Confessions of a Fat Gurl

Just to let everyone know, Habana Café charges 10CUC to get in and they don't even have food. It was pretty embarrassing, especially because Danny and I had thrown on our eating shoes just for the occasion. No worries. We simply moseyed on over to Oportunidades where we got a few croquets, after getting a beer for the road as well, and then tried to grab us un taxi to get to Tal Vez the best restaurant. (No questions about it.) Speaking of ridiculously fat gurls and good pizza...

The Cienfuegos, or as I like to call it: 100Flames trip, was actually a lot of fun. Of course, after Killahoe/Matanzas I was expecting the worst so I made sure to pack 2 bottles of wine and a litre of rum. Needless to say all said materials were used. However, they weren't use for basic survival as they were at Killahoe/Matanzas, they were actually used for fun. Granted, the first half of 100Flames, when we went around to Saint Barabara knows how many secret organizations a bottle of wine or two could have gone a long way but we trucked through it. When we were given our free time we had a semi-charlie's angels mission where we hid from what would later be referred to as a leaky twat, pardon my criolle. The leakiness, not so much fun, but the running sure was a hoot and a half. However we all ended up on the same dock, fortunately for us we had a rum box, on the unfortunate side rum boxes don't last as long as they should. Regardless, we had a good time. One of the best parts of 100Flames was lunch, obviously I'd go there. We had Dino's pizza for lunch and chyle I coulda died from the excitement. We were offered BOTH pizza and Spaghetti so you know this hoe was content. Meg, thankfully asked if she could get some veggies on her pizza instead of the spaghettis and they retorted "Sure!", in more awkward stares than words. A few of us ended up getting the same thing which was nothing like wearing the same dress as your frenemy to prom, in fact it was more like getting pregnat at the same time as your frenemy and then discovering that it was by the same vato loco and then bonding over the lice and deceit. In other words, the pizza was damn tasty.  

So earlier when I was typing this blog i had decided that I was still full from last night and chose to abstain from breakfast (even though I was already an hour late) but then my inner fat girl woke up and I just can't say no to her.

I'm really sad about the lack of fruit for breakfast but there is nothing anyone can do about it. The hurricanes have destroyed many of the crops where the fruits grow so we can't blame anyone besides mother Nature. And she's getting it good with global warming. It must be the menopause.

Everything we do in Cuba revolves around food. When we are eating lunch we usually talk about all the food we'd like to be eating or all the food we will eat upon returning to the states. We then begin to talk about dinner possibilities and drool over that as we eat our measly (but delicious) ham sandwiches. There are so many things i can't wait to get back to: hummus, CHEESE, salads, pizza (even though we eat it almost everyday), condiments!! Ay mi vida. The best thing is that everyone on the trip has an inner fat girl, some more than others. This common love of food helps us bond better than cheese does to toast in a grilled cheese. Mmm. 

One  more thing about food (for now), I will most certainly miss Milady's cooking. She made us Ropa Vieja tonight and it shut dinner down. Also, Gerard came over for dinner and waited until after we had all finished devouring the table to tell us that no Cuban eats like we eat here. Which we had already figured but to eat so voraciously in front of one made us all feel bad. He told us that Cubans don't really have this notion of using milk in desserts, like Arroz con Leche. I think it's messed up that CASA seems to hide what life is like for a real Cuban and the fact that they ration so much food for us. Milady told me that if she actually made the amount of food that was rationed out for every student there would be rice for days! I think one of the major reasons why we eat so much is the fact that we are never really satisfied until we eat dinner. All day we dream/talk/think about the food we'd like to have and how nothing here tastes like anything we're used to and so when we get a feast at dinner of food that actually tastes really good we throw on our eating pants and stuff ourselves silly. As Chauncy's people would say: oy vey.

Acuario Nacional de Cuba

This is pretty much the only/best reason to go to the aquarium here.

Queer Country

I have yet to feel as if I understand this country. I could not post anymore on the Matanzas trip because there is really nothing positive to say about except for the pizza and the beach. The rest of the 3 days there were utter horror. It was like a freaky Twilight episode where we were stuck on an island with Profé and he kept talking but nothing came out of his mouth and he would point at things and there would be nothing to look at. In a coconut shell.

