a giant citywide book fair. I was able to go to the main event in the Morro Castle and buy some books for ridiculously cheap prices. I ended up buying a book on Cuban Marxism, a book of poems and short stories by Piñera, a book of children’s stories, and a book of poems by a poet that I had gone to a lecture about. In total I think I spent less than $2! I also went to a lecture about the Grenada revolution, the Puerto Rican independence movement and the black power movement under Malcolm X. It was a really interesting talk about topics that are too easily skipped over in the states, however I found it to be too one-sided and narrowly minded. We went to the beach Santa Maria as a group on the weekend. Actually every weekend since I posted last we’ve gone at least once. It is really easy to get to, maybe a 20-minute car ride and generally it only costs $1 CUC. The beach is amazing, you can walk out at least a half a mile, the sand is super fine and the water is crystal blue. Last week, I went with a few International Affairs students that are in the program here to the ISRI (Superior Institute of International Relations) we tried to see if we could take classes there, however they said that we wouldn’t be able to. Although they did say that we can use their Library and maybe even talk to their professors. Then oddly enough the Sunday following our visit to the ISRI, I met an ISRI student at a party that I was invited to. It was a party for English students here in Havana that wanted to practice their English with native speakers. The ISRI student was super interesting, her point of view was so interesting and different, and really very thought provoking, It was really refreshing to be talking about International Affairs stuff again, and have a very intellectual conversation. I’m hoping to be able to meet with her again soon, so that we can continue the conversation, and hopefully this time in Spanish! Anyways sorry for the long delay in posts, I will try to rededicate myself to posting more often. Best,

segunda semana

It has been a truly incredible week. It is hard to believe that I have only been here for approximately a week. It feels like it has been much longer, everyday lasts so much longer. I think it is that there is just so much to take in. Constantly here I am bombarded with new experiences, whether it is the language, the sights, the sounds or the taste of the food. It has been really crazy because we have yet to really fall into our routine, however, I expect that to happen more this week. We are starting to have more and more homework, and I’m actually feeling like I’m in school again. Internet from Cuba has been really crazy, some days I’m able to get decent internet but other days it will take up to an hour for me to try to post something here. I have yet to figure it out but hopefully I will be able to continue to post somewhat regularly as well as check my email. I try to check my email often, but gmail is a bit slow sometimes and my ISA email address is always super fast, so if it is crucial that is a better place to send the email to! My address is kpwhite@isa.cult.cu. Classes last week went well and I’m already starting to be able to understand more and more, even with the crazy accent and shortening of words. On Thursday night, I headed back towards the ISA to go to a coffeehouse concert where ISA students supposedly go, but there wasn’t too many people there and it was way to loud to try to talk to any of them, however, the music was fun to listen to. On Friday, we got out of class early and went to the beach. It was a really great day until a guy stole one of my friend’s bags as we were leaving! It was really awful, we tried to chase after them but were unable to, however, it did provide us with lots of Spanish practice as we had to recount the story to maybe 20 police officers at the beach, and of course to the Cubans that were interested. So many of the Cubans were so nice and came up to apologize to us for this one person. After a few hours of searching the police did not find the guy unfortunately and we had to go to the police station to make statements. Besides of course the heightened attention to the possibility of theft, I had a few other take-aways from the incident. First, never in the United States would you have gotten the police reaction that we had for a stolen backpack. In the states if you called the police they may come in like 15 minutes, write down you name and number and that would be about it. Here in Cuba, we had at least 3 cars, 20+ police officers (the police station was only like a street away), and even two off duty police officers on their motorcycles looking for the thief. I can never imagine that reaction in the States. However, my other observation was that they were a bit unorganized and we had to repeat ourselves over and over again. However that might be just a police thing, I’ve never really dealt with the police much in the States. While we were being called in to do statements the rest of the group would wait in a back room. Here enters the most surreal moment of my life, in our boredom we decided to watch a movie on a David’s laptop, we decided on Galaxy Quest and preceded to watch it in a Cuban Police Station. So ludicrous. The next day, I went to this really old cemetery in Havana. It is literally like city, it has its own streets (with street names) and goes on for ridiculously far. There is hardly any grass and most bodies are buried in the elevated stone graves or within elaborate structures, some of the graves were super old, and of course we were able to see many of the major figures of the first Cuban revolution (Spanish/American war) like Gomez and Maceo. It was really very impressive; I had never seen anything like it. Sunday we were planning on going to the beach but the weather was not agreeable to laying out on the beach (it was kind of rainy although still warm of course) so instead we went to an amusement park and botanical gardens that were outside of Havana. ExpoCuba may give Galaxy Quest in a Cuban Police Station a run for its money for the most surreal moment of the week. This place literally made no sense. It is really hard to describe how strange it was. Literally all of the rides were broken in some way, when we arrived non of them were open, there were large exposition spaces all over that were totally empty or that were filled but locked. Then there was random other stuff like a Cuba Airlines plane that people could go in complete with flight attendant to bring you snacks, two old fishing boats (held up by rusting metal) that were closed, and so much else. There was a tower in the center of the space many stories high. At the top was a restaurant. In the middle was the kitchen, and the space around the kitchen moved slowly constantly so that your view continued to change. Also the food was extraordinarily inexpensive there, including drinks. I was able to get a mojito for only 10 pesos, which translates to less than 50 cents. Later in the afternoon some of the rides opened up and I rode 2 (despite hearing my mothers voice in my head say no, how could I pass up the opportunity to ride old rusty Cuban amusement park rides! Don’t worry everything was fine!). As a semi-permanent resident I was able to get into the park at the Cuban price rather than the tourist one, only 1 peso as compared to 8 CUC. Either price is a lot cheaper than the $50 that it costs to go to 6 Flags, although I guess you get what you pay for. After spending the day there, I was a bit less wierded out by the place. It was obviously built before the Special Period ruined Cuba’s economy. I think it was supposed to be really grand when it was made to showcase the advances of the state of Cuba since the Revolution. All of the exposition spaces were ways to convey these achievements, there was a transportation one, talking about the building of railroads, and the national airline etc; there was a culture one, with Cuban political art, there was a sciences one; a agriculture one; and many others. Obviously however, during the downturn in their economy, it was never kept up and has since deteriorated. Only in Cuba, that is for sure.

I had meant to post the above entry on Monday, but Monday and Tuesday, the Internet at the ISA was out. On Wednesday, we had our Voces class and the speaker was a very famous Cuban actress who is the wife of the recently decieased famous director of Cuban cinema, including Fresa y Chocolate (actually she acted in that movie too). It was a super interesting class. Anyways, until my next post.