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
