first week in havana

Where to begin…

The little things I would have written about four days ago, I am already getting used to (such as blisters, buying enough water, etc.). But the beginning, that seems like the correct starting point. The 44lb question, I am sure some of you are wondering about: they did not check the weight of carry-on luggage. So we didn't have to ditch books for lbs. in the Miami airport. The flight was a little rocky, but then we had one of the most beautiful landings I have ever had. I mean I was still waiting for the plane to hit the ground, when it stopped. My friend I was sitting next to on the plane said my face was priceless when we could see Cuba. Since the flight, I really have not been able to get over how close Cuba is to the US. Intellectually knowing the physical distance is different from actually feeling it and we are just SO CLOSE.

In the first twenty minutes in Havana, driving to our residence, I saw many different uniforms, old cars, old cars being fixed on the side of the road, lines for buses and transport, and Jose Martí and Ché as we drove through Revolutionary Square. The residence is on a street with lots of trees and directly across the street from the Chinese Embassy, which is a beautiful building. I am actually currently on our second floor porch (generally cooler than any other place) looking at the Embassy as I write this e-mail. All of our rooms are on the second floor and no one is allowed to come upstairs, but our group. My roommate, Elena, and I have one of the smallest rooms, but the best view of the group. And not only are outsiders not allowed in our rooms in our residence. The Chapel Hill group is only allowed in our bar or front porch, other tourists the front porch area, and any Cuban friends are definitely not allowed beyond the front porch. It is hard to grasp the Cubans are treated that way, but the government technically runs the residence and it is against the law, even if it is what we want. The staff here is great, especially one of the guards, the bartenders, and the two waitresses that switch off days for serving us. The food is great, guava almost everyday, and I am sure enough fat to equate everyone telling us we will gain weight living here. We have to find lunch on our own and now that we can exchange into the national money (instead of the money essentially for tourists- CUC, convertible pesos) we can find food much cheaper. The duel currency is also another adventure to use and when we get our student/ temporary residence cards it will be easier to use the national pesos.
We live about ten blocks from the Malecon (the 7.5 km sea wall in Havana) and our first day here some of us walked along it (past the imperialist signs near the U.S. interest section) to go into Old Havana. It turns out we don't actually live in old Havana, but Vedado as I have said. And it is a bit of a walk to Havana vieja (hour and a half), but we really do walk most places.
We met the UNC students Tuesday morning at the bottom of the steps at the University and to begin our time at the University we walked from the plaza in front of the school up the steps. In September all of the Cuba students do this on their first day of class. The other highlight of University activities so far has been a tour by the school Historian Delio. He is this little old fat man (calling people out on physical appearance is very common here and can be endearing, not negative) that in a lot of ways reminds me of a cartoon character. He was in Fidel's class at some point of education and supposedly his car was a personal gift. He was a non-stop talker and in between explaining symbols on the Alma Mater statue would stop to read someone's shirt and comment on it. I can't do him justice here, but his arms would flail in excitement and the connections he made were crazy. And then after he left us at one building we were walking away for lunch and all of the sudden he came down stairs with some books. He was one of my favorite people from this week.
This is getting very long and I can't possibly include everything, but the Ludwig foundation was one of my other highlights so I will explain it next time after we have our culture class there this week.
We (when I refer to we it will probably mean both the American University Students and the UNC students, as we have all the same programs) also had the opportunity to go to both the Latin American School of Sports and Health and the Latin American School of Medicine. Both were started within the last ten years for students outside of Cuban and are full scholarship programs. We had a chance to sit down with officials at both campuses. (We also got a chance to play on the obstacle course at the School of Sports and Health) The medical school is right on the water. The Medical school was started after Hurricane Mitch to train people from Latin American countries to be doctors and go back and work in their own countries. They sent a few US students down to talk to us at the Medical school and Jonas actually came back to the residence with us. He is a Hampshire grad and helped us get more of an idea of the city from a more similar background. And he had dinner with us, because while there is free food for everyone at the school, it is very basic.
During all these discussions I am sitting and thinking why is Cuba paying to train other peoples doctors and there are even American Students there now, when America isn't doing anything like this. When Cubans are reaching the bare minimum in many aspects of life, they are giving free rides to thousands of students. And the question really does go deeper into the mindsets and ideologies of both countries. I have been finding it very different to intellectually think about these differences and now actually seeing them.
Our program coordinator, Marguerite, told us on the first night that every time she comes back to Cuba she realizes she understands it less and less. Also on our first night, we were walking down our street, and I was realized there could be a point in time I may not be able to come back here (yes we had only been here a few hours).
This week we also went to the Revolutionary Museum, Revolutionary Square and the Marti Museum, a to scale model of the city (it is really big), the world famous Coppelia ice cream (in a plaza that is on our way to school, essentially 1 US cent) and again lots of walking in the heat. We also have had lots of time to just sit and talk as a group. Last night was JP's birthday (a guy from UNC) so four of us from our group and almost all of their group went to the Casa de Musica to hear Los Van Van a very famous Cuban group, and to salsa dance and dance some more… It reminded me of what clubs in the 50's here would be like, with a little more modern dressing, but definitely the higher-class crowd. My roommate was also bet to dance on the dance floor alone for three minutes, which she did. I think the rest of guests found us Americans pretty ridiculous, but all of us spent the whole night dancing. While expensive, it was amazing amounts of fun and the UNC group is great.
The 28th is Jose Marti's birthday, which is "kinda a big deal" (it is actually the only date our group has been able to remember). So tonight we are going to a concert and celebration for it.

So there are some random thoughts for you, it's hard to only pick a selection of the events and decide how to describe it all. We are excited for classes to start next week, even if they are each three hours long…

Miami

    I am going to Cuba tomorrow and it is more than EXCITING.  The pressure of only bringing 44 lbs and getting everything ready this week was intense, but I felt great on the plane flying over DC.  It was the first chance I had to really think through everything and relax.  Everyone in our group met at the hotel and the energy and promise of the group is huge.  We went out to dinner and have been hanging out, mainly talking about Cuba and how we are going to move weight around.  As of now everyone is over the limit, and we are hoping they don't check purse weight.  I think all of my luggage will be fine, because I had master helper packers who got the weight down.  However, we are still waiting on one person's bag from JFK.
    We will get to Havana tomorrow and then start a week long orientation.  For those of you who don't know the basics, I am on an American University program with 11 other students from AU.  A graduate student working on her masters in hip-hop is our program coordinator while in Cuba.  We are living in a hotel in old Havana and taking classes with professors at the University of Havana.  The classes: a cultural Cuban class, International Relations of Cuba, Cuban history 1989-present, and a Spanish class.  We will be taking classes with a group from UNC Chapel Hill. (My roommate and I have already decided we would like to take a dance class in the city as well.  And actually many of us have a variety of plans to take advantage of our time in Cuba.)  
    Tomorrow we are flying down with the coordinator from AU abroad and both she and the director of AU abroad will be in Cuba through our orientation.  And then we start classes in a little over a week.  
    We are already forming stories from today, from the guy at Wendy's that asked us to say a prayer with him proclaiming Christ our savior, to a man spending a very long time talking to us when we were waiting for a taxi (and explained with a thick accent that he like to leave before paying for food, then goes back a few days later to pay for it), and then the cat who came into the hotel to be part of our group meeting.  
    Everyone thank you for all of your support.  I will be safe and have an amazing time and think of you often.  Also, the Latin on entries before this was just for tests.  Aye, voy a Cuba en la manana…  Adios!

test

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