Today we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes, the Cuban Side and it was pretty nifty. Some of the artwork was fantastic while others were portraits of very hairy women. The guide went through almost every single picture and explained it's significance and brush stroke technique and how that coincided with the year in history. Needless to say, I didn't pay attention. When I go to a museum I like to get lost in my 

own little world and look at the things i like for however long i want to. this was impossible to do as Profé kept whistling at us to make sure we wouldn't stray away from the guide. As I tend to do, or in this case not do, I went on my merry way looking at the abstract paintings. Some of the most interesting were done after the revolución and they didn't seem like very happy paintings. One bore a child titled "Libre" whose head was cut off and replaced with what looked like chains to an unspecified source. I can only assume that the artist felt the freedom of the country was like a mock birth, a birth in which the child would have no head and would have the undeniable traces back to where it stemmed from. I'm not really sure what I expected of course, since I still don't understand the mindset of the people regarding the revolución. In class the other day we were talking about the characteristics of an underdeveloped nation and revolution and the major common thread between the two is the mindset of the people. If the people of a country think that they are living in an underdeveloped nation then they truly are, and in order to have a revolution you have to change the mindset of the people. This reminded me of the metaphor Madge used to describe Cuba: The monkey that is being attacked by a lion (the US

) but is still alive and kicking. That mentality must have stemmed from the revolución. The people here feel unified now as a country. They understand that there is undeniable classism but yet they don't see it that way. To them there are some who are simply more fortunate than others. they are neither better nor smarter than them, they are simply different. Like I said, it is a queer country. Not like that though. 

In fact, the gay scene here, although many of our instructors have repeated to us that homophobia is a thing of the past it seems strange to me that the gay scene here is limited to an area at the melecón and a fiesta particular that changes every night of the weekend. There is also a gay beach, I think. I wasn't expecting to see guys walking down the streets holding hands or anything like that, I mean that has been recently accepted in the US and even then it is mostly in the "gay" areas. However, there is an acknowledgement here that they seem to ignore. It's like how they know that people in other countries don't have rationed food that they can barely live off of and yet they never question us about how much we eat or what our food situation is like. 

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's a rather queer country. 

Poema IV

Un árbol sin agua, no crece

Las flores sin sol, no viven

Y el mar sin agua, no existe.

Sin alimento no pueden estar los animales

Y la luna sin el sol no tiene razón.

El cuerpo sin sangre esta muerto,

Y la sangre sin calentura no funciona;

A los pulmones les hace falta aire

Hasta al león, el rey de la selva le hace falta algo.

Pero yo no necesito nada mas que escucharte,

Que sentirte, que besarte.

Como quedan dentro de mi las huellas que has dejado,

Igual que marca la tinta al papel.

En mi corazón has escrito los versos más bellos del mundo,

Unas canciones que no puedo leer, ni escuchar cuando no estas cerca.

A dios le falta la religión pero a mi, mi amor, solo me faltas tu.

As of yet...

It has been a very, very, very long time since i updated this blog and I don't even know where to start. I'll just focus on the latest news I have to report on which is the trip to Matanzas. It was... Lord how can i even begin to explain the atrocities that were experienced. Most of the time we were hungry or confused or hungry and confused and incredibly outraged by the fact Profé had no idea what was going on and that he dragged us around for hours on end without ever explaining where we were or why we were there. Besides the fact that we learned that their is a difference between citrus and fruits we also learned that some houses are pink. Not to mention that the entire city made me itchy and I was covered in hives for the duration of the trip. 

Beach Days

Poema III

En tus ojos veo,

El fondo de tu corazón.

En tus labios siento,

donde nace la razón.

En tus manas, esta el calor,

que da vida, a todo el amor.

En tu voz existen,

las canciones más lindas

que no se escriben

por falta de palabras.

Un mar amnzo, así es tu almo,

que me baña, y llena de calma.

Y sobra tanto más, que no se como decir.

Y sobra más de tí, que me hace sonreír.

Poema II

No se como quererte.

Mi corazón es muy débil,

la mente no alcanza,

y las palabras no existen.

No se como amarte

sin hacerte daño,

sin empujarte lejos,

para poder extrañarte.

No se como quererte,

así como mereces,

como debes ser querido,

así, como te quiero yo.

Poema I

La vida es un libro que no se ha escrito,

Pero que tiene el final contado.

El hombre siempre encontrara algún delito,

aunque sabe que siempre saldra frustado.

Trata y trata de cambiar como esta,

pero nunca se atiene la paz,

y esto, así es la vida nuestra:

Queriendo y pidiendo siempre más.

Por eso el humano es tan infeliz,

Destruyendo el mundo como la luvvia al heis.

Egg Carts!

So today we decided to go to the Capitolio and back to Callejón Hamil for the Rumba. It was ok. It was really hot and we couldn't really see but the energy the people there were emitting was fantastic! Everyone was drinking their rum and dancing and having an all around good time. We had lunch at this little pizza stand for 10mn! And the pizza was sooo good. I had an onion pizza. Mmmm. 

