Buenas!

Hi World!
It´s pesky me again. All is well here grand ole´ Cuba and I´m having a great time, keeping busy exploring outside of Habana for the first times. This weekend our group decided to shake ourselves out of some starting boredom by renting a beach house in a village about 25 kilometers outside of the city called Guanabo.

We traveled out on Friday afternoon after classes ended at 4 and caught a CUC taxi van for the ride. Everything got off to a smooth start until we got to the highway between the Habana Tunnel and Santa Maria beach (the beach that we usually go to). All of a sudden, there was a POP and the car started bumping around, forcing us over to the shoulder. Keep in mind that throughout all of this Cuban law is that cars have the right of way in all situations, so 12 Americans on the side of the road was a dangerously funny situation. Bottom line, it ended up being a flat tire, but made more exciting by Cuban solutions to the problem. First off, a lever operated lift was placed under the car, then a wooden block was placed in front of the popped tire. The driver then droved the car on to the 3 inch block of wood, lifted the car with the jack, then used a wrench to replace the tire. In reality, it wasn´t that unusual or exciting, but it was so much better because it was at the beginning of our trip and the wooden block was amazing. Oh….also, the minute we stepped out of the car, it started to rain and the second we got back in the car it stopped. It was just an overall make lemons into lemonade, laugh at the whole thing type of situation.

We got to Guanabo safely and settled into our houses. That was also a fun story. We still don´t have our passports back from the government so we have to rent casas particulares (guest housing) illegally from families. The one that we ended up renting was right next door to the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, so that was an added twist to keeping our cover story intact. We bought tons of food and had great meals throughout the weekend like pork marinated in onions, garlic and tomatoes, rice with onions, scrambled eggs, fried rice and tomato salads (yes…guess what? These days i´m liking tomatoes and eggs. CRAZY!) Then after dinner, we went to the beach and walked and hung out there for a while. A few of us went crazy and decided to go for a swim in our clothes, which ended up being one of my favorite things of the weekend. The water was incredibly warm and the sky was full of bright stars and overall, lots of fun. After that, we headed home and I ended up scoring my own room with 2 beds and a bathroom all to myself. Saturday morning we slept in a bit, then had breakfast and headed to the beach at around 11. The water was a little chillier, but we all had a good time swimming, having chicken fights, tanning, reading and looking for shells (there are the most incredible shells here!) We headed back in between for lunch and dinner, which we ended up eating with the house owner and having some great conversations about life in Cuba and by the beach in Guanabo. Interesting side note, there were open sewers in the town which made for some interesting walks and treks back from the beach, unfortunately Lauren ended up contracting dysentery from swimming in the ocean with the sewage, but everyone else was fine. Saturday night we went out on the town, but didn´t end up finding much, so just walked around for a while, chatted on the beach, then hung out back at the house. Sunday morning was a torrential downpour, so we were stuck inside reading, playing Uno and Phase 10, and listening to Paul play his guitar. It ended up clearing around 1, which was just in time for us clean up and most headed home. Katie, Mary and I stuck back and closed up the house and took a bit to walk on the beach before going back to Havana. Our car never ended up coming, so we pulled a guy with a big car on the main street over and bargained with him to drive the three of us and 9 friends from Canada to Havana. We crammed in the back of his 50s van/wagon, avoiding police stops and laughing about the crazy times of the weekend.

Monday we had 2 block classes, history and international relations, which were interesting and have diverged from each other luckily, but I still need to build up my attention span. In history, we´re learning about the Cuban 1868 War for Independence, la Guerra Chiquita in 1879 and the Spanish-American-Cuban War for Cuban Independence in 1895. The facts here are quite different from those in US schools to say the least, but its interesting to hear another side of the story. In IR, we´re talking about the change in Cuban diplomatic relations after the Triumph of the Revolution (1959) in terms of both Cuban diplomats being received abroad and foreign diplomats being received in Cuba. After class, Mike, Mary and I had a great walk around some of the back roads from the University back to ANAP and found some very pretty tile and nice houses. Night time was pretty calm, just hung around the house.

Tuesday was our day off from classes, so Mary and I decided to explore new areas of Havana. We got our student ID cards laminated on Calle Lazaro by finding a little sign on the top of a door, ringing the door bell, having a beach bucket lowered to our level, placing the ID and 10 pesos in the bucket, watching the bucket go back up to the roof, waiting across the street at a church, then having the bucket lowered again with the finished product. Now that´s Cuba if I ever had to give a single example. After that we went down toward Habana Vieja and saw a lot of Cuban life outside of the tourist sector, where everything was in Cuban pesos and the residents were operating within the given restrictions, like assigned housing and limited material resources. It was a definite eye-opener, but something that was great to see and start to get a sense of. After that we stumbled upon the Casa de Musica, the Cuban equivalent of the House of Blues and got their schedule. We walked back along the Malecón after that back home to ANAP, I did laundry in a bucket, then headed to the Ministry of Foreign Relations for a formal meeting with them and the visiting representatives from AU. The head of AU Abroad, Vice Provost and a Dean and professor on Cuba and our group heard about Cuba´s relations the world, especially the US, straight from the source. It was a great meeting and got to hear some interesting perspectives and views on the future. After that, we had a huge feast at ANAP with 2 turkeys, beans and rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, fruit cocktail pie, orange juice, malanga (potato) chips, fried rice, grapefruit and oranges. It was AMAZING! Then we had a meeting with the AU delegation about our program and how everything was going, a few new precautions, but pretty much good reports on all accounts!

Today we went on a bus tour or the architecture of Havana. We got to see some really nice examples of the different time periods and could get access to museums that would have otherwise had an entrance fee. Then we had the buss for an additional 4 hours after the tour ended, so we tried to go to the beach, but got caught in some rain, so we headed inland to Guanabacoa and ended up exploring there. It was raining and dirty at the beginning, but then we found a dominoes social club that invited us in and gave us lessons on how to improve our game. We played with them for about an hour until we had to get back on the bus and had a great time. When we got home, I played baseball with my 10 year old friend, Yoel, and his older brother that works at ANAP, Javier. Baseball is like second nature to the kids here, there are things that would take people years to learn, but here it´s almost instinctual. After that was dinner time and now I´m here at the internet!

One other crazy update, I found out that the Cuban Olympic Committee is right next door to our residence and I got an interview to work with them or help out around the office. Right now it looks like I might even be with the President of the Committee…sweet! I´ll keep you all updated!

That´s about it for now! I´ll post again soon!

-Jen