6 cities in 4 days!

This weekend our group took the second weekend trip of our program. It's been my favorite trip so far!! We left Thursday and came back yesterday (Sunday). In four days we visited 6 cities!!!!! In order they were: Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Remedios, Caibarien, and Santa Clara. So the whole time we were in the province Las Villas. Here is a map of Cuba so you can all get a better idea of where I was geographically!



CIENFUEGOS

This was the first city we visited. Cienfuegos is so beautiful! The city was founded much later than many other Cuban cities and was founded by French and people from New Orleans. Upon arriving, we were instantly greeted by Orlando García, the historian of the city as well as the president of the UNEAC (Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba) of Cienfuegos. He is a personal friend of Professor Behar. He greeted us in front of the Hotel Union, where we stayed that night. It was a GORGEOUS hotel that was right in the middle of the historic part of the town. Orlando graciously showed us around the city. Then, we went to the UNEAC and met with some students from the University of Cienfuegos. Orlando is also a professor there and when his students heard that there were American university students coming, they were very eager to meet us and talk to us. They were soooo nice!! We told them about our university and they told us about theirs. It was really great to get to talk to students that were our age, our direct counterparts. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We had dinner at the old Cienfuegos Yacht Club! It was soooo fancy and the dinner was delicious! After dinner we went back to UNEAC for a night of amazing music. Orlando invited a band, Los Naranjos, to perform for us and some guests he had invited. They were a són band. IT WAS AMAZING! It was also nice to get to hang out with the university students for a little longer! If you ever visit Cuba, make Cienfuegos one of your stops!

TRINIDAD

The next day we were off to Trinidad, one of the oldest towns in Cuba. The whole town has been declared by UNESCO as a world heritage site! It was very small and very beautiful. The entire historic part of town looked like a postcard! The houses were all painted with different bright colors and the streets are all in stone. The stones that make up the streets were stones that were brought on slave ships to help even out the weight. We walked around the historic part, but then wandered off into the busier, less touristy part of town and i got a DELICIOUS slice of pizza for 5 pesos cubanos (~20 cents). That night we stayed in a hotel that overlooked the entire city and the Caribbean sea. It was BEAUTIFUL.

SANCTI SPIRITUS & REMEDIOS

The next day our final destination was Caibarien. However we stopped in Sancti Spiritus and Remedios on our way there. We only spent about 2 hrs in Sancti Spiritus and 20 mintues in Remedios. Not much to report. They are both beautiful cities, but since we didn't get a chance to really explore them, I don't have much to say. I did get some kickass ice cream in Remedios! :)

CAIBARIEN

Later that day we finally reached Caibarien. We arrived at our hotel, Brisas del Mar and were instantly greeted and given a welcome cocktail. MOJITOS! They were so good! This hotel was my favorite! The staff was so attentive and the rooms overlooked the beach!! When we got there all of us instantly went to the beach. It was a little breezy and cold so I didn't swim, but I layed out my towel and read and chilled for hours until the sun set. The next day, another one of Professor Behar's friends, Julio, who was lived in Caibarien his whole life, showed us around the town. Caibarien is a very small and relaxed fishing town. I would definitely recommend stopping in Caibarien.

SANTA CLARA

On Sunday we headed off to the last city of our trip: Santa Clara. I was SOOO excited to go here because this is where the Che monument, museum, and memorial are. Las Villas was the province that El Che was in charge of liberating from the Batista regime. Thus, El Ché is deeply involved in the history of Santa Clara and neighboring towns. The monument is located right at the entrance of the city...you can't miss it. It is a HUGE concrete rectagular block with "Hasta La Victoria Siempre" written on it and a HUGE metal Che standing on top of it. The museum and memorial are right behind it. You are not allowed to take pictures of either the museum or the memorial. The museum was definitely cool. It had a lot of pictures of Che throughout different parts of his life as well as artifacts that were his and/or were used by him. But what was really moving was the memorial, where his remains are along with the remains of the fellow guerilla fighters that fought and died with him in Bolivia. Can't really explain it, but it was a moving experience. Afterwards, we had lunch and walked around the city of Santa Clara.