One of the girls who went with us told us about this bakery they had gone to earlier in the week by the Capitolio so we figured we'd make the hike over there for some cake. I'm really glad we did because the cake and pastries were delish. We saw the Capitolio which is some government building here in Cuba, the equivalent to our state house I think. The best part about the whole day was when we took the Egg carts home. An egg cart is basically a vespa but the back has been transformed into some egg pod looking thing and it was a blast. The drivers we had were playing bumper cars for some reason which made us fear for our lives but at the same time we had a blast. Except for the one time when our driver grabbed the other cart and literally threw our cart off of it. It was wild to say the least. 

I don't practice Santería

Although Afrocuba is 3 hours long we usually never have to sit through all three hours because it ends early. 

We are watching the first story of Lucía now for film class. It looks like it's going to be interesting, to say the least. 

This week has been truly interesting. It all started when I spoke to Maria about religion and she told me that she agrees more with the catholic church than she does in Santería because she says that she doesn't agree that the Santeros should charge more money for the religious rituals they perform. They are usually supposed to charge in Monedas nacionales but they have started to charge in CUCs. Speaking of which, we are actually going to have the chance to have our shells read and if we choose we can pay an additional fee and find out who our guardian orisha would be and get a necklace prepared for us. Also, related to this, we were able to attend one of the ceremones called a Tambor in which the Orisha Yemaya came down and possessed someone so she could talk through them with our Prof. It was three hours of drum beats and dancing and awkwardness. Also, I had a bit of a headache and the drumming DID NOT help. We did get some fun pastries and cake afterwards that made me shake from the amounts of sugar, which made me feel like I was on the Lindsey Lohan diet. 

On our way home we stopped by the Callejón Hamil where an artist named Salvador something or other painted the whole street with murals that deal with the different cults of Santería. It was pretty cool. They have Rumba tomorrow from 12-3 so that might be fun. The artwork was really spectacular. It was very indigenous feeling with a strong sense of Cuban pride. The amount of effort that man must have put in is truly remarkable. 

The best part was that I saw a chinese crested mutt, I was just excited to see a chinese crested (hairless dog), and the dead chicken on the side of the road. All in all a good day.

Club Turf

So tonight was one of the first night's we all went out together. It was so much fun. The only thing is that we were supposed to go out with Giovanni (the guy who looks after the building) and his friends and as we met them outside this other group of guys came up to them and they said they would be back in a minute and then never returned. It was bazaar. We later found out that they were taken to prison and that they had to spend the entire night there. Apparently, they were taken away fro being black but I could have sworn some of the guys who came over were black as well. Giovanni said that there is no discrimination here but this clearly goes against everything he's said. I know that it is one of the biggest flaws humanity has to feel this need to discriminate amongst each other. Just today i was speaking to Chino and Milady about how in high school some of the kids pretended not to know spanish because of the negative associations that came along with it. We were living in a predominantly Latino community where maybe 60% (if not more) were illegal immigrants and somehow if someone knew how to speak spanish better than English they were immediately considered a "wetback". It's awful really. However, I wouldn't expect to not find racism here. Everyone who is considered to be part of the Elite of Cuba is white and those that have to work on the street are black. It;s the same in places in Mexico so why would things change here just because they have a different sort of government? 

One would think that in a socialist state, one in which everyone is supposed to be equal these racial boundaries would seem idiotic to them but I guess that is just the way the world is.

Margarita

So a lot of people think Margarita Alercón is kind of crazy. She's this woman who is a journalist, I think, but she has come to our class twice and every time she does i feel like i get the most out of my time here. She is familiar with the US as she was born in New York, i THINK SHE MIGHT BE the daughter of the ex Cuban ambassador for the UN but i don't know since i'm not really familiar about those things. Anyway, today she talked about the importance of lifting the embargo and how now that Obama is taking presidency he has the power to simply not veto the bill to life the embargo and then everyone will be happy. Cuba will finally be able to import things from the US and especially from other countries and the ability to travel in and out of cuba will finally be possible. This would be great for Cuba since about 70% of their income is from foreigners and tourism. 

It was so sad to hear her talk about the essential things that we sometimes take for granted in the us. nOT THAT a lot of people are fortunate enough to have full health insurance in the US but it is still more accessible for those who can afford it, which is a problem in itself, but she was talking about if a child was diagnosed with cancer and the doctor needed to get more medicine for a treatment but because of the embargo they would not be able to access it and the doctor would have to tell the parents that the dose they were giving their child would be the last one they would be able to give them until they could somehow get more... 

I couldn't even imagine knowing that someone i loved was going to die because the US has prohibited the Swiss from trading with cuba. And then we started talking about the war, if one could call it that, going on between israel and the palestinians in Gaza and how they are basically just destroying them off the face of the earth. there is so much happening in the world that it seems as if it is literally being held together at a vastly dissipating seam. Aye no.

pOWER 90 is scheduled for 5 today. i feel a tad bit sore but it feels good.  

