Here I am rapidly approaching the one month mark of being here in the lovely city of La Habana. A lot has happened, but at the same time very little. My schedule is now perfect and very well situated, so I will explain my daily pattern as such.
From Friday to Monday, I have no school. However, this time may be filled with trips and adventures both mandatory from class and for personal experimentation. When Tuesday comes, basically the week begins. Normally I wake up at around 9ish, depends on when my biological clock wakes me (I’ve rarely had to use an alarm, it’s really strange). From there I usually just go straight down to breakfast for a diverse choice of egg styles: scrambled, with or without ham, or fried, also with or without ham. Accompanying the lovely eggs are bread, some fruit (oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, watermelon—varies, not all of this at once), some juice, and some coffee. It’s delicious, but literally the same everyday basically, but it really doesn’t bother me too much. I just have visions of coming back to the states and a doctor tells me I have the cholesterol of a 50 year old man… the incredible, edible egg so they say.
After this I come back upstairs and just get ready, you know, get my hair done, put on some cherry red lipstick and pick out my favorite stilettos for the day. But in reality, throwing on something that looks like an outfit from the strange array of clothes I decided to bring. Looking at my clothing option here I just wonder what I was thinking when I was packing. So much of it just doesn’t make sense, but either does waiting until the last minute to pack… there must be some correlating graph somewhere that represents this phenomenon.
I have one Spanish class on Tuesday that lasts from about 11:30 am to about 1 pm and this is the same as on Thursday. The professor is an awesome woman who prefers her nickname ‘Yare’, plus I can’t actually remember her real name. She is an older woman, but absolutely young at heart. We talk about the most random things and basically just practice Spanish, but it is by far the best Spanish class I’ve ever had. Everything is explained so clearly and by example, and my nose is never buried in a book memorizing patterns and arbitrary vocabulary. For example, in one class, we listened to a song and had to match up the verses and write down the verbs, but later we had to take turns doing certain activities with the song. We had to explain what was happening in the story in the present tense, the events of the story in the past, suggestions for the singer, what we liked in the pluscamperfecto-whatever-it-is tense. Just so different from listen to this song, write down what you hear, then we’ll talk about what it means. So different. She also asked me if I was part latino because I’m so tan (oh yeah, I’m getting real tan).
After class basically everyday I wander around and try to spend the least amount of money as possible. This is incredibly easy. There are so many ‘cafeterias’ around campus that sell most of their meals for less than one $1USD. I’m especially fond of a rather filling pizza that costs $0.50USD for just cheese, or you can add peppers and onions for another quarter. There are also plates of rice, vegetables, and some form of meat for less than a dollar, definitely easy to get decent quality food for less than a dollar a day. I get 2 meals provided through the program at the hotel.
On Wednesday, I have my anthropology class with Lyndsay (Lou) Kramer with Dr. Antonio Martinez. One word: AMAZING. We’ve literally only had like 2 classes, but this man is amazing. He is taking basically 2 hours out of his day to teach just Lou and me about Physical Anthropology in Cuba. Neither of us has taken the class at Pitt, as it is a requirement for the Anthro major, so we’re hopeful that this will maybe cover the requirement, but if not, meh, still 3 credits in Anthro. In the last class we discussed the importance of understanding how the human body develops and the issues facing the growing population of the elderly (deemed 60+ years of age, but don’t worry, you’re still young at heart you elderly readers). We went through a PowerPoint showing the different stages of human growth after birth and later a PowerPoint showing how much of the population in the future will be deemed elderly and what this will do for… well, everyone. It was so interesting and so relaxed and patient. I took absolutely zero notes, but because he explained it so well and it was more of a conversation, I took a legitimate interest in the subject. I think the University system (not just the US, but everywhere) needs a revolution of sorts. I’m not saying that Cuba has a perfect university system, because I am not taking a real Cuban class, but this style and the attitude this teacher takes towards us is by far what learning is and should be.
Also on Wednesdays, we have our class at the famous ICAIC. This is a government funded film institute that is responsible for the majority of Cuban movies. IT is based out of an old house that is huge and they have built a medium sized theater next to it also. I think their most famous movie (although I have not seen it) is Fresa y Chocolate or Strawberry and Chocolate. It is about two homosexual communist companeros and their life after the revolution. I really don’t know much about it, but I know it was nominated for an Oscar in the 90s sometime. At the ICAIC we discuss basically the history of Cuba as seen through cinema. Our professor is an amazing woman who is an art history director of sorts, I’m not exactly sure what she does, but she is very intelligent and very aware of Cuban cinema. The movies we’ve seen so far have been a little strange, they are all over 40 years old, but it’s interesting to see them and discuss how they relate to Cuban history. One movie we watched was “Memories of Underdevelopment” and it portrays an upper-class man and his struggles with life essentially, but also his concern with post-revolutionary Cuba and what it means for him and the bourgeoisie class. Another film we saw is titled “Lucia” and it portrays three different women in three different eras of Cuban history. The film is supposed to show the struggles of women in each of these periods, and I suppose it does, but we all couldn’t help but just feel as though it just perpetuated the weak female role in society instead of helping demonstrate the female struggle. I don’t know. It was a very long and strange movie. But the class is awesome! And 5 hours long basically….
