January 23rd

I woke up this morning at 6:10, instead of what was supposed to be 7:40. We were told that the alarm clocks may get reset because of power outages at night, but I can’t figure out how ours was reset to be faster. I was shaving, and realized how dark outside it was and how there was no noise outside. Checking my cell phone and watch, I realized that I was up early and tried to sleep for another hour.

It appears to me that the biggest problem of the semester will be that the showers don’t really have hot water. That’s great if we’ve just gotten back from walking a mile or so in 100% humidity in 80 degree weather, but it’s not so nice to wake up to. Apparently, Scott and I weren’t the only ones though, so now we’re on to depending on batteries.

Breakfast was fresh fruit, a sunny side up egg, a slice of ham and cheese, and some orange juice.

We walked the half hour to the University at 9AM; by the time we got there, I was already sweating. Seeing Havana by day was beautiful, however. It seems every corner you turn here is an automatic photo op.

The University has been around since 1733, and has over 35,000 students. We were given a speech on what is expected of us, when our classes are, and general info on the professors and the university. Surprisingly, everything I heard or expected about Cubans viewing Americans as rare was mostly not true. We walked through the university quad and drew few, if any, second glances.

Later, we went to a photo developer shop to get pictures taken for our ID cards, and while we waited (like I said, Cuba is a lot of waiting), I went to a café next door and had a large jam and cheese sandwich with mustard and a little bit of jam, as well as a coke. While there, the waitress and her cute friend started talking to me, asking to see my Nalgene water bottle. I submitted, and they took it behind the counter, and then jokingly brought out an empty plastic bottle to trade. I talked to the waitress’s friend, and found out that though she was only 19, she had already attended four years of art school. She gave me some tips on the beaches and Cuba in general.

After getting our pictures taken, we split up into smaller groups to self-tour the city. I went with Scott, Alex, and Danielle to check out Havana Vieja and Bario Chino on the way. Walking through the city brings you through poor areas where children run around in their underwear, to busy cross streets where sexually-androgynous Europeans and their Cuban imitators mixed with the general population. Stopping at a restaurant so the rest of my group could eat, we realized how rusty our Spanish was, but that was set to change later.

I saw a couple of Chinese signs here and there, but for the most part we either missed Chinatown or there really isn’t much of one to speak of anymore. When we arrived at the capitol, its size blew me away. Perhaps it’s because it’s such a large, singular building in the midst of so many smaller, connected ones, but I enjoyed the Cuba capitol more than the US capitol. Across the street, and on the way to the university, stood an old movie theatre still showing current Cuban movies. After admiring the size of the building, we continued on to the central train station, from whence we visited Jose Marti’s childhood home. Although I’m not very familiar with Jose Marti or his works, I understood that he was a well-read, well-educated, well-traveled adventurer and originator of the first Cuban revolution. It was nice seeing other Cubans paying respect to him as well.

From there, we intended to head to the Malecón to grab some ice cream and head back towards our dormitory, but I was delayed by a younger man asking a few questions. I didn’t catch them at first, but I did understand he wanted me to take a draught from his Havana Club rum bottle – and of course, when in Rome, do as the Romans. With a laugh, he asked me more questions about where I was from, so I introduced him to the rest of my group. He informed us his name was Alexei (pronounced Ahl-eh-say) and that it was his birthday tomorrow, but he was celebrating today with his brothers. He invited us to celebrate with him at his house, and realizing that this would be more interesting and educative than walking the Malecón with ice cream, I took him up on the offer (after my compadres concurred). We took three two-seat bike-taxis to his place, although one bike’s chain broke half-way through the journey and we had to hire a new one. At his house, we met his grandmother, his sister, his nephew, and another sister. There, we shared some more rum and danced some salsa, reggaeton, mambo, and some other Latin flavors. Alexei showed us great hospitality, and it was our first real taste of Cuba.

We walked back, talking about everything from the weather (Alexei enjoyed winter the most because he didn’t sweat, but laughed at me for sweating) to wanting to hang out tomorrow (he claimed we could go to Trinidad, which is at least a six hour bus ride – but he could do it in an hour and a half, as well as carry 10 people in a small Russian car). All the same, we really appreciated spending time with him.

By the time we got back just in time for dinner, I was almost too tired to eat. We had lightly fried chicken, a chickpea/yam soup, rice, and fresh fruit. I went upstairs to crash in our rocking chairs.

When I woke up, I watched a little bit of Cuban TV, and absolutely marveled at the propaganda. A cartoon that resembled a Flash movie played a sing-along about Bush hiding terrorists, and another program had a male and female anchor discussing Bush (with the male anchor dominating the broadcast). Scott and a few others in the program told me about a large rally that was going to occur the next morning to protest Bush. Diana and Valerie showed me some posters they picked up while they walked the Malecon of anti-Bush propaganda that was surprisingly well-produced. After experiencing our first black-out of about ten minutes, we headed down to the Malecón to drink a few beers and then check out what else they had set up for the rally tomorrow. Naturally, the rally area was set up directly across from the US Special Interest Section. By eleven thirty PM, groups were already beginning to congregate. I plan on getting up at 8 tomorrow to go head down there and hopefully see Castro speak.