Food!

I'm sure everyone was waiting for me to talk about food since i am so easily excited by it so here i go. So we are given breakfast and dinner here at the Residencia and so far breakfast has consisted of some strange ham sort of thing, cheese, rolls and pineapple. It gets old quick but hey, food is food right? Dinner on the other hand is delicious! Milady, the cook here at the residencia, makes the best black beans in the world! We usually have an assortment of sides like tomatoes, slaw, carrots, beets and the sort and then unless we have spaghetti, there is rice and some sort of meat dish. it's so good. 

For lunch we have been going to a variety of places but today we found one that takes monedas nacionales (This might be a good time to explain the whole currency situation. So we use CUCs which is the currency you can exchange dollars for but the people who live here are paid their wages in Monedas Nacionales [mn] so 1cuc = 24mn and 1$ = .90cuc). So this place is 30mn for a plate of rice and beans together (called morros y cristianos, Moores and Christians, or as we call it religious conflict, hehe) some fried sweet potato thing, slaw and bistek de puerco. It was delicious and affordable so it may or may not be our new spot for lunch. There was some talk about possibly getting a sandwich place to deliver lunch to us daily since we aren't given a lunch break and we are usually starving after class but judging from the other plans el profe has made that probably won't happen until mid february. 

For the most part everything is cheap, even when we go out for lunch we spend maybe 5cuc so it's not bad. The rum is like 5cuc for 1liter and it is the most amazing rum i've ever had. They also sell these fried chicken balls that they call albóndigas for .10cuc a piece.

I love food.

Oh did I mention the coffee here is delicious too? Because it is. Maria and Milady take really good care of us. the residencia is gorgeous, it overlooks the malecon. Well it's almost 4 and it's day 2 of power 90. some girls and i are doing this work out video i bought a few years ago. It's supposed to be an in-home boot camp for a complete body make over so:

jANUARY 12, probably 180lbs, and work out day #2 (Bridget Jones reference).

Peace Y'all.

Cintas de seda

Yesterday we went to see a Cuban production of a play called Cintas de Seda and it was amazing! It was essentially about this hospital sort of thing where Frida Kahlo was brough back to life and was being taken care of by Sor Juana Inés de la cruz which I think Gris would have really liked. I recorded some of it on my camera but the sound isn't really great since we were sitting in the 12th row. The overall theme was women who are ostracized for following the passions embedded deep within their hearts even though for Frida it meant that people saw her as an obscenity and Sor Juana tried to devote her life to christ but was filled with lines of poetry and verses even though it was inappropriate for a nun to write or even think about strong, powerful female figures. It was good, real good. 

Religion

I was really excited for class today because after speaking with Maria,  our hostess, i really wanted to know what the general Cuban response to Jehovah Witnesses was. She mentioned that they generally don't take too kindly to them because they don't eat certain meats and prefer to throw it away than give it to those who can't afford to buy meat. She also said that she disagreed with the belief that God was the ultimate medicine, i'm referring to the fact that they refuse blood transfusions, and she said it was silly for them to let children die when they could be cured with advances in medicine. I am assuming that because she is part of CASA that she is also not really allowed to spread any kind of religious preference or preach it to us. i'm not sure though. I'm still figuring that stuff out. Anyway, the instructor, who looks a lot like my grandpa (Dad's side, i'll have to take a picture of him because it's creepy how similar they look), thought he had until 1 and class was only until 10:45 so he didn't get around to talking about much of anything besides the origins of Santería. 

I'm finally beginning to like the film class. Not that i didn't appreciate the movie La última cena but the quality was kind of bad and it was difficult to understand what they were saying because of that. We are now watching a film titled Cecilia Verdés (?) which is pretty good. 

Hiphop

So today we went to this Hip Hop concert close to where the Zoo was which was interesting to say the least. The zoo I mean. All the animals were really close and it was unlike any Zoo i've ever been to. the animals were literally only a fence away! Also, the people who were at the zoo kept feeding the animals crackers and cookies and all sorts of things. And the animals looked sickly. But it was a huge zoo. Had they had enough money I'm sure it would have been a great zoo but as it was it was kind of awful. Also, we had to pay the tourist price which is 2CUC when the entrance fee for Cubans was only 1mn. I was a little upset because, granted we are here as tourists sort of but we are studying here for 3 months, I mean c'mon. So back to the hip hop concert, it was aight. The group that performed has been censored a few times because they speak about life in Cuba and sometimes that entails a critic on the government but they get away with saying that they are merely sharing personal experiences and not spreading any propaganda.