I had such an amazing time on this trip and learned so much. It was definitely nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of Havana and see different parts of Cuba. P.S. No place is like Havana. It definitely stands on its own! Upon arriving back in Havana, I definitely got the "it's good to be home" feeling. It's crazy that I now feel like Havana is home! Anyway, today we had a rain day....kinda like a snow day...only with rain! It has been raining so hard since last night and the power at Casa de las Americas went out so we didn't have class today!!! Yay! I'll take a rain day over a snow day ANY DAY!!!!

Sending everyone warm wishes!!!

Love, Carla

Industriales v. Santiago

Papi!! Yesterday I really wish you would have been with me! I WENT TO MY FIRST BASEBALL GAME IN CUBA!! Industriales v. Santiago. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!! Industriales is the Havana team and Santiago is obviously the Santiago team. It's the biggest rivalry in Cuban baseball...somewhat comparable to the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. It was definitely an experience.

A ticket to the game costs 1 cuban peso....25 cuban pesos = 1 CUC...1 CUC = a little more than the US dollar. ITS ALL FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME HERE. Any Cuban can afford to go to a baseball game. It's awesome. The stadium was PACKED!!!! It was so packed that I had to sit on the steps next to the actual seats. If you've ever been to an MLB game you know you are bombarded with advertisements...they are posted up everywhere in the stadium. Not in Havana. There wasn't a single advertisement. Just pure baseball. Oh and at one point Industriales were at bat, bases were loaded, 2 outs, and then one of the cushions that are on the outfield wall started to fall. They stopped the game for about 5 minutes until the fixed the cushion. Oh! And you know how at sporting events there's always beach ball that is thrown around in the crowd? Well in Cuba it's a blown up condom that gets tossed around the crowd!!! And they play salsa in between innings and whenever theres a break in the game.

Since I'm a student at Havana, I had to stay loyal to the city and root for the Industriales. But the lost! It definitely wasn't their best performance. Santiageros were on fire! Final score 7-5.

Papi, I definitely plan to go back! I want to get you an Industriales jersey!!! I wish you could have been there with me to experience it! I definitely thought about you the whole time!

So yeah. I'm still breathing, living, and enjoying. Havana is being very good to me!

Much love,
Carla

im sorry!!

Hey followers :)

I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING THIS IN SUCH A LONG TIME!!! I've definitely been keeping myself super busy!! I don't really have time to update right now either because I'm working on finishing up some job applications for this summer!

But I am doing great!! I really hope to write a more detailed update soon!

Much love,
Carla

IM BACK!!!!

Hello followers :)

So this past Sunday I got back from our weekend trip to MATANZAS! Matanzas is another province of Cuba, and it is BEAUTIFUL! It's definitely an entire different feel from Havana which is all hustle and bustle. Matanzas was much more peaceful and calm.

1) The first day there we went to a slavery museum that traced the history of slavery in Cuba. Really interesting stuff.

2) Then we went to Ediciones Vigía, a publishing house that produces beautifully hand-crafted books using ALL kinds of materials and an old mimeograph machine. No digitalness, no computers. It was magical. All the books are made by hand. Seriously. It's amazing. We volunteered and helped cut out some stuff that is going to be used to make a book that will be released at the Book Fair later this month! I can't wait to see it! I'll definitely be posting pictures of Vígia very soon! MAMI I BOUGHT YOU A BOOK FROM THERE AND I THINK YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE IT!! :)

3) Checked into our hotel. Nice hotel, but nothing to write home about.

4) The next day we went to the Matanzas museum. It was kinda weird. It was the randomest compilation of stuff.

5) Then we went to this pharmacy museum. It's a lot cooler than it sounds. It's this old pharmacy from the l800's that operated like it did since it opened until the early 1960s when it was closed. Then soon after it was opened as a museum. EVERYTHING, I repeat, everything there is in its original form from the 1800s. And the medicines and oils that are in the jars are the last that were used. It was so awesome.

6) Third day we drove to Varadero, which is in the province of Matanzas, but not in the city of Matanzas. It was about a 30 min drive. OMG VARADERO IS SOOOO WEIRD! It's like tourist central. It is NOTHING like the rest of Cuba. There's a bunch of fancy hotels and too many tourists! But Professor Behar wanted us to see for ourselves the tourist side of Cuba is like. We stayed at the Hotel Internacional, which was built in the mid 1950s. It was all-inclusive, so we definitely hit the bar up a few times ;) Also, it was right on the beach. The strip of beach that our hotel had was SOOOOOOOOOO beautiful. So I definitely spent most of that day chillen on the beach.

