La Habana Journals 4

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La Habana Journals 4

It seems the manaña attitude is seeping into my blog writing…sorry! Will try to fill in a little without writing a boring list of what I’ve done.

Briefly ive been mostly… partying, drinking rum, going to the beach (in maquina - 50’s old American banger), queuing, eating ridiculously cheap ice-cream (and getting sick 1 time from it), hanging out with too many Germans and trying hard to socialize more with the Cubans! Of course, studying and doing cultural stuff 2…

Monday was a shit day… I was so looking forward to taking advantage of not having classes… and then so pissed off with dead ends! It started with a pretty hilarious run down the Malecon… it had rained the nite b4 and the waves were mini-tsunamis… crashing over the wall and soaking any1 stupid enough to be walking (or running) past! At least it cooled me down! Then it was time to go to the bank… yep I’ve been here over a month already and the rent is due. I joined the queue (at the only one where I can change travellers cheques), like a proper Cubana: “¿Quien es el ultimo?” (who’s the last?) . Even when u know who r behind its often hard to tell how many ppl r in the queue as its not always a neat line… also it doesn’t help if the queue (like this 1) just doesn’t move. I waited over an hour in the same spot b4 I decided to jack it in and try an ATM which was gonna charge at least 12.5 % commission… didn’t like my card so I went inside to do it over the counter… only to be told that their central server was down so I would have to wait an indefinite amount of time. No thanks. By this time i was I desperate need of a strong rum… was tempted to go Cuban and buy a little carton (which I used to think was choco-milk!) but I resisted. Just meant I couldn’t pay my rent or sort out the internet account for another day. Also it pissed it down and I couldn’t go to yoga. Booo.

Tuesday on the other hand was great. In my Afro-Caribbean studies course (the profe showed for the 1st time last Friday) with a visiting prof from Puerto Rico and our’s there was a lively debate covering ideas on diaspora, identity, racism amongst others… the Cuban students get a lot more involved and passionate than in the uk. Another example of this came in my Portuguese class - we listened to, interpreted and even sang (several times!) a Brazilian samba song and a couple of them got up and danced! I find this class quite challenging because they r always so forthcoming with their ideas and much more used to vocalizing them, that by the time I have something worked out in my head the moment has passed! In between classes I met 3 of my classmates waiting for their gua-gua (bus) home. I ended up chatting to them for ages and we came to an agreement that I will teach them English in exchange for salsa lessons and help with the course! Yaaay!

Straight after Portuguese (at like 5pm) I went with Corinna and Tomas to a party for their psychology faculty… in a nightclub… in the day… weird! After dancing a bit of reggueton and coming back out into the daylight we then went on to the next party - in the Humbolt institute where Cubans go 4 German classes. That was more chilled, up on a balcony with an mp3 player and some little speakers and I got to meet some really nice students and joined in with more dancing. As well as the reguetton they had some German rap and even some liquid D ‘n’ B!

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