We have yet to start our fourth class as our professor is in Italy doing some crazy academic thing. But it is titled Cuban Society, so I think it will be pretty interesting. Some people on the streets and friends we’ve met at the university joked that we’ve already started that class by talking with them. But it’s so true! The conversations on the street after only 3 weeks have already cracked my metaphorical blockade of basically zero knowledge on Cuba (not to blame the US education system, but I vaguely remember learning about hardly anything Cuba related that wasn’t terribly demonizing). While I am not too well educated in politics, I do have opinions, and it’s always interesting to discuss with anyone here on what we all believe. A lot of people believe in how powerful capitalism is, as seen in the US by working and earning x amount for how much you work etc, etc. Here, however, you have to fulfill a certain amount of hours per month and you still only receive an average of $10 - $30USD per month. Another apparent atrocity is that a doctor here earns less money than a janitor in a fancy hotel. What? Pretty crazy, right? But here everyone gets their allocation of rations (if available), free healthcare (they’ve recently enacted free sex-change operations, if one qualifies), seeing glasses that cost $1.25USD (although made of plastic, but still functional), and well, I just don’t know what else. It’s hard for me to argue that capitalism has its demons, being that I am a white, middle class, well-off person, but it’s hard to hear about people working overtime at McDonald’s and still barely getting by or the extreme amount of debt people have from student loans/everything, how the minimum wage is barely a livable wage. Both systems have their faults and advantages, but really all we’re doing is living and surviving. We all have our own struggles, so there’s no use comparing.
Again, a disclaimer: wrote this basically all in one go, so question my gaps, research your own, but I hate revising and my flow of consciousness is more accurate of me anyway!
John
Friday, February 25, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Cuba is awesome... well for me
I got a little sick L. Kind of a cold mostly, but I’m always a snot monster so it doesn’t really matter. I’ve been sleeping really weirdly and having crazy dreams, but last night (Feb 9) I slept basically all night without any problems. Everyone says they’re having weird dreams and waking up several times, I think it’s the carbon monoxide in our systems and the scary AC units that randomly spur in the middle of the night and sound like a hurricane.
The weirdest dreams so far:1.I was like awake, but not really, but maybe?? And I thought my roommate was having a seizure, but then it switched and I couldn’t move my body I could only talk and I wasn’t awake and I could hear things. And I said I can’t move my body and my roommate was like yeah… that bus hit you pretty hard… and so I like forced myself awake and like pinched myself and did some Inception craziness and was freaked out for like an hour in bed. Like I dreamt I was in a COMA this is the second time this has happened in my life. Scary.
2.We were at an airport (I think in Pittsburgh but it was definitely not the Pittsburgh airport) and I was like you guys that went by so fast, like it just felt like a week, like… we didn’t do anything? And everyone was like I know, right? So weird. And I was like well maybe when I look through my pictures I’ll be like yeah I did stuff… then we tried to get our luggage but the baggage claim rotating belt thing was a spiral so all the bags just ended up in this big pile in the middle. Then I woke up and I was like yeah I have like 3 more months here. I had the same dream in Nicaragua. So weird. A few days ago Lou (aka Lindsay Kramer) and I walked to Habana Vieja from our neighborhood of Vedado. If you walk along the Malecon (the famous highway that runs along the ocean, look it up online and you’ll probably recognize it) it only takes like 20 minutes to get to the middle of the super touristy center of Havana. We decided we wanted to walk deeper into Habana Vieja, outside of the super clean touristy areas into where people actual lived and worked. It was completely different. Walking just a few blocks outside of the tourist traps of restaurants and monuments we were met with the stereotypical decay of Havana’s colonial legacy and the general ‘poverty’ (I don’t know how to judge poverty here). The streets were narrow and then wide, brick and cement; there were little shops that sold sandwiches for $5 moneda nacional (which equates to about 20 cents); doors and buildings falling apart and built all on top of each other. It is truly beautiful in its decay, and yet terrible because people still need and want to live there. I can take pictures of fading paint, chipped stone, rotting doors, and still admire its beauty, but I can’t actually imagine living in that situation (although I really want to).The communism here is an absolute mystery to our group and even the residents. We met two guys named Raizel and Julian and we’ve hung out a few times on the Malecon. We asked them questions about communism, youth culture, racial relations (they are both black Cubans), and about various Cuban terminology. When we said we didn’t understand communism here, they replied “we don’t either”. We were all a little taken aback (is that the right phrase?), but I can barely understand how the