Okay so don't get me wrong. I'm still in school and eventhough we are doing all these really amazing fun things, I feel like I'm learning sooooo much. I may not understand everything, but I'm definitely taking it in and learning a ton. Oh! And we still managed to have class while we were in Matanzas! We held class pool-side!! It was great!!

Alright loves, it's time for me to go! I have class from 10-1pm. Oh and I will post pictures to this same post later on!

I hope you all have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!

Cajón de Muertos

Yesterday the Northeastern professor, Alan West-Duran, invited his students and us to a Cajón de Muertos. He was recently initiated into the Santería religion and it was his first cajón. In this ritual, the spirits that guide him are called down and it's pretty much a celebration to honor them. Taking Professor Behar's class introduced me to Santería, so I had an idea of what Regla de Ocha (another name for it) was about. Or so I thought...

The ritual was in a very humble house in a different barrio. I don't think I can even explain what I saw or experienced. So I won't, but it was unlike anything I had ever seen/heard/experienced before. I can't blog about it because it would feel wrong. However, I was so moved. The spiritualist (shoot I forgot his name!) told me I had the spirit of a gitana, a gypsy, the spirit of Oyá. Oyá is an orisha, a goddess warrior if you will. She has been syncretized in with the Catholic images of La Virgin de la Candelaria. He also gave me a set of instructions to follow, that I don't want to discuss in this blog either. I really don't know how to explain it. It was just a very special and moving ritual. This is a depiction of Oyá...



In about 2 weeks, Professor West-Duran will have a Tambor, which is another ritual, but this one is in honor of the orishas, not his spirits. It will be in honor of Yemayá, who is his specific orisha.

Today has been low-key. Went swimming this morning until 2pm!! Then had some lunch and came back to the residencia and did some homework. I still have a lot of reading to do for class tomorrow! Argh! Okay. I think I'm going to take a power nap before dinner!

xoxo

some visual stimulation for you!

Here are some of my favorite photos that I've taken thus far...click on them to make them bigger!


this is part of a mural that was painted at Casa.


The Ceiba tree located at El Templete, where the city was founded in 1519. It is tradition to wish at this ceiba tree.


Gerardo riding Miles' skateboard during our tour of La Habana Vieja. This was in Plaza Vieja.


The Crew!!


The master, Reynaldo, rollin' up a legit Cuban cigar, the legit way.


This one's for you Papi!! Reynaldo and I!


The very first Cuban flag...made in the U.S. Ironic.


Bullet holes from the shots that were shot at young college revolutionaries when they stormed the President's Palace to assassinate Batista.


Part of a mural at the Museo de la Revolución depicting Fidel's march into Havana in 1959.


That iconic picture of El Ché by Korda that everyone recognizes and has seen was taken on this day.


Caricature of Batista that is El Rincon de los Cretinos at the Museo de la Revolución. Along with him are George Bush senior and Ronald Reagan.

That's all for now folks...this internet is so slow and posting these just took FOREVER!!! More to come!!!!!

xoxo

Santa Maria

I just got back from Santa Maria beach and it was GORGEOUS!!!! The water was so clear and beautiful. And it was a beautiful day...some clouds, but whatevs. I will DEFINITELY be returning. It's only a 20 minute taxi ride! I definitely like this not having class on Fridays thing!

OMG!!!!! So last night we wanted to walk all along the Malecón to go to La Habana Vieja. But let me tell you, it is such a LOOOOOOOOONG walk!! It probably took us about 2hrs to get there, but we stopped a couple times to chill and listen to music. We ended up at the Plaza de Armas. During the day it is such a busy area filled with book sellers and all sorts of personalities. However, at night it is so quiet and so peaceful. At first I didn't even realize that we were there! We just sat down and chilled. It was dope. Dan graced us with an impromptu poetry reading, which was so cool. Then we put on some salsa tunes and just started dancing. Jose and Giovanni, which are actual dancers started dancing and kinda showing off ;) It was cute though. At about 1:30ish we decided to head back. Butttttt a bunch of ppl took taxis and Diana, Abby, Jose, Giovanni, Ruben and I didn't mind walking....or so we thought. We didn't get back until 3:00am!! I was so exhausted!!!!!!! But it was a chill night.

Now I'm getting ready to have din din (which I'm always excited about because I never know what Miladys has cookin' for us!!). Not sure what our plans are for tonight.

