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.