If you have money here you can buy basically whatever you want, but the average wage is about $10 - $30 USD a month, so materialism definitely isn’t rampant for the majority of the population (again just speculating, I hate making definitive statements). Our tour guide told us about the ration booklets everyone gets and how it’s basically a book of coupons that you can use to get rice, beans, meat from government sponsored stores. She said most times it wasn’t enough for the average person, but at least it was a start. That struck me. In the
Everything is pretty regulated: there are basically two types of domestic beer and a few types of rum that are all state run and operated. You can buy Absolut vodka, wine from abroad, Jameson—for a hefty price—but you still can if you want. There’s also just a plethora of
Rai, Lou, and I talked the most on the Malecon. When we asked him about race and what it means in
After my whole project on race in Cuba, it’s still hard for me to see any inequality (I mean, I have only been here a week) but listening to Rai and Julian it was interesting to hear that it definitely exists and in some cases is so prominent that it prevents him from entering a place. He assured us that the racism wasn’t institutional so much, he has the same freedoms as everyone else, but on the psychological level, who knows what could happen.
We asked him further about the 50+ regime of Castro and if he agreed with it. He shook his head and said not me, nor him, nor anyone on the street. I didn’t delve further—asking him what he wanted to see change or anything, and I sort of forgot what else we talked about after that. Whoops. Next time: plunge into the topic of Castrology (I coined it, I think it’s funny) and see what Rai or anyone would like to see change and what they think/know/anything about Cuban politics.
I am awaiting a plethora of people to talk with about life here in
This is probably the most interesting so far. I am going to write more in the future about my classes and stuff. I’ve only had one week of classes so far (HAHA) so when I get a more regular feel for them/regular feel for what my actual life schedule is I’ll write about it. But I will give a few teasers:
1.I have a four day weekend starting at 1 pm on Thursday and lasting until Tuesday until 11:30 (until February 28th when I actually start my 4th class) HAH
2.I am doing an independent study (with Lou) with Dr. Antonio Martinez who was apparently president of the Ibero-American Council on Anthropology (I haven’t googled this or anything/it was said in Spanish so I’m still a little confused) BUT it’s an independent study for Physical Anthropology, so no Phys Anthro at Pitt HOPEFULLY.
3.The campus is actually beautiful and has a staircase/alma mater/entrance akin to Columbia University; has a shrunken version of University of Minnesota’s main area with all the buildings surrounding a common area; every building is beautiful and has columns basically which me gustan; just there is so much green and nature there and everywhere.
Until next time, my faithful readers (if you exist)!
Chau,
John
Monday, February 7, 2011
Cuba is Awesome
Day 1-
We got on the flight to Havana and left around 3pm. Arriving only around 50 minutes later. We had to use a separate airport for international flights, even though it was right next door to the other one. They made it sound like a big deal, but I’m pretty sure it was just another runway/branch of the main one? Who knows. I went through another round of security and entrance stamps and blah and there was a luggage belt. We were told that they would just be thrown on the ground and we would have to find them. FALSE. The luggage belt carried everything around on its merry train-like way. My bag was of course the last one around, but after that we just bypassed all the declared items (people brought 40in plasma TVs, bicycles, everything and they all wanted to wrap everything in plastic like you’ve probably seen, but literally everything was covered in this green cellophane, every luggage/bag/thing was cellophaned and it cost like $15 to do it! Crazy… we were all like… should we be doing this?? But no, unnecessary), so we bypassed the people typing in all these items and paying extra and we went outside where people were waiting to see families and we looked like celebs with everyone staring at us. PRETTY RAD.
We made our way to our hotel/dorm and I took a video the whole time. It was amazing. I really felt alive again… I think my heart never truly left Nicaragua and being back in LAC really gave me a sense of normalcy which is just such a weird feeling. I hope the reverse culture shock this time doesn’t kill me even more than returning from Nicaragua . Everything was beautiful. The roads, the cars, the people, the horse-drawn carts, the graffiti, the signs, the paintings, everything was awesome. The weather is humid, but bearable. There is a wind that comes from the ocean that is just warm and chilling at the same time. The only problem: smog. And lots of it. These old cars just puff it all out and it’s pretty thick here. You can see it in some places and it gave us all headaches walking around the city.