I'm having the time of my life.

dont think i've forgotten!

I have not forgotten to write! I promise to write sometime today about my first few days here!

Much love!! <3

my new city

I don't even know how to begin to describe the feeling of being in my new city, Havana. I'm going to start from the beginning of my arrival, and hope that I don't forget anything!

We arrived in Havana at about 1:40pm on Monday, January 18th. As soon as the pilot informed us that we had started our initial descent into Havana, my heart skipped a beat! All of a sudden I became jittery and really anxious. I couldn't even believe that after reading, thinking, dreaming, and writing so much about this city, that I was about to arrive!! As soon as I saw it, I started grinning from ear to ear. During our whole landing my eyes were glued to the window. When we finally touched down and made the landing, people started clapping (myself included). This happens almost every time that I have landed in San Juan, so it was somewhat comforting that it happened here too. To my very very pleasant surprise, our group had no problems going through customs. Before I knew it, we were already on the bus, our bags loaded in the truck behind us, on our way to our new residence. I quickly grabbed a window seat on the bus, and the whole ride from the airport to the residence, I was just taking everything in. As many people know, many cars in Havana are very old. This was definitely a sight to take in. Also, all throughout the city there are murals and billboards that with sayings like "Que Viva La Revolucion," "Patria o Muerte," "Venceremos," "Viva Cuba Libre," "Solidaridad Latinoamericana," all with images of Fidel, El Che, Jose Martí, etc. Propaganda is definitely not lacking in this city. We then drove into El Vedado, the area of Havana were I will be living for the coming months.

We finally arrived at la residencia. First impression from the outside: damn! we have an ocean view!!! we're right on the malecon!! It is beautiful!! We were greeted by Chino, who works at the residence. He's pretty much in charge of the residencia while we are here. He helps me get my bags upstairs...using the elevator...the very very small elevator...but I get on and everything is fine. When we go up, I meet Miladys and her grandmother, Maria. They also work at the residencia. Miladys cooks and Maria cleans. But more than that, they are our family here. The first thing Maria says to me "Voy a ser tu abuelita Cubana!" So far I have only seen the kitchen. I walk out of the kitchen and cannot believe my eyes! The residencia is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!! The living room is spacious and every window looks out the ocean. We are on the 12PH (penthouse). Ellie and I (we were the only ones that fit in the elevator with Chino so we were the first ones to see the residencia) could not get the cheesy big smiles off our faces! The living room has one balcony that overlooks El Malecón, and thus, the ocean. It's breathtaking. We then went downstairs to check out our living quarters. There are 3 rooms and they are all pretty small. I am rooming with Ellie and Francesca. When we went downstairs we also finally met the students from Northeastern University in Boston who are also staying with us and taking classes at Casa de las Americas. They are all very cool people.

After the initial shock of seeing Havana for the first time and seeing the residencia for the first time we settled down and started settling in. Also, we had our first dinner by Miladys. SOOOOOOO GOOD! Arroz blanco, frijoles negros, biandas, ensalada, y pan. I definitely want to get some cooking lessons from Miladys.

Obviously, I was not going to stay in and be low key during my first night in Havana, even though I was exhausted from all the traveling. Some of the Northeastern students and all of us went to a small club about a 20 min walk from the residencia. It was pretty low key though because it was a Monday night. However, we brought the party and danced some salsa, bachata, and hip hop. We went with Ruben, Jose, and Giovanni, who live in the same barrio that we live. The Northeastern students had been hanging out with them and said they were cool. Alas, they were. I asked Maria about them and she said that she trusted Giovanni. So that was good. We had a lot of fun and got to get to know some of the other students. We returned a while later. I lay my head to sleep sooooo excited for the next day because we were taking a tour of La Habana Vieja.

The next day the first thing we did was go to Casa de las Americas to finally see the place that would become our new school. The walk there was so pleasant. Havana mornings are so pleasant...I can't even think of a different word. There's usually some men working on a car, a couple people may be just talking on the street, there's always people by a small little market, some boys sitting on the front steps of their houses, there's always some stray dogs and a black cat that is always chillin' on 3ra. Anyway, It's about a 10 minute walk. Casa is a pretty big building (also overlooking the Malecón). When we got to there for the first time we were greeted by Gerardo and Adriel, a couple of awesome men that work at Casa. We did a tour of Casa with Gerardo, whom I love!!!! I'll explain his awesomeness later. Casa is SO BEAUTIFUL. It is just an amazing space that is filled with art! All different types of art; installations, sculptures, paintings, etc. The people that work there are all sooo smart! There are different departments [women's studies (!!!), editorial, theatre, just to name a few]. Today Professor Behar told us that most of the people that work there have masters and PhD degrees. I feel soooo privileged to have the opportunity to study there! More to come on Casa...stay tuned!

