Elisa Folden

For the past three months, I have been living well here in Havana, though not without troubles. However, until last weekend, I had not spent much time at all on the touristic aspects of this country, though it is a nation with a huge service sector. The industry generated by Caribbean and cultural tourism is used to bring cash into an otherwise broken economy that would otherwise rely on small-scale raw materials exports. Even so, Cuban vacations seem to be pretty cheap (though perhaps less so if one factors in the cost of getting here). For our spring break weekend, the group took a trip to a key off of the northern coast named Cayo Santa Maria, which was basically a paradise situated on a beautiful white sand beach. The resort is all-inclusive and really an ... read more

My latest life update is certainly a marked change from the previous ones (except those, of course, which have to do with illnesses I’ve had while traveling). Last Thursday, I was admitted to the Cira Garcia hospital for an emergency surgery to quell internal bleeding (and monstrous pain) that was a result of a rupture in my lower abdomen. In this way, I was able to explore the Cuban medical system from a very intimate point of view. The first thing I would like to mention is the extremely thorough nature of their pre-op diagnoses. They asked questions, performed tests, and took x-rays and other images without question, and when they’d settled on a cause and plan of action, I was immediately put into pre-operative care. From the time I arrived at the hospital until the ... read more

I have decided to write this blog so that everyone has proof of my continuing existence, as there is nothing to report that is of dire importance. Not too much of interest has happened in the past few weeks and I still have not started all of my classes, but will do so next week. I will be taking a sociology class and contemporary political theory in addition to Cuban arts and culture and Cuban history. Thus far, both of the Cuba-based courses I started a few weeks ago have had their ups and downs. I would not have chosen to take the arts and culture class (run through an NGO called the Ludwig Foundation) had it not been required. It focuses in-depth on everything from dance to architecture, and while some of it has been ... read more

Every time I’m traveling to a new country, I form opinions beforehand that are subsequently remade and mixed around in my head until they’re almost completely unrecognizable in their original state. In Cuba, however, I don’t believe that will be the case. Not because I’m not open to new conceptualizations of the country, but because I didn’t develop many opinions at all before coming. In some ways, this is a positive because I haven’t gone through the trouble of waxing philosophic about the Cuban system and the state of the country, but in others ways, I feel it leaves me behind many of the other students on this program, who have spent the past months formulating their thoughts. Without having done research, I am a bit afraid that the opinions I learn will be from the ... read more

I don't know that I can even begin to describe how wonderful my experience was. If for nothing else, the lessons I learned during my short time there were some of the most important I have learned in my academic career. I learned about the ability of humans to survive and make the most of any inconvenient or unbearable situation. I learned that one of the most important things one can do in life is travel and gain understanding beyond that which can be read in books or watched on television. The situation on the ground will always vary from whatever outside sources may analyze. I learned that freedom of information is undeniably one of the greatest tenets of democracy, and a lack thereof can lead to poverty, dependence, and dictatorship, not to mention mass ignorance. ... read more

It's been quite some time since I've sat down to write one of these, but my weekend in Curaçao is definitely deserving of a blog entry. Both in the moment and retrospectively, it counts among the best weekends of my life. The stated purpose for going to the island, which is a part of the Netherlands Antilles and only lies 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela, was to get exit and entry passport stamps for the American students who don't have student visas and needed to leave the country before spending 90 days here. However, our (8 Americans and a Venezuelan) time there turned out far better than anyone could have hoped. The only real problems we experienced were on the Venezuelan side, where we had transportation issues. These have proven to be extremely frequent ... read more

Last weekend, my good friend Matt and I trekked to the highest pueblo in Venezuela, called Los Nevados. It is in my state, but on the other side of the mountains that constitute the valley that Mérida (the city) is situated in. As with most of the touristy destinations in this half of the country, you can hire a jeep from one of the plazas in the city for transportation really easily. In the same plaza area, there are a bunch of travel agencies as well, so we first looked into those to see their pricing. Surprisingly, they decided not to rip us off and told us that it would be much easier and cheaper for us to just find our own Jeep rather than pay for a tour. Therefore, overall, the getaway cost each of ... read more