We got to the hotel and it is awesome. Everyone here is awesome and very dedicated to their job. The room is small, but has 2 beds, a TV with cable, a mini-fridge, 2 chairs, a desk, a 3-drawer dresser, a closet, a bathroom and, the most amazing part: AC and sometimes hot water. What? Seriously? No one was expecting this. But, I’ll take it for now. There’s definitely not a lot of room to put away clothes though… I’ll find a way though. I do not want to live out of a bag, that is just the woooooooooooooorst.
We met this couple from the University named Jenny and Ernesto and they are basically going to be ambassadors for us. Jenny is 28, which I found out after embarrassingly asking her age (you’re not supposed to do that in Cuba, ask women their age, but she seriously looks like she’s my age—so I was freaked out when she said she actually taught biology) and she teaches at the university biology and dance. She teaches more traditional dance like salsa and meringue and a few of us are possibly going to join her in her classes o0o watch out people in the US I’m coming back with some fiery latino rhythms and moooooooves, but probably not….but probably yes. We are going to see a movie with them on Sunday, which I might comment on later if it’s an interesting experience or not.
The first night we walked around after a steak and rice dinner and just explored. We were of course beckoned by a few restaurant employees to get us inside, to get us to eat, and we explained we just ate and we had no money, but nope. They were very persistent. We met a cool guy named Dennis we saw again the next day, and he gave us some advice on how to change money (we tried earlier the first night, but they closed to the public). We ditched the poor chap and then we were pulled into a conversation with this man on the side of the street. A very interesting man whose brother lives in the US and he hasn’t seen for many years, but only has talked with him on the phone. He spoke some English and even some Russian, so I tried my best with my one semester of Russian, but the combination of English and Spanish for the day my brain was like que? What? Shto? So everything was kind of a little bleh. But he talked to us about how the US is the most powerful country and Russia is too and how they are awesome and how the US will never fail and yadda yadda and we were just having a discussion. Very heated and very political on the side of the road, our first night in Cuba. Good sign for more to come?
The next day we toured the university and got our student ID cards. We had to get some Cuban glamour shotz and print out these tiny baby pictures of ourselves and glue it to the card… everyone look at your student ID in the US and mine = a paper card with a a stamp on it, some handwritten signatures, and a glued picture of myself. YES. We also got approved for our student visas so we don’t have to flee after 30 days. YES, but means that we are students/have to study… boo. We ate a comedor-esque restaurant that I think was someone’s house… and they just run a restaurant for lunch. It cost me… let’s see (after converting my Canadian dollars which was a fantastic success.. I think I earned a 14-24 cent profit than my other traveling companions, we still don’t know exactly) about 33 Cuban pesos and 24 pesos = $1USD so, less than $2USD. For a whole meal and a cup of delicious juice. I asked a man in Spanish if a certain vegetable was Yuca and he was like no and said something else, then 2 seconds later in English: sorry, you asked if that was Yuca, yes that is Yuca. And I was like oh…thanks… whaaaaat. Some people speak English, but it is very limited and pretty accented. The pro-US/Russia man was pretty good at speaking, he said “frugal” (talking about frugal with his cola, and less frugal with his rum) and when I repeated it, he had no idea what I said. VERY INTERESTINGGGG.
So as of now (3:16pm on Friday, February 04, 2011) ^^ this is what has happened to me. Minus a few details I may or may not fill in, but I am getting tired and crazy from the smog and poor sleep from last night, so I am going to stop for now.
So since that episode of my life I have been just chillin and doin some tours. We did a city tour and went to Habana Vieja which is amazing. it's like a mixture of Tel Aviv, Switzerland, Chile, Nicaragua all rolled up into a Cuban hood. Our tour guide was 'saucy' and awesome and had a necklace with Nefertiti (whaaaaaa). The tour was really cool and she was super impressed we spoke Spanish and she said it was weird for her to give them in Spanish because she is an English PRO. I wish I could post some pix to make this more enlightening, but, I don't want to try right now.