After, Gerardo took us on an extensive and amazing walking tour of La Habana Vieja. Luckily for us, he used to be a history professor. The man is a genius. He knows the history of every little artifact and building in Havana. Not to mention that he also knows soooo many people!!! And he is SOOO NICE!!!! La Habana Vieja is about to be my stomping grounds so I'm not going to write much about it here. But just to name a few of the places that we went: El Templete (where the city was founded), Plaza de Armas, and Plaza Vieja just to name a few. We had a kickass lunch at a spot called El Jardín del Oriente...soooo good. Also, we went to this spot where we saw Reynaldo, a master tobacco roller, roll a legit Cuban cigar. I'll write more about this too because I plan on going to chill with him and learn the art behind cigar rolling. We also went to a Bodega where the food is rationed to Cubans, who get a libreta per household that has all the people that live in household. Every Cuban gets a certain amount of food per month for the cost of 1 peso. 24 pesos = 1 CUC, and 1 CUC = a little more than a dollar. I'll elaborate on this more because I also plan to work at the bodega for a while and learn more about the rationing system. The people that work there invited us to come back and work with them. I'm definitely going to take them up on that offer.
Overall, the 6hrs spent in Habana Vieja were AMAZING! I can't wait to spend more time there.

The 2 classes that we've taken so far have been awesome. The first one was with Marial Iglesias, a history professor at University of Havana. She talked about Cuba in the 20th century; pretty much the independence movements leading up to the Cuban Revolution. I will also write more about the history of Cuba at a later date. The second class was with Aurelio Alonso, who works at Casa. We talked about the socialist nature of the Revolution, and landmark dates during the first decade of the Revolution. All interesting. I am learning SOOOO MUCH history, and I'm actually retaining most of it because it's the history of the city that we are living in and ALL over the city, there are references to all of it! It's soooo dope.

Oh and I already went swimming right off the Malecón with Christina (Northeastern), Jozi and Giovanni. Dopeness.

Phewww!!!!! This is kind of long, but I hope you enjoy and keep reading about my adventures. I hope to post pictures soon!!! I'm missing everyone back in North America!! MUCH LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carla

today i am in toronto

"Oh my good looooorrrrd!" as my mom would say! Today has been a loooong day. My mom, dad, and I started our drive to Toronto today at 8:30am. We picked up Ellie and Francesca (2 other students going on the trip with me) and kept it moving! Okay I have to mention this because if you know me at all, you know that I am a fatty at heart...we stopped at McDonalds and I had my last big mac for the next few months!! ANYWAYS, at around 4pm we finally got to Toronto...didn't really have problems at the border, although the guy that checked our passports was a little to nosy for my taste...but I guess that's his job. Francesca's aunt and uncle live in Toronto so she is staying with them; Ellie is staying with us this first night.

I changed my U.S. billz to Canadian dollars, because I'll get a better exchange rate when I change it to CUC (Cuban currency) when I get to Cuba.

Toronto is big! Our hotel is in Toronto, but we drove about 30 min just to get downtown! We had dinner at a super posh Thai bar/cafe...it was soooo tasty! I had a sushi roll for an appetizer, pad thai, and fried rice. YUMM.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with the rest of the group and staying a Doubletree hotel. You know what that means... DOUBLETREE COOKIES!!!!!!!! My favorite cookies ever in life! Phew! 6 of us (me, Ellie, Morgan, Lauren, Miles, and Dan) are all going to room in one room to save some money.

AND THEN.......MONDAY AT 10AM WE ARE OFF TO CUBA!

We have to have a book read by Tuesday. It's called "Havana: Autobiography of a City" by Alfredo José Estrada. I am on chapter 2 and don't feel like reading right now...hmmmmm...

!@#$%^&*

OK CARLA. GET UP FROM THIS COMPUTER AND KEEP PACKING!! GET UP FROM THIS COMPUTER AND KEEP PACKING!!