Today we went to the ICAIC which is the Cuban film institute which is responsible for basically everything in Cuban related cinema. It's actually pretty famous so we were all like whaaa we're going to take a class here? Pretty cool. It's based in this ollllldddd mansion that some lady left to the institute after she died... we think. The lady spoke in Spanish the whole time and I was a little sleepy (I took a nap right before the tour mmmhmmm)
Other than that I am feeling normal and missing Nicaragua more than the US. I like hearing Spanish all the time and I like the food and I like everything. going back might suck... OH NOOOOOOO
Vamos a VERRRRRrrr
We got on the flight to Havana and left around 3pm. Arriving only around 50 minutes later. We had to use a separate airport for international flights, even though it was right next door to the other one. They made it sound like a big deal, but I’m pretty sure it was just another runway/branch of the main one? Who knows. I went through another round of security and entrance stamps and blah and there was a luggage belt. We were told that they would just be thrown on the ground and we would have to find them. FALSE. The luggage belt carried everything around on its merry train-like way. My bag was of course the last one around, but after that we just bypassed all the declared items (people brought 40in plasma TVs, bicycles, everything and they all wanted to wrap everything in plastic like you’ve probably seen, but literally everything was covered in this green cellophane, every luggage/bag/thing was cellophaned and it cost like $15 to do it! Crazy… we were all like… should we be doing this?? But no, unnecessary), so we bypassed the people typing in all these items and paying extra and we went outside where people were waiting to see families and we looked like celebs with everyone staring at us. PRETTY RAD.
We made our way to our hotel/dorm and I took a video the whole time. It was amazing. I really felt alive again… I think my heart never truly left Nicaragua and being back in LAC really gave me a sense of normalcy which is just such a weird feeling. I hope the reverse culture shock this time doesn’t kill me even more than returning from Nicaragua . Everything was beautiful. The roads, the cars, the people, the horse-drawn carts, the graffiti, the signs, the paintings, everything was awesome. The weather is humid, but bearable. There is a wind that comes from the ocean that is just warm and chilling at the same time. The only problem: smog. And lots of it. These old cars just puff it all out and it’s pretty thick here. You can see it in some places and it gave us all headaches walking around the city.
We got to the hotel and it is awesome. Everyone here is awesome and very dedicated to their job. The room is small, but has 2 beds, a TV with cable, a mini-fridge, 2 chairs, a desk, a 3-drawer dresser, a closet, a bathroom and, the most amazing part: AC and sometimes hot water. What? Seriously? No one was expecting this. But, I’ll take it for now. There’s definitely not a lot of room to put away clothes though… I’ll find a way though. I do not want to live out of a bag, that is just the woooooooooooooorst.
We met this couple from the University named Jenny and Ernesto and they are basically going to be ambassadors for us. Jenny is 28, which I found out after embarrassingly asking her age (you’re not supposed to do that in Cuba, ask women their age, but she seriously looks like she’s my age—so I was freaked out when she said she actually taught biology) and she teaches at the university biology and dance. She teaches more traditional dance like salsa and meringue and a few of us are possibly going to join her in her classes o0o watch out people in the US I’m coming back with some fiery latino rhythms and moooooooves, but probably not….but probably yes. We are going to see a movie with them on Sunday, which I might comment on later if it’s an interesting experience or not.
The first night we walked around after a steak and rice dinner and just explored. We were of course beckoned by a few restaurant employees to get us inside, to get us to eat, and we explained we just ate and we had no money, but nope. They were very persistent. We met a cool guy named Dennis we saw again the next day, and he gave us some advice on how to change money (we tried earlier the first night, but they closed to the public). We ditched the poor chap and then we were pulled into a conversation with this man on the side of the street. A very interesting man whose brother lives in the US and he hasn’t seen for many years, but only has talked with him on the phone. He spoke some English and even some Russian, so I tried my best with my one semester of Russian, but the combination of English and Spanish for the day my brain was like que? What? Shto? So everything was kind of a little bleh. But he talked to us about how the US is the most powerful country and Russia is too and how they are awesome and how the US will never fail and yadda yadda and we were just having a discussion. Very heated and very political on the side of the road, our first night in Cuba. Good sign for more to come?
The next day we toured the university and got our student ID cards. We had to get some Cuban glamour shotz and print out these tiny baby pictures of ourselves and glue it to the card… everyone look at your student ID in the US and mine = a paper card with a a stamp on it, some handwritten signatures, and a glued picture of myself. YES. We also got approved for our student visas so we don’t have to flee after 30 days. YES, but means that we are students/have to study… boo. We ate a comedor-esque restaurant that I think was someone’s house… and they just run a restaurant for lunch. It cost me… let’s see (after converting my Canadian dollars which was a fantastic success.. I think I earned a 14-24 cent profit than my other traveling companions, we still don’t know exactly) about 33 Cuban pesos and 24 pesos = $1USD so, less than $2USD. For a whole meal and a cup of delicious juice. I asked a man in Spanish if a certain vegetable was Yuca and he was like no and said something else, then 2 seconds later in English: sorry, you asked if that was Yuca, yes that is Yuca. And I was like oh…thanks… whaaaaat. Some people speak English, but it is very limited and pretty accented. The pro-US/Russia man was pretty good at speaking, he said “frugal” (talking about frugal with his cola, and less frugal with his rum) and when I repeated it, he had no idea what I said. VERY INTERESTINGGGG.
So as of now (3:16pm on Friday, February 04, 2011) ^^ this is what has happened to me. Minus a few details I may or may not fill in, but I am getting tired and crazy from the smog and poor sleep from last night, so I am going to stop for now.
So since that episode of my life I have been just chillin and doin some tours. We did a city tour and went to Habana Vieja which is amazing. it's like a mixture of Tel Aviv, Switzerland, Chile, Nicaragua all rolled up into a Cuban hood. Our tour guide was 'saucy' and awesome and had a necklace with Nefertiti (whaaaaaa). The tour was really cool and she was super impressed we spoke Spanish and she said it was weird for her to give them in Spanish because she is an English PRO. I wish I could post some pix to make this more enlightening, but, I don't want to try right now.
Today we went to the ICAIC which is the Cuban film institute which is responsible for basically everything in Cuban related cinema. It's actually pretty famous so we were all like whaaa we're going to take a class here? Pretty cool. It's based in this ollllldddd mansion that some lady left to the institute after she died... we think. The lady spoke in Spanish the whole time and I was a little sleepy (I took a nap right before the tour mmmhmmm)
Other than that I am feeling normal and missing Nicaragua more than the US. I like hearing Spanish all the time and I like the food and I like everything. going back might suck... OH NOOOOOOO
Vamos a VERRRRRrrr
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
the night before...
Well. Right now I am laying in my hotel room on my bed, just hanging out, waiting for a reasonable hour to fall asleep and then waking up tomorrow for a long day of travel, ironically, to a country that is a mere 90 miles away. The bureaucratic process it will take for us to get cleared and aboard a plane is ridiculous (apparently--I will have to describe it later in a different post), but from what we were told, we are expected to be at the airport at 10am for a flight at 2pm.... WHAT?! That's a bit ridiculous and will probably consume my soul for the day (soul consumption is going to be a large aspect in this blog).
I was going to post last night, but after skyping with my friend, I had a bad sleep spell and just passed out without finishing what I wanted to...which meant a somewhat hectic morning. The ONLY thing (so far) that I am appearing to be missing is a swimsuit :( I really like it, too, but I have other shorts that will suffice/I can maybe buy a sweet one there. Woohoo. I am going to talk about what I did to prepare so YOU can learn what to prepare when going to a Latin American country/any country that maybe isn't the most developed in our definition of the word.
First things first--the clothing
I have always been an over-packer and probably always will be, but this time I did a pretty good job. My bag (you'll see a photo of) weighs only 38 pounds! The maximum I can bring down without any charge is 44 (but this includes carry on items, but I'm not carrying 6 pounds worth of stuff onto the plane), so I am pretty much right on target. I, since this is an extended stay and I am going to be more of a resident versus just a tourist, decided to bring clothes that represent my style as best as possible. Meaning fancier shirts, fancier pants--stuff that I would actually wear in the U.S. versus light clothes and fanny packs. Here are a few photos of the piles I am bringing:
You definitely don't want to bring too much. You will end up with that 50lb soul-sucking duffel bag. And you'll end up with a bunch of clothes to wash, take care of, and it just all around sucks. I know you can bring a lot and then leave them wherever, but carrying them around until you decide to leave them can be days or weeks, and especially if you are doing a lot of traveling, that will really weigh you down/hurt you. HURT YOU. I am bringing pretty unconventional travel clothes because I will have one place to be for 3.5 months because I want variety and I will be able to leave clothes in a safe place if I travel elsewhere. After the 3 months, I will most likely leave a lot of clothing at the hotel for the cleaning ladies/anyone that wants it as I probably won't need flannel pants for a while... o_o. Yeah, I have flannel pants. Feels good, man.
This is old information for 99% of everyone, but I can't stress it enough. It's just scary and sad seeing someone carry 2 50lb bags for a trip because it's just so unnecessary. You're not moving there. Bring more neutral clothes that won't stand out so no one can call your lazy butt out for wearing it 3 times a week. I mean... I do that in the U.S., but still! Reduce, reuse, recycle: applies to travel wear also.
Here's my bag:
Shoes
My parents were on my case about getting better shoes, better arch, better support--just get walking shoes. And I hate tennis shoes. I have not liked a pair of exercise shoes probably ever. I like my sambas, my converse, but I do admit these shoes would not fair well on day hiking/walking excursions. So, I conceded and purchased a pair of more heavy duty travel/walking/hiking/adventuring shoes.... I am not proud of this purchase, but I do have a sort of affinity for hiker/mountain people fashion--it's just NATURAL and FREEEEEE. So, I found a pair that I thought was decent and went for it. After trying them on, I did notice how these could definitely come in handy. They sort of... elevated me and made me have an extra spring in my step... really strange feeling wearing real shoes for once. I'm used to slippers and rubbery-canvas shoes. Here is a photo of them:
They're not TOO ugly, right?? They're hyphy in their own respect. My dad's friend gave him very important advice: Never go cheap on shoes, spend extra money on quality shoes. I think that's true. They are something that attribute to you structurally, versus clothes that are just meh, cosmetics. Winter gear is another thing that should probably not be spent lightly on.... but that's for another day, another trip (Mt. Everest anyone??). So yeah, be sure you have decent shoes. I know looking at tourists and their shoes makes me want to vomit 99% of the time because they are just SO DAMN DORKY looking. Just like look at my little shoesies designed for meeee especiallyyyy to travel the worldddd! But, seriously, shoes are important, so suck it up and walk out and be a proud gringo, all you gringites, you.
Technologic
So bringing technology is important: to document what you're doing, to take pictures, to get videos, GPS things, communication. So I have brought three crucial things to my life in Cuba. One: my beautiful Canon Rebel XSi (no picture of...mmm...google!) Two: my laptop and Three: A NEW VIDEO CAMERAAA!
So I bought a brand new video camera that is HD (apparently, but what does that even mean anymore) that can, wait for it, take videos/pics UNDERWATER. So, beach time here we cooomeeee. The best part was that it was only $99...although we bought 2 memory cards for $29 each..but..whatever it was worth it:
So I'm excited about that... taking videos on the street, of demonstrations, dances, whatever. I want this to be a very multimedia trip as I am a very multimedia person. After all this I will have a huge compilation of things to make a beautiful slideshow/movie... Sundance film festival? Cannes? Elizabeth Winters can you get me a spot to show my filming??
When documenting a trip, it is important to realize that YOU are actually THERE. You are taking the picture, but also see and recognize what you are taking a picture of. Don't just blindly snap at things and look at them later and be like o_O? Take a moment to recognize what you're looking at, snap a BEAUTIFUL shot, take another moment, then move on. Don't just blindly point your cameras every which way--I know I'm guilty, definitely, of doing this, but AWARENESS.
When taking photos of people... this gets tricky... I always get super nervous. So I asked my friend for some advice and she told me to just do it and then have a conversation with them. Talk to them a bit, show them the photo then move on. Don't be a spy taking creepy pictures. I mean if they are in a public place doing whatever that's fine, but if you are blatantly snapping photos of them, talk to them, ask them permission. For children, the same. If the children are playing and their parents are just watching ask the children snap a shot, talk to them a bit, talk to their parents. If the parents ask for money, just say sorry and walk away! Hah, a little sketchy, but you got consent from them already and money for the photo is just them scamming a tourist. If they have a shop, you can buy some gum or something that'd be coo. Rambly rambly.
My laptop is old as crap. I got it like sophomore year of high school and used it until Senior year of high school when I got my new one for college. I know 4 years is definitely not old, but in the technology world it's like a completely different generation. Just reusing this now I'm realizing how many advances have been made since I bought this one (which was pretty pricey at the time, now would be worth a quarter of the original value):
See, it's pretty and shiny, but old and a little rusty. There's also this problem with the screen:
If it's not situated correctly it will just fall flat back like this :( so sad. But I will be using the laptop to type up stuff, put it on a USB, zip to a computer with internet and be done so I don't get slapped with a $6/hour charge :( so expensive and not worth it (slow connection). I also brought all my music and all my movies so if I ever get homesick, Chappelle's show babyyyyyy.
Toilet-trees... I never understood this word until I was like 10 probably. I always thought like.. toilet trees... oh youthful ignorance
So I brought pretty normal stuff:
The usual: contact solution, ibuprofen, AD pills, chapstick, contacts, deodorant (I like Tom's because aluminum in traditional deodorant freaks me out...also, funny story. this particular brand at Target is only found in the woman's section. So my mom frantically tried to find it in the men's section also, but, alas, I had to overcome social barriers and venture into the women's deodorant aisle and snatch myself up some tree-hugging [apparently feminine] d.o. DAMN YOU SOCIETY), sunscreen, toothpaste, and these things called: probiotics. They're essentially just a pill a day that contains 10 billion bacteria things that help your stomach and do other good things. I don't know if they actually work that well, I took them before/during Nicaragua and I was fine, but just to be on the safe side I decided to take them again for this trip just to get my stomach a little extra padding/protection. So if you think your stomach might need some protection from Montezuma's Revenge, give 'em a try!
MoNeEeYyy
The money situation in Cuba is so bizarre. U.S. banks won't allow U.S. citizens to withdraw money in Cuba for whatever reason, so I have to bring ALL my money over there (I think I already mentioned this, but it's a refresher). I converted my money to Canadian dollars to bypass the 20% tax they impose on U.S. currency when you try to convert it in Cuba. HAH. In your face Fidel. But really, 20% is a huuuuuuge chunk. So hopefully I can sidestep it as long as possible (I do have some U.S. currency also...)
When I first get there, I will have to convert my money to the CUC which is the tourist currency which means you get ripped off for everything basically. It is a conversion rate of pretty much $1USD to $1CUC, so everything will be the same price. Here's an example... An ice cream bar will be $4 (without a label) so tourists will walk in and pay $4CUC because that's all they have, but Cubans will pay $4 in Cuban pesos which is roughly 40 cents... something like that. So hopefully when I get my visa squared away and get my student ID, I will be able to use the awesome Cuban peso and avoid the plague of getting ripped off. I will still carry with me probably USD, Canadian dollars, CUCs, and pesos just to use in various places that require whatever. It's still a mystery, but, I'm gonna figure it out.
Literature
I bought 3 guidebooks for Cuba, have a 4 year old Spanish--English dictionary, and a photography book about Cuba from an Omaha born/Chicago based photographer:
I am a little sketchy about guidebooks, just because they are so gringo-ey, but I figured with 3 months, I will have a lot of time to check out the country and these books would be a good investment. You can see their titles, and they all have really different stuff. The Frommer's one is mostly maps, the Eyewitness is just a blah of information, and the Lonely Planet one has very intricate details about restaurants/museums/everything all over Cuba. They are all pretty comprehensive of the country, but I will just have to wait and see until I get there!
The dictionary is a must. Obviously. But the black book is a photography collection that my mom got me from that artist who is originally from Omaha? But lives in Chicago? I'm not quite sure. I brought just for inspiration in my photography and it contains little snip-its of Cuban culture and Cuban-Spanish. It's also autographed by the artist :) woo-hoo.
The book I ordered came in like MONDAY. Cutting it so close.. remember:
1. Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado -- by Elvia Alvardo, translated by Medea Benjamin
It's a hardcover and everything. In really good condition... $.01 for an originally $28 book. Looks good to me. My friend said it was a pretty light read, but it is about 300 pages, so I'm a little weary of what a light read is to her ;) but I started reading it and it is pretty good/interesting so far. I hope it can maintain my interest so I can finish it while I'm there and apply what I learned from the book to the country whilst being there. Kind of the point right?
For future reference...
This semester, as I mentioned, I took that class with Matt. The semester before Nicaragua I also had a class with Matt, but this really doesn't relate to him. These are some books that you should pick up if you want to learn more about LAC. They may pertain specifically to one country, but the themes mostly overall cover LAC issues:
1. Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado -- by Elvia Alvardo, translated by Medea Benjamin
This one's about a Honduran woman who speaks about the troubles of the Honduran people. She mentions the struggle of her growing up and becoming a woman in power in community organizing. She works in regards to acquiring land that is legally entitled to the Hondurans under the current law, but the corruption and wealthy elite are huge factors in why she can't succeed every time. Very easy to read and gives great insight into daily struggles for people of LAC.
This is the story of one woman and her interactions with the Nicaraguan revolution in 1979. She discusses her role as a woman functioning in the man-powered (literally) front for Nicaragua with the FSLN (revolutionary group). It's an interesting memoir and gives you a lot of insight into what life was like, but she was a pretty wealthy Nicaraguan and was kind of an awkward mother (as you will find out)
This man actually came to talk to our class. The book is basically a general history of modern Nicaragua mostly. It is kind of a tough read, but if you get basic information about Nicaragua first, you can follow along fairly well. It's a pretty intense read.
I didn't actually finish this book... woops. But, it is about the most deadly journey in the world: crossing the border into the U.S. It sounds crazy that that is the most dangerous journey in the world, but it really is and the death tolls are astounding! Read for sure if you want to know more about why and how people from LAC come to our country.
Well, that's all folks for now. Time to hit the ol' dusty trail. I will hopefully try to update this blog as much as possible, but it won't be as easy as it has been and it definitely won't be so comprehensive and long. I just wanted to get out some initial information/advice for travelers. So, hope you have enjoyed what you've read so far and I am heading to La Habana tomorrow!
Peace out U